On their quest to find the perfect photographer, your potential clients will browse dozens of great websites. If you want them to stick around on YOUR site, to get to know you and to send an inquiry, you need to interest the visitors right off the bat. However, you only have mere seconds to hook them. That’s where lead magnets come in, and they are called“magnets” for a reason. Use them to catch the attention of people who land on your site, convert them into customers, and grow a loyal community around your brand. What are effective lead magnets and how to create one for your photography business? Keep reading to find out!
Lead Magnets for Photographers - What they are and Why you need them
image credits: jasminjade.com
This is a guest post by Jasmin Jade, a brilliant Boudoir & Portrait Photographer from Germany, currently based in Washington, D.C. She also sells gorgeous presets, and offers mentorship and education to help photographers find and refine their style, both in shooting and editing.
If you head over to Jasmin’s presets website - Embrace Presets, one of the first thing that you’ll notice (besides stunning images, of course) is the Freebies section on the homepage, where she offers various cheatsheets, guides and free presets. This is a great example of how to be strategic about presenting lead magnets on your site. They need to be noticeable, but not too pushy, intrigue the visitor but don’t give too much away. But most importantly, they need to offer value.
Sounds a bit overwhelming? Luckily, Jasmin agreed to let us in on her process - how she creates lead magnets, what are some ideas of freebies to offer, how to promote the freebie and how to nurture long-term relationships with your visitors, long after they’ve downloaded your resource.
What are Lead Magnets?
Lead Magnets are freebies or resources that you give away on your website for free, in exchange for their email address. It needs to be available for the user to download immediately after they sign up. The purpose of lead magnets is growing a solid email list for your business, that further translates into a community of loyal clientele that will not only book you, but also recommend you to all their friends. An efficient lead magnet is NOT a sign-up to the newsletter, it should be something of value that you offer to your users. They are a great way to reach people that never interacted with your brand before, by showing them paid ads with the useful freebie and invite them to check it out on your website.
How to build brand awareness with a Lead Magnet
Once a person enters their email to download the freebie, the communication doesn’t need to stop there. Use an email provider, like Flodesk or Mailchimp, to create a series of automated emails (up to 10) that you would send over a period of several weeks. This is called a nurturing sequence, and its goal is to present your brand more in depth, increase awareness, offer value and built trust. During this time, you can show off you work, share client testimonials, offer a useful piece of content, a discount, or invite them to connect over a call. Finally, when it’s time to pitch a photography session, you’ll have a customer who is already familiar with your product and process, and is more likely to book you.
Lead Magnet Ideas for Photographers
The number one rule when deciding upon what type of lead magnet to create is OFFER VALUE. Think of what your community is interested in. What would make their life better? A client guide, a posing guide, posing locations, what to wear for your photo session with links where to buy the outfit, a gift certificate - to offer motivation to book you in the future (ie. a coupon for prints). If you’re also an educator like Jasmin, you can offer resources that will help you connect with other folks in the industry. It can be anything related to gear and equipment, website building, editing, marketing, sales, etc. We’ve added 15 more ideas of freebies here.
Check out this video to learn more about Jasmin’s process, what tools she uses to create lead magnets, and how she promotes them on her Squarespace site.
It’s not as hard after all, right? We hope you’re ready to kick off an awesome freebie and grow that email list! For better results, try to review your lead magnet strategy once or twice a year, ask your community what they need and bring in new freebies. And lastly, try to be patient. Even if you won’t see huge results overnight, this is a long term investment in your business and we promise you, it’s so worth it. Good luck!
If you found Jasmin’s recommendations useful, make sure to follow @thejasminjade on Instagram for more marketing tips and beautiful portraits. You’re also invited to join her Facebook Group, where she shares tons of priceless advice and insightful behind the scenes on her process.
Creatively yours,
Squaremuse Team