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How Animators Can Create Powerful Lead Magnets

ben marvazi 2020

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As an animator, you know that turning your leads into clients is one of the most difficult but important parts of the business.

Every animator wishes they had an easy time pushing sales leads down their marketing funnel, but looking for and converting new leads can often take a back seat to all the other aspects of your business. 

Your course of action at this stage can make or break your animation business.  To get more animation clients, you need to get people the service they want, create and implement great marketing strategies, and build your relationships with your customers. It can all feel very overwhelming!

Fortunately, there are many ways for you to get more qualified prospects and convert them to animation clients. One of the most effective ways to do that is by using lead magnets. 

In this blog post, we’ll tell you how to create powerful lead magnets and start getting the animation clients of your dreams.

What Is a Lead Magnet?

sales funnel

GIF by Jenn Robbins via GIPHY

The concept of a lead magnet is simple:  a lead magnet is free and valuable content that you create and offer to your animation website visitors in exchange for their contact information so that you can grow your email list.

This makes it easier for you to find potential sales leads and convert them into future customers. Think of lead magnets as a reward you give people for their willingness to engage with you. Anyone can create a lead magnet, but not every lead magnet will is powerful and effective.

According to Ian Brodie’s video, lead magnets have two jobs. First, they should utilize your website, email, or social media to attract people to what you offer. The lead magnet needs to be desirable enough to convince the viewer to want it enough to share their email address and other contact information with you.

a woman who will make an offer others can't refuse

GIF by PBS SoCal via GIPHY

Second, lead magnets should meet people’s needs. Your lead magnet has to give insight to and deliver the information that your client-to-be is seeking. This is your chance to show off your knowledge and skills and set yourself apart from other animators, all while fluffing your database of potential customers!

Many businesses will happily acquire email addresses but fail to deliver a genuinely worthwhile free product to the customer. Be careful not to make lousy lead magnets because they will pull away potential clients.

Aside from these two factors, it is also important to make your lead magnets as specific as possible. OptinMonster says that the more specific you are about your lead magnet’s benefits, the more prospects you will get.

Lead magnets should also be quick to digest. Don’t make your prospects feel overwhelmed with the information you give them.

They should also be instantly accessible. In this day and age of modern technology, people rush for immediate gratification. They’re hardwired to want things NOW. If you make it hard for your prospect to get something you offer for free, it will make them pull away.

Best Kinds of Lead Magnets

Now that you know what a lead magnet is and how it works, let’s go over the best lead magnets you can offer to people who might be interested in your animation services.

Audio Series

audio series lead magnets

Image via Optinmoster

In a visual world, it’s easy to assume that audial media could fall to the wayside. This isn’t true, however, as audiobooks are hotter than ever! This is why audio lead magnets are a great asset to help you build a powerful connection with your audience.

With audio content, your audience can listen to you talk about something valuable while doing something else. They can clean their house, commute to and from work, and do creative activities.

The options for this are endless: you can have a coaching session, make podcast episodes, and do special interviews with animation experts. 

Video Series

video series lead magnet

Image via Envoke

When making video lead magnets, make short but informative video lessons. You can send your video lessons daily or weekly, depending on the length of your video series. Lengthy videos might overwhelm or bore your potential animation clients. 

Interact says you can upload your videos for free on YouTube or other affordable business video platforms like Vimeo. Ensure that only those who subscribed to your emails will have access to your exclusive video series content.

Cheat Sheets

Cheat sheet lead magnet

Image via DigitalMarketer

People like cheat sheets because they’re straightforward and practical. You can act on what you read from cheat sheets as soon as you’re finished reading them.

When writing a cheat sheet, make your content straight to the point and valuable. It doesn’t have to be lengthy as long as it shows your sales lead to doing something in an easier or better way.

Ebook 

Explain Yourself ebook
Explain Yourself ebook

Images via Promoshin

Ebooks are downloadable, quick to digest, allow you to share your knowledge, and make you look like an expert in animation.

Take note not to make your ebook too lengthy -- remember, people have short attention spans! Don’t write a 100-page ebook if you can fit everything you really need to share into just 50 pages or less. 

In your ebook lead magnet, you can include a photo of yourself, images of what your audience will find inside your ebook, and what benefits it will give them.

There might be people who don’t have enough time to go through all your ebook pages, so making a shortened PDF version of it would be beneficial.

Masterclass

BOA Masterclass

Image via Business of Animation

If you’ve been animating professionally for a long time, you can share what you’ve learned in your career  by publishing a masterclass.

Design your masterclass with your ideal prospects’ level of knowledge. Ask yourself what your audience wants to learn about and what they should know. Then carefully craft your video step-by-step while explaining the “why’s” behind it.

Quiz/Survey

Quiz lead magnet

Image from Venture Harbour

For some businesses, quizzes and surveys are very effective lead magnets. As Impact says, these aren’t your silly BuzzFeed quizzes. These are the quizzes that solve a problem and will help make your audience’s line of thinking clear.

When your target audience takes your quiz or survey, they not only get to learn more about what they like and don’t like, but they also get to know more about your business and the products and services your offer. 

To increase your conversion rates, you can make your email opt-in forms pop-up on the website after your website visitors take the quiz. According to ConvertKit, lead magnet quizzes have a 40-50% conversion rate. 

Checklists

Checklist lead magnet

Image via ConvertKit

Just like cheat sheets, checklists provide action steps that your website visitors can follow. Checklists are generally short and easy to follow to help your readers complete a goal.

Hubspot says that in order to create a checklist, take information from your blog post and simplify it into bullet points. Then, remove points that aren’t actionable. 

It would be great if you can offer the checklist in a downloadable pdf or image so that people can cross out the items on your checklist every time they complete that step. 

Creating Your Lead Magnet

Cartoon character telling a person that it's his turn

GIF by SpongeBob SquarePants via GIPHY

Now that you know the kinds of lead magnets you can use, it’s time for you to make your own! l Then, once you’ve chosen a lead magnet, you need to decide on your ideal customer.

Make sure you know what kinds of people you want to attract before taking any action. When you know who you want to share information about animation with, you can create a lead magnet customized to what they think, feel, and need.

Ask yourself: what is my ideal customer’s age, gender, education, location, family background, pain points, and how you can meet their needs. Also, ask yourself what is the best way that you can communicate with them. Is it through audio, video, ebook, pdf, tutorials, cheat sheets, etc.?

After defining your target audience for your lead magnet, it’s time for you to set up opt-ins. To collect contact information, you need to make and put forms on your website where people can sign up.

Wendy Maynard suggests that you put opt-in forms in at least five areas on your website. Such as your header, footer, sidebar, the bottom of posts, and landing pages.

Make the copy fun and engaging, and include the benefits of your lead magnet as well as the clear call-to-action.  You can use Opt-in Monster or Sumo Scroll Box to create your pop-up or sliding opt-in forms.

In Summary

Lead magnets are the key to converting prospects to animation clients. By offering your valuable content for free, you can end up with a whole new pool of potential clients.

Ensure that whatever lead magnet you choose to make is attention-grabbing, delivers on a promise, is specific, quick to digest, and instantly accessible. You can offer audio content, video content, ebooks, tutorials, and many more.

To make a powerful lead magnet, ask yourself what area of animation you are good at explaining, what your prospects need to know or are looking for, and how you can make your lead magnet attractive.

If you’re looking for more information and tips about animation and the business side, make sure to join our free masterclass and get a copy of our free marketing handbook.

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