Attack of the Lead Magnets: 5 Steps to Set Up A Solid Magnet

Hello again, readers! Welcome to the sequel to our piece about lead magnets. As promised, this episode will provide you with a high-level outline you can follow to create and upload your own lead magnet.

Before launching yourself into a creative frenzy, though, make sure you check out the prior article. It lays out some of the reasons you should consider building lead magnets; hopefully, you’ve also checked out a couple of the tools we mentioned, too.

OK! So you’re willing to give this lead magnet thing a try, but you’re not sure where to start. We will walk you through the general process and explain how members of our team would put something together, but remember: this is the digital era. There are a lot of ways to do just about everything, including creating lead magnets.

The steps we’re going to describe below will get you there, and we selected them because they’re not particularly complicated, even if this is your first foray into digital marketing. But there are always other avenues you can take.

Got that? Alrighty then. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get moving.

STEP 1: BRAINSTORM

Not sure what kind of content your potential customers would like? It’s time for…a brainstorm.

One way to get the ball rolling is to reflect on what kinds of questions people are asking when they come into your shop. Do they want to know how to make their tires last? Maybe you can create a cheat sheet for keeping your tires in good shape. If you live in a region prone to harsh winter weather, maybe build a checklist around winterizing trucks (yes, we love that example and we’re going to keep using it).

You don’t have to come up with crazy, insanely creative ideas. You might even have something you can use already—for example, does your shop website have a blog? You might be able to gather all your posts on, say, glow plugs into an ebook and call it The Ultimate Guide to Glow Plugs.

Here are a few more ideas from the team at Fullbay:

• A guide to DOT inspections
• A guide to local government inspections (like the BIT)
• Upcoming CVSA inspection blitzes + what they’re focusing on
• A rundown of how new or changing laws impact fleets
• A checklist about improving your CSA score

Basically, you’re aiming to craft an article, deck, or other kind of download that solves a problem or answers a question for your customers. And they’re your customers, ultimately—you know what kind of problems their vehicles are presenting. Sticking to your sphere or knowledge and your local market can go a long way in generating ideas.

STEP 2: BUILD YOUR LEAD MAGNET

Let’s say you settle on How to Winterize Your Truck as your concept. You’ve decided to make a 10-step checklist that readers can follow to make sure their truck is ready for what they’ll encounter on winter roads.

All you need in this case is a word processor. You might even have Word on your computer already—if you’re comfortable with it, go ahead and use that software. But we’ll be putting this together in Google Docs, which is also free and functions in largely the same way as Word. It’s also compatible with Word and many other word processors, so you can switch around if need be.

(You can also give Google Slides a try if you want something a little more visual.)

Now you’re ready to make your actual document:

• Type up your 10-step How to Winterize Your Truck checklist. It doesn’t have to be long; it’s likely just a single page (maybe two, if you pack it with detail).
• Make sure your shop’s contact information is at the bottom of the document. While a potential lead may not call you the instant they finish reading the magnet, it’s nice to give them the option. They’ll also be able to open the magnet whenever they want if they decide to contact you later.
• If you have a logo, make sure that’s displayed somewhere as well. You can create your own logo, as well as other designs and potential illustrative images, using free apps like Canva. Will it have the same overall effect as a professional designer? No. But a well-placed image can spruce up almost any document.
• When your document is complete, click “File,” then “Download,” then “PDF Document (PDF).” Your file will download to your hard drive as a PDF. This is the exact file your potential customers will download.

STEP 3: UPLOAD YOUR CONTENT

We’ve reached the point where a lot of shop owners get a little nervous: uploading and gating.

You’ve got a great piece of downloadable content that will hopefully convert website visitors into customers. They’re going to like what you offer, and will give you their email or phone number in exchange for this file.

The process of uploading and gating will look a little different on every web host, so check in with yours to see how you can best go about it.

We suggest the following:

• Log in to your host (we’ll walk through these steps as if you’re using WordPress, which is a popular, easy-to-use platform).
• Go to your dashboard and upload your lead magnet to your “Media” folder.
• Create a form that allows readers to enter their name, email, and/or phone number. WordPress has some plugins that do this for you, or, if you’re feeling daring, you can make one yourself. Places like Hubspot also have forms that you can add.

This form is important—it’s the last step between your lead magnet and those who want to see it. So let’s talk about that for a moment.

STEP 4: SET UP YOUR FORM & PRIVACY POLICY

Your form needs to include two things:

The first is a compelling description of your lead magnet. Less is always more. Sticking with our Winterizing Your Truck checklist, you could write something like this:

“Winter is coming—is your vehicle ready? Follow our 10-step checklist to make sure your semi and trailer can handle rain, blizzards, and everything else this season can throw at it!”

That’s it. Two sentences. Tell your reader what they can expect from your magnet and leave it at that.

You’ll also want to include your privacy policy. This is the pact between you and your reader that assures them you are not about to sell or give their information to anyone. If your website has something like a scheduling form or commenting ability, odds are you already have a privacy policy—you can just link to it on your form.

You can check out Fullbay’s privacy policy here. Note that ours is pretty extensive because, well, it covers a lot. Yours does not need to be this long, but it does need to indicate how it protects your visitors. You can see additional samples here and here.

(Slight aside here: Make sure you’re aware of your local privacy laws. Some states have sterner requirements than others, and Europe…well, Europe has its own set of laws altogether! When in doubt, consult a lawyer.)

Want a more hands-off approach? Unbounce or Instapage can help you with landing pages and lead magnets.

If you like the idea of lead magnets but all of this sounds like a lot, we do have something that can help. Shops that have websites through Dieselmatic can turn to them if they don’t want to deal with forms and privacy policies. Just get in touch with your account executive and they’ll be happy to do the heavy lifting for you.

One less thing on your plate, right?

STEP 5: ADVERTISE

Your lead magnet is up. You’ve got a form so customers can plug in their information in exchange for said magnet. When people land on your website, they’ll hopefully express interest in it.

But you want to get the word out, right?

If you already have a mailing list (say, for your newsletter), then make sure you share the lead magnet with them. Same thing with your social media—just share it around and ask your followers to share it, too.

That’s what you can do for free.

If you’re willing to spend a little money, consider spending it on Facebook. The platform has some powerful targeting tools that allow you to pick out your ideal audience, and for a few dollars a day you can make sure your ads get in front of the right eyes.

That’s the high-level version, anyway. Facebook advertising—and using social media to advertise your diesel shop—can get complicated quickly. You may even find it worthwhile to look into hiring someone to create and manage your social media, as effective social media marketing can require a good chunk of time.

STAY ON TARGET

Don’t forget to lay out some KPIs (or goals) for your lead magnets. How else will you decide whether your downloadable content is successful, and whether you should make more like it?

Everyone has different measures of success. Even if only six people download your lead magnet, that’s six potential additions to your revenue funnel. You probably aren’t going to wind up with thousands of downloads—and that’s OK! Your whole goal is to get your shop in front of the right people—a.k.a. fleets in your region.

You may discover that you kind of like putting together content like this—or that you like the way it spreads the word about your shop. That’s a signal to keep trying new things! Maybe you can put something together once a quarter, or even once a year. It doesn’t have to be a big, expensive, flashy production; as long as it provides value to your reader/potential customer, you’re in business.

We hope you’ve found this little series on lead magnets useful, or at the very least interesting. Even if it’s not your cup of coffee, it’s not going to hurt to keep up with changing marketing tactics in the diesel industry. We’ll likely be addressing other advanced tactics in future blogs, so stay tuned—and keep on trucking!