business buiding

Welcome to the Ultimate Guide To Creating An Irresistible List Building Freebie.

In this free guide, you’ll discover how and why it critical to the growth of your online business to create a valuable List Building Freebie designed to attract “Buy Ready” clients and customers to join your list.

A lot of time, effort, and research went into putting together this free resource for you. If you come across any inactive links please let me know through this email.

More updates will be coming so to not miss any I highly suggest bookmark this page. Enjoy and do let me know if you have comments or questions at the email link provided.

Table of Contents: (Last Updated July 8, 2019)

1. About this Guide and What It Can Do For You
2. Why “Just Sign Up For My Free Newsletter” Isn’t Enough Anymore
3. How I added over 600 plus new subscribers to my email list in less than 30 days
4. 15 Totally Irresistible Freebie Ideas!
5. How To Create A Highly Irresistible List Building Freebie Checklist
6. The Best Tools for Creating Your Irresistible Freebie
7. Tips for Getting Your Irresistible Freebie Into The Hands of Your Ideal Audience
8. Additional Support Resources and Tools

About this Guide and What It Can Do For You
In the Ultimate Guide you will discover how to create an Irresistible List Building Freebie (ie. lead magnet) that attracts new clients and customers for your business.

The cornerstone of any successful online business is having and consistently growing a mailing list of self-selected highly quality leads.

So if your a creative entrepreneur with dreams of having your own online business keep reading because this guide was written specifically for you.

The dream of being able to do work you love, working with the kind of people you want to support and set your own schedule while you make money from anywhere in the world lives on the forefront of your mind.

It’s the ultimate freedom based lifestyle!

Perhaps you’ve been toiling away for a while in an effort to build your online business and if you answered yes then you understand that the life’s blood of any online business is having an email list.

But as you’re probably aware just having a random list of email addresses will not do.

You understand this if you’ve managed to build an email list but it’s failed to bear fruit.

You know if you want your business to be successful you need an engaged list of individuals actively looking for your online courses and consulting services.

Over the years I’ve had the privilege to work with a variety of clients in all types of industries from a personal branding photographer, a food truck blogger, an animal behaviorist, to a vocal coach and in my personal experience, most online entrepreneurs fall into one of two camps. Which one are you?

Either you’re struggling to build a list -or-

You have a list but you can’t get the people on your list to move forward and invest in your services and digital programs.

But there’s a solution to both scenarios. And it’s a question that every business owner should be asking at any stage.

What’s my ideal client’s dream? And what’s standing in the way of them getting it?

That’s it!

When someone joins your email list your solution should be the answer to both of those questions. And if you’re either not asking them, or failing to give them an answer after they join your list. If so they will continue searching until they find someone who will.

Will that somebody be you?

[ctt link=”ftQcJ” template=”2″]What is my ideal clients dream? And what’s standing in the way of them getting it? @RodneyWashingtn[/ctt]

If you want to help people get a solution to the problems they’re experiencing with your digital courses, products, and services then read on because the blog article you’re about to dive into will help you do just that.

From this point moving forward your focus must be on creating an engaged responsive list and the first step on the path starts with the gift you offer at the beginning of your relationship with your future online customers.

I’m talking about your freebie or your lead magnet as it’s often referred.

The focus of this extensive blog post is on how to create a freebie that’s totally irresistible.

So what makes a freebie irresistible?

2 things! It must speak to my dream and my pain

Think about it. You’re reading this blog post because you want to grow and/or start an online business. But why?

Maybe your dream may be to contribute to your family financially, travel, quit your horrible job, move to a new city and not have to worry about finding work, invest in your kids education or just create a side income that doesn’t involve you becoming an Uber Driver, or renting out your spare bedroom to complete strangers on Airbnb.

But what’s your pain?

In my experience the readers that will get the most value from this blog post are people that fall into one of two camps:

1. You’re struggling to figure out what to offer to get potential clients and customers to join your list
   -or-
2. You have an existing list but all you hear are crickets trying to get subscribers to open your emails so you can actually engage with them, help them, and present your paid offers.

So until you address the pain you can’t get to the dream

Yours or theirs!

You Got Mail! But Wait… Not So Fast

Why “Just Sign Up For My Free Newsletter” Isn’t Enough Anymore

Back in the good ole days simply placing a “Sign Up For My Newsletter” button on your blog or website was all you really needed.

In those days the internet was still a novelty, something new and exciting before we became so guarded about giving out our email address.

I remember actually being excited to get an email! I’m sure I’m dating myself here but remember AOL (America Online) and the computerized “Welcome, You’ve Got Mail!” greeting? So funny!

But it was the way we surfed the web and we were excited because it was something new and it felt somewhat personal.

Just in case you don’t know or remember this is what it was like to get on the internet!

Crazy right?!

Here’s what we’ve got to back to…

Creating an experience that will make our ideal audience excited to first, opt-in for our freebies, and then be excited to receive and open our emails!

Many internet marketing “experts” are predicting the demise of email marketing as we know it because of social media. Personally, I don’t see email going away as much as I see it maturing.

Marketers today will have to learn how to merge their social media outreach with email marketing.

I don’t think it’s about one over the other because a social media platform can disappear tomorrow. Ask anyone who was using Blab a few months ago.

That’s the danger of putting all your marketing eggs in one basket you don’t control it and it can go away in a second.

But your email list you own, and the only person that can fire you are your subscribers. Like most social media tools they’re only as effective as your ability to get the right message in front of the right people at the right time.

The truth of the matter everyone that “likes” your Facebook page or follows you on Twitter will NOT be your ideal customer. It’s our job to call them out by creating and placing valuable relevant freebies in front of them that make them self-select by the actions they take.

That action being to complete your opt-in form initially and later opening and engaging with your email messages.

But before we can get to that we first have to understand what’s going on under the hood for them.

We do this by asking people what they want and more importantly what they’re struggling to overcome. This is the foundation for creating an appropriate freebie that they will find totally irresistible.

When you get this right not only will they complete your opt-in forms, but they’ll look forward to opening your emails, following your posts on social media, attending your live or online training (if you offer them) and yes, ultimately buying your digital products, services, and programs.

Your freebie is the gateway, or the boarding pass if you will into your world.

Like I mentioned earlier there used to be a time when all you had to do is published a “sign up for my newsletter form” on your site and that was good enough.

That simply won’t cut it today and with good reason.

Take a look at these two examples, which one is more compelling?

Sign up for my weekly newsletter for free tips, articles, news and information

-Or-

FREE CHECKLIST REVEALS… How To Create A Highly Irresistible List-Building Freebie And Attract Your Perfect Customers

The choice is obvious

The first offer is generic and non-specific

The second is dialed in, focused and feels tangible

Learning Moment: Give your ideal audience a compelling reason to give you their contact info and they will

What’s the best way to do it?
Provide a solution to a very specific problem they’re experiencing and/or give them a taste of something they deeply desire and if you can do both your freebie will be totally irresistible.

That’s #1 benefit of Irresistible Freebie
If you present a dial in, specific and results driven compelling free offer and I join your list as a result, the likelihood that I will look forward to and respond to your future messages dramatically increase!

So to Recap: In order for your freebie to be irresistible it must speak to two things:

1. My dream
2. My pain

How I added over 600 plus new subscribers to my email list in less than 30 days with an Irresistible Freebie!

The day was December 13th, 2008. The last of my photography clients informed me they no longer would be using my services. I’d become another causality of the great recession.

The time had come for me to reinvent myself.

Fortunately in the two years prior to receiving my walking papers I became a voracious student of online marketing. One day I listened to an interview with a woman that used a Tele-Summit now known as a virtual summit to launch her online business

It was positioned as one of the best strategies for creating and building an email list quickly.

At the time I was just starting to offer my online marketing support services to professional photographers, and since I was a pro-photographer myself it was an audience whose needs I was intimately familiar with.

Many photographers dream of making a living with their camera, I did it so I understood the struggle photographers were experiencing trying to navigate and implement the variety of opportunities to market their photography services in this new way.

I knew who most of the major industry players were so with little more than a passion to help pro photographers navigate the rapidly changing world, coupled with a greater passion to keep the lights on I decided to dive head first into this crazy world of online marketing and host my first virtual summit.

In just a little over 30 days from the last day with my former employer, I launched my first virtual event the Photo Marketing Success Telesummit!

I remember it like it was yesterday, the email notifications just kept coming. I’d hoped people would sign up, but I wasn’t prepared for the response.

It was insane, literally every few seconds I heard the ‘ping’ of my email service notifying me that photographer after photographer, was signing up for my free event.

It was very exciting but equally overwhelming!

And while I was thrilled at the response my free event was getting I was equally nervous because there was no turning back and knew I had to deliver.

Over five days I interviewed a variety of experts by telephone.

Every interview was recorded and gratefully with very few technical glitches – thank god!

All of my guest presenters were happy to be of support, and the listeners were thrilled with the amazing content they learned and when it was over I went from being a virtual nobody to having my name known in the space as a leader in marketing and business development for professional photographers

But the best part, I created an email list with over 600 highly targeted leads in under 30 days giving me the opportunity to continue building relationships and launch my new marketing consulting business for professional photographers!

Years later I decided to transition from just supporting photographers to working all types of creative entrepreneurs so I created a second virtual summit and added another 400 new leads to my list.

My second event also helped me launch a new online course, and later a podcast and my current consulting and online education business for creative entrepreneurs.

One word of caution about virtual summits: They are a LOT of work to set up and run, and they are just one example of an Irresistible Freebie you can use to grow your list relatively quickly.

The Five Fundamental Keys To Success With Virtual Summits:

1. A well thought out and tightly niched topic
2. An audience hungry for the information you and your speakers will present
3. A cooperative group of presenters with large mailing lists, or at the very least an extremely active and engaged social media presence.
4. They also must be eager, willing and able to promote your virtual event
5. You must have a clear plan for how you’ll follow-up and ultimately monetize your new audience

If you’d like to explore the topic further I recommend checking out Navid Moazzez! He’s a master at Virtual summits!

If a virtual summit is something you’re serious considering I highly recommend downloading Navid’s free Virtual Summit Mastery Blueprint

Now don’t think that virtual summits are the only type of freebie you can offer to create and grow and engaged audience. As a matter of fact, I would put this particular freebie into the more advanced category.

These types of virtual events have A LOT of moving parts and can go sideways quickly if you don’t have a solid plan in place for setting them and running them properly.

In this next section, I will introduce 15 ideas you can employ in your list building plan as you grow. I’ve included visual examples plus provided links so you can check them out for yourself.

Ready to deep dive into the freebie creation process but don’t know where to start? I got you covered. I’d like to invite you to download my free Irresistible Freebie Creation Workbook where I will walk you through how to create your first or next irresistible list-building freebie quickly!

This free workbook will serve as the foundation for any freebie you’ll ever create step-by-step.

You’ll have everything you need to create your own downloadable PDF checklist ready to publish on your blog or website, share on social media, even offer from the stage at speaking and networking events and start collecting ‘Buy Ready’ leads quickly!

If this sounds good to you  sign up for the free workbook and get started today!

15 Totally Irresistible Freebie Ideas!

1. Quizzes and Assessments
Expert: AskDaniele4Pets.com
Title of Freebie: Free Pet Personality Assessment Quiz
Tools Used: http://viralquizbuilder.com

2. Checklists, Tip Sheets or Resource Guides
Expert: Caitlin Bacher
Title of Freebie: Checklist for FB Group Hosts

Amy Porterfield (Amy is an absolute master at positioning high-value freebies on her podcasts. Each episode feels like a mini training, she offers a custom cheatsheet as a value-added bonus on every show)

I’m a strong advocate for checklists, I love them because they are quick to produce and have a high perceived value with readers. {Click on the image to get instant access to my Irresistible Freebie Creation Checklist}
Tools used: Apple Keynote and Canva.com

3. Infographics – (see the examples provided at the end of this blog post)

4. Workbooks
(workbooks are especially valuable when coupled with another freebie like a webinar or online course)
Expert: Zach Spuckler 
Title of Freebie: Turn Your 5-Day Challenge into a 5-Figure Challenge (FAST)!

5. Templates
(templates are very, very popular, readers love cut and paste resources)
Experts: Jill and Josh Stanton
Screw The 9-5 – https://perfectsalesfunnelcourse.com/email-templates

6. Mini Courses
(can be delivered as email only, audio + email, video + email) or any combo
Expert: Jen Lehner
Title of Freebie: My Little Course

7. Podcasts (either delivered as regular weekly show or as a limited series)
Expert: John Lee Dumas has produced two limited series podcast courses in addition to his flagship EOF Entrepreneur On Fire podcast.
Title of Freebie: Free Podcast Course and Free Webinar Course

8. Audio
(maybe you don’t want to commit to producing a weekly podcast, or perhaps your expertise doesn’t lend itself to a lengthy ebook or e-course. If that’s the case audio are the perfect compliment to checklists & workbooks or as a stand alone like a meditation)
Expert: Ariana Newcomer
Title of Freebie: The Healing Your Soul’s Voice Meditation and Sound Healing

9. Video Series – Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula creator of the 3-part video series

10. Webinars/Teleseminars
(see resources section for more info on this freebie)
Expert: Amy Porterfield
Title of Freebie: How to Confidently Create Your First Profitable Course in 60 Days

11. Blog Posts
(high-value blog posts are a fantastic way to not only grow your audience and build trust before asking for your reader for their contact info. If constructed and positioned properly they can be the best way to position your free or paid content upgrades (like mini-courses and webinars)
Expert – Digital Marketer
Title of Freebie: The Ultimate List of Blog Post Ideas [2nd Edition]

12. Interview Series – Virtual Summit
Expert: Navid Moazzez
Title of Freebie: FREE Virtual Summit Mastery Blueprint PDF

13. Complimentary Strategy Calls 
In my opinion having worked with a variety of clients complimentary strategy calls, sometimes referred to as Discovery Calls have become a bit more challenging to sell. And yes, I said sell. Today you have to sell free. So in my experience, the best way to get more people to sign up for your complimentary calls is by offering at the end of a presentation. Either in person or online via a webinar or Livestream.

Here’s an example constructed for one of my clients. She was able to fill her calendar very quickly.
Expert: Nikki Incandela
Title of Freebie: Let’s Have Virtual Coffee

14. Free + Shipping Offer (have become very popular over the last five years or so, one caveat you may have to put up the money to invest in physical inventory until you get orders.
Expert: Ryan Levesque
Title of Freebie: Ask Book
Printing/Production Resources: Vervante and Disk

15. Calculators
(very popular right now) if you understand Excel or can hire someone that does spreadsheets that can calculate formulas are the rage right now. The example shown is an Excel based spreadsheet designed to calculate how much you’ll need to invest on Facebook ads to get a specific return on your investment.
Experts: Amy Porterfield and Rick Mulready
Title of Freebie: How Much Money Should I Spend on Facebook Ads to Successful on My Webinar?

The Best Tools for Creating Your Irresistible Freebie

As you can see from the list of examples there are as many ways to share your message and attract your ideal audience so you can solve their problems and help them achieve their goals.

Personally, I feel your natural communication style is probably the best way to deliver your freebie. So if you love to talk but your hand goes up the second a camera one’s pointed your direction then perhaps audio may be your jam.

If you love being on camera then perhaps doing videos is your ticket.

Or perhaps you love to journal and can’t live without a to-do list. Maybe you currently keep a diary and reading books is your favorite pastime. If so, you may be a natural-born wordsmith.

Whatever your preferred communication style as you continue to grow your audience and your business at some point you’ll employ a variety of media styles in order to reach the widest possible audience. For most content creators knowing what to create is not the issue, finding the time to actually get it done is what keeps most people stuck.

When I upgraded to an iPhone my content creation exploded. Today when I get an idea I don’t wait until I’m back at my desk to start working. I just whip out my mobile phone and start writing out an outline for my next freebie.

If I’m having a “sausage fingers” kind of day I just switch to recording my thoughts on my phone and for a couple of bucks if I need it I can the audio transcribed. Now I’ve got an audio recording and text content that I can later edit and repurpose into a cheat sheet, checklist or workbook.

Then Voila, a new Irresistible Freebie done!

I’ve also created videos, Keynote slideshow presentations for webinars, or video tutorials and of course image graphics with quotes from my original content to share via social media.

So don’t let time or a lack of it stop you from getting your freebie done. I’ve provided an inspirational infographic and link to an extensive blog post I wrote called: 3 Content Creation Strategies You Can Use To Produce Your Next List Building Freebie Quickly

Getting Your Irresistible Freebie Into The Hands of Your Ideal Audience

• Find Facebook groups where your ideal audience hang out and get active
• Answer questions and be a support resource, focus more on being a support and creating a genuine connection than pushing your freebie. That will come later 🙂
• Do the same with Linkedin groups
• Promote your freebie at least once a day on Twitter
• Link to it on Instagram
• Create image graphics and share them on Instagram and Pinterest
• Start doing Livestreams! Facebook Live and Periscope are two of the best tools for spreading the word about your freebie.
• Even if you have to invest a few dollars to get your posts in front of your ideal audience it’s totally worth it. You can start for only $5 a day and scale as you go.

Additional Support Resources and Tools

Digital Marketer Blog (everything! It’s all epic)
Perpetual Traffic Podcast (must add to your podcast listening library)
Episode 09: Content Marketing + Paid Traffic: Part 1 – Calls to Action, “Splintering”, and 5 Killer Blog Post Types
Episode 10: Content Marketing + Paid Traffic: Part 2 – Hooks, “Greased Chute” Intros and Johnson Boxes
Leadpages
Infographics my designer located on Fiverr (**Highly, highly recommended**)
Piktochart.com – great option for do-it-yourself infographics
Canva.com – Free online design tool for creating checklists, workbooks or social media graphics.
Deadline Funnel – excellent example of using email templates as an Irresistible Freebie
Thinkific.com – Excellent platform if you plan to create mini or full-length online courses to offer for freebie or sell.
Teachable.com – an additional option for hosting online courses
Wordswag.co – my favorite app for creating beautiful quick and easy type overlays for my social media graphics and banners
RelayThat.com – another similar to Canva and Wordswag
Pixabay.com – great resource for royalty free images for your freebies and social media graphics
Unsplash.com – another awesome resource for royalty free images
Animoto.com – combine photos and videos to create stunning video montages, you can text captions and come complete with royalty music overlays if you want to use them or you can upload your own
Libsyn.com – for hosting your podcast files, provides download stats and integrates with iTunes and Stitcher Radio
Rev Voice Recorder and Transcription Service – and the best part, it can all be done via an app on your phone
Beacon – this is a WordPress plug-in. Convert your existing blog posts into downloadable PDF documents that you can turn into freebies
PushCrew – Have an existing blog? Want to get more eyeball on your content in real time? Like the immediacy of push notifications on your mobile device? This is the plug-in for you.
Facebook Text Overlay Tool – You may decide to run Facebook ads to raise awareness of your newly minted freebie. If you’re familiar with the process then you know how frustrating it is to have your ad rejected because of the 20 percent rule. Just upload your graphics before posting your ad and know for sure.
Placeit.net – Ever wonder how those clever online marketers get images of their freebie inside of a mobile device or laptop screen? Well, if you have Photoshop skills like me or access to a professional graphic designer then you have your answer. Another option is this handy tool. You can select from thousands of background templates, upload the cover of your ebook, podcast album cover, or checklist and in seconds you have it.
Bossjock.com – Thinking about launching a podcast to use as a vehicle to promote your freebies, or use a freebie itself? Don’t have the time or the energy to invest in a full studio setup? You don’t need to. This handy little app turns your mobile device into a recording studio. It’s a complete turnkey publishing system for Podcasters, Voice Over artists, Audio Bloggers and Mobile Broadcasters.
For more tips on using your mobile check out my blog article: 3 Content Content Creation Options You Can Use To Produce Content Quickly.