Book Coaching 101: Lead Magnets and Funnels, Oh My!
Demystify two core marketing concepts that can help you find more ideal clients.
I recently guided five Author Accelerator book coaches in the development of a lead magnet to help them shore up their sales funnels. We created a program that held their feet to the fire so they would launch what they made (rather than just talking about it or endlessly planning it) — and they rose to the occasion. It was so inspiring to watch and taught me so much (more) about lead magnets and funnels and why they are so important for a book coaching business.
What’s A Lead Magnet?
A lead is a potential client — ideally, someone who has given you their email so you can send them offers, invitations, and helpful content.
A magnet is something you make to attract those ideal clients. It’s a way to be helpful and generous. The goal is to move the writer from not knowing who you are and what you do to seeing you as someone who can offer solutions to their problems, both large and small.
A lead magnet could be a cheat sheet, a worksheet, a guide, or a quiz. It could be a mini-course, a webinar, or a video series. Tad Hargrave of marketingforhippies.com suggests offering a comprehensive Starter Kit, and his is a great example of a great lead magnet.
Most lead magnets are generally priced anywhere from free to $199 — but some people with high-ticket (high-priced) programs might have higher-priced lead magnets that require more commitment from participants. More mature businesses often have multiple lead magnets they use for different situations.
Once you understand what a lead magnet is, you will see them everywhere. You can learn what works by tracking your own behavior. What will you hand your email over to get? How much will you pay for a solution to something you are trying to solve? When does the pressure to take action feel helpful and when does it feel like too much? I love getting into other people’s funnels to study how they are structured.
Why Do Lead Magnets Matter?
Lead magnets matter because there are a million places to learn about writing on the internet. Why would someone choose to work with you? What do you offer that sets you apart from other book coaches? Your lead magnet is part of the argument you are making.
It should be designed to attract and serve your ideal client (which means you have to know who your ideal client is) and showcase your unique style, talents, and beliefs (which means you have to know what your unique style, talents, and beliefs are — and be willing to lean into them.)
The idea with a lead magnet is that you share it everywhere:
Send the lead magnet to people who sign up for your email newsletter.
Put the link in your social media bio.
Do “swaps” with other coaches, where you each promote each other’s lead magnet to your audience.
If you write a guest post, include the link in your bio.
If you are on a podcast, drive listeners to it by sharing the link when the host asks you where people can learn more about your book coaching.
You can make free codes to offer your product as a special bonus for a webinar or live event.
One of my favorite lead magnets is a lead magnet about lead magnets! It’s Courtney Foster Donohue’s Pocket Product. This is a killer mini-course, which is $147 and worth every penny. (I am not an affiliate for this course, although I have been in the past; I just really like it and recommend it.) Donohue breaks down the process of making a lead magnet (what she calls a Pocket Product) including how to get the work done without procrastinating, manage the tech you need to deliver the product, and write a sales page. I’ve guided 18 book coaches through her course and used her process myself to make The One Page Book Coaching Business Plan, a mini-course that walks people through the basics of building a book coaching business.
Your Lead Magnet is Part of a Funnel
A funnel is a marketing term that refers to a series of invitations you make to your ideal client to entice them to take some kind of action — sign up for your newsletter, for example, download your lead magnet, and ultimately, purchase one of your coaching packages.
The funnel is wide at the top — a lot of people might take the action you offer there because it is easy and inexpensive, both in terms of time and money.
The funnel gets narrower at the bottom, which is where a few people (the right people!) make a commitment and become your clients.
A marketing funnel is something you intentionally design to attract right-fit clients. It is something you are likely going to tweak and change many times as your business grows and as you understand your ideal clients better.
Your lead magnet might sit at the very top of the funnel where people first learn about who you are and what you do, or it might be further down the funnel, where people are making a decision about who they should trust to help them with their writing goals right now.
Here Are Some Simple Hypothetical Book Coaching Funnels:
A thriller coach:
Write a weekly newsletter about all things thriller. Work on building your newsletter list by writing useful content.
Offer new subscribers a lead magnet — a quiz to help them determine if their final twist pays off.
Send them one of three different guides for fixing their twist depending on three different possible answers to the quiz.
When you send the guide, invite them to discuss their twist with you on a free 30-minute discovery call. (More seasoned coaches who have a steady flow of clients would probably charge for a step that included feedback like this.)
On the call, invite them to sign up for a three-month 1:1 coaching program. Here is where they pay you for the first time.
A romance coach:
Offer writers a lead magnet that is a bingo card for getting 2000 words written each week — maybe they get to fill out a square if they write a scene with a kiss or if they write a great bit of dialogue. Use this lead magnet to build your email newsletter list.
Invite your email subscribers to a “write in” on Wednesday evenings on Zoom for a low-priced fee of $29 a month. Writers join to write together, fill out their bingo cards, and be part of a community of like-minded writers.
Offer members who finish their drafts a full manuscript review + strategy call for planning a revision. This is where they pay you a coaching fee.
Offer 1:1 accountability/support/feedback to help writers complete the revision
A nonfiction book proposal coach who specialized in working with healthcare professionals
Start a podcast for healthcare professionals about writing nonfiction books. Break down how people use their books to boost their businesses and share tips and tricks for how to write a killer book proposal.
Offer podcast listeners a 50-minute webinar on the 10 most common mistakes in book proposals and how to address them. This could be a live event or an “evergreen” event that is always available.
Automate a follow-up email series that includes an invitation to a coaching package to develop a book proposal.
You can read more about marketing funnels at this Mailchimp blog and on this Amy Porterfield podcast.
What’s Makes a Great Lead Magnet?
Great lead magnets are an easy YES for your ideal client. They need whatever it is you are offering so they don’t have to think too much about it; they just sign up.
Great lead magnets provide an actual transformation, even if it’s small. They solve a problem. They create change.
Many experts (Amy Porterfield, Claire Pelletreau, Tad Hargrave) say that you should feel nervous about how much you are giving away in your lead magnet — the content is that useful and that good!
The more specific you can be, the better. Could any book coach offer your lead magnet? That’s a sign that you can do better. You can focus more directly on your ideal client and/or offer something that is specific to you and your point of view.
As you think about making a lead magnet, ask yourself:
What is my ideal client struggling with RIGHT NOW? What would they say their biggest problem is?
What can I make to help them solve a part of that problem RIGHT NOW?
What format can my solution take that would be an easy YES for my ideal client?
What would be fun for me to make?
If I help them with this first problem, what is the NEXT thing they need help solving and how can I make it a natural step for them to take to purchase a coaching package from me? How can I make my lead magnet an effective part of a funnel?
What can I do to continue to attract people to my lead magnet? Where can I share it?
Who can I connect with to build my list and share my lead magnet?
Book Coaching Lead Magnet Examples
The coaches in the cohort I just worked with ranged from very seasoned coaches to coaches who were just certified. In six weeks, they all made and launched a lead magnet, which means they got more clarity on their ideal clients, created something to help them, and improved their marketing funnels.
Wknd Pitch Perfection by Julie Artz. Julie guided novelists for years in (the now defunct) Pitch Wars and has brought her query methods and pitch talents to a weekend mini-course. Her $49 course helps writers develop a query and use it to determine if they’re among the 5% of writers who are really ready to pitch. The next step in Julie’s funnel is for writers to join her group writing workshop to work on their manuscripts.
Engineer Your Thriller by Nancy Clements. Nancy is an engineer who worked on the Big Dig (and other massive physical engineering projects) and turned her logical brain to help writers with their thrillers. Her $47 course helps writers work backward from the villain to the story so that the villain isn’t just a random bad guy but a key part of the story’s emotional payoff. The next step in Nancy’s funnel is for writers to book a free discovery call to talk about the Theme, Villain, Crime, and Hero they’ve developed. On that call, they are invited to book a 1:1 coaching package.
The Ordinary Day to Extraordinary Story Workbook by Erin Haldren. Erin has been a documentary series producer and scriptwriter. As a book coach, she works with imaginative fiction in all its forms – fantasy, science fiction, myth, and fairy tale, and all their hybrid combinations. She loves to help people fix their manuscripts and her lead magnet is a $24 mini-course that helps people identify and shore up a core structural problem in their story. After the mini-course, writers are invited to purchase a partial or full manuscript review.
Beta-palooza by Dianna Sinovac. Dianna works with genre fiction (mystery, speculative fiction, and horror) and narrative memoir writers. Dianna knows that many writers get weak and ineffectual feedback when they give their work to friends to read. Beta-palooza helps writers find the right beta-readers for their finished manuscript and effectively manage the feedback process. Her $27 mini-course includes step-by-step instructions for how to manage the beta-reader process and swipe copy for how to ask people for a beta read. The next step in Dianna’s funnel is to work with her to interpret the feedback you receive.
Sparking Revisions by Mona Zarka. Mona is a newly certified book coach who coaches fantasy, science fiction, adventure, and slice-of-life. She loves stories that feature resilient characters — and healthy relationships are a plus. Mona believes that revision is the best part of writing. She helps writers revise with specific feedback, a clear plan, and compassionate support. Her lead magnet is a free workbook that helps writers end the overwhelm of facing a revision with five simple steps. The next step in her funnel is to book a manuscript evaluation so they can proceed with their revision with support and confidence.
Thanks for everything you did to support me as I created and launched WKND Pitch Perfection. This description of funnels alone is worth its weight in gold to people like me who love talking story, but struggle with how best to spread the word about our offerings.
Thanks for showcasing the cohort in the article. I hope that it encourages others to work together to produce awesome results like we did. It taught me that together we can accomplish so much more than when we work alone which is analogous to book coaching itself.