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The Before and After Steps to Creating a New Lead Magnet

Hailey Dale
The Before and After Steps to Creating a New Lead Magnet | Your Content Empire

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I’m Hailey – content strategist and founder here at Your Content Empire where we help you create more profitable, purposeful and productive content — and hopefully enjoy yourself more while doing it too. Learn more about me here >>

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The Before and After Steps to Creating a New Lead Magnet

When people create a new lead magnet for their site or blog, they usually get so wrapped up in the creation process that they breeze right through there-work and have no energy left for the post-work. Understandably! Working on a new idea is exciting business.

Here’s a couple of things to remember to do before you create a new lead magnet and the things that you should do afterwards to set it up for success (a.k.a. building your community of subscribers who will love and adore your free and paid offers)

Before You Create a Lead Magnet

1. Make sure that it’s something that the right people are going to actually want!

Right people = People who fit into your ideal customer base 

Actually, want = Solves a real problem they’re experiencing in a short amount of time 

Making sure that these two boxes are ticked off before spending your valuable time and energy on a new freebie are essential steps to creating something that’s going to do a dang thing for your business. 

A good way of testing if you’ve got a winner? 

Send your list a survey: If you currently have a list & if your list is made up of your ideal customer base. If it isn’t made up of people who’d buy your paid offers or who you’d love to work with, no bueno – move on to the next method of validating your idea. 

Go to a Facebook group where your ideal peeps hang out and ask your survey question there

There’s no need to overcomplicate this step, but it is crucial that you do it. 

2. Make sure your lead magnet relates to what you’re selling

Ideally, your lead magnet provides a sneak peak or a segment of what you do in your paid offers. This is the best way to attract subscribers who need help solving a problem that you solve, build genuine relationships with your community and then offer them the full meal deal (a.k.a. your paid offer!)

After You Create a Lead Magnet

1. Create a designated opt-in page 

Just adding opt-in forms and pop-up boxes aren’t enough, you’ll want a designated URL to send people to from your posts and social media ads. You’ve spent a lot of effort on your lead magnet, so it deserves the mini sales page treatment. 

2. Write a welcome email + a follow-up autoresponder series 

Let your new subscriber know that you think they’re the cat’s meow and continue to provide value even after they’ve downloaded your free gift. This should be an easy step because you’ll likely have other content that you’ve written (for your blog, other newsletters, other content freebies) that relates to the topic of your lead magnet. 

The very beginning of your relationship with your new subscriber is when they’re the most interested what you have to offer so this is when you’ll want to make the emails more frequent before you move them to your regular weekly, bi-weekly or monthly newsletter list. Since they’re more engaged during the first few weeks of signing up, this is also when you’ll likely notice the highest open rates. 

Here’s a basic formula for your follow up emails (for a single digital downloadable lead magnet) –

Day 0:

{ Email 1 – Welcome Email with Link to Download The Lead Magnet – Invite them to write you back! } 

 1-2 days later: 

{ Email 2 – How are you making out with the freebie – Here’s the link again just in case – Here’s a blog post that you might find interesting } 

 1-2 days later:

{ Email 3 – An email that educates your new subscriber on the problem that the lead magnet solves – could be something along the lines of 5 Biggest Myths about X, 6 Reasons Why X } 

 1 – 2 days later: 

{ Email 4 – Introduce your paid offer } 

1 – 2 days later: 

{ Email 5 – Provide more value – Send them another freebie or blog post that relate to the original lead magnet } 

1 – 3 days later: 

{ Email 6 – Educational Email – Send another email that educates them about their problem – could be something along the lines of 10 biggest things you’re missing out on because of X, 6 things you should know about X } 

1 – 3 days later (usually the last email before moving them to your regular list)

{ Email 7 – Your Paid Offer – People who join your list and were attracted to your freebie should be of your ideal customer base (if you followed the pre-steps!), let them know how much you appreciate them by offering them a bonus when they sign up or an exclusive discount on your paid offer within a certain amount of time – Educate them about your paid offer, the benefits of working with you and include some words of people who’ve hired or purchased from you before } 

So there you have it! The 2 steps that you can do before and after creating your lead magnet that will set it up for success.

Want to get started with mapping out a profitable sales funnel for free?

Sign up for my FREE funnel mapping workshop and get my exclusive funnel mapping template ↓

The Before and After Steps to Creating a New Lead Magnet | Your Content Empire

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The Before and After Steps to Creating a New Lead Magnet | Your Content Empire
The Before and After Steps to Creating a New Lead Magnet | Your Content Empire
Hailey Dale
The Before and After Steps to Creating a New Lead Magnet | Your Content Empire
The Before and After Steps to Creating a New Lead Magnet
The Before and After Steps to Creating a New Lead Magnet | Your Content Empire
What to Do After Launching Your Funnel
5 Reasons Your Funnel Offer Isn’t Selling
How to Create Your Signature Hand-Raiser Funnel
Freebies vs. Low-Ticket: Which is ACTUALLY better for growing your list? 🤔

Everyone’s raving about low-ticket offers being the holy grail of list building... but is that really true for YOU?

I’m breaking down the honest pros and cons of both strategies so you can make the right choice for your business right now. Swipe through to see:

✅ The hidden advantages of freebies that nobody talks about 

✅ When low-ticket actually makes sense (and when it’s a money pit) 

✅ 5 key factors to consider before making your decision

The truth? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. But swipe this carousel to figure out which path is right for YOUR specific situation.

P.S. I’m hosting a workshop on March 12th all about how to create a sales funnel that works in 2025. Comment WORKSHOP and I’ll send you the link to sign up.
That bundle or summit you just contributed to? It’s filling your list with dead weight...

Yes, there’s some anecdotal evidence and Cinderella stories from those who they’ve worked for but the majority are doing a lot more harm than good. 

From the participant/customer side: Yes, they get a firehose of information but there’s also so much information that very little (if any) of it gets implemented. 

From the contributor/speaker side: Yes, you get exposure and a big jump in email sign ups, but because all of those people are also signing up for 10+ other people’s lists too, they’re below the lowest form of validated. 

I worked with a client who had started hosting bundles and had grown her email list from just over 1000 to 40000 in a year (!) but when she launched her brand new course couldn’t get a single sale. We worked together after the fact to work on nurturing and validating that list so it came down to around 10K left on the list but after a lot of content, they started converting. 

There’s no way to short cut growing your email list. You’re better off with validated people who want to be there than a whole heap of people who have nearly zero buy-in. 

If you have grown through summits and bundles, have a really good welcome sequence (longer than you think you need) and don’t be afraid to remove people who don’t interact with it. 

One of the things I’m covering in my upcoming workshop all about how to design a funnel offer that’ll sell in 2025 is the validation process. 

Want in? Comment WORKSHOP and I’ll send you the link to sign up for the free workshop on Mar 12th!
Launching your funnel is just the FIRST step—not the end goal! 

Too many business owners hit publish and call it a day, then wonder why they’re not seeing results.

The real magic happens in what you do AFTER launch, and I’ve got a system that’s helped my clients’ funnels outperform industry standards by 3X.

Here are the 4 crucial steps I implement after every funnel launch:

1️⃣ Set up a proper measurement system (no more guessing!)
2️⃣ Optimize all your online hotspots (most people miss this completely)
3️⃣ Run my proprietary Testing Protocol with your existing audience
4️⃣ Create a sustainable traffic strategy that fits YOUR business

The Testing Protocol is my secret weapon—it lets you perfect your messaging while generating initial sales to fund your scaling efforts. Your audience becomes both your testers AND your initial investors!

Want me to walk you through my complete post-launch system step-by-step?

Watch the full breakdown on YouTube to get the entire step-by-step strategy!

#funnelstrategy #marketingtips #onlinebusiness #salesfunnel #digitalmarketing #conversionoptimization #funnelhacks
Stop treating your funnel launch as the finish line! After you hit publish is when the REAL work begins.

My “Testing Protocol” strategy has helped client funnels outperform industry standards for years—here’s why:

Instead of leaving your funnel to die after launch, strategically run your existing audience through it in small groups. These “test subjects” (aka your most engaged followers) help you:

 ✅ Optimize message open rates

 ✅ Improve click-through performance

 ✅ Generate initial sales to FUND your paid ads

The best part? Your audience helps perfect your funnel AND gives you the capital to scale it with confidence. No more guessing if your funnel will convert when you start running traffic!

Comment “FUNNELLAUNCH” if you want the full video with ALL 4 strategies for what to do after launching your funnel (hint: most people skip #2 completely!)
What happens after the funnel purchase matters more...

The main goal of your funnel is to make a sale, right? But after you make that sale comes your biggest window of opportunity (my customer multiplication formula) and most people are majorly dropping the ball here ↓

They send the offer and then treat new customers like everyone else on their email list → when they should be treated like anyone but.

Those who do take advantage of this opportunity turn new customers into brand ambassadors, repeat purchases and referrals.

How does this relate back to touchpoints?

This comes back to building your funnel around touchpoints. Looking at data for 2025:

📊 Past customers only need 1–3 touches on average
📊 Warm inbound leads need 5–12 touches
📊 Cold prospects require 20–50 touches

Even though it takes WAY less touchpoints to upsell existing customers, most people hyper focus on bringing in new sales when focusing on your existing customers is a much better way to bring in repeat AND new sales.

What is the delight and invite funnel?

That’s where the delight and invite funnel comes in. It becomes your offer delivery sequence with more delight and invite opportunities woven in.

The main goals of this funnel:

🏆 Incorporate feedback loops to get ahead of challenges your customers experience + be first to hear about wins

🏆 Create assets and campaigns around customer results

🏆 Connect directly with new customers to let them know they’re seen and appreciated

🏆 Incentivize them to share the offer with their audiences and friends

🏆 Invite them to exclusive offers

Here’s the customer multiplication formula this funnel is built upon:

Delight x Invite = Turning Every Happy Client Into 2-3 More

This formula (and the strategies behind it) is one of the things I’m covering in an upcoming workshop about designing a funnel offer that’ll sell in 2025.

Want in? Comment WORKSHOP and I’ll send you the link to sign up for the free workshop on Mar 12th!
The Before and After Steps to Creating a New Lead Magnet | Your Content Empire
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