Creating original content for lead magnets is hard work at the best of times. Images, copy, research and so on can take whole days to produce something that’s actually going to get attention in the whirlwind of free information that is the modern interweb.
So what if you could skip all that, use someone else’s content as bait, and still generate leads?
Well, I have a strategy which I developed mainly for Twitter, which does just that.
Step 1 – The Content.
The first step is to find some good content that is on the same topic as the offer you eventually want to promote.
You must see these at least a few times a week – content that makes you think “damn, I wish I’d thought of that”
Stuff you actually bookmark yourself, the stuff that keep you up at night wondering how you’re going to keep up with the competition.
In this case, I know the offer I have coming up is anyone in digital marketing who is obsessed with software tools.
That covers just about everyone.
I have a post from Justin Brooke about the complete list of software he uses in his agency, which is pretty cool, and has a few toys in there I’ve never heard of.
Step 2 – The link
This is kind of where the clever bit comes in.
I’m not going to link directly to the post, but instead it goes via a plugin called “Prettylink Pro” on this website, which does two things:
1. Makes nice memorable, branded links to share on social media – very much like bit.ly, tinyurl.com or other link shorteners
2. Drops Facebook pixels on the way. <<<< That, there, that’s the clever bit.
Take a look at the screengrab and you can see the original link, the branded shortlink, and the FB pixel code.
The Facebook pixel logs everyone who goes through the link, and if they’re logged into Facebook it will ad them to a “custom audience” in my Facebook ad account.
With no original content and no email opt-in, I now have an audience I can market to. One with a highly specific and memorable connection.
(I’ve done the same thing with links from Twitter in the past, as well as Linkedin and a couple of other sites that are good for sharing more serious “curated content”).
Step 3. The Twitter Status
Next, send the link out, saying something complimentary about it.
Use an image – imaged tweets get way more attention.
Refer to the origin of the source. Don’t be a dick and pretend this is yours, that’ll backfire, plus smaller accounts might retweet your status to their own audiences and get even more reach.
Use hashtags if appropriate – they can help you get picked up by automated searches.
Here’s mine….
Step 4. The Facebook ad.
If not, this is what our ad looks like:
As soon as I have 20 people pixeled, that’s enough to create a custom audience, and an ad, specific to these people.
The ad that probably brought you here, one that calls out the audience and lets them in on the game.
Step 5. The opt-in.
Now comes the ask.
At the end of the post you’re promoting in the Facebook ad (or you can even drive your ad straight there), have a call to action that carries on the story.
For you, my diligent reader, I have something special.
There’s only one expense (other than ad costs) in this post and that’s the PrettyLink Pro Plugin.