Your lead magnet is probably training people to ignore your emails

Sorry to burst your bubble, but your lead magnet might be working perfectly... and still be hurting your email marketing.

People are opting in.

They're downloading it.

Your subscriber count is going up.

So what's the problem?

They're not paying attention to anything you send afterwards.

And when that happens, it's easy to blame your emails.

Maybe you need better subject lines.

Better copy.

More emails.

More sales emails.

But I'd look further upstream.

Think about what happens with a typical lead magnet.

You promise someone a checklist, PDF, template or ebook.

They want it.

So they give you their email address.

You send them the thing.

Transaction complete.

They got what they came for.

They never actually asked to pay attention to your emails.

So when your newsletters start arriving afterwards, you're now trying to create an entirely new behaviour.

You need them to start opening.

Start reading.

Start clicking.

And eventually, start buying.

That's why I prefer using an email series as the lead magnet itself.

Someone doesn't opt in because I've promised them a PDF.

They opt in because I've promised them emails worth reading.

Then I get an opportunity to prove that promise.

Email after email.

That's the behaviour I want to create from day one:

Open → Read → Click

Because ultimately, if someone isn't paying attention to your emails, they're probably not going to buy through your emails either.

And that's where a lot of businesses get themselves stuck.

They think they need more leads.

So they create more lead magnets.

Run more ads.

Get more people onto the list.

And now they have an even bigger list of people who aren't paying attention.

More subscribers doesn't necessarily fix the problem.

Sometimes you need to go all the way back to the beginning and ask:

What am I actually training someone to do when they join my list?