Automate Your Agency

What is the next generation of lead magnets?

• Alane Boyd & Micah Johnson • Season 1 • Episode 20

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These days, offering your prospects free (or mostly free) knowledge up front is a prerequisite to positioning yourself as an expert in your field. This "free" knowledge is more commonly known as a "Lead Magnet."

But let's face it – most lead magnets are about as exciting as watching paint dry. What if you could turn your lead magnet from a snooze-fest into a personalized, AI-powered experience that leaves your prospects begging for more?

In this episode of Automate Your Agency, Alane Boyd and Micah Johnson pull back the curtain on the future of lead generation. Forget everything you thought you knew about eBooks and PDFs – we're talking about lead magnets that think, adapt, and deliver value faster than you can say "automation."

You'll discover how to:

  • Transform your lead magnets into a dynamic, personalized powerhouse
  • Harness the potential of AI to create custom reports, guides, and tools in minutes, not days
  • Implement these next-gen lead magnets across multiple channels – from speaking gigs to trade shows and beyond

Whether you're a solopreneur hustling for your next client or a marketing expert managing a team, this episode will revolutionize your approach to lead generation. We're talking about tools that can spit out 25 personalized automation ideas or craft a custom neighborhood guide faster than you can grab your morning coffee.

Check out these two examples! Fill them out and watch how they work! 

What sort of lead magnet would your prospects find valuable? If you want help crafting a personalized, automated lead magnet of your own, reach out to us at workdayninja.com. 

If you found this episode valuable and want to help other businesses reap the rewards, would you mind leaving us a 5-star review? It will help with show rankings and give more listeners the opportunity to find our show. 

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For more information, visit our website at biggestgoal.ai.

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0:00:00 - (Alane): Welcome to automate your agency. Every week we bring you expert insights, practical tips and success stories that will help you streamline your business operations and boost your growth. Let's get started on your journey to more efficient and scalable operations.

0:00:17 - (Micah): All right, Alane, so in this episode, I would love to chat about lead magnets and how we can go from a typical, like what a lead, what everybody thinks a lead magnet is, to actually building an automated AI powered lead magnet that produces dynamic results for anybody that's going to download or use this, this lead magnet resource. And that probably sounds really confusing. So we'll get into a bit of a explanation here in this episode.

0:00:52 - (Alane): Yeah, and so I'm going to refer to the way most people think of a lead gen magnet as the traditional way. And I'm just going to go and say, I think they suck for a lot of reason, you know, well, they're time consuming. You know, when we started really looking at, okay, we need to really start growing our customer base, getting more leads in to grow the company, we were thinking, okay, let's start doing some lead magnets.

0:01:20 - (Alane): And then you think about, oh my gosh, I've got to get a landing page. So I need to bring somebody in that can design on webflow, our website platform. And then, okay, then we got, actually designed the lead gen, like all those things, it just started to feel like, oh my gosh, how are we going to be able to do this? This is overwhelming, boring. And there's so many things you've got to create, as in lead magnet within itself, like what's going to be valuable to the person.

0:01:47 - (Alane): And we started slipping away from even wanting to do this because it was too many pieces.

0:01:52 - (Micah): Yeah, I think when I think about historically, when we tried to implement this, it was overwhelming is the right word. We had so many false starts or we tried to shortcut our path through this so that we could test it quickly, but it wasn't actually mapped out or worked on enough to actually generate any results. So then we'd run ads, then we'd think we'd have were wasting money, nothing would convert.

0:02:20 - (Micah): And our lead magnets were not magnetic at all. It was ebooks and PDF's. But we had this moment not too long ago. You've been doing speaking gigs all over the world. We've been doing online presentations and we just needed a way to say how do we help our audience engage with us? But we're still providing huge value to that audience. So the first thing that we wanted in a lead magnet or in a way to engage and provide value was, to, one, make it personalized.

0:02:59 - (Micah): And in doing that, that led us to, okay, what are our options for making something dynamic and personalized? Well, we have automation and we have AI, and both of those technologies are far enough along now where we can create dynamic assets that provide value on the fly.

0:03:21 - (Alane): Yeah, and I remember the conversation where we started to figure this out. I was in my house, sitting in my library having this conversation with you. You were at the office. And we just kind of kept saying, like, well, what if, what if we could do this? Like, what if we could do this? And we really started to hone in, like, this is actually possible to get information from somebody, run it through a trained AI source, and then put it in a template so that is dynamic to that person but still branded and consistent to what we do.

0:03:54 - (Micah): Absolutely. And that's a framework that we're still using today. It's collect some information, send that to the trained AI assistant through automation, grab the results from what that AI is presenting. Leverage a professionally designed template. Put the output into that template so that it produces a dynamically generated asset on the outset. So why don't we give, like, a really quick example? Yeah.

0:04:21 - (Alane): So one of them would be, okay, so for our customers, the first question that they start having is, well, what could be automated? You know, what's possible? And so we wanted a way to quickly give that information to somebody interested in a way that they could just look at it themselves and, and see what would make the biggest impact. So, you know, that was one of the problems our, our clients, people interested in our services were like, well, I want to automate.

0:04:49 - (Alane): I want to save time, I want to improve efficiencies, but I don't even know what that looks like.

0:04:53 - (Micah): So can I point out something here real quick, Alane, because I think you're touching on such an important fact, which is you're addressing a business challenge. When we were looking at this, it was, what's a problem that our clients face? What's a question we get asked all the time? And that's what we started with. And it just, from that, it made things so much easier.

0:05:16 - (Alane): Yeah. So we started to distill down. Okay, well, what do we need to know from somebody to generate ideas of what could be automated? How do we get that information? And so we could use a form and have eight to ten questions on there with what platforms do you use? And we started to break it down. Okay, well, what's your CRM? What's your project management system? And we included some of the most popular ones as a dropdown for each one.

0:05:43 - (Alane): That way it wouldn't take them a long time. We're gonna go ahead and make it easy. You could select one or you could say other and then go to the next one. And so that was like the first part that we started to look at. Okay, well, we need to get this information so that we could then produce a report for them that has this information in there. And so the next piece would be, all right, well, we got the stuff in the form.

0:06:05 - (Alane): Now, how do we generate the automation ideas for them without having to manually look at all these?

0:06:12 - (Micah): And that's what we would have to do. Originally if we were to think about this, even twelve months ago, we would have to collect all this data and then we would have to have somebody analyze this data or we would have to look at it and then manually come up with all of these automation ideas and then manually put it into a report, then manually send it out. It was just untenable. There's no way that you could do that at scale.

0:06:40 - (Alane): No, it would be impossible. And so you and I started playing around with using AI to help assist with, okay, there are platforms what could be generated. So we evolved that into, okay, well, we don't want to just do a long list of 25. What if we could separate it by department and we could say, okay, well, here in sales you can do this, in HR you could do this and start breaking it up. So it wouldn't be this giant list, you could start to interpret it a little bit easier when you're looking at it.

0:07:10 - (Micah): Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So we trained an AI assistant, which we can access through automation. And so now we've got a form collecting data. When that form is submitted, that's going to push automatically to the AI. The AI is trained to analyze, knowing what to look for based on the input coming from the form, and then produce the output in a specific format that the automation can then take and populate a template. So for example, you could take like a word doc that's professionally designed, have placeholders for all the areas that you would want to update, and then based on the AI's output, populate those placeholders.

0:07:53 - (Alane): Yeah, and at first you're going, well, how is this a lead generator? But we're using automation for all of this to take data from the form, to put it through the AI, to produce reports. So you're getting the information from them. You're also getting the contact email and first and last name, and you can even add a field for company name. So you know the company that they're with. And while it's moving through the automation, you can also have it going into your CRM, you can have it going into your mailchimp or, you know, whatever you're using for email marketing and into a sequence.

0:08:29 - (Alane): And so that's where now, you know the tools that they're using, at least for us, that's important. We know the tools that are, they're using. And some people aren't a good fit. You know, we may not specialize in those software platforms, but in other cases we're like, hey, now we just got to see what software platforms they use. They got to see our tool. They've got ideas for what could be automated.

0:08:51 - (Alane): Let's see if they're interested in implementing any of these.

0:08:53 - (Micah): Yeah, absolutely. And so that automation can be extended even just from collecting the data and producing the output. Like you're saying, Alane, it works so well to know what's the environment that we're playing with for these leads? Are they qualified? Are they unqualified?

0:09:08 - (Alane): Yeah, but it's still a great tool to get people interested. So it's, it's fun to see, even if they're not a great client, like, it's still being used and it's still valuable for them. Micah, what I liked about this is we were just thinking of it in such a small scale in the beginning. Like, okay, we need to do some type of legion, we need some type of magnet. Okay, we've got this really cool idea. And I remember the first speaking engagement after we built this, I didn't include it in, but at the end of my presentation, I said, hey, if anybody's interested in using this tool that we built, shoot me a message on LinkedIn.

0:09:47 - (Alane): And out of the 40 people, I got 30 messages wanting this link. And I thought, well, if this many people are interested in it just from me speaking about it, maybe I should incorporate it into my presentation. Then I'm going. And it worked so well, the next time I did it, I put a QR code in the presentation for my next speaking engagement. And I say, this is optional, you don't have to do this. But if you want to get 25 automation ideas and use this as a starter plate for you, not only will you get those ideas, but you're actually going to get to see how automation and AI works in real time and it works so well. And then in a group of people, you might not normally get those leads.

0:10:28 - (Alane): You know, they'd have to take some action after you step out of that room. If you can incorporate this, when you are doing a speaking engagement, you get the leads right then with the information. And it has been life changing for our business, as many speaking gigs as I've been getting to incorporate this.

0:10:43 - (Micah): You know, the funny part is, Alane, I know exactly where you're at in your presentation, because all of a sudden I'll get a huge amount of email notifications coming in from people, scanning the QR code, filling out the form. The beautiful thing about this is it's an immediate landing page. All you need is the form. You can use a solution like Typeform, which is a great form tool. It looks good on mobile, it looks good on desktop. You don't have to worry about designing anything. You can make a form without any major technical skill set. As soon as that form data is collected, the automation is off and running.

0:11:19 - (Micah): It can take up to three minutes to run sometimes. We have some pretty complicated ones. Like, we did one for some, like tourism relocation, uh, you know, global mobility type industries. And that one's doing some AI photo generation. It's doing AI basically creating like a personalized neighborhood introduction guide. Super, super cool. Takes three minutes to run, but that's three minutes of, I mean, I can't even imagine it's probably three days or three weeks to produce these guides manually on that much of a personalized basis.

0:11:56 - (Alane): Oh, yeah. I mean, it's personalized to. The person likes to go to breweries if they have a dog and need to go to dog parks if they have children, or it's just them. Like, it's, it's pretty incredible. But Micah, you were teasing me the other day because I was showing it to somebody, and after about a minute and a half, I'm freaking out and thinking the automation isn't working. And you're like, Alane, just give it another minute.

0:12:19 - (Alane): Like it's running through the automation. But, you know, we've, I've gotten so spoiled to things happening so fast with AI and automation that when it takes longer than a minute and a half, I'm panicking. And it really, it's three minutes versus a minute and a half, which is still, like, just incredible that this is being done that fast. And it's personalized completely to that person's interest, to the location they're going to.

0:12:44 - (Alane): And so that was another one that came from a pain point that we were listening to customers is, how do we make this faster for our team or for, if you're tourism, for the people coming to visit this location, that have never been here before and are trying to plan a visit.

0:13:01 - (Micah): And I think, you know, it's so interesting to think I. We start with a pain point that we hear questions that we hear a lot. We use the same framework form automation and AI. Personalized asset is created. So if you're thinking about how can I apply this to my business, use that framework. What's a question that you hear a lot from your clients? How do you formulate that into an online web form? Run it through the automation and the AI and what's the output that you're looking for?

0:13:31 - (Micah): Could be a slide deck, could be a Google Doc, could be a spreadsheet, can be almost any format that you can think of. Those types of personalized outputs are going to be so valuable to your prospect. Right? So when we talk about the neighborhood guide, all of a sudden, if you're moving to New York City and you don't know anything about where you're moving, but you have a dog, you're married to, you don't have any kids, you like whiskey, right? You could input this type of information and the output is a personalized neighborhood guide.

0:14:05 - (Micah): In three minutes, that's going to arrive in your inbox, like the association with your brand and that type of result and that type of value. And it doesn't have to be a neighborhood guide. It could be anything if you're in it, you know, maybe it's specific setups of hardware, if you're a mobile app development company, maybe it's a few ideas of different types of mobile apps or mobile app names or anything like that. Right? There's so many opportunities that exist within this structure.

0:14:36 - (Alane): Yeah. One thing I wanted to clarify, I couldn't remember if we said it or not. Micah is along with the automation, is the person that filled it out gets an email with the information. So they get an email with the report or whatever guide that you built. Within one to three minutes, they get an email with a PDF with the information that you were trying to provide them. And so it's a closed sequence for you.

0:15:02 - (Alane): You're not having to do any work. The person's getting something super valuable to something maybe that you saw or information that you wanted to get, but they get it within a few minutes and it's dynamic for every person that fills it out.

0:15:15 - (Micah): Yeah. I mean, this. So, Alane, you mentioned it earlier, this has been absolutely game changing for us. I think the biggest way to frame this is we stopped thinking about landing pages, we stopped thinking about lead magnets, and we started thinking about tools. We started thinking about what are the problems that our clients have and what are the tools that we can create to solve these problems. And then you add an instant gratification, which is 90 seconds or less kind of approach.

0:15:42 - (Micah): You get that, it arrives in your inbox. It's completely personalized. Right? These are amazing tools that all of a sudden, I guess I should point out too, with all of this, the extra step that we added to make this a true conversion mechanism is not only do we collect data in the form, but once that asset is delivered to their inbox, we're also adding the next step into it. So when we say, provide the 25 automation ideas at the end of that report is, hey, you want to chat about these ideas?

0:16:14 - (Micah): Here's a QR code, here's a calendar, link book time with us directly. And we can chat through these because now we have a copy, you have a copy, and we can have a productive conversation about what will actually work for your business. How would you prioritize these things? What else could be leveraged?

0:16:32 - (Alane): Yeah, I want to talk about too, Micah, some of the cool ways that we've started using these, because at first it was, we need a lead magnet. How do we get people filling out one of our tools? And now we've evolved it to. I mentioned adding it into my speaking engagements, but some other awesome ways is a trade show booth. If we're setting up at a conference, we have the QR code to the tools. Like, depending on what type of conference it is, we'll use one of our different tools, but that it's easy for us to have an engagement with somebody versus.

0:17:05 - (Alane): Let me scan your badge. No, let me get some valuable information from you, give you something of value. And now when I get back to the office, we have something awesome to follow up with the people that came by our booth.

0:17:17 - (Micah): Not only that, Alane, but it's, it's happening so quickly behind the scenes that you could carry on a conversation while somebody is chatting with you at a booth, at a trade show, or anywhere. Right? Even at a networking event, you can stand there and have that conversation and then be like, oh, go ahead and check your inbox. And you, if you're in person, this tool still works to provide that correlation and that communication to kick it off into nextgear. Right? You're not just like, ah, let me email you when I get back to the office or when I get back online.

0:17:50 - (Micah): It's literally, you can fill this out on your phone. It's processing. You can talk about what's happening and then pick right back up on the next stage to work on that deal.

0:17:59 - (Alane): Yeah, and, you know, we also have it linked on our website, so, you know, they can click on the link right there on the homepage. It goes to one of our tools. So that's a really easy way, too. If you already have people go into your website, put the tools available on there, that's really easy. But one other piece that I wanted to mention that these tools are awesome lead generators for us is whenever I get interviewed on podcasts, this is one of the things that I provide the podcast host with. You know, do you, when they always ask, like, do you have any discounts or free resources that we can offer the audience? And I'll put it in the show notes.

0:18:37 - (Alane): Absolutely. You know, depending on what type of podcast it is that I'm getting interviewed on, I'll supply them with two, maybe three of these free tools that would be valuable to their audience. And it's so, it's amazing to see when we get a call booked and we're like, hey, how did you hear about us? Oh, I listened to so and so's podcast and they linked to your free tool and I filled it out and I'm like, man, that's awesome.

0:18:59 - (Micah): So in the spirit of that, we will link to examples of our free tools in this podcast episode description. And so if you're listening, go ahead, check them out, fill them out. Book a call with us. We're happy to chat. But the main point is take a look at how it works, how quickly it arrives in your inbox, how personalized it is, and start thinking about how this could be applied to your business.

0:19:24 - (Alane): And we do. We've started building these for other companies because somebody will go through the Legion tool and they're going to go, they go, that was really awesome. Could y'all build one of these for me? And we, you know, we were naive in the beginning, just thinking, oh, this is something really cool for us. And now more and more contacts are saying, this was super cool, please build us one. And so now we've incorporated that into our services where we'll work with you on identifying, you know, what's a pain point that you solve that you hear your customers say, and how can we implement that into an AI and automation sequence?

0:20:00 - (Micah): Yeah. All the way through the professional design of the asset.

0:20:04 - (Alane): Awesome. So if you are interested in using one of the free tools, we've got that listed in there. You can see how it works in real time. And if you want something like this built for your company. Contact us workdayninja.com dot thanks for listening to this episode of Automate, your agency. We hope you're inspired to take your business to the next level. We have free content and tools for automating your business at our website, workday Ninja, and join us next week as.

0:20:29 - (Micah): We dive into more ways to automate and scale your business.

0:20:32 - (Alane): Bye for now.

People on this episode

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Alane Boyd

Co-host
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Micah Johnson

Co-host