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A lot of you are like, I have a nice lead magnet on my website. I spent a lot of time on it. I'm not getting any signups, so what gives? And I dug into why and what I found changes how I think about lead magnets, referrals, and blogging for every client that I work with. The biggest problem with lead magnets is that people don't promote them well. They put one little signup form on their website and think they'll get a lot of signups. And there are so many better ways to promote it. Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 309. All right, today I have. I have a lot of stuff to tell you. You probably were drawn in by the title of this episode, do Lead Magnets Still Work? Because I know that a lot of you are like, I have a nice lead magnet on my website. I spent a lot of time on it. I'm not getting any signups, so what gives? And also, where else do I get leads? Where else do I get new people to get on my mailing list if this isn't working? So I want to start this with a story. I recently worked with an interior designer whose website was better than her two closest competitors in pretty much every way that matters. She had better copywriting, better photography, a better user experience. But she ranked behind both of them for the exact search terms that she needed to be ranking highly for. And I dug into why, and what I found changes how I think about lead magnets, referrals, and blogging for every client that I work with. So today I'm sharing her real case study along with what actually drives leads for interior designers and other home industry professional professionals. So let's just get into it. The success of a lead magnet or how many people sign up for it, not how many people become clients because of it, is always context specific. And that means the effectiveness of your lead magnet depends on your target client, what you're offering as a lead magnet, and how you're offering it, or where you're presenting it. And I need to preface all of this with an insight from my close friend and colleague Jacqueline Edwards of Ochre and Beige. And she said the biggest problem with lead lead magnets is that people don't promote them well. They put one little sign up form on their website and think they'll get a lot of signups. And there are so many better ways to promote it. Now, a few ways that she recommends promoting a lead magnet and I agree with her on this, is you can use a QR code at in person events to capture signups. You can provide print or digital copies directly to your referral partners. Meaning don't make your referral partner sign up for your lead magnet, just give them a copy because that will only benefit you in the end. You can also embed your signup form with an image of what people will be receiving on your homepage, your services page, and in your blog posts. And P.S. if you aren't blogging, don't expect to get very many lead magnet signups. So once we have addressed the issue of maybe you have a good lead magnet but you're just not promoting it well, now we need to talk about actual lead magnet ideas that are good, bad and otherwise. So right off the top, a discount or a supposed discount is not a proper lead magnet. You might see some retail stores saying sign up with your email address to get 10% off your first order. That attracts people who are looking for a discount, obviously, and that might work for a retail store, but it does not work for you and you are selling custom mid to high end services. You do not want to attract people who just want a discount. Don't offer a discount on a consultation. Don't offer a discount on anything, because unless you want to be known as the discounted organizer or the discounted interior designer, it's not going to serve you well. Now a complimentary consultation or a discovery call is a type of lead magnet. It is, but it does not allow for instant value because they have to book the call, wait for the call, get on the call with you. Nor does it fit the needs of someone who's in the research phase and they're not ready to go into the talking phase yet. The long form PDF. So the playbook or an investment guide, you know, at some point they were very popular and now they're just not that effective because your clients are busy people who don't have time to read long documents first of all. And then second of all, investment guides, sometimes they only attract the price conscious people which can be misaligned with the luxury clients priorities. Now some of you have clients who are both well off and price conscious and an investment guide might make sense for them, or an investment calculator. But if your client is not leading with price, you shouldn't be either. If you don't want to get clients who lead with price, then you shouldn't have an investment guide as your lead magnet. So is an investment guide a bad lead magnet? Yes and no. It depends on who your ideal client is and this is why it's so important for you to understand who that person is. The luxury client cares about the experience of working with you and the lasting transformation you bring and how that will impact their daily life, both now and in the future. So if you understand your ideal client's priorities and pain points, figuring out which lead magnet will work best becomes a lot easier. One thing that you can consider, if you have that higher end client and they're not necessarily price conscious or you don't want to attract the price conscious, consider doing a case study that delves deeply into a real client project that you've done and it reads like an Architectural Digest article. That can be effective because it draws the reader into the full story and lets them experience by osmosis the transformation that you deliver. Now, if you are a brand new interior designer or organizer or stager, this does put you in a quandary because you don't have a case study. But as soon as you get that first great project, consider turning that into a lead magnet. I mean, guys, when you're starting from scratch, yeah, it's going to be hard. You're, you're not going to have content to display on your website. You're not going to have content to pull from for a lead magnet. I get it, I see you, I hear you. And you can instead use a lead magnet that explains your process, but it needs to be deeper than what's on your website. And you can still share some sort of case study, but it wouldn't be from a project that you did. So that would have to be handled very tastefully. And this is something that you should be consulting on, if not with your team, then with an actual marketing consultant. Because a lead magnet does require effort to produce and you want to make sure the lead magnet that you're producing is going to be aligned with the ideal client that you want to serve so that you're not wasting your, your effort. So if you're like, I just for whatever reason don't want to do a case study, I'm not into that. I don't want a PDF type document. Short videos can be effective also because they're a little bit more interactive and you actually don't have to put it behind a signup form. Now that does mean people can watch it without signing up. But you could have a video they watch and then there's a sign up form next to it or below it that says, you know, for a deeper dive into this, sign up here and then explain to them what they're going to get. But one thing you have to keep in mind is the perspective of your ideal client because mid and luxury level clients are hesitant to provide their contact information to just anyone unless the reason or the moment truly justifies it. These are private people and you need to remember that because instead of getting frustrated that people aren't signing up for your lead magnet, consider are they the type of person who will just hand out their email address? And if they aren't, I'm not saying that you should delete all your lead magnets, but I am suggesting that you need to drastically change your perspective around it. Maybe change how you're presenting the lead magnet or change the lead magnet entirely. Or or consider that maybe your discovery call should be the only lead magnet you have because you know the type of client you want to work with will not move until they're ready to move. So you just need to wait until they book a discovery call with you. Now I don't love that approach because that means you're going to miss all the people who aren't ready but could be made ready if they at least got on your mailing list. So we kind of come back to you need to have some sort of lead magnet besides the discovery call and figuring out what that is is a big decision. Now figuring out what it is based on your client type will help speed up your decision making process because it's not really about getting every website visitor to sign up for your lead magnet. It's about making an impact and leaving the right impression. So if you want to book high dollar projects but your messaging and your lead magnet are DIY focused, you're going to be in misalignment with brand and neither your website nor your lead magnet will result in any signups. If you have a short form video that explains your process. Or Maybe it's like 10 questions to ask before hiring an interior designer or 5 questions to ask before hiring a professional organizer, it doesn't necessarily just have to be a regurgitation of your process, it needs to be something valuable that will guide people in their decision making. If you choose to go the case study route, that could be a video or it could be a PDF and it needs to dive deeply into a real client project project that you've done. It needs to read like an ARC Digest article and the story should not already live on your blog. Now caveat to this, you could create a second blog section on your site that is only updated randomly with these case studies and requires someone to opt in before they can view the blog. That's Just an idea. I mean speaking now as a website designer and not just a marketer, that's very easy to set up. So just something to consider. This is something I've been recommending to a few of my clients lately. If you want to go the short form video route, I do have a script example, a script outline and some things for you to keep in mind. Because a short form video will let you build one way trust and authority for your design firm or your organizing business in about five minutes. First of all, don't overthink your video setup. Sit at your desk, use a high quality or or mid quality webcam and just start talking. Kind of like I am right now. You don't need a fancy microphone, you just need a camera with a built in microphone and you need a script. So I do have a script outline that can help you a little bit here. And just going over it briefly, you'll need to start with a hook. And that hook identifies your ideal client's pain point and it positions you as the problem solver who can fix that pain point. The body content of your video will go into your expertise and your approach, your background, your philosophy. And you can also use this time to briefly cover what your service offerings are and your process. And then it has to end with a call to action that tells people watching what to do next. Like click below to fill out our inquiry form for a no pressure conversation or click here to book a discovery call. You have to get them moving to the next step. Once they've already signed up to watch the video, you've got their contact info and you will be following up with them via email. But don't discount the call to action in the video itself. Now I'm going to read to you an actual script that I put together for a client and I'll do my best to leave all of her information out of this. But here is how it goes. It starts with the hook. Can I tell you something I hear all the time? A client sits down with me to talk about their design needs. They're successful, they're smart, they've traveled, they've collected, they've got that gorgeous vase from a trip to Morocco. Their grandmother's side table, a piece of art they fell in love with and just had to have. But when they look around their living room, they tell me, I know I have good taste, I really do. But none of these pieces make sense together. And one client actually put it perfectly. She said, I just need help adulting my space. Now if this is you if you've got beautiful things, you've got style, and you've got a home that doesn't feel quite finished or quite yours, I want you to know that it's not a you problem. It's a missing puzzle piece problem and solving that is exactly what I do. My name is, well, insert the name here. And I live just outside of blah, blah blah, in the little town of, you know, I'm kind of filling it, making some blanks here so that I'm not giving away who this client is. And I've been doing full, serious, full service interior design for 15 years. And here's what full service actually means. I don't just pick a paint color and call it a day. I build a complete coordinated plan for your home. Color, fabric, texture, furniture layout, the whole story. So your grandmother's side table and your Moroccan base and that piece of art you love, they all belong in the same conversation. A lot of my clients aren't even working on their first homes anymore. They're working on their second, sometimes their third. Maybe it's a primary residence and a place at the lake. Maybe it's a property you just bought or a home you've lived in for 15 years that finally feels like it's ready to feel like you again, the new version of you. Either way, the secret to designing a home that actually works functionally and aesthetically isn't a magic formula. The secret is knowing you and including elements of you in the design process. What matters to you, how you actually live, not how magazines say you should live. That's what makes every single project we do different. And that's why I start every relationship with a real conversation instead of a sales pitch. Now, I know not every project is the same size, and that's okay. That's actually the whole point here. Because of that, I've built a few ways that we can work together. All right, so this is where my client starts talking about the different services that she offers. If you've got a big project, like a full home, maybe paired with some construction, that's full service design. And I'm with you from the first sketch to the final pillow on the sofa. But maybe you're not looking for that. Maybe you're just navigating a project yourself. And you want a professional in your corner who can answer questions or weigh in on fabric choice or save you from expensive mistakes. And that's what I call designer on call. You're in my system, and I'm there exactly when you need me. And then there's my personal favorite for everyone who's on a deadline. And that's the day of design. One full day totally focused on what you want to accomplish. If you're getting ready for a house guest or hosting a big dinner, we'll knock out your design to do list in a day. And here's the thing. You don't have to guess which service package is right for you. Every single relationship, no matter the size, starts with a design consultation. We talk about your home, your life, your style, your goals, and by the end, we both know if we're a good fit and which of my services will make the most sense for you if we move forward with your project. Here's roughly how that goes. So, again, getting into here's her design process. After our consultation, I put together a complete design concept, vision plan, story of your space, and once you love it, I move into the purchasing and setup. You'll get to have your own private portal where I source everything, and you can approve or pass on each piece once it's approved. I handle the ordering, the delivery, and the installation. This actually brings to mind one client in particular. She was moving from the east coast to my area, and she was downsizing and juggling it all from across the country. And she told me afterward that arriving at a fully finished, designed and styled space already felt like she was coming home, even though she had just been through a major relocation. And that's my goal every single time. All right, now we get into the call to action part of this script. So if any of this sounds familiar, if you've got beautiful things and a home that just hasn't caught up with your life yet, I would genuinely love to talk with you. And I want to be really clear about something here. You reaching out doesn't commit you to anything. It's just a conversation. They'll talk about your space, your style, what's working, what's not, and you'll walk away with clarity on your next step. So head over to my contact page and fill out the short form. That's it. From there, we'll set up a time to chat. No pressure or obligation, just two people talking about what your home could feel like. You've already got good taste, so let's make it make sense. My name is so and so, and I can't wait to hear about your home. All right, so that is a script that I put together for one of my wonderful clients, and I hope that it inspires you to have that same approach. If you consider doing a short form video because it's engaging, it's personable, and it's not salesy. The world does not need another sales video. Now let's kind of switch gears here. Where do your best leads currently come from? My guess after working with Was it over 900 designers, stagers and organizers at this point is that your best clients come from referrals. And interestingly enough, word of mouth referral is still the best marketing strategy. It's the oldest out there, it's still the best. And if you're getting most of your leads from referrals, this is a sign that your business has facilitated healthy relationships. You can take responsibility for those relationships by staying top of mind with past leads, clients and colleagues via yes, I'm going to say it again. Consistent Email marketing every two to four weeks I was just talking with a client this morning who said, you know, my business is doing really well. I just don't get replies to my email newsletters and I wonder if I'm supposed to. And what I told her to look at first was her open rate. And your open rate should be at least 30%. Our clients are often seen closer to 50% at this point, and that's because the content we custom create for them is engaging. It's not salesy, it's interesting, and it's worth opening every two to four weeks. But what you need to keep in mind is that your ability to get clients from word of mouth referrals is not something to be discounted. The businesses who are not getting clients from referrals have a problem. They have a deep problem. It means they do not have relationships. They do not have people they've worked with in the past who feel that it is worth referring other people to them. That is a big problem now. It doesn't mean that every single client you've ever worked with should become a source of referrals. It would be beautiful if that happened. But usually you end up with a core group of colleagues and past clients who are consistently sending you really good referrals. The only way to really stay on top of that and to increase the likelihood they send you more referrals. Plus more people start sending you referrals is by showing up. And that's something that social media isn't good at because of that darn algorithm. But it's something that email is still good at because everyone checks their email at least once a day. And if you make your emails worth opening, then it's a great way to remind them, here I am and here's what I Do the number of times that I have had clients tell me I got this new client. Actually, she was a repeat client. And the only reason she didn't hire me sooner is because she didn't realize I offered the service that she needed. But we've worked together before. She knows me. Like, I don't understand how she didn't know that I offered this other service. And you know what? I've been there too. And it all comes back to the messaging. Are we actually telling people what we can do for them or are we just assuming that they know? Don't assume what that. Don't assume. Just don't. We have to repeat ourselves. We have to present it in different ways. We have to show them what's possible. We have to tell them point blank, this is what I do. These are the deliverables, A, B and C. Because otherwise people don't know. Nobody is as focused on your business as you are. So we cannot assume they already know what you have to offer. But let's also talk about referrals from the perspective of is Google sending you referral traffic? What about AI models? What about your Google business profile? Can all of these places become good referral sources? And if they're not good referral sources for you right now, how can you change that? Well, this leads me to the case study that I mentioned at the beginning of this episode and it's just the best way for me to explain this entire concept. I have changed my client's business name to protect her privacy so that I can share with you this full case study. So we're just going to call her Smith Design Studio of San Diego. So Smith Design Studio's primary issue is that. And by the way, she's a new client, so we're still in like the consultancy phase of this and the diagnostic stage. But her primary issue is that she ranks far below her competitors despite having well written, very professional copy on her site. And the site itself is attractive. Great images of her work, professional video like she's got all, all the boxes checked. But her two biggest competitors websites have very little copywriting. They're not that user friendly, honestly. They're sorely lacking in so many ways, yet they rank toward the top for local search terms like interior designer, San Diego. And it's just super frustrating. Like, who would not be frustrated by that? Now, as her marketing consultant, I was determined to uncover why this was happening. And what I found only solidified my previous findings. Good website SEO is not a cure all. Now, according to Google's algorithm, this disparity that I just explained to you, like good website, but still ranking low. Bad website, but ranking high. What? Well, it's driven by the following reasons. Number one is prominence. So there's a review gap here. Google says that the number of Google reviews you have and the rating of those reviews is factored into your ranking. The more reviews you have, the more positive ratings it improves your ranking. Like end of story. So my client has only 2 Google reviews. By contrast, competitor A for her has 12 reviews and competitor B has 23 reviews. So the takeaway for this is that Google's algorithm perceives a higher volume of reviews as a signal of a more established, popular and trustworthy business and favors those two competitors over my client as a result. Kind of a moment. But it's fixable. Totally fixable. The other issue is digital footprint and off grid authority. So Google pulls data from across the Internet. So articles, links, directories, third party platforms, and your position in search results is a factor. So you know, SEO best practices still apply. But my clients competitors have significantly larger digital footprints. Some of them have industry awards like from nkba, and they have work that's published on high authority design websites. So like shelter magazines. Think about El Decor or Southern Home. Or is that, Did I just make that up? Is that a thing? I don't know. You guys get the point. There's actual shelter magazine websites that you get published on and that. And then when they publish you, they link to your site. That's called a backlink. They're linking back to you and that's a high quality backlink. The takeaway from this is that because Google pulls local prominence signals from a business's overall web authority, my client's lighter footprint, you know, she's, she doesn't have these backlinks, she doesn't have these awards translates to lower search prominence. She does not have her work published on shelter magazine sites. And if she does have industry awards, they're not listed on her site. Nor are the industry associates and websites providing backlinks to her in the event that she was awarded that recognition. All right, so does this mean you have to go get featured on a bunch of different Shelter magazine websites? No, it like that certainly won't hurt you, but you can get featured by your local NKBA chapter. If you, if you won an award and they have a blog post or a press release about that on their site, that is a backlink to you. That is awesome. That is what you need. A lot of you are already part of industry associations. A lot of you already have awards. Make sure that's obvious. All right. The other factor here is the relevance of your Google Business listing. And this is something that affects my. My client. So relevance refers to how well a local business profile, your Google profile, matches what someone is searching for. Google uses complete, detailed business information to understand what your business does. So my client, Smith Design Studio is well optimized on Google Business. She has her basic contact info. It's all filled out. But her two competitors have more localized terms, like specific mentions of different areas in their region, like Solano Beach, North County, San Diego, or custom millwork or specific remodeling project details. And those terms appear in their detailed and numerous client reviews as well, not just in their Google Business listing. And that just serves to bolster them up in the rankings even more. So the takeaway here is if someone searches for specific terms like San Diego kitchen remodel or coastal interior designer, Google's search engine is going to bypass profiles that just don't have that contextual keyword data. And it will go straight for profiles where those terms appear more frequently in reviews and business descriptions. So, guys, Google reviews, they're so important. They are so incredibly important. If you do not have a Google Business listing yet, get one. And then be consistent about asking people to review you. Do not be afraid of someone leaving you a bad review that will quickly be overshadowed by all the good reviews. There are. There are crazy people in this world who freaking cares, okay? It is hurting your business if you do not have a Google Business listing that you are consistently maintaining. Now, let's talk about another factor, and this one take with several large grains of salt. But it's distance and physical verification. So distance calculates how far each potential business is away from the location terms used in a search for. For that user's geolocation. So my client, Smith Design Studio uses a suite that's inside of a retail complex, but her competitors operate from dedicated standalone Design Studio addresses. And unfortunately, this is a strike against my client. But does this mean if you're operating out of your home or you're operating out of a complex, that you need to somehow find the funds to set up your own studio with its own unique address? No, because there are so many other things you can do to bolster your listing on Google. However, I do still want to make you aware of this. Google values highly distinct, easily verifiable physical storefronts. So your studio, if an address is flagged or it's shared in a way that mimics a virtual office or shared corporate suite, it can subtly suppress the algorithmic trust, blah, blah, blah. Right, Whatever. Compared to a clear standalone brick and mortar studio. That said, moving your business location is not justifiable for this reason alone. And my clients, the client in question, can still rank higher if she prioritizes optimizing her Google business profile and getting high quality Google reviews. Okay, so for those of you who do have a brick and mortar storefront and you have that actual address that just know that is helping you, that is no excuse for slacking on other parts of your Google business profile. And those of you who just work out of your home like I do, there are still plenty of things that you can do. So don't let this discourage you. I just want to make you aware of it. But now let's talk about blogging and its impact on search engine referrals and AI referrals. Because this all comes back to lead generation. And that's why I started this whole episode with the lead magnet. Well, we need to be aware that leads are coming from all these different areas, or at least they should be. So continuing with the illustration of my client, Smith Design Studio and her two competitors, I also investigated the blogging game of each designer to figure out whether the blog presence was contributing to their rankings or lack thereof. And I came into this without any assumptions. I'm like, maybe the blogging doesn't really matter that much because their Google business profiles are so robust. But here's what I found out. So competitor A for my client, her blog has high impact. They use a dedicated blog to rank highly for local keywords. And Google's algorithm relies on the blog post text to understand context. So competitor A's blog covers deep dives into project reveals like Cresta Vista and Casa Rancho projects. So like really getting into location specific projects, you're not doxing your clients by including the general location where they are located. Okay, I had someone worried about that recently and I was like, girl, no, just you. You're hurting your business if you leave out the locations by including terms for location as well as your services. So full service design remodels, renovations across San Diego or wherever the location is, and then having blog posts that are also about your business. So like they won and keep Nkba SoCal primary bathroom of the year one year. She's feeding Google's algorithm with fresh, highly relevant, localized keywords. And it's all quite natural. It's not forced, it's not keyword packing. And the result of that is this competitor of my client gets localized niche specific content and that strengthens her organic website SEO, which Google has stated quite clearly that acts as a foundational pillar for local map pack prominence. Meaning if you are giving fresh content on your site consistently through a blog and you are mentioning the the actual locations of your projects or where you service or where you want to service people, that tells Google Map Pack, Google Business listings, search engine algorithms, oh, I should match this user with this designer or this organizer or this home stager because look at all those points they line up on. Perfect. All right. After that I looked at the other competitor, competitor B and I found something that I think everyone listening can learn from and I actually feel bad for this this design firm and I really want to reach out to them and tell them hey, look what I found. But I'm not going to because I do not solicit my services. But competitor B, they do have a highly structured blog and it features design walkthroughs and some press features. And historically their blog built incredible authority by connecting their name to high end brands. So they were linking to different vendors like Monogram Appliance and they were getting backlink features on major aggregates like Home Bunch. So great again with the backlinks. However, their content shifted heavily in some of their recent posts toward portfolio imagery galleries rather than text heavy blog posts and this is hurting their rank and they will continue to spiral downward if they don't return to a more robust blog content strategy. There are drop off in text focused articles that naturally reference local areas. Reduces the steady stream of fresh long tail search terms that Google wants to see C in order to keep them ranking highly. So we found out competitor B is actually on the way down and that's kind of a bummer for them. So then I looked at my client. Okay, my client does not have a blog yet, so she does not have the algorithmic benefits of blogging. And without a blog, Google can only search through the few static pages of a website in a home about services portfolio and she can't get rewarded for site freshness which is a known ranking signal for Google. And she also misses out on ranking for informational queries like how to plan a home remodel in such and such area which often acts as a top of funnel pipeline to capture local traffic which turns into local clients. So the result of not having a blog is that her website is currently entirely reliant on external platforms like Houzz and basic profile information in Google business to establish relevance and that gives her a very narrow algorithmic footprint. So what's the prognosis here? Well, if Smith Design Studio were to blog about, let's say Rancho Santa Fe kitchen remodel or whatever, just kind of pulling out random things here, Google would associate her design firm with that hyperlocal geographic area and a specific service. And if someone searches a broad intent term like best kitchen designers near me, Google's algorithm would review the index and see that she has a deep web of internal content. Already blog posts about this topic in different ways, in different perspectives, different angles, proving she specializes in exactly that thing. And that user would be able to see her site ahead of other sites that just don't blog or don't blog. Well, in the case of competitor B, whose blogging strategy became lackadaisical and image focus. So it pays to put in the effort. Uh, so guys, that was the, the case study that I did recently for a new client. We are still ironing out what the future looks like for her as far as how do we want to tackle this. But if your first need, you know, if you are in my new client's position as well, if your first need is getting projects so that you can sustain yourself, pay yourself, pay your team and fund a future marketing, Email marketing is where you should start because that is the low hanging fruit. That's where you will be most apt to get clients and referral clients and then build out the marketing strategy from there with the the blogging and making sure your Google business listing is complete, making sure you're posting to your Google business profile weekly because it makes a difference, it really matters. So if you find yourself in this position and if you would like a deep dive on what you're doing and what could be fixed, you can reach out to me at Kate the socialite.com But I would. I'm hoping that sharing this case study with you will help you realize that you're not alone in this struggle, in this quandary and that SEO is important. But it's not everything. And I am saying that as someone who makes money doing SEO, SEO is not everything. You still need a marketing ecosystem and there are so many free things you can do using the Google Map pack, for example, to make sure that you are staying competitive in your market. So that's what I've got for you guys. It was quite a mouthful, trust me. I think I need to go drink some more coffee. But until next time, keep your marketing simple, your message clear and I'll talk to you soon.