What are Lead Magnets and How Will They Benefit Your History Blog: Tips and Examples for Bloggers

I know you put a lot of effort and heart into your history blog posts. If you want to grow your readership and blog as a whole think seriously about creating a lead magnet.

Here, I’ll take you through what a lead magnet is, how they can be beneficial to your history blog and eight examples (at the bottom if you want to scroll) you could create right now for your amazing history blog.

What is a Lead Magnet?

Lead magnets, also referred to as freebies, content upgrades, opt-in incentives and freemiums, are all created to do the same thing. They enable a transaction between you and people who visit your blog by giving something of value in return for their email address.

The Unwritten Principles of Lead Magnets

I prefer the term content upgrade to lead magnet – it may be a British politeness thing but pulling someone into your email list like a magnet isn’t very me! But, it’s a common term. What you’re really offering is an upgrade, and it should feel like one. So, think about this…

• What would be useful to them?
• What would you have found useful?
• What would solve a problem for them?
• What would save them searching (like perhaps you did)?
• What would be motivational?
• What would they enjoy?

It’s crucial to build trust with your visitors. You want them to come back to your blog, don’t you. So, here are some sure-fire ways to kill trust with your readers:

• What you offer them is not remotely relevant to your blog content
• What you give them does not match what you offered them in the sign-up
• You add things after sign-up you never told them about. There are country rules about taking personal information like GDPR plus if you’re spammy people won’t come back, like or share your content. For example, if you’re going to give people general updates too then tell them!
• You don’t give them a clear way to contact you and unsubscribe.

But, why would I want a Lead Magnet on my History Blog?

Because even if you just want to increase readership it’s very powerful now and can help the future growth of your blog:

• You can talk directly to like-minded people really into your content. Giving your email address is much more personal than a ‘like’ or even follow. It’s saying “I want to hear more from you please”
• You can bounce ideas off people. What do they want next? What did they like?
• You can create permanency. Don’t get me wrong, social media is great especially the wonderful history community but Facebook could decide to change or even scrap Instagram- (remember MySpace) If you’ve amassed followers not subscribers you may lose your base. Plus email is more permanent for most people. I’ve had one of my email addresses for 22 years. Nuff said!
• You’re giving yourself a list of people to communicate with if you decide to scale and monetise your blog. For example, you may create a Facebook group, start affiliate marketing or produce a physical product or course.

What are examples of Lead Magnets for my History Blog?

You can just have a ‘sign-up to get my weekly blogs’ but think how much more powerful it would be to say something like ‘Get your free guide to 17th Century Armour and my weekly expert blog tips’ followed by a clickable box saying ‘Yes Please, I’m In’

I believe a history blogger has two main audiences. First, the reader who enjoys your historical subject and wants more. Second, the aspiring or established history blogger who wants tips on how to do things. People can of course be both.

As mentioned, your lead magnet has to be relevant to your readers and history as we know is gigantic but here are some suggestions to get you thinking:

• Easy to follow timelines
• Best YouTube Channels to follow
• Best History Bloggers and/or hashtags to follow
• Cheatsheet for carrying out research
• 10 best resources and apps for history bloggers
• 20 quirky facts you may not know about ……(base it on your subject)
• The top twenty historical scandals (e-book)
• 15 podcasts I can’t live without

I hope this has helped you think about how collecting contacts through a lead magnet could help your history blog.

Creating, designing, publishing and marketing lead magnets are huge but really vital topics for an aspiring history blogger. I also haven’t even touched on developing email ‘nurture sequences’ to really get to know the people who sign-up.

So, if you’d like future blogs on lead magnets and email marketing let me know. Drop me a comment below or there’s lots of ways to get in touch.

Catch-up soon

Elizabeth

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