One of the most effective marketing channels in use today is email. Even with all the emphasis on social media, email is still the number one converting platform for marketing your business. That’s why capturing email addresses is perhaps your most important marketing task. The best way to capture email addresses? Create an irresistible lead magnet.

Email marketing by the numbers

* We send more than 74 trillion emails every year

* People send and receive 281 billion emails every day

* More than 3.8 billion people use email

* In the US alone, 85% of adults send or read email

* 78% of US teens consider email part of their everyday life

* 99% of us check email every day, some up to 20 times a day

* The average successful delivery rate of email is 98.3%

* Every dollar spent on email marketing brings in $38 in return

These numbers are astonishing. Here are my key takeaways:

* Email is not going anywhere. Most people still use it every day. In fact, consumers prefer email for communicating with the brands they’re connected with.

* Email is a very effective way to communicate directly with your audience. You send an email, they receive it, and then they have to do something with it. Either ignore it, read it, move it, delete it, or unsubscribe. This is in contrast to all those social media posts that are never even seen by most people.

* You need to build your email list. This is a non-negotiable. From the day you start your business, you should be capturing email addresses. The best way to do this is by offering an irresistible lead magnet.

What is a lead magnet?

A lead magnet is basically something you offer your audience in return for their email address. Some people call it a freebie, an incentive, a giveaway, a free download, or an opt-in.

I like the term lead magnet because it describes both sides of the process.

The ‘lead’ is the person who is giving you their email address. They are opting in to receive more information from you. They want to hear from you.

The ‘magnet’ is the attractive item that you are offering in exchange. It’s important that this item is something irresistible, something worth the ‘payment’ of their email address.

Once you have their email address, you can start communicating with them in a more meaningful and more effective way. They’ll get to know, like, and trust you much faster via email than say, by following you on Instagram.

What makes an irresistible lead magnet?

Your lead magnet should be something your audience finds absolutely irresistible. Here are a few things to keep in mind if you want to create an irresistible lead magnet:

* Make sure it’s valuable. Think about the kinds of things you’d be willing to trade your email address for. Does your lead magnet provide some real value for your customer?

* Be very specific. Don’t try to give away everything you know in one document. Stick with one specific topic per lead magnet. You can always create more.

* Make it easy to understand. To be irresistible, it has to be easy to understand what your people are getting when they download this thing. Keep it simple and you’ll attract more people.

* Be sure it solves a problem. The big idea behind an irresistible lead magnet is that it solves a real problem for your ideal client or customer.

* Make it instantly available. This should be obvious but your lead magnet should be delivered as soon as they’ve submitted or confirmed their email address. Don’t make them wait.

* Showcase your expertise. The most important thing here is to create a lead magnet that shows off your amazing expertise.