By Nick Perales and Christy Campbell

If you are like most nutrition coaches, your first clients likely came from friends, family and people you already knew. But at some point, that list of warm leads runs out. Then what? 

The internet is full of millions of people. But posting and praying doesn’t work. And the reality is, every online coaching biz requires a consistent flow of leads to be successful. 

The more leads you have, the bigger your email list is, the more clients you can sign-up and more profit you’re capable of generating (assuming that you’ve acquired high-quality leads).

One of the best ways to generate leads, grow email lists, and increase trust with your brand is with a VEC (aka lead magnet). And we’re going to show you how to easily build a highly effective lead generator that works even while you’re asleep.

Real talk, even if it’s free, people won’t give you their email addresses unless you offer them something VALUABLE in return. 

That’s why the key to designing an effective VEC is to create something that your potential client desperately wants and then give it to them for free.

The better you understand your right fit client, the easier it will be to build your VEC. You’ll want to spend time doing market research and learning as much as you can about your potential clients. 

Don’t skip this!

Your VEC should solve your potential client’s most immediate problem. If you do your market research properly, this should be easy. People love to complain about their problems, so all you need to do is pay attention to what they say and how they are saying it!

What problem comes up most often? That’s the one you should focus on!

We recommend approaching creating your VEC the same way you would approach creating a paid product. Your VEC is the foundation of your entire sales funnel, so you want to go all out with it!

But that doesn’t mean it should give everything away. In fact, it shouldn’t!

Your VEC has a few important objectives:

1. Attract your target client.

2. Be helpful.

3. And build momentum towards the next step in your value ladder.

Your VEC is your starting low-level offer. It should be easy to create and easy to consume while also offering real value that inspires people to buy from you down the road. 

A few questions to ask:

1. Does it solve an immediate problem?

2. Does it naturally carry them into purchasing your next offer?

3. Does it build trust and excitement around your brand?

Here are a few examples of valuable VEC’s. Remember, value is relative and should be based on your ideal client. You will see why some of these would be very valuable to someone and worthless to someone else.

1. 10 questions you should be asking your doctor when diagnosed with PCOS

2. 15 simple crockpot meals for busy moms always on the go

3. How to save $500/ month by eliminating subscriptions you didn’t know you had

4. Simple smoothie recipes to eliminate morning sickness in 1st Trimester

5. How to stay in shape even if you sit all day in less than 20 minutes

Each of these examples solve an immediate and obvious problem. Now it is essential to understand how they naturally carry into purchasing your next offer. You’ve solved one problem, what is the next problem they will have?

1st Trimester moms that finally feel relief from morning sickness now might now be ready for a pregnancy workout plan or a group nutrition program.

Someone who just saved $500/ month by eliminating subscriptions might now be ready for a budget program to build savings for vacation and emergencies.

You get the idea. Solve a problem, build trust and excitement and then offer to solve the next problem.

Now, here are 5 Simple Steps to Build Your Highly Effective VEC

1. Outline your attractive free offer.

Most people make the mistake of creating their VEC before outlining their free offer. We recommend the other way around. 

Identify what you want to offer your target client. How you are going to offer or deliver it to them? (PDF, ebook, webinar, etc.) And what content does it needs to include to be helpful?

2. Create a landing page to show the benefits and features of your VEC.

We recommend doing this before building out your VEC in order to truly understand the attractiveness of the offer.

3. Build the VEC.

Your VEC should be fairly easy to create and easy to consume. It doesn’t need to be super complicated or time consuming but it does need to solve your target client’s immediate problem.

4. Create email follow-up & nurture sequence.

This is how you will deliver the VEC and nurture the lead in order to build trust and familiarity with your brand.

5. Establish at least 3 gateways to the VEC.

Your VEC should consistently be generating leads, regardless of where the traffic is coming from. For example: blog post, about page, facebook group, website pop-up.

What determines if your VEC is effective? You can’t know without looking at the data.

If your conversion rate is healthy and your leads are consistently turning into paying clients, then you have a winning lead magnet.

If the opposite is true, then you should look to one of these places for improvements.

The Hook: The headline

The Story: Landing page body

The Offer: The VEC and the problem it solves

At the end of the day, there is always room for improvement.

Testing your VEC is the only way to know what is working and what it isn’t!