How Lead Magnets Grew New York Book Editors’ List 100%
Natasa Lekic, founder of New York Book Editors, is still amazed, even after all this time.
How do all of these customers keep finding her company and joining her email list—without her having to spend any time on marketing?
“I get really surprised when I see the number of contacts in our database,” she laughs. “It’s like, ‘Oh, wow, what’s going on?’”
New York Book Editors has had their content powered by Audience Ops since October 2015. Since then, their email list has doubled. Their blog traffic has increased 40%. The email newsletter open rate has ballooned to 35%.
What’s driving this consistent growth? Expertise, consistency and high-quality lead magnets.
The classic founder problem: Clients before content
Lekic’s company offers premium editing services to independent authors, helping them get their books ready to pitch to agents, sell to publishers or self-publish. She understands the value of working with experts, and she attributes the success of her recent content marketing efforts to making the switch to the expertise of Audience Ops.
“Audience Ops has really taken our content strategy to another level,” Lekic says. “Even small things, like the way posts are formatted and the visual elements that are in the articles – it makes a difference. We’ve worked with people before who didn’t have the ability to do that. It’s Audience Ops’ expertise, and that comes through.”
Prior to working with Audience Ops, Lekic characterized New York Book Editors’ content strategy as “haphazard.”
Her story echoes the plight of many busy founders. “It was hard to make it a priority,” she says. “Our clients are the priority, obviously, so the blog took a backseat. It was very erratic. There wasn’t a system in place.”
Consistency is one of the biggest factors in content marketing success. Lekic appreciates Audience Ops’ “done for you” approach, which allows her to continuously engage with her ever-growing list while spending her time and effort with her client-authors. “[Audience Ops’ content system] is powerful because it’s something that gets taken off your plate, and it’s something that’s useful for giving your audience consistent information and content.”
Quality lead magnets can turn your content stats around
Lekic has run the numbers. “When we started working with Audience Ops at the beginning of October 2015, our traffic was averaging 11,000 visitors or so a month,” she says. “Over the past couple of months, it’s been 17,000. The email course has been a big part of that.”
As part of the initial content strategy process, Audience Ops works with clients who opt for lead magnet development to create a 7-email course that’s heavy on valuable information.
By creating a lead magnet to respond to prospects’ problems and offering an educational solution, Audience Ops helps clients attract the right kinds of leads and usher them subtly through the buyer’s journey.
Typically, lead magnets are offered in exchange for a prospect’s email address, allowing companies to follow up with that person to see if they might be interested in additional content – and eventually services.
While Audience Ops focuses on content upgrades – brief-but-valuable associated content custom-created to go along with specific blog posts – and email courses, there are plenty of other lead magnets marketers use, including:
- eBooks
- White papers
- Webinars
- Guides
- Reports
- Checklists
- Videos
- Free trials
- And more
You can use lead magnets to fill in the top of your funnel. For New York Book Editors, authors who might be interested in their editing services are often looking for coaching and tips to improve as a writer. Based on that knowledge about the ideal prospect’s problem, Audience Ops created a “Writer’s Bootcamp”-type email course.
“It’s been very successful,” Lekic says. “People have been loving it; we get great comments about it.”
The popularity of the email course has helped grow New York Book Editors’ list by 100% to more than 5,800 contacts. In the past 90 days alone, the list has grown by nearly 1,700 new subscribers based on the combination of the email course, content upgrades and newsletters.
The popularity of the email course has helped grow New York Book Editors’ list by 100% to more than 5,800 contacts. In the past 90 days alone, the list has grown by nearly 1,700 new subscribers based on the combination of the email course, content upgrades and newsletters.
What’s next for New York Book Editors: Staying on the upward trajectory
New York Book Editors is working on their first course, offering more valuable editor-level insights for authors seeking that professional polish and guidance.
From a content marketing point of view, Lekic expects to guide the content strategy toward some supporting content for the new course when it’s ready. But the “broader picture” in terms of content, will be to continue the growth trend.
“Our traffic has grown significantly,” says Lekic. “We obviously want people who are on our list to remain engaged and feel like they’re getting good information from us, that they’re continually being engaged.”
To help subscribers get the most of the available content, New York Book Editors created an automation process that starts new subscribers in a pre-set email sequence containing all of their content.
“Whenever someone joins the list, they get everything in order,” Lekic explains. “So no matter when they join, they’re in for a lot of great content. We’re seeing the results in our open rate – it’s really good, up around 35%.”
Lekic expects to continue adding new content to that sequence and continue leaning on the email course and other lead magnets to power list growth.
As for working with a “done for you” content service like Audience Ops? “I’m enjoying the process,” said Lekic. “I’m enjoying the fact that I don’t have to think about it – it’s amazing!”
Hear more of the story : Podcast & video interview + full transcript
Additional resource: Building True Connections with Your Audience: A Case Study with Natasa Lekic
