- Passionate Income
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- Whale Bait Lead Magnets 101
772 Words | 3 Min 14 Sec Read
Welcome to another issue of Passionate Income.
Today we’ll be discussing how to create lead magnets that attract financially successful whale clients instead of broke minnow clients.
While our focus will be on the B2B context, note the same principles apply to coaches (and even doctors) serving consumers (B2B).
Let’s dive in.
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A while back, I heard a quote that changed my perspective on lead magnets and client prospecting forever:
“If you want to catch whales, stop fishing with minnow bait.”
Then, earlier today, I read an email from Alex Hormozi talking about how 99% of lead magnets—particularly those from experts without industrywide fame or credibility—are worthless.
His solution?
To attract whale clients, offer something with tangible monetary value.
On the surface, that might sound expensive. But what Alex suggests is attaching a qualifier to it so that anyone who attempts to claim the lead magnet is guaranteed to fit your whale criteria.
For example, a bad lead magnet would be something like “10 Tax Savings Tips for 2024.”
On the flip side, a good lead magnet (that meets Alex’s criteria) would be a free accounting analysis.
Except for one thing: Instead of offering it to just anyone, you would only offer it to businesses doing over $5 million per year in revenue.
In doing so, you would dramatically reduce the number of people who claim your lead magnet while guaranteeing that anyone who does claim it meets your criteria for becoming a potential client.
Circling back to the opening quote, this is what marketers mean when they talk about fishing for clients using whale bait versus minnow bait.
Whether they know it or not, most marketers fish for clients using minnow bait.
Sure, they might try to increase the appeal of their lead magnet through exaggerated copywriting.
The irony of this approach, however, is that successful clients do not become successful by being taken advantage of.
Most financially successful people have finely tuned BS detectors.
Because of that, they can see through empty promises and claims in a split second.
However, by offering something with legitimate monetary value—and restricting it to people or businesses that meet a certain criterion—you show your prospects that you understand how the game is played.
Further, offering something with “monetary value” doesn’t mean you need to buy them something off Amazon, LOL.*
*Although doing so isn’t the worst idea in the world, as outlined in the book Giftology.
Instead, monetary value can refer to a service you would normally charge for but give away for free to attract leads.
This practice is known as “slivering,” where you take the entirety of the service you normally charge for and cut out a sliver to use as a lead magnet.
In fact, many of the free PDF and video lead magnets you see online are slivers taken from people’s paid courses.
As for what counts as whale bait in your specific industry, that’s something you’ll need to figure out on your own.
That said, the best exercise you can do to determine this is to make a T-chart, listing the characteristics of a whale client on one side and the characteristics of a broke or minnow client on the other.
From there, make sure your lead magnet is highly relevant to the problems a whale client would be dealing with.
Even better, make sure it’s so high-level that broke, minnow clients wouldn’t even pay attention to it because it’s irrelevant to their situation.
In conclusion, most service providers (which includes everyone from freelancers and agencies to B2C coaches) say they want higher-paying clients.
But when you look at their marketing and what they’re doing to attract new business, they’re almost always fishing with minnow bait.
The solution?
Put whale bait in front of whales, and watch as your bank account thanks you.
💡 Takeaway: By marketing your service using bait that has real value - and only offering it to perfect fit prospects - you dramatically increase your odds of landing the types of clients who can afford your services.
🎁 Resources:
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