Generating leads is a vital component for any business. Unfortunately, it’s often the most difficult and expensive part of owning and operating a business. Let me provide you with the framework you need to begin generating leads for your clients so you can help them make more sales. To begin, consider how professional publications generate leads.

Ask yourself what type of article tends to attract reader attention, bringing more traffic and more eyeballs to their page? Which articles convert, bringing them more customers and more sales? And what’s the secret formula that maximizes the twin impact of attraction and conversion?

Want an easy answer? Just head to your local newsstand. The best attraction and conversion techniques are hidden between the pages of two very different magazines: Cosmopolitan and The New Yorker.

Cosmopolitan articles attract attention. Look at these recent headlines.

75 Crazy-Hot Dance Moves
10 Cheap Fun Date Ideas
117 Style Ideas Already in Your Wardrobe

Seriously? 75 crazy hot dance moves? I’m lucky if I can pull off three in an entire night. But that isn’t what’s actually attracting readers. We find it impossible to walk past anything that gives us seven, seventeen, or seven hundred ways to do or achieve something. As human beings, we’re greedy, and we’re attracted to articles that feed our lust for excess, even excess information.

Most of the articles in Cosmopolitan are just bullet points stacked up against each other that go on forever. Sometimes there’s some meat to the bullet points, but often, especially in Cosmo, it’s just bullet points. This gives you the feeling that you’re learning something, but there’s no depth to the knowledge. Cosmo-type articles are light reading… and we like light reading. Gossip magazines sell like hotcakes for a reason. And just in case you’re thinking attraction is strictly a women’s interest magazine strategy, you’ll find men’s magazines do it too.

Men’s Health and Money always include light-reading articles on their covers like “How to Get Rock-Hard Abs” and “7 Secrets to a Richer Retirement.” In fact, for years, Men’s Health ran essentially the same four covers repeatedly. They figured out the headlines and formats that were the most effective and they just kept running the same ones. Add light reading and a huge list together and what do you get? The promise of a lot of information without putting much work in to get it.

No wonder we find them so attractive. Cosmo-style content gets retweeted, shared on Facebook, and sent around all the other social media channels more often because everyone knows other people are attracted to this kind of format. And by sending it on, it makes the person who posted it seem more attractive by association.

If you create content that offers Cosmopolitan-style headlines and light, easy-reading body copy, you will get the same results that Cosmo has gotten for decades. And those results are very good indeed.

But it’s the New Yorker articles that convert leads into actual sales. The New Yorker produces in-depth, well-written articles that drive home a specific point. When you write content in that

same style, you impress the heck out of your reader. They see that you’re smart. They see that you know what’s going on. And they see that you can tell them something they don’t already know. That impression is so powerful that the reader is compelled to investigate further to see what else you can tell them.

The more in-depth content they find, the more they think you’re a smart person to check in with often, and the harder it is for them to resist your “subscribe” or “buy” offer. This doesn’t just apply to text, but to video and audio as well. An in-depth piece in text, audio, or video drags you in. The more time you spend reading, listening, or watching something, the more likely you are to follow up with the source.

Those of you who have read the back-of-the-magazine articles at The New Yorker might be worried this means you have to write incredibly long articles. You don’t. Being interesting is far more important than going on and on about a topic and even The New Yorker has plenty of short pieces that still offer great insight.

For New Yorker-type content, you need depth, detail, and analysis. Those three things empower your reader a lot more than Cosmo-style fluff. Put more in-depth detail and analysis in your writing and you’ll see your conversion rates skyrocket.

So, which of these is the best strategy?

It depends on your business, of course. Perhaps your free offers or your website, just like some print publications, are driven almost entirely by Cosmopolitan-style headlines and copy. Others are driven by the New Yorker style. But you don’t actually have to choose.

You’ll notice that even Cosmo includes at least one in-depth article per issue. And The New Yorker always has a couple of short, lighter items upfront.

You can use both of these strategies at the same time. And you should. A strategic mixture of both types of content will not only attract a larger number of clients but also get you a much greater conversion. You can also interlink content so that Cosmo-style content leads to more in-depth New Yorker-type content. Or a Cosmo-influenced headline can pull the reader into a piece with more depth than Cosmopolitan ever dreamed of.

In print, magazines normally separate the two styles. The front of the magazine has mostly short, light pieces; the back has longer, more in-depth pieces. Online, you get to be more flexible. You can drive them from light material to deeper, more detailed content so they get a brilliant mix of both kinds of pieces not to mention that you’ll get great SEO benefits as well. They’ll be more attracted to you at the same time they’re inclined to convert and check in with you daily.

If you want to attract more attention, more traffic, more readers, and more social media sharing, go with Cosmo-style articles. At a minimum, make sure you’ve crafted a drop-dead, attention-grabbing headline. If you want conversion, meaning more subscribers and paying customers, lean toward New Yorker-influenced articles with plenty of depth, detail, and thoughtful analysis. And if you want both, give your readers both. Why settle for just one approach?

P.S. Also remember, to determine how likely your marketing is to convert, simply fill out my Conversion Equation Evaluator.

This evaluator has the unprecedented ability to predict the future success of any marketing collateral you develop… as well as predict whether that marketing will be profitable or not. And, it’s 100% free to use!

After calculating your marketing conversion level, I can show you exactly what to do with your website and marketing collateral that could double or triple the number of prospects who respond to your marketing.

Just schedule a complimentary meeting with me