How to Deliver Your Lead Magnet Using Amazon Simple Storage Service

Share your lead magnet as a downloadable link using Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3).

A common question I get asked is: “How do I deliver my lead magnet to people?”

There are many different ways that you can provide a copy of your lead magnet to your audience. You can host your pdf download on your website, or as a Google Drive or Dropbox link.

However, I recommend hosting your lead magnet download on Amazon Simple Storage Service. By using this service, you aren’t storing large files on your website, and it is simple to update your lead magnet without having to change the URL link that people already have.

Why do I recommend using Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) to host your lead magnets?

1. It keeps your website free from additional storage of large files that could potentially slow down the load speed of your website.
2. Your download links are not connected to other files on your Dropbox or Google Drive that you could accidentally share.
3. You can update your downloadable file without changing the URL so those who have already accessed your lead magnet can receive the updated version.
4. It is a very cost-effective, if not free, option depending on the number of files you have stored.

If you don’t have one already, you will need to get an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account before using the Amazon Simple Storage Service. There is the option to link your retail Amazon account to the Web Services account. However, I recommend keeping these separate. As your business grows and you add team members to help with your digital marketing, you will want to make sure they only have access to the AWS account. Proactively remove the temptation for them to use your retail account to purchase personal items! Follow the instructions below to get your AWS account set up.

How to set up your Amazon S3 account:

Step #1: Open a browser to the AWS webpage: https://aws.amazon.com/ and click on the Sign In to the Console top right orange button. This will open the sign-in page. If you do not already have an account, click Create a new AWS account at the bottom.

Step #2: To open an account, you need to enter the following information on the first page, and then select continue to the next step:

• Email
• Password
• Password confirmation
• Account name

Step #3: Enter your contact information including your name, company name, phone number, and address, and agree to the terms of AWS customer agreement.

Step #4: Enter your billing information. For most people, the free tier is sufficient, but you do need to input a credit card in order to finalize setting up your account. They may temporarily hold $1 USD for 3-5 business days when you first set up your account to verify your identity.

Step #5: In order to confirm your identity, you will need to provide your phone number to receive a verification code. You can choose to receive the verification code as a SMS/Text message or a voice call. Once all information is inputted, click Send SMS and on the next page enter the verification code to continue onto the final step. 

Step #6: The last step is to select a support plan. The Basic support – Free plan is sufficient for the level of use. Once you have completed the sign-up process you will receive an email confirming the activation of your account. The activation usually takes only a few minutes so you should be able to sign into your newly created AWS account right away.

Now that you have an AWS account, follow the steps below to upload the PDF of your lead magnet.

How to Upload your lead magnet to your Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 account:

Step 1: Open a browser to the AWS webpage: https://aws.amazon.com/ and click on the Sign In to the Console top right orange button. This will open the sign-in page.

Step 2: Once you have logged in to your AWS account, you will need to go to the Storage S3 console by clicking S3. If you do not see the option under Recently Visited Services, you can find it under All Services > Storage > S3.

Step 3: If you have not yet created a bucket, create a new Bucket. Buckets are like folders so you will want to have one bucket for your downloads or lead magnets. You will want to ensure that you uncheck Block all public access as we need to be able to share files in this folder. If you have already created the bucket, select the bucket you wish to add a file to.

Step 4: Upload the file

• Make sure the file name is as small as possible with no spaces and no dates in filename.
• Under permissions, select Grant public-read access.
• Upload

Step 5: If you missed selecting public-read access prior to uploading the file, you can always update the permissions through the Object actions button on the top right side. Scroll all the way down to Make public and click.

Step 6: Test the URL link by opening the Object URL in an Incognito window. This is the URL that you will share with people to give them access to your file.

NOTE: If you need to update the file at any time, you will want to make sure that you save the new file with the exact same file name so when you upload the updated file in AWS, the URL link will stay the same. This will ensure that anyone who has the URL link will always have the updated version.

Now that you know how to deliver your lead magnets using Amazon’s Simple Storage Service, start using it today. Go and set up your own account, upload your lead magnets, and update the URL links in your email campaigns.

If you prefer to have someone else make this change for you, book a quick teatime chat with Natashia to see how we can best support you.