Let’s Deep Dive into Lead Magnets
Who doesn't love a freebie? Undoubtedly, your potential customers especially love free samples!
If your eyes went wide wondering if I was suggesting you give away inventory or your services for free, don't panic. You may be one of many small business owners wondering how you can build a following, but you don't have to specifically give away free stuff to stir up the delight of a freebie with your target audience.
You can still give away something of value that generates leads and converts interested browsers into paying customers.
In the marketing world, we call this a lead magnet. What is a lead magnet? A lead magnet is an exchange where the potential customer gives you their contact information for your free valuable resource.
It's a win-win trade off where both you and the potential lead benefit. For you, you collect email addresses and add more subscribers to your email list, for the website visitor, they get a resource that fixes a problem or fills a knowledge gap.
Think about when you log onto an ecommerce website and a pop-up appears saying you can get a discount if you sign up to their email list. That's a lead magnet.
Other offerings can be a free guide, e-book, template, free trials, checklist, or anything else that can be downloaded and adds value to the customer.
The best part of lead magnet is it helps potential customers find out if you're a fit for them.
If you are, the good news is they're going to give you their dollars.
For you, your email list is now bulkier, you come off as the authority that you are on a particular subject, and depending on how you nurture your potential leads, build a following. Lead magnets put potential customers into your sales funnel. From then on, it's up to the rest of your lead nurturing process to develop those leads into sales.
However varied lead magnet ideas and examples are, here are the common denominators of the best lead magnets:
They cure pain points
What's something that your target audience wishes they had an answer to that your resource can solve immediately? You can investigate this using keyword search tools and surveys with your ideal audience.
Resolving a pain point with no fuss is what makes lead magnets work.
You may find that different customer personas may have different pain points. In that case, you can offer a different lead magnet for each one. Every lead magnet should offer a silver bullet solution to take care of their specific problem entirely, no matter where the reader is on their customer journey.
Some lead magnet examples are knowledge-based like a free guide to do XYZ, an e-book on a basic concept of your field, a free consultation, etc.
Other lead magnets can be a free tool or quick fix that helps the user save time or solve a problem, like an email template or free trials of your service.
Just because your resource is a free download, it shouldn't fall short of solving the specific pain point. Make sure the resource is highly valuable, so the reader has a high perceived value of your work, and is more likely to pay for your services the next time around.
This would also encourage them to stay on your subscriber list for more such gems of knowledge or tools.
In my world of freelancing, I noticed other freelancers were clueless about how much to price their services so I created a lead magnet that gives away a free pricing calculator!
Leads Magnets offer Instant Gratification
An effective lead magnet needs to be fast in two aspects: delivery and promise.
In terms of delivery, the freebie should reach the subscriber's inbox within a few minutes of them entering their contact details on your lead magnet landing page. When website visitors opt in for your freebie, their follow up action is to visit their email inbox to check if the information has arrived. If the deliverable is delayed, they can easily drop off. If your resource is an educational video or e-book, make sure it downloads quickly.
In terms of speedy promise, your resource should solve a problem quickly or outline the necessary information in simple terms. State the high value
of your lead magnet so the reader knows exactly what it's set out to solve.
The headline on your lead magnet should state exactly what the free resource is going to help the reader with. State the value of the resource. A real life example from my website is the lead magnet called Notion Templates that Increase Productivity. The reader not only knows what they're getting (Notion templates) but also what it will do for them (increase productivity).
Give your lead magnet an exclusive landing page or resource hub
Most often, an effective lead magnet has its exclusive landing page. Pop-ups are not a bad suggestion, but the action to close them is much swifter than backspacing on a well-designed landing page. Also, having exclusive landing pages or each lead magnet lets your resource take centre stage with no distractions from other parts of your website.
If you have multiple lead magnets or knowledge resources, create a resource page where all your lead magnets can reside. (Have you checked out my resource page?)
Simple sign up
The opt-in form should have a minimum number of fields. Anything beyond the user's name and email ID can be too much, unless you absolutely need that information for your subscriber list. If you do need more information, explain why.
Short opt in forms can generate more leads, while longer forms can deter website visitors from signing up. But on the flip side, longer sign ups can narrow down more quality leads.
The number of sign up fields should be relevant to the stage of the consumer journey. Maybe you need more details if the lead magnet past the interest stage and now is ready to try a free trial of your service. It's up to you to think about what information you need at the stage of their customer journey, and how your target audience will respond to parting with that information for a specific type of lead magnet.
Lead Magnet Ideas And Examples
What I love about great lead magnets is as long as the resources offer value, you can execute various types of lead magnet ideas. Here are some great lead magnet ideas and examples but honestly, you can go wild with thinking up new lead magnet ideas.
Blog posts: You could insert a lead magnet at the end of a blog where you offer a more detailed blog post or more helpful information as a downloadable PDF.
E-Book: Make an e-book of all your existing content under a certain theme. Rather than scouring your blogs for specific information, the reader just needs to sign up for one resource.
Guides: If you know your customer persona would like to find a one-stop informative resource on a certain topic in your field, consider creating a lead magnet that gives them exclusive information about it.
Checklists: Turn your processes or blog posts into bullet points, and pick out the actionable steps for your checklist. Ensure the mentioned steps are practical and tasks are grouped under relevant themes. Sign up for my ‘Elevate your Engagement: A Website Checklist’ to know how brief but helpful a checklist can be.
Cheat sheet: Who doesn't love the inside scoop and hacks on simplifying something? It offers a respite from having to remember all the important to-dos of a process.
Quizzes: Is your guilty pleasure those random quizzes that tell you what your Enneagram or Hogwarts house is? It’s mine! You can use this quizzing platform to create quizzes that generate leads. (It’s an affiliate link so I get a commission with no extra cost to you!). I recommend embedding your quiz on your own landing pages rather than using the link provided by the quiz maker. This way you boost your SEO.
There are many other popular lead magnets like whitepapers, case studies, templates, allowing the reader to gain access to a membership site for a free trial, referrals in exchange for free consultations.
Why Lead Magnets Win
Creating lead magnets may involve some leg work of putting it together. But the payoff is a good lead magnet will build loyalty, trust, and admiration with your potential customers. That's something you can't put a price on.
Think of the happiness that comes with a free sample. That's what you're giving customers along with a valuable resource that they can refer to whenever they need.
You don't have to create a full-scale marketing campaign to promote a lead magnet. Create a lead magnet once, and it's evergreen content marketing that can live on your website forever.
Figuring out the right lead magnet for your website visitors and brand may take some brainstorming. I'd be happy to help you come up with the perfect lead magnet. Book a strategy call with me and let's work on a lead magnet that works for you.
