What are Lead Magnets?

Introduction:

Do you need to get more emails, are you looking to increase your readership, and want a way to connect to your audience? Lead magnets are the tools to make that happen. We have compiled these articles to assist you in generating more leads for your future marketing campaigns.

Lead Magnets:

^[1]A lead magnet is a marketing term for a free item or service that is given away to gather contact details; for example, lead magnets can be trial subscriptions, samples, white papers, e-newsletters, and free consultations. Marketers use lead magnets to create sales leads. The marketers attempt to convert the leads into paying customers of a product or service or unrelated market offerings to the sales leads.

Understanding Lead Magnets

When a customer signs up for a trial version or provides a name and other details for a free sample, they effectively exchange their information for a lead magnet. Sometimes the nature of this exchange is made explicit, but not always. As a result, some types of lead magnets are criticized for their deceptive nature.

Types of Lead Magnets

The most common type of lead magnet is the report/guide/tip sheet, where the prospect provides personal information for content that is not otherwise available. When it is a guide or resource, the exchange of information is direct and obvious. The contact information is often used to place the prospects in a sales funnel where progressive contact nudges them towards an actual purchase. This type of lead magnet often makes an extreme claim to entice people to access the content. For example, “Six Foolproof Tips To Land A Six Figure Salary” or “Eight Easy Renovations That Triple Your House’s Value.” This type of content is unique, valuable content that is not publicly available. However, it is not unheard of for the content to be taken from publicly available resources and repackaged.

Another type of lead magnet is the quiz or survey that withholds the prospects’ results until they have provided their email address. These types of lead magnets are typically matched thematically with the type of lead the marketer is seeking. For example, a car dealership might have a survey titled “How Much Is Your Car Worth?” A consumer planning to sell a car or upgrade their car may complete the survey only to find that the final result will only be sent to the email address they provide. In the case of physical products sold on or off-line, discount clubs or free shipping offers are used as lead magnets.

Like most lead generation techniques, lead magnets can be used responsibly, or they can be abused. Marketers who abuse lead magnets may see success in finding sales leads, but the actual conversions are often lower as a result.

^[2]What Makes a Good Lead Magnet?

The best and highest-converting lead magnets have these essential things in common:

They’re Relevant

Even the best offer will fall flat if it doesn’t resonate with your intended audience.

It’s important to remember, too, that a high volume of low-quality leads can backfire big time, costing you a lot of wasted time in follow-up.

Make sure your lead magnet serves a needful purpose with a valuable target audience segment of yours.

They Have Perceived Value

What are you offering that is worth giving you my email address for?

If it’s something I can find elsewhere in a quick Google search, I’m probably not going to bother signing up for your list.

The best lead magnets offer expert insight, insider knowledge, a quicker way to get something done, or some other creative and unique solution that solves a real problem for people.

How are you going to help me out – will accessing your lead magnet save me time or money, or make my life better somehow?

Take my email! Take my money!

They Serve Your Business Purposes

A great lead magnet delivers on that initial promise you made when asking the person to give you their email. You never want to leave them hanging with a clickbait-esque offer you can’t deliver on.

But if you solve the entire scope of the problem that makes that lead a good candidate for your business, what was the point?

The best lead magnets solve enough that the person recognizes that you are the expert (or your product is the answer) and can take them the rest of the way.

^[3]Conversion path that turns website visitors into leads – and the role email marketing plays in this process:

Call to Action (CTA): This is the button that website visitors click to access the resource you’re offering.

Landing Page: This is where your lead magnet captures information provided by the visitor. Once visitors click on the CTA, they’re brought to a landing page where they fill out a form with their name, email address, and any other relevant information you’ve deemed necessary.

Thank-You Page: The visitor-turned-lead now lands on a thank-you page with information on where to access their resource and is added to your mailing list.

Kickback Email: The kickback email is your follow-up message to the lead a short time after the exchange takes place. This email marketing campaign starts a conversation with the lead to keep them engaged with your business.

^[4]Why Every Business Needs a Lead Magnet

If you want to generate leads online, then your business needs a lead magnet. Period.

Whether you run a small blog, podcast, membership site, or full-on eCommerce website, this is true.

Why? Because email is a very personal thing. People aren’t simply giving you their email address without a good incentive, even if they like your brand. As a marketer, it is your job to provide them with a compelling reason to do so.

(Note: if you aren’t sure why email is the best way to market to anyone online, check out our complete beginner’s guide to email marketing here.)

For example, let’s say you have a blog post on the top 10 ways to improve your customer service. At the end of the post, you ask readers to join your email list for “updates.”

Or, instead, you could ask readers to join your email list and get a free, downloadable PDF case study detailing a real-life example of one business that used these ten strategies to improve its customer service.

Which offer do you think will get the most email signups?

Precisely—the second one!

So, now that you understand the importance of lead magnets, you may be wondering what makes a good lead magnet.

What Makes a Good Lead Magnet?

There are seven things that your lead magnet should do if you want it to be irresistible.

The BEST lead magnets:

1. Solves a real problem – if your lead magnet doesn’t solve a real problem that your customer avatar has, or if it doesn’t give them something they want, it won’t work at all.
2. Promises one quick win – your lead magnet should promise (and deliver) one immediate success for your avatar. In other words, it should help them to achieve something quickly.
3. Super specific – don’t create a lead magnet about something general. The clearer you are about the benefit of your lead magnet, the better it will convert potential customers (and if you can personalize this lead magnet to a specific landing page, that’s even better!).
4. Quick to digest – PDF checklists tend to convert well because they are quick and easy to digest. eBooks or lengthy reports may make your prospects feel overwhelmed.
5. High value – your lead magnet should have both high perceived value and high actual value.
6. Instantly accessible – your lead magnet will work best if it can be delivered right away. People love instant gratification.
7. Demonstrates your expertise or UVP – when someone consumes your lead magnet, it should show your knowledge or unique value proposition. This helps turn leads into customers down the road.

If you can nail these qualities, you’ll see conversions dramatically rise across your website.

Now that we’ve seen what makes a good lead magnet let’s quickly cover how you get that lead magnet in front of the right people.

Conclusion:

Time to get started. If you need help, give hughesagency.ca a call today!

Article compiled by hughesagency.ca

Article reference links:

1. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lead-magnet.asp#:~:text=A%20lead%20magnet%20is%20a,magnets%20to%20create%20sales%20leads. ↑
2. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/lead-magnet-examples/265245/ ↑
3. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/creating-lead-generation-offers-from-blogs ↑
4. https://optinmonster.com/9-lead-magnets-to-increase-subscribers/ ↑