Today, the internet offers a lot of flexibility and a ready market for those who take their businesses online.
However, as you decide to take your business online, your competitors are probably doing the same.
The competition for customers gets tougher with at least one website going live every second.
As such, you need to retain your current customers and ensure that you get new ones.
You shouldn’t spend a significant amount of money on paid ads to get web traffic without a strategy for collecting the contact information of your prospects.
This is why you need an email list building strategy.
An email list building strategy helps you to get leads and nurture them until you make a sale.
But in this age of the attention web, web visitors barely spend 15 seconds on a website.
It is even more difficult for web visitors to give you the key to their inbox when you haven’t convinced them of your competencies.
A simple subscription form is no longer enough. So, when opt-in forms fail to get those precious emails, what can you do?
Give something free and valuable. And this is where a lead magnet can help.
A lead magnet will get you a great email list and it never stops working!
In this article, I’ll reveal what you need to know about lead magnets and how you can leverage them to get tangible results for your brand.
Definition of Lead Magnet
A lead magnet is any valuable free offer you give to prospects that entices them to give their contact information at will.
Lead magnets are integral to inbound marketing strategies because they help you build an audience that becomes loyal to your brand.
Importance of Lead Magnets in the Customer Value Optimization System
The lead magnet is the first experience your prospective customer will have about your service or product.
This means that your lead magnet must be excellent if you want to get the prospect hooked.
Unfortunately, a recent study by HubSpot cited that 63% of marketers say their top challenge is generating traffic and leads.
You can exclude yourself from this 63% of marketers with this problem.
The lead generation process begins with creating a value-packed lead magnet that ensures you do not lose targeted leads in your sales funnel.
A great lead magnet of quality copy and stunning design will help you retain prospects in your email list.
Once you have created the best lead magnet, implementing other parts of the customer value optimization system gets easier.
6 Lead Magnet Tips to Increase Conversions
- Identify your Ideal Prospects
Successful lead magnets satisfy a specific audience, and having a buyer’s persona helps a lot.
For instance, if you are a Real Estate Lawyer, you shouldn’t create an ad without identifying a tiny audience you want to capture into your funnel.
Real Estate issues are different for various individuals. While John’s property is about to go into foreclosure, Sam might be looking for ways to create an excellent Landlord and Tenant agreement. For these two sets of people, you need to create two different lead magnets.
- Have a Value Proposition
A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered, communicated, and acknowledged.
I once wrote a lead magnet ebook for a client to attract targeted leads whose homes were to go into foreclosure.
In this lead magnet ebook, we discussed the options for escaping foreclosure and retaining their property.
Afterward, we concluded by informing them that one of the five pathways will fit their situation to prevent foreclosure.
We also assured them that forfeiting their house or property will not feature in their plans once they make contact with the firm.
A prospect in such a dire situation will likely contact the company after reading the material because he or she needs an immediate solution.
- Get a Powerful Name for your Lead Magnet Ebook
If you opt for a lead magnet PDF, then you must pay great attention to your headline or book title.
According to Copyblogger, 8 out of 10 people will read a headline. But, only 2 out of 10 will continue to read the rest of the document.
You can increase the conversions of your lead magnet ebook by creating a superb book title that is unique and evokes a sense of urgency.
I highly recommend that you analyze the suggested titles of your lead magnet ebook with the CoSchedule headline analyzer.
- Offer Immediate Satisfaction
The success of this begins with a headline or big idea that evokes a sense of urgency.
If the headline isn’t promising, the prospects won’t release their emails.
Your lead magnet should offer immediate satisfaction to your ideal customers because they desire a solution to their problems ASAP.
If your lead magnet title can provide this, you will build a solid email list in no time.
- It Should be Highly Valuable
When email subscribers choose to use the unsubscribe feature of your emailing platform, it increases your cost of acquiring new customers.
To prevent this, regardless of the lead magnet type you use, ensure that it gives results that have a high perceived value.
More so, a highly valuable lead magnet will make prospects patronize you rather than your competitors.
- Keep It Brief
Do not offer a 100-page ebook to prospects. It could end in the trash.
Such long documents will overwhelm your leads, and this will affect your Customer Value Optimization System.
Keeping it brief is key to increasing conversions.
7 Effective Lead Magnet Ideas
#1: Guides and Reports
TONNEAUCOVERED
Guides and Reports are trendy. They don’t have to be lengthy, and they prove valuable as the first tool of your Customer Value Optimization System.
This TONNEAUCOVERED guide is excellent because the book cover says it all.
An ideal prospect already figures that they could save up to $329 by giving up their email to read this guide.
Everyone wants to get the best deal at the least price. This guide capitalizes on the idea that prospects can save some money by downloading it.
When creating your lead magnet, it is essential to use numbers, statistics, money, and other things that stir human emotions to drive leads to submit their email. However, the content of your lead magnet must be factual.
#2: Mini Ebook
GLOBAL FITNESS COACHING
Every woman dislikes the signs and symptoms of menopause (perimenopause) like night sweats, sleep problems, and mood changes.
This simple ebook cover by GLOBALFITNESSCOACHING will interest ladies that struggle with the signs and symptoms of menopause and perimenopause.
Because they want instant gratification, they could be quick to release the keys to their inbox.
Mini-ebooks are a perfect fit for lead magnets if you have some related blog posts.
For instance, if you have an online store that centers on everything gardening, you may decide to use the following blog posts to create a mini ebook.
- 6 Excellent Gardening Tips
- 5 Essential Equipment for a Would-be Gardner
- 5 Gardening Mistakes You Must Avoid
- My Tomato Farm After Six Months
- Top 10 Things You Should Do For Greater Tomato Yields
#3: Workbook/Template
NEIL PATEL
Below is a simple workbook by Neil Patel that shows his audience how they can create blog posts that produce results. This lead magnet is handy for service businesses because it is a simple “download-and-complete” tool.
The goal of a workbook is to ensure that the questions engage your visitors. Their answers should be a stepping stone into a more comprehensive exercise that the prospect wants to achieve.
#4: Case Studies
FALCON.IO
If you have a thriving business or an excellent product that has produced results for customers, having a case study is a great idea.
Case studies are clear examples of the efficiency of your product or service.
Many prospects love to read case studies because they prove that you are an expert, and you can give them results.
A great case study will make your prospects believe that it is a bad idea not to use your service or product.
Case studies are vital if you want to stir your audience in a last wild push to take the action you want.
When creating a case study, ensure that you get the customer’s approval.
#5: Courses
WISHPOND
As a rule of thumb, lead magnets shouldn’t be lengthy, and this applies to courses too.
Even though you aim to teach a lot in a short time, pack your course with a lot of value so that your prospects can take action.
Depending on your preferences, you could create a video course, a written course on your website, or an email course.
Email courses are quite easy to develop because after creating the content, you only need to use an autoresponder to deliver the course while you wait for leads to get in line.
#6: Checklist
WPBUFFS
Your prospects won’t hand their email to you without an incentive.
An excellent checklist that has quality information can entice them to release their emails.
This checklist by WPBUFFS is great because online marketers know that it is crucial to have a website that loads extremely fast.
The golden rule for checklists is to ensure that they are related to the offers of your business.
#7: Printable Templates
ABBY LAWSON
If you are in the creative field, printables are an excellent option for attracting leads.
Printables aren’t uncommon in websites that are related to children. Children are always attracted to beautiful colors; hence printables will endear parents and those who train kids to subscribe and get them.
4 Ways to Promote Or Get Traffic to Your Lead Magnet
Creating the lead magnet is a comfortable part of the difficult process of obtaining prospects’ emails. To put your lead magnet before your ideal customers, you can apply the following promotion strategies:
- SEO
Use every section of your website to your advantage to get leads.
You can strategically place your lead magnet on your home page, in the footer, or through a pop-up form.
Also, where relevant, always add a link of the lead magnet to your blog posts. Creating a resources page is an excellent idea if you have lots of lead magnets.
This allows your readers to find all they need in one place.
- Social Media
Post your lead magnet on all of your social channels. Join social media groups that are relevant to what you offer.
It is vital that you do not spam groups but provide appropriate information before linking to your content.
Answer questions related to what you offer on forums like Quora and post a link to your lead magnet within your answer.
Create a YouTube video about your offer. You can add a link to your landing page in the video description.
- Viral Marketing
You can use free viral marketing platforms like ViralContentBee and CoPromote to reach a broad audience.
- Paid Ads
Paid ads offer the immense value of reaching your ideal prospects quickly.
If you structure your ads correctly, you could have lots of leads getting into your pipeline in a short time.
Conclusion
From checklists to courses, and lead magnet PDFs, the goal is to get the email addresses of your web visitors.
But there is a problem. Many businesses offer similar ideas to their prospects.
Distinguishing your brand with a lead magnet that isn’t widespread will draw prospects to you.
Lead magnets that do not tick the right boxes will attract email subscribers who fail to purchase a product or service.
You don’t want to fill your funnel with unqualified leads. This is why you need to raise the bar and have something spectacular that excites your audience.
So, before you create your lead magnet, research what your competitors are offering and ask yourself, “Will this lead magnet work?” “If I am a customer, will I be interested in giving my email for this lead magnet?”
If you need help in creating a valuable lead magnet or sales funnel, get in touch.
Precious Oboidhe is a B2B SaaS content strategist and writer for hire. If you need help with strategizing and creating assets for the different stages of your content marketing funnel, get in touch.
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