How to Structure Your Lead Magnet Offer?
In this day and age, gaining attention online can be a real challenge, especially if you don’t have a sound strategy to guide you. Most visitors don’t stay long on websites. On average, most of them spend less than 15 seconds before navigating away, and most of those never return.
A lead magnet allows you to gain attention online in just a few steps. It does so by allowing you to convert those visitors into leads, and eventually into paying customers. And if you do everything right you can be sure to maximize the number of targeted leads you are getting for an offer.
So, what is a lead magnet?
In simple terms, a lead magnet is any item or service that is given in exchange for a prospect’s contact information. Often, the aim is to get a prospect’s email address. In most cases, free samples, whitepapers, free consultations, and eBooks are some of the valuables used by marketers or businesses to lure target customers to share contact details.
Lead magnets are items of value, or resources which enable businesses to collect leads. The business requests the visitor on their website to provide email addresses or other contact information to access the content.
When you are creating a lead magnet, you will want to narrow down to the right lead magnet idea. For example, Hubspot created over 130 lead magnets in 2017. Those lead magnets generated about 54,000 shares on social media. Interesting enough, 77% of the social media shares of these lead magnets were successful. This means that less than 10% of the lead magnets Hubspot created generated over 75% of the social media shares. This is a good example of the power of lead magnets.
Why should you have a lead magnet for your website?
Customers today are very protective about their email addresses and their personal information. The reason they do this is that they receive a lot of emails every day. For example, an office worker gets on average over 120 emails every day.
There are about 25 million emails exchanges every day. This results in people receiving over 74 trillion emails. That is probably the reason why customers do not want to share their email addresses with just anybody.
Lead magnets motivate prospects to give you their email addresses. The lead magnets do this by offering them something of value in exchange for their contact information. Generic requests are redundant for today’s society. Prospects want to know what you are willing to give them so that they can subscribe to your lead.
A lead magnet makes the job of any marketer out there more comfortable. It is never a simple task to get prospects contact details, but a lead magnet simplifies this. Once everything is implemented in the right way, you can be sure to give endless reasons to subscribe for each offer you have.
Although you will not make sales immediately, it creates an avenue to seamlessly make more sales later. Imagine never having to worry about making sales because you have a sizable list of reliable paying customers! A lead magnet gives you that competitive edge.
Creating a good lead magnet is a long and tedious process, however.
Once you come up with a great lead magnet, and refine it to appeal to your target clients’ needs, your audience won’t be able to say no to it. There are several lead magnets that you can use for your lead generation, and we are going to discuss them in the article below. But first, let’s find out more about lead magnets and why they are a must have for your website.
Creating a lead magnet
According to content marketing institute, 80% of decision-makers and business leaders get information about companies from a series of articles, instead of advertisements. In fact, around 80%, as per Search Engine Lands, ignore Google sponsored ads altogether. Blogs have become the go-to place for most people to find useful and helpful content, often from articles written for their specific needs. Blogs are so popular that companies which consistently blog generate 67% more leads, compared to companies that do not, according to Social Media B2B.
Highly converting leads are popular because of the value they offer to their audience. Value that they just cannot say no to. The highest converting leads are webinar registration pages, with about 9/12 showing success.
Lead magnets work with all audiences, whether B2B or B2C. They are effective because they enhance communication between the leads and the business. So, what is the best way to create a lead magnet that works best?
To excel in using Lead Magnets, you need a purpose to drive you. Below are the steps on how to create a reliable lead magnet.
Step 1: Choose Your Buyer Persona
Your first step is to understand who you want to attract. Doing so allows you to narrow down and focus on those you find valuable. The worst mistake you can make is trying to attract too many people. Although attracting many people may also work, it is highly likely you will find yourself exhausted as you try to profile your buyers.
Step 2: Identify Your Value Proposition
Now that you have detailed information about your potential prospects, it is time to give them a good reason why they need to download your lead magnet. Keep in mind that the more of a compelling reason you have, the higher the chances of getting more leads.
Step 3: Give Your Lead Magnet a Name
This is another critical step. Now that you know what you are offering and to whom, giving your Lead Magnet a name will be easy. And just like when you create a compelling headline for a marketing email, a name for your value proposition will make a big difference in conversion rate.
Step 4: Choose What Type of Lead Magnet You Will Offer
By now, you should have an idea of the kind of lead magnet you want to offer, but you’re not done yet. You need to make sure your lead magnet fits. Here are some ideas that will make your work more seamless.
- Focus on your strengths: For example, if you are an artist, your lead magnet can be some of your design work. If you are a writer, you can share some of your eBook for download. The key is to share that which will give you a competitive edge.
- Keep it simple: This is not the time to complicate things. Keep everything simple and concise so that all your target prospects can get the message. If you try to complicate things then you give your prospects a good reason not to download your lead magnet. This is not something you want to happen.
- Prioritize rapid consumption: A lead magnet is something valuable which you promise to give. And not just give, but also trigger more downloads. Keep in mind most people are stingy about sharing their email addresses. So, consider offering an enticing lead magnet that will grab the attention of your buyer persona and deliver real value to them.
Step 5: Create Your Lead Magnet
All the other four steps were preparing you for this critical stage. It is a stage where you finally create a lead magnet that not only grabs the attention of your buyer persona, but also delivers value to them. Remember from the first step, and now in the last step, you have been working hard to understand what kind of lead magnet will get you more leads for every offer you settle on.
It is also a stage that does not require you to rush. You need to take your time before reaching a decision; otherwise, any item or service you pick as a lead magnet will not pay off. Keep in mind the sole purpose of creating and using a lead magnet is to generate more and more leads. So, if your lead magnet does not work for you, it will be right to say you have done zero work. Are you creating lead magnets expecting no value in return? Of course not.
The structure that a lead magnet should follow
Let’s go deeper on how you can structure your lead magnet for maximum conversion.
For this first stage, you want to create a hook highlighting why subscribing to your lead should be important to them. Create a benefit-oriented headline.
Promise: what you will give them when they subscribe to the lead
You want the lead magnet to only attract your preferred clients, not everyone. You may decide to give away free tickets, but will this really entice them to really buy the product? The quality of your leads is the most important. You want the focus to be on clients that you are targeting. Give them something which clearly leads them to what you are selling.
Connect: the reason for creating this and who you were targeting
Be very specific with your lead magnets for your target clients. Creating a lead that highly focuses on the specific needs of your prospects will bring in specific clients.
Key points: Identify issues and come up with their solutions
While creating a lead magnet, you want to find out what the challenges and problems that prospects go through and come up with their solutions. You can arrange this in bullet point form.
Call to action: the steps they should take next
At the end of the lead, create a statement that encourages your prospects to subscribe to your lead. You want them to know what they will be missing out on if they don’t take that step.
Elements That Are Essential to Create a List Building Lead Magnets
Help to solve a challenge or problem.
If you can identify what the clients will gain from your lead, you can create a lead magnet that is specific for this endeavor. Always expect that their challenges or problems are not just that. They have a tie to a strong emotional response. You will find it even better when they have the urgency to solve that challenge or problem.
For example, a sales rep has a sales quota that they want to reach, and they may worry that they won’t be able to accomplish it. They will want to find a checklist that will improve their chances of success to get more VP of sales who are interested in what they offer.
Be very specific
A good lead magnet has a detailed and specific solution to a problem that clients go through. Your client should be able to connect with the lead as they read the opt-in page on your website, and feel that this information was for them.
When you fashion a lead magnet to appeal to a larger group, your content feel so general, that people cannot connect emotionally, compared when you create it for a specific group of clients.
Focus on one big giveaway
Do not promise clients more than one solution on your lead magnet. Just aim at solving one challenge. Ensure that you deliver big on the solution to that challenge, instead of making small promises and failing on them.
Remember that you have just started to create a relationship with your clients. You want to create a good first impression without overwhelming them.
Make it easy to consume
Since you want to make sure that you satisfy your clients immediately, it is important that you make leads that are easy to comprehend. People should easily scan through what you are offering and absorb it.
It should take them about 5 to 10 minutes to consume it. Video training and study cases can take a little longer. but you should still ensure that they are brief and concise so that they are easy to consume.
Provide exceptional value
This is important in terms of actual value and perceived value.
When you first get it, does it look as what you expected, or just like something that was put together without any real input.
Your lead is free, but you do not want to make it look like something that was free! The way your leads look affects how the clients will perceive it, and the importance and weight your content will generate.
In terms of the value of your lead, you must be able to deliver at least what you promised. Over-delivering can be very advantageous. It can further the relationship between you and your clients.
Establishing Your Expertise As Well As Building Trust
People buy products from sellers they trust, like, and know. Creating a lead magnet gives the client an opportunity to get to know you, like you and trust you. When you solve the challenges and problems that they experience, you become an expert, and this builds trust.
Make sure that your lead magnet reflects you as well as your style because this will help them to know you and like you. If you use someone else’s style to create your lead magnet, and then come up with your own style later, you will create a sense of confusion which will reduce trust in you.
5 step by step checklist for an attractive lead magnet
When you create a lead magnet, you want people to go through it, and gain something useful out of it. The bigger the impact a lead magnet has on people, the larger the number of prospects it will bring. To ensure that your lead magnet is successful, check it against the following list;
1. Does it provide as much value as it claims?
If you offer something of great value, you are sure to attract more people to your lead magnet. Let’s say you offer them a free car when they subscribe to your lead. With this lead, you are sure of a 99% conversion rate. However, there are always people that feel that with every good deal, there is always a catch. Try offering something less expensive, but ensure that it is the best deal, and then downgrade from there.
2. Does it bring out an emotional reaction?
You want your clients to want to subscribe to your lead because of the weight your lead magnet impacts on them. For example, if you offer something free to subscribe for a lead, then that is an offer that they will want to take because you would also want to take it yourself if you were them-its free! An emotional reaction is an important aspect of a lead magnet.
3. Have you invested the necessary effort?
The more work you put into the lead, the better the result you will get. If you want your lead magnet to be effective, then you have to put in the necessary effort to ensure that this becomes as you want it to be.
4. Are your expectations reachable, or are they just another overstretched promise?
You do not want to create promises that you cannot achieve. You may pull in visitors, but they probably won’t convert to clients. This will create a bad representation for your lead, and may even push away potential visitors. Nobody likes false promises!
5. Is this actually the best idea for your lead magnet?
Evaluate the lead magnet you have created and ensure that it is the best possible lead you would have created. If it is, then use it, but if you can do better, try to improve on it.
Creating a good lead magnet will take time. It’s okay to begin with a mediocre one to capture some emails as you work on creating a killer lead magnet. Without having one, you may end up losing clients, since they will just be passing through your site. However, there are times that temporary solutions may end up becoming a permanent one. Do not settle for a lead that is mediocre.
Why It Is Important to Test Your Lead Magnets
You don’t want to rely on only guests when you are creating a quality lead magnet. Poor assumptions are costly.
A/B testing your lead magnet will help you find out the one that produces more leads. An A/B testing will present two similar pages on your site to the same amount of visitors. The differences will be the type of lead magnet that you will present in each of them.
For example, you will come up with one landing page that advertises free eBooks and another for free checklists. As more people sign up for your email list as per the lead magnet you present, you will figure out which of them is more effective and attractive.
Best Lead Magnet Ideas
You will find it daunting to pick the right lead magnet. But if you have detailed information about your target prospects, as well the value proposition you want to offer, then you will have fun creating lead magnets. With that in mind, below are some of the commonly used lead magnets you may want to consider. You aren’t limited to these options. If you have another idea which you think are better, feel free to use it instead.
Competition between businesses over capturing email addresses is at an all-time high, with thousands of them diverting budgets for their lead generations towards marketing automation and content marketing. From free shipping coupons to free online tools, marketers are coming up with increasingly compelling lead magnets to capture as many clients as possible, and they are designing them in the best way to attract their attention.
Examples and Ideas of Highly Converting Lead Magnets
EBooks
Companies who use eBooks for lead generation have books successful in converting their leads to clients. The reason for this is that eBooks are easy to understand; most people have read at least one, after all.
You do not have to come up with the eBooks from scratch. You can start by presenting your favorite blog or social media posts into an eBook format. Just create a great introduction and conclusion, and there you have it!
Webinars
Webinars are great when you want to create a connection between leads and the customer, interacting with your audience and developing your company’s culture. A webinar offers two points of value as a lead magnet;
- Instruction: they focus on teaching visitors how to approach something to get the best results. They focus on pain points and goals that concern the customers, thus giving away valuable information.
- Incentive: a webinar should come with something enticing, like discount codes or some other attractive incentive which customers can use to make purchases.
The free conference call site will give you instructions on how to create webinars.
Mini-courses
Online education, also known as knowledge commerce, is a 275 billion dollar industry. You do not need teaching credentials to host a mini-course.
Your mini-course could contain several elements, such as weekly emails with videos, homework, articles, quizzes, and audio recording, among others.
Checklists
Many people have embraced digital alternatives for pads and pen. For example, over 10 million people today use Todoist, a digital list-making application, to organize their lives.
Now, how can a checklist be a lead magnet? Consider a checklist like “101 things to check when buying a car”, or “the ultimate checklist for expectant parents.” Such a lead magnet will attract an audience who want step by step instructions. It works with all industries, and you can easily distribute it as free downloads to your email list.
Planners
TemplateLab has many planners that come as free downloads for prospect clients. People have the option to decide on their preferred format, print them, and then put together their own planner.
Generic planners are not for everyone though. You can instead create planners that are specific to your industry. Consider making it a digital PDF file, and as a free printable download.
Calculators
Creating a calculator requires more work than other lead magnet ideas. It is not particularly easy to create a calculator, as you have to be an expert in coding and have an affinity for math to do so. You can still outsource the project if you need one and do not have the skills to create it.
VWO came up with a calculator which visitors can use to determine whether or not their A/B tests reached statistical value. You can create such a calculator and package this as a lead magnet so that your prospects download it.
Just ensure that it is useful and it performs as advertised.
Guides
How-to guides like “how to drink an espresso“, step by step guides like a DIY (Do-it-yourself) instructions are helpful. Cool travel example would be when you visit a new city or country, you will want to take a guide to help you navigate the region. With today’s technology, you can still get your directions from Google maps on your smartphone. However, if you want a low budget trip, then you will want to take a guide.
Light Travel, has such a guide for budget-conscious people, using it as a lead magnet to lure them in. The guide is relevant to their audience, has a great original headline and a well designed Call To Action.
Infographics
Infographics are everywhere. According to Lucid, infographics will boost your traffic by 12%, or higher. According to a study by Venngage, 42% of marketing respondents claimed that original graphics like infographics were more engaging to their audiences.
MarketingProfs came up with great infographics about content marketing. You can start by creating something like what Marketing Profs did, then add a screenshot as a teaser. The screenshot will demonstrate the value of your infographics.
Videos
It is no secret that most people who surf the internet must also visit Youtube. About 30% of the frequent internet visitors are Youtube fans. That is more than a billion people.
Of course, there are other video sites that people can visit to watch videos, so the percentage of people who watch videos online might be even higher.
Videos are more engaging and immersive than reading materials. Videos are also mobile.
90% of marketers use videos for lead generation. Do not be left behind!
PDFs
When you create a blog and put in it a lot of content, many readers will not be able to consume all of it in one sitting. It is therefore important that you present the PDF in a downloadable format, which they can save can read later.
Timothy Sykes, an expert in Pennystockings, uses this tactic. You only need to supply your name and email address on a pop up on his blog post to download a PDF.
Podcasts
Podcasts work as well as videos. When you create a podcast, focus on the topics that are relevant to the audiences, and they will make it their favorite source for information. You can capture some emails by offering important information to the listeners.
Coupons, Exclusive Deals, and Shipping
Southwest Airlines use coupons and special deals as lead magnets to entice people to subscribe to their email newsletters. When you visit their site, you’ll see an ad that promotes “click and save deals.”
People love to save money on deals. Southwest Airlines gives you this option in exchange for your email address. You can save up to 100 dollars or more if you are a regular customer.
Just like Southwest Airlines, consider giving your audiences a special deal for their loyalty, or trust. You only have to personalize your landing page so that it becomes more appealing to your audience.
Case Study
James T Noble is one marketing consultant that assists other companies to grow. What the company does is, to access a case study from them, a prospect has to input their email address and name first. This strategy may be what SalesForce.com use to generate over 10,000 new leads every month.
Even in cases where you are working with a company that is not big and has a huge reputation, you can still use their name to leverage your own company by telling your audience about how they managed to accomplish what they did. It’s probably wise to come clean and tell your audience that they are not your clients and that you are just reporting this information.
People want to know what has worked for others so that they may try it for themselves. Also, people just like success stories.
Toolkits
Toolkits are one of the most effective lead generation magnets that yield massive results and only requiring little effort. It is just a simple PDF containing a few listed tools. When visitors come to this site, they will receive an offer about the sale. They will then choose whether or not to get the report delivered to their email.
The reason this tool works is that;
- It is simple to design and has an extremely focused offer
- Because of the human representation on that page, visitors are likely to read the text below.
Here is an explainer video by Clay Collins about the reason it works well.
Free Software Tools
ListGoal is an example of a software tool created by Bryan Harris at Videofruit. With this software, you can track email subscribers who are joining your list every day. You can also see the goals that you have set at ListGoal, which will help you analyze the progress of your goals.
You need to sign up first, plug in your email tool, and then integrate it with the software. Whenever you open the software after the installation, you will see the goals that you created. You can review your subscribers, or make a few changes to your goals to achieve your desired results.
Content Upgrade
Unbounce is one such tool that can help you to create content upgrades to your audience. The way it works is, you start by offering a list, for instance, “10 tips for growing a business.” Then you direct them to access another 5 tips when they present their email addresses.
Content upgrades are highly effective. Backlinko used this tactic, and it increased their conversion rate from 0.54% to 4.82%.
Samples and Free Trials
If you have a service for delivering electronic products like checklists, audits or proposals, you can offer free samples of your products. You can send them to their mail for your lead generation once they have provided their email address.
You can also use product demos. Most financial industries have demos for their trading platforms, allowing you to test drive them with fake money.
Showing samples and giving free trials is a good way of generating leads because apart from showing what your company offers, it also captures email addresses.
Expert Advice and Audits
If you are looking you be an expert in your field, you could experiment this by creating a lead magnet offering visitors a free expert review. One of the best examples of free expert reviews is the Page Fight from Unbounce’s webinars. Here, webmasters present their landing pages which are then criticized by CRO experts.
When the CRO experts feature your website on the show, it acts as a lead magnet to your prospects.
Quizzes and Surveys
Quizzes and surveys generate huge social media engagements that are important for capturing emails. Buzzfeed and Oatmeal use this method often.
When a user takes a quiz, they will want to receive the results for their entries, thus, they will hand over their emails first to receive them.
Completion and Giveaways
With this lead magnet, you just give away products or offer them competitive prices in exchange for email addresses. This is one of the easiest and most straight forward lead generation magnets.
Social Contests
Running social contests on social media like Facebook is a powerful lead generation technique that is also cost-effective. You just come up with a contest and then collect as many emails as possible from people willing to join. This is a great way of capturing the attention of audiences who may eventually convert to leads.
In conclusion
Using a lead magnet today has many rewarding benefits. The above are some of the benefits you are almost assured. Ideally, if you know your target prospects and value proposition you want to give, creating lead magnets is a simple as 123.
