A lead magnet is a marketing term for a free item or service that is given away to obtain contact details by marketers to generate sales leads.
There are different types of lead magnets that you can use but the highest-converting lead magnets are lead magnets that are relevant and valuable to your specific audience. No point pushing lead magnets that do not appeal to your target buyers. If it’s something your audience can find elsewhere in a quick Google search, they will probably not sign up for your offer.
Here are 7 lead magnets and how you can get the most out of them.
1. Whitepapers
A whitepaper is an in-depth thought leadership piece that shares unique data, perspectives, or advice. They are a great way to establish your expertise in a subject and should help your reader understand a complex issue and can even include the steps they need to take to resolve it. They’re particularly useful in B2B marketing, where you have a longer sales cycle and buyers need more information to make a purchasing decision. Whitepapers need to be well-written and formatted correctly; this can be time-consuming and expensive. As with any content, ask yourself how it will be relevant to your audience and what benefit they will get from consuming it.
2. Ebooks
Ebooks are one of the most popular lead magnets. Like a whitepaper, ebooks solve a specific problem. However, ebooks tend not to be data-centric. They should be easy to read and help readers fully understand a topic. They usually range from two pages to around twenty pages and should be well-designed with plenty of images or visual design elements like graphics or charts. You can mention your product or service in the ebook, but it’s best to focus on giving the customer the information they want, however, you can include a quick sell at the end or subtle mentions throughout. There are a lot of free ebooks out there, so you need to make it clear why users should download yours.
3. Webinars
Webinars offer a lot of value and create an opportunity to build relationships with prospective and existing customers. Providing a platform for your audience to watch a presentation or a demonstration by an expert in real time is an incredible value-add. Not only can your audience gain insight in real-time, but it's a great opportunity to build trust with your audience. Furthermore, if you offer your webinars on-demand, they will continue to deliver leads after your event.
4. Checklists
A checklist is one of the most high-converting types of lead magnet. Example checklists could be “10 steps to take before you run a webinar” or “The 5 things you need to successfully set up an ad campaign.” Checklists are easy to pull together if you understand your audience and what they need. You can promote them at the end of blog posts and get clicks and downloads. Checklists should be easy-to-digest, concise and beautifully designed. There are some great tools like Canva that can help with a quick easy design.
5. Case Studies
A case study is a document that explains how your product or service was used in a specific situation, with a specific customer, to solve a problem that helped the customer achieve the desired outcome. Leveraging case studies can help you provide relevant information to the right audience at the right time and help push a prospective customer further down your marketing funnel by building credibility. Ensure to include hard statistics, not just generalised statements of what happened.
6. Quizzes, Surveys or Questionnaires
It's a win-win situation if you can provide targeted information to prospective customers and also learn more about them. According to SurveyAnyplace, you can lower your cost per lead by up to 90% with lead generation quizzes.
With tools like theirs, you to provide personalised reports, vary the completion message depending on the user’s input and directly integrate with CRMs so you can easily follow up with leads.
7. Free Consultations
If you approach free consultations in the right way, they can be a great lead magnet. It’s important to note that consultations can be risky. You can easily end up on the phone with someone who has no intentions of hiring or buying from you, or maybe just wants free advice. To prevent this from happening, put a time limit on calls, and explain what you’ll discuss upfront. This is a great way to build a one-on-one relationship with a prospective customer.
All of these lead magnets will help you attract new potential clients and start to build a relationship with them. But, your work isn’t over once you create your lead magnet. You’ll still need to promote your lead magnet so that potential leads can find it. Use dedicated landing pages to promote your lead magnet, create ad campaigns, use email marketing, and write blog posts that relate to your lead magnet. Having multiple touchpoints online to generate leads will help you in the long run, especially if at least a few of them are evergreen.
Which lead magnets have worked best for your business? How do you promote them? Let me know in the comments section below.
