How to Create a Successful Lead Magnet

Generating leads is an essential task for any type of business. Without leads, there will be no prospects, and, without prospects, there will be no customers. In the past, lead generating techniques included direct marketing, trade shows, and advertising. Today, though, businesses have the cheaper option of using lead magnets.

What Is a Lead Magnet?

A lead magnet is something that a business offers in return for someone’s contact details. If a business offers entry into a prize draw in return for someone’s business card, for example, that is a lead magnet. The more common types of lead magnets today, though, are electronic giveaway items. Items such as e-books or free reports in a PDF format. These types of electronic lead magnets offer value, but they are cheap to produce. 

Whatever the type of item that is offered, the goal of a lead magnet is the same. It is to encourage people who might buy a product or service to disclose their contact details.

Why are Lead Magnets Necessary?

Unfortunately, this is an age of spam. For that reason, people are becoming more and more reluctant to divulge their email addresses. Almost every website you visit prompts you to sign up for a newsletter. Every online store that you buy from will ask you to opt into their mailing list. If you signed up for everything, your inbox would overflow with emails that you never read. So, people are now looking for something in return. They want something back whenever they give anyone their email address.

How to Target Your Lead Magnet

The first step to creating a successful lead magnet is to identify the type of people you want to attract. This is not as easy as it may first appear.

A lot of businesses make the mistake of casting their nets too wide. They create a lead magnet that will be attractive to far too many people. A list of 10,000 people who like to receive free gifts is of little use to a business. It would take far too long to qualify all the leads. A well-targeted lead magnet will attract only genuine, pre-qualified leads. So, before you even think about what your lead magnet will be, think about the characteristics of people you want to attract.

Define Your Value Proposition

Once you have defined your target market, you can then define what will be of value to that audience. Remember, though, that an item with a high monetary value is likely to attract too broad a range of people. The item that you choose for your lead magnet should be of value only to your target audience. 

For a lead magnet to be effective, it must have value. That value might be information that people cannot find anywhere else. It might be the solution to a problem. It could be something that has a monetary value to your target market.

Choose the Type of Lead Magnet You Want to Offer

People are looking for quick wins with a lead magnet. The offering does not need to be very complicated or very high in monetary value. The type of lead magnet you choose will be very dependent on your target audience. But remember, the more targeted it is, the better the quality of leads you will get.

Instant value is usually better than long-term value. If you can provide someone with instant value, people will be willing to come back for more. That will encourage them to continue to follow you down your sales funnel.

Remember, too, that all you are getting in return for giving away something of value is an email address. As is the case with any type of lead, many of those email addresses will never lead to a sale. It is best to keep your lead magnets simple unless that is, you are selling high-value products or services. In this case, the perceived value of your sales magnet will need to be higher.

Most businesses find that small, informative e-books work very well. Free online courses or educational videos work well as well. For consumers, discount vouchers can be very effective. If you operate in a niche market, access to a rare product or exclusive event could be a good lead magnet.

How to Promote Your Lead Magnet

The first step to promoting a lead magnet is to create a landing page. That landing page should explain what the value of the item is and tell people why they need to sign up to your offer. You need to sell a lead magnet in the same way you would sell a product. You need to explain the benefits. The only difference is that you want people to share their email address, rather than spend their money. 

Once you have your landing page up and running, you need to direct people to that page. You can do this through all the usual channels that you would use for marketing a product. That includes social media, your own website, guest posts on other websites, and via email.

Conclusion

It is very easy for businesses to undervalue lead magnets. Businesses don’t earn any money from lead magnets, so they don’t put enough effort into lead magnet campaigns. A targeted mailing list can hold a lot of value for a business, though. Lead magnets are one of the best ways to create qualified leads. Even if you don’t get many sales from a lead magnet, you will be creating brand awareness. That alone could pay for the time and effort you put into the campaign.

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