A lead magnet is a term in marketing that is used to describe a free service or item that is given to a customer to collect their contact details. When it comes to the use of lead magnets in marketing, any gift or reward can be used. Common examples of lead magnets are:
- Trial subscriptions
- Free consultations
- Exclusive digital books
- Newsletters
- Product samples
- White papers
- Discounts
- promotional codes
- Webinars
- Mini guides
- Templates
- Training videos
- Case studies
- Polls, surveys, and quizzes
Lead magnets are important tools used by marketers to generate sales leads. Upon reception of the customer’s details on an opt-in page, the marketers try to convert these leads into buyers. Also, leads are important for selling other related/unrelated products to them.
What does a lead magnet mean?
With a lead magnet, a visitor is compelled to provide their information which enables them to easily access what is on offer. A common piece of information usually demanded from visitors is their email address in exchange for a free and usually valuable item such as a newsletter, an eBook, or a whitepaper.
Also, a lead magnet can be content that addresses the pain point of the visitor and helps them to become interested in your service or product. Another common form of a lead magnet could be free products, rewards, or incentives.
Because people do not freely give away their details such as their email addresses (nobody wants their inbox to be flooded with spam), lead magnets serve as a way to overcome this challenge. Lead magnets usually offer the visitor a valuable and relevant item or content.
The true identity of lead magnets is usually not revealed because they are packaged in such a way that they look attractive and valuable.
Best of all, they are designed in such a way that they make the visitors think that they are getting more for free. A lead magnet should be able to provide enough value for next-to-nothing.
What makes a good lead magnet?
These days, it is common for every brand or website to have a lead magnet. However, not all platforms or websites seem to get the real purpose of a lead magnet. The highest-converting and best lead magnets usually have several common features. These features accentuate the properties of a well-planned and effective lead magnet. The features of a good lead magnet are:
Relevancy: A lead magnet should be relevant to your intended audience. Imagine offering a free digital book on construction to a dental surgeon. Even the most excellent lead magnets will fail if they are not relevant to your intended audience. For your lead magnets to be relevant, you want to ensure that they are purposeful and they have been created for the right audience. In this case, the appropriate offer for the dentist will be a free eBook on “How to grow your private dental practice.”
Perceived value: Another great feature of an excellent lead magnet is that visitors should be able to understand their values. What do you intend to offer the visitor that will make them give up their email addresses? By having a perceived value, there ought to be a feature of rarity that is attached to the lead magnet. A lead magnet should be something that cannot be obtained by performing a simple Google search. Common examples of the most in-demand lead magnets are dummy guides to challenging tasks, insider knowledge, expert insights, or some other unique and creative solutions that help address the pain points of the customer.
Effectiveness and efficiency: A lead magnet was created to serve a purpose. Great lead magnets are created to fulfil their purposes. This means that they should be able to deliver on the promise that was made while demanding your email. A good lead magnet is not a mere clickbait that fails to deliver on its promises. A good lead magnet should be able to proffer solutions to problems related to the industry of the business.
Show the value of your brand: If you were going to package your lead magnet in the form of content, make sure that your brand is at the centre of all of this. The content should be able to accentuate your expertise and show why you are the expert in your chosen field. It shows the value you offer while also informing the visitor of your capability to create superior and helpful content consistently for the lead.
Should be easy to understand: Your lead magnet should offer a clear value to the customer. This value should help tackle their pain points and be easy to understand. If you are going to be offering content to your leads, make sure that it is produced into easily digestible snippets. Nobody wants to give out their email address in exchange for long and boring case studies. Rather try to offer your visitors actionable items that are easily digestible such as summaries, checklists, infographics, and so on. A lead magnet aims to entice the visitor to become more curious about what you have to offer. This way, you prepare them to anticipate the next stage of your sales funnel.
Provide immediate gratification: A good lead magnet should be able to instantly gratify the visitor. People want value, therefore this should be offered almost immediately. Rather than give away a core strategy or service of the company, rather you should instantly deliver the promise that you have promised the customer.
What does it do?
For businesses, lead magnets can be a great way to grow mailing lists, enhance customer engagements, and drive sales. With a lot of information present on the internet, it can be difficult to attract a visitor and turn them into paying customers.
Getting their attention is usually very difficult. This is where your lead magnet becomes very important. Lead magnets can be used to grow your business.
It does this by always capturing new sales leads for your business, this way, you can transom them into customers.
