In today's digital age it can be more profitable for businesses to barter using data than cash. Lead magnets are fast becoming one of the most popular lead generating tools because of how cheap and easy they are to create and distribute. Lead magnets allow business owners to legally collect data and contact information from prospective customers that can later be used to market to them for free.
What is a lead magnet
A lead magnet is an incentive to get someone to sign up for your email list. Lead magnets are a free offer you give out in exchange for contact information. This offer might be a digital report, ebook, tool, discount or any other kind of content or offer that you can cheaply create and digitally distribute.
How to formulate a good lead magnet
Lead magnets should provide the person who downloads it with an immediate solution to a relevant problem. If they can see that you’re able to solve a small problem, they’ll likely have faith that you can solve the bigger problems that you charge money to solve.
The lead magnet should be related to your core offering, there is no point offering a free guide on sewing curtains if your core business is pest control. A better lead magnet would be a guide teaching people to identify what pests are infesting their homes. Keeping lead magnets relevant means you are more likely to capture your target market and find leads who are actually interested in buying your product or service.
“We sell pod campers and we find that offering free guides on the best travel spots tend to get heaps of leads, it’s all about catering to your clients and staying true to your niche” says pod camper retailer Adventure Pod.
Whether you are offering a free downloadable guide or an e-coupon for 10% off your product or service, lead magnets need to have some kind of wall that requires a prospect to input their information to claim it.
“You can keep it simple with just a requirement for an email or mine as much data as possible like phone numbers, age, gender and/or current issue that they are looking to fix” advises data broker Acceleon, “You should remember that people are way more likely to click off without downloading if they’re faced with a huge list of things they need to fill out, so the simpler you keep it, the better”.
Having lead magnets that are connected to social media is great because most people have their information auto-filled within the platform. People will simply need to click the link and their information will automatically populate making it super convenient for them.
How to decide what to offer as your lead magnet
You will need to make sure that people will actually want your lead magnet. You should do some research on your target market and find out what they need. Identify any problems they may have and provide them with solutions.
“You can use tools like AnswerThePublic to find out what questions people are commonly asking about your product, service or industry” suggests lead generation experts from Search it Local, “It is a gold mine for you to think of new and helpful lead magnets that your target audience will get value from”.
3 free lead magnets you can create today
1. Invite-only webinars
If you are an expert in your field you can offer webinars that people need to sign up for. A webinar is a live event where people watch you virtually present a seminar via a site like Zoom.
2. Coupons
People love to save money, even if it is only a few dollars. Simply offer a coupon for money off in exchange for an email and watch the leads flow in.
3. Guides
Putting together informative guides is the perfect way to get a bunch of leads for free. Simply draft up a guide on a word document that details how to do something specific to your business and upload it behind a wall.
Once you have collected data using your lead magnets you can use it to create an emailing list where you can send discounts, advertisements and more. If your lead magnet asks for phone numbers, you can use them to make sales calls to prospective clients.
Lead magnets are powerful because they not only help you to collect data on prospects, they can help you establish your brand’s identity and reliability in the marketplace. If you are providing people with quality, educational content, they will be more likely to see your brand as one they can trust to buy from.