What is a lead magnet?

At its core, a Lead Magnet is anything of value that you can exchange for a prospect’s contact information usually an email address.

The most common Lead Magnet that you’ve probably seen is a free guide or report that’s delivered in PDF format. However, there are plenty of other Lead Magnets you can offer. More on that later.

A Lead Magnet has one goal: to maximize the number of targeted leads you are getting for an offer.

Why Do You Need a Lead Magnet?

The main reason I use lead magnets is to grow my email list. Once a person has given me permission to email them, that means I can build a relationship with them. I know it may be old hat, but people really do buy people. Particularly if you’re the only person in your business!

If I had a pound for every small business owner who tells me social media is how to get new customers, I’d be on a very luxurious holiday right now!

What you need to remember is that you don’t own the social network you use. It could disappear tomorrow, taking your audience with it. More likely is that the algorithm will change (just when you thought you’d worked it out) and your engagement will drop.

An email list is yours. You have more control over whether your email gets seen or not. In fact, did you know that email converts 3 times as much as social media?

Focusing on growing your email list will give you a ready-made pool of potential customers. That’s no bad thing. In fact, it’s how you’ll grow your business. Because when you have a new product or service to promote, your list will be ready to hear about it. They know you, like you and trust you. So it stands to reason that they’ll be more likely to buy from you.

Why are lead magnets important?

Website visitors have become immune to ads and pop up forms that offer them no value . Their natural reaction is to click away or click the cross sign, without feeling even a tinge of regret.

Take a look at your own signup forms. What’s their conversion rate? If you don’t offer any form of signup incentive, chances are they’re in the low digits.

That’s why marketers came up with the idea of offering lead magnets. A natural way of exchanging something of value (e.g., a piece of content) for a user’s email address.

Eye-catching, interesting, and relevant lead magnets are an essential part of all effective lead generation strategies , especially if you’re using marketing funnels Editor’s note:

How to Create a Lead Magnet

There are 3 steps to creating a great converting lead magnet. Let’s see all of them one-by-one.

Step 1: Find the pain of your audience

Step 2: Choose a proven lead magnet format to solve it

Step 3: Create the lead magnet and start promoting it

How to structure the lead magnet offer

Start with the hook: why this should be important to them. Craft a benefit-oriented headline.

• Promise: What they’ll get when they subscribe.
• Connect: Why you created this and for whom.
• Key points: Issues and solutions, could be in bullet points.
• Call to action: What they should do next.

Don’t ask them to fill in too many fields. In most cases, just email is enough.

When Should You Use Lead Magnets?

Any time you want to collect information from your audience, deploy a lead magnet. Change up the actual lead magnet content to reflect the audience you’re targeting.

Add a Hello Bar to your website that describes your lead magnet and includes a call to action. When users click on the CTA button, they’ll arrive at the opt-in page. Here, provide a bit more detail about what they’ll receive as the lead magnet.

In other words, communicate value over everything else. If your prospects don’t view the lead magnet as valuable, they won’t bother signing up.

How to choose a good lead magnet for your campaign?

There are many ways in which you can generate leads and grow your email list.

In one of our previous articles, we’ve listed close to fifty email list building ideas Most of them involve offering something in exchange for your customers’ details.

But it’s not enough to offer just anything.

Your lead magnet or opt-in incentive has to be carefully selected to fit your campaign After all, lead magnets aren’t just meant to get you your prospect’s contact details. They’re meant to help you start a relationship.

People who download your lead magnet should leave with a good feeling. If they feel it wasn’t worth their contact details, no amount of lead nurturing is going to help you convert them.

What Are the 5 Different Types of Lead Magnets?

You also need to know what type of lead magnet will work best for your audience. Following are five of the most popular:

Educational lead magnets : Teach your visitors something they don’t already know.

Useful lead magnets : Provide a tutorial, calculator, or other tool with which to solve a problem.

Community-Building lead magnets : Create a way for your audience to build a community based on the things they have in common.

5-step checklist for an attractive lead magnet

1. Does it add as much value as possible? The better the offer, the more people will take it. A free car to every subscriber? That’d be a guaranteed 99% conversion rate. (Hey, there are always skeptics that won’t believe a good offer when they see one.) Try something less… Extravagant, but start with the best possible idea and downgrade from there, rather than thinking about one notch above “join to get free updates.”
2. Does it evoke an emotional reaction? “For free, really!? I want that!” That’s the reaction you want them to have when they see your lead magnet. Emotional reaction is very important.
3. Have you put in the necessary work? There are no shortcuts. The more effort you put in, the better the outcome. If you want to create a killer lead magnet, be ready to sweat.
4. Are you setting false expectations or stretching the truth? Nothing is worse than broken promises. Fool me once, shame on me. And I won’t risk being shamed twice.
5. Is this really the best possible idea? Look at the lead magnet idea you’ve got and ask yourself whether it’s possible to come up with an even better one. If yes, go back to the first question.