In digital marketing, when discussing a lead generation strategy, it’s inevitable to talk about its most crucial and effective tool, known as the Lead Magnet.
But what does Lead Magnet mean? It’s a downloadable incentive offered for free on a website in exchange for providing data (usually name, surname, phone number, or email). It’s used to attract potential clients and gain traceability.
This “free resource for contact” exchange allows, through a squeeze page, to label the Lead Magnet as a genuinely useful tool to acquire new clients. Obtaining data enables the design of precise email marketing campaigns, making it an excellent technique for digital sales. In this regard, if you want to become an expert in online sales, I recommend Digital Coach’s Digital Sales course, an innovative program where you’ll discover cutting-edge sales techniques.
Are you curious to learn more about this topic? Then keep reading. In this short guide, I’m going to explain:
- what Lead Magnets are and what they’re used for
- how to create them effectively
- some successful examples.
Let’s get started!
What is a Lead Magnet and its purpose?
The Lead Magnet is a lead generation tool; it’s downloadable content that’s offered for free after providing some personal information like name, surname, and email.
What’s the primary characteristic of a Lead Magnet? It’s being an attractive content or incentive for potential clients. It includes webinars, PDFs, ebooks, discounts, and other advantageous resources that can be downloaded from the web after filling out a contact form. The collected data is then used for marketing campaigns to bring the potential client back to the website, continuing their navigation, or hopefully, purchasing a product/service.
Why is the Lead Magnet useful? It’s essential for creating the most crucial element of any lead generation strategy: obtaining traceability and valuable data for future marketing campaigns. This data can be used to re-engage the user, who you already know is interested in your offerings, through discount emails or newsletters!
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Practical examples of Lead Magnet
What are successful Lead Magnets? Let’s explore them together!
- webinars: it’s probably the most widely used tool. It’s used for creating online events that only require a PC, a good internet connection, and simple registration. Due to its ease of use, minimal organizational costs, and attractive capability, it has become over time a marketing tool to attract new clients, offering them a preview of a product or service for sale.
- e-books: it’s an electronic file that mimics an actual book. This tool can be used for any industry or topic and its winning feature is its ease of creation, distribution, acquisition, and transportation at significantly lower costs compared to creating a printed book! The ideal way to use this tool in a lead-generation strategy? Offer a preview that attracts potential clients towards a specific product, of course.
- discounts or gadgets: what better way to attract customers than offering a discount? This tool is particularly useful when a customer or potential customer abandons the website with items in their cart. At this point, an email is sent to them, offering a discount, a gift, or even just a bonus like free shipping. It’s the best resource for an e-commerce site or to encourage the completion of the purchasing process.
- free templates: if you’re looking for a tool to attract a specific target or professionals in specific fields, this format is perfect for you! For example, if you want to attract copywriters, SEO experts, or content managers, you can offer them templates for developing and creating web pages, a real godsend for those who are new to digital or even for the more experienced ones.
- infographics: these are also valuable tools for copywriters because they visually simplify complex information, engage readers, and aid in storytelling through a combination of text and visuals. They’re highly shareable on social media as well.
- trial periods: is your product a course or maybe a video game? What’s better than offering potential customers the chance to try it out? This tool is mainly used to attract potential buyers to the complete product, showing them its quality without revealing everything; ideal for convincing even the most skeptical of potential buyers.
- case studies: what’s better than a Lead Magnet based on a pre-existing case with a solution? This will undoubtedly be an appreciated free tool!
- surveys and polls: these are effective lead magnets as they engage the audience as well as provide insights for marketing value.
Now that you have an overview of the most famous and widely used Lead Magnets in the world of digital marketing, a spontaneous question arises: how do you create them effectively?
I’m now going to explain it to you!
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Creating effective Lead Magnets in 3 steps
To create compelling Lead Magnets, the fundamental aspect is to think of an original and high-quality product to make it as attractive as possible to the user.
Remember, during the creation process, that it should be a product that reveals only a part of what interests the end user. It should answer a question while creating curiosity and therefore the desire to know the continuation of the answer.
But what are the steps to create a working Lead Magnet?
Analyze audience and competition
The first step to creating a good Lead Magnet is analyzing the competition, understanding what they have created and how they have acted.
Note down their mistakes to avoid reproducing them or turn them into strengths for your tool. This way, you can create a product that is not clichéd or a mere copy of someone else’s work. Instead, create something that provides high-quality value to the interested customer and becomes a positive promotional advertisement for your products.
The equally important second step is analyzing your audience. You can achieve this by:
- targeting specific attributes (such as age, gender, work experience, hobbies, or interests)
- using retargeting, uploading mailing lists, or tracking those who have provided their contact information or viewed your videos.
This analysis phase will help you build the profile of your Buyer persona.
Choose the type of Lead Magnet
You’re probably wondering, “How do I choose the right Lead Magnet for my strategy?” Don’t worry! I’ll make it easy for you with a few simple rules.
First of all, know that a Lead Magnet is never wrong if it follows basic rules like being affordably created, original, and generating value and attraction for the intended user. It should create curiosity and, most importantly, be evaluated for its usefulness. This evaluation will prompt the user to return to your web page or blog to acquire more material that aligns with their goals.
The most widely used Lead Magnet in marketing strategies is certainly the ebook, which offers a brief free insight to transmit knowledge. The goal is to lead the user to download related products or the paid product associated with the ebook to delve deeper into the subject covered in this useful tool. However, an ebook is not a perfect tool for every situation. While it’s commonly used and fits any industry or target, there are other factors to consider, such as:
- time
- practicality
- complexity.
Starting with time, it’s a critical factor in piquing a reader’s curiosity. A well-crafted ebook may demand more time compared to other Lead Magnet examples like a webinar. Webinars are more dynamic and have a specific duration. They can also be more engaging due to the presence of industry experts.
A similar consideration applies to the practicality of your Lead Magnet. For instance, a copywriter might appreciate a well-explained strategy in an ebook, but wouldn’t it be better to attract them to your products by offering a practical, free template they can use as a reference to test its suitability?
Lastly, complexity. For a complex topic that requires a preview, an ebook is an ideal lead-generation tool. But if the topic is less complex, it might be better to use a more practical Lead Magnet that gets straight to the point and doesn’t lose the buyer persona’s interest due to excessive time consumption.
Now that you understand how to choose the right Lead Magnet for your purpose, let’s move on to the final phase: creating an appropriate squeeze page.
Craft the squeeze page
Creating and refining a squeeze page is the last step in developing a successful Lead Magnet. The squeeze page is a contact page that allows you to transform a casual user who visits your website or blog into a known user. This transformation occurs through obtaining their contact information, whether it’s an email address or phone number, in exchange for your Lead Magnet.
Unlike a landing page, which convinces a user to acquire a product, the squeeze page is used when the user is interested in making a purchase but needs a little more persuasion. This persuasion comes in the form of a free element that converts the visitor’s interest into a desire to buy. In this sense, while the landing page generates leads, the squeeze page helps the customer transition to the buying stage.
Everything, from page layout to the use of appropriate CTAs and the correct placement of the Lead Magnet, should convey a sense of immediacy and concreteness to the reader. You might even consider adding a brief bulleted guide of what the chosen tool contains, obtained simply by providing their contact information.
To summarize, the ability to create an effective squeeze page and a high-quality, original Lead Magnet is the key to a successful marketing strategy!
What are some useful tools to craft lead magnet
Free tools:
- canva: customizable design templates for various lead magnet formats
- google docs/slides: for creating PDFs, reports, or presentations for lead magnet content
- piktochart and easel.ly: for designing visually engaging infographics
- hubspot’s blog topic generator: for generating blog post topic ideas for lead magnets.
Paid tools:
- leadpages: for building high-converting landing pages and lead capture forms
- adobe creative cloud: for advanced design tools for professional lead magnet creation
- beacon: designed specifically for creating eBooks
- designrr: for converting existing content into eBooks and reports
- snappa: easy-to-use design platform for various lead magnet types
- thrive architect: wordpress plugin for creating conversion-focused content.
Conclusions and tips for a successful Lead Magnet
Are you still not quite clear on how to create a foolproof Lead Magnet for guaranteed success? No worries! Here are some more useful tips below:
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- focus on a problem: to capture the visitor’s interest in your products, the first thing to do is to make them notice a problem they might not have considered yet, and offer them the solution through the product you want to sell. There’s nothing that attracts a person more than a potential solution to a problem they might face in the future or currently.
- give them the free solution: this is where your Lead Magnet comes into play. This is the moment when you need to use one of the examples mentioned earlier to attract the customer and obtain their data in exchange for the solution to their problem.
Remember that the essential characteristic of the Lead Magnet used must be that it’s a tool of absolute value, original, providing a clear and precise solution to the problem being discussed. Of course, all of this should be presented on a dedicated squeeze page designed for lead generation.
If you’re interested in incorporating Lead Magnets into your marketing strategy as well, get in touch with a specialist to gain insight into which ones to implement. Begin your journey with confidence!
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