What are lead magnets and do they work?

Lead magnets are a powerful tool used to generate leads and to entice website visitors into clicking through to learn more about your product or service. Here’s some advice on how to build effective lead magnets – and spoiler, it largely comes down to personas! Yes, again!

We have also compiled a list of 27 lead magnet ideas and examples that cover everything from simple ebooks to complex webinars.

Firstly, what is a lead magnet?

A lead magnet is something that is offered for free in exchange for an individual’s contact info, usually, their email address. This might include anything from a downloadable PDF, to a white paper, or even a video. The goal is to turn visitors into leads and then nurture these leads into paying customers.

Research suggests up to 95% of visitors will not buy on their first visit to your website, you will also never see 70% of your first-time visitors again. All that hard work on SEO, PPC and digital marketing can be for nothing if you’re not actively trying to identify your website visitors to bring them into your sales process (also see retargeting for other chances to bring potential customers back to your website).

Selling online is about building trust. To get someone to buy from you, you need to establish a trusting relationship with them.

That’s where lead magnets jump in. The biggest benefit of using lead magnets is they allow you to start to build trust with prospective clients and give you a chance to follow up with people who have shown interest in what you offer. You can use lead magnets to generate sales, increase conversion rates, and save money.

How a lead magnet works

Keep in mind that the goal with a lead magnet is to attract a potential customer, who can be nurtured and converted into a paying customer.

Your visitors must want whatever your lead magnet is enough to warrant giving you their email address. Think of it as trying to sell them something if that helps, but the price is their contact details.

Using our own sales funnel as an example, lead magnets fit in at the first or second stage. They can be used to attract visitors to your website with social media posts or sponsored ads or be featured on your own website after you’ve already attracted visitors from search engines.

Once a user is on your landing page, you’ll want them to fill out a form with their contact details, making sure to get permission (compliance with GDPR-UK data protection) to send them related information and relevant content . They can then download the lead magnet or display a coupon code, depending on your approach.

Once you have them on your email list you can nurture them with email marketing, add them to facebook remarketing lists, or even call them if you have their phone number and have permission to do so.

Your success rate in eventually converting leads into customers will vary wildly depending on what it was you gave away, who was attracted to it, the cost of your products/services and the quality of follow-up messages or salesmanship. But the more qualified leads you can generate, the better your chances of increasing sales.

How to build a high-converting lead magnet

1. RESEARCH

A valuable lead magnet is tied to both your ideal customer and your core paid service.

In order to offer visitors something enticing – and to make sure you’re attracting the type of person likely to eventually buy from you, you’ll need to know who your ideal customers are.

We’ve covered personas before – and while they’re applicable for most kinds of marketing, to be really successful and create an irresistible lead magnet, you’ll need an in-depth understanding of what, when where to offer your target customer.

You may also have more than one kind of customer, each with different desires, needs and pain points. One lead magnet probably won’t appeal to them all, so consider which buyer persona you want to attract.

Look at your current website, brochures, social media posts, emails etc. What has your target audience responded most to? Are they asking questions on a particular topic? Are they more engaged in videos or blog posts? This can be a big indicator of what they’ll want.

Don’t be afraid to take a look at your competition – what offers are they creating? What are they including in their offers?

Think about where you would promote your lead magnet. Where do your target audience look online? Which Social Media channels should you use – is Social Media even right for this audience?

Lastly, but most importantly, your lead magnet must be aligned with your core paid offering. You could offer “FREE Alton Towers Tickets” but you might struggle to sell your legal services to everyone that signed up, resulting in a low-quality and useless list of “leads.”

2. CREATE

Design your lead magnet and give it a catchy title.

So now you’ve got your lead magnet idea, and you know who it’s for, it’s time to put it together.

Your Lead Magnet doesn’t always need to be a PDF – Google Sheets and Google Docs are good tools to use too as editable documents/templates to allow people to copy and use your formulas and templates.

Do you sell online? If so, it could be even simpler – offer a discount code or free delivery in exchange for contact details to sell them more items in future.

For plenty of lead magnet ideas you can see our downloadable 27 lead magnet examples and ideas document here. (And yes, this in itself is a lead magnet!)

Once you’ve built your lead magnet, you’ll want to give it an eye-catching name. Think of something catchy that will pull in your chosen audience and highlight its benefits, like “The Ultimate Worksheet Every Influencer Needs,” or “The Essential Guide To Starting A Business”. A killer lead magnet has to have a name that is intriguing and prompts your target to think “I really need that.”

3. CAPTURING LEADS

Build your landing page.

Start with your Landing Page, giving it a benefit-oriented headline – if you’ve given your lead magnet a good enough name in Step 2 use that or something along similar lines.

Make sure it’s very clear what is on offer and why this should be important to them. Explain what they’ll get when they subscribe and don’t overpromise. Don’t be afraid to use bullet points if that’s easier. Include social proof if you can – adding reviews and testimonials to your landing pages adds credibility to your offer and can increase your conversion rate.

Give your page a clear Call To Action with a nice looking short form. You might be tempted to ask umpteen questions to gather as much information to help you sell to them later, but the more fields in a form the, fewer people will fill it in. You probably only need their email address and possibly their name.

Next make a quick “Thank you” page, the simpler the better here really. Include a short message that lets them know they’ve been successful, along with some quick contact details for your business and a button to take them back to the main website or homepage. Decide whether you want to put your lead magnet download on this page or have it emailed to them at the details they have provided. There are pros and cons to both, but we would generally recommend you make it available on this page.

4. NURTURE

Set up your email nurturing sequence.

This step is optional and more advanced but is recommended.

While you can leave your new subscribers alone until you next send out the next newsletter, it’s best to have a sequence of emails set-up in advance to build your relationship with your new lead. An automated series of emails can help you convert leads into customers by following up with them strategically. Consider adding examples of successful projects, useful articles, and compelling videos to help convince potential clients. This nurturing sequence can range from a single thank you email, to multi-step, branching, behaviour-based series of emails sent over a matter of weeks.

We have several tools such as SharpSpring available to build advanced nurturing sequences as part of XposureHUB.

5. PROMOTE

Get your lead magnet out in front of your audience.

Once your lead magnet, landing page and nurturing sequence are ready to accept new incoming leads, you need to get it out in the wild and in front of your target audience.

If you have enough existing traffic, you could simply put a banner on the parts of your website to identify any traffic you already have, or you could support your lead magnet with PPC and Social Media Ads, targeted at your ideal customers. It’s probably not worth sending out to any existing leads or customers by email – you already have their details, but they may know others that would find it useful.

Do lead magnets still work?

Yes, they do. But not as well as they used to.

Lead magnets have also become a more common tactic and people are used to giving over their email address in exchange for freebies. Prospective clients and freebie seekers are often two completely different types of people. There’s no commitment in just downloading a PDF, but the level of commitment and interest required to hire the services of an expert is absolutely huge.

These problems come down to not properly understanding your ideal customer or addressing their needs with the lead magnet. If its appeal is too generic and without a specific target audience, you’ll build a large email list but with very few conversions. You’ll have the same problem if your lead magnet isn’t properly aligned with your core paid offering. And if your offer is specific but aimed at the wrong audience, your email list won’t be large enough to generate enough conversions.

An alternative to building lead magnets that still work well, is putting together a tripwire product to sell. This is a harder strategy because it involves selling something (albeit small and low-ticket) to begin with, but will eventually result in a smaller but more useful mailing list.

Optimise Your Lead Magnet

Creating a great lead magnet that performs well for your business doesn’t need to be difficult. In the end it comes down to attracting the right audience and positioning leads for purchasing. Unfortunately, many business owners create their lead magnets as a sort of afterthought, failing to invest the time and energy required to make something special.