We have all heard of the sales funnel, which is the journey your customers go on between discovering your product and becoming a buyer. For some businesses, the sales funnel requires several points of contact with the buyer. Others are able to secure a quick sale after a single interaction.
A lead magnet is a powerful tool as part of your sales funnel. It not only gives customers a free gift and an incentive to shop with you, but it also delivers you that ultimate piece of customer information – an email address!
This strategy is employed by businesses around the world, from children’s apps that offer a free trial to restaurants giving first-time diners a two for one voucher. The power of the lead magnet is so great that it can double or even triple your conversions.
How to Create a Lead Magnet
The great thing about a lead magnet is you only have to create it once. To get it, all your customers have to do is enter their name and email address. If you’re ready to create your own lead magnet, here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a high-converting lead magnet.
- Identify Your Customer Avatar
- Who has spent the most money with me?
- Who has been the easiest to deal with?
- Who was the easiest to sell to?
- Who has referred other clients to you?
- Define Your Value Proposition
- Choose a Type of Lead Magnet You’ll Offer
- Free Information (Ebook, Report, Audio, Video)
- Free Event (Seminar, Workshop, Webinar)
- Free Product (Sample, Service, Tune-up)
- Free Quote (Appraisal, Review, Audit)
- Free Time Saver (Template, Checklist, Catalog)
- Free Voucher ($25 Gift Card, Discount, Coupon)
- Free Trial (great for subscription-based services)
- Free Calculator (for mortgage/finance based businesses)
- Give Your Lead Magnet a Name
- Design Your Lead Magnet
The first step is identifying your customer avatar. An Avatar is a detailed description of the ideal customer you’d like your business to attract. An avatar is not a real specific person; it is a composite of characteristics of many real people. Without knowing your ideal customer avatar your lead magnet will be generic and ineffective. To uncover your customer avatar, you must look through all of your current customers & ask yourself…
Then you give this blended person a full identity; including a name, age, profession, family and if you like, a photo. Then you write a one-page document, which describes this person (using Demographics and Psychographics) in as much detail as possible.
Once you’ve identified your avatar, the next step to creating a killer lead magnet is finding a common problem that your avatar faces and providing a quick solution to that problem. The quicker your lead magnet can get them results, the better.
There are so many ways to offer lead magnets. The good news is they don’t have to be long-winded or fancy. Your lead magnet also doesn’t have to be a sales pitch. The less sales-y, the better. Here are some examples of lead magnets:
Your lead magnet should be somehow tied to your business and should provide information without giving everything away. It should help establish credibility as an industry leader and be genuinely useful for your customer.
Write a compelling name for your lead magnet. It should be clear and descriptive, not vague or generic. Use phrases that appeal to your website visitors. Then, you must also mention the desired end result for your lead magnet. Include numbers or a shocking statement to entice curiosity.
Once the name and content are ready, create a professional and attractive design for your lead magnet. Depending on the type of lead magnet you’ll create, there are plenty of free tools available to help you design a killer lead magnet. Try Canva, Audacity, Wistia and Typeform.
Where to Place Your Lead Magnet
There are a few options for where to put your lead magnet on your website, none of which is completely set in stone as the winning strategy.
Our recommendation is to put your lead magnet in more than one place. Generally speaking, it will be effective if you put it as close to the top of your site as possible after the opening line, have it somewhere around the middle of the home page and add it right down the bottom. You may decide to put it in the footer, so it shows up on every single page.
Another option can be to have your lead magnet as a pop-up box. This could appear as soon as the user starts to scroll down, or as they click to leave the page.
Some people don’t like the pop-up option as it distracts from the copy and can be a turn-off. You never know unless you try, so you could always trial this strategy and keep an eye on how a pop-up lead magnet affects your traffic numbers.
Lead Magnets: Your Next Steps
Once you have shared a lead magnet with potential customers, your work is not over. To back up this strategy, you need to market your lead magnet.
For example, a personal trainer may offer her clients a free ‘cheat sheet’ on reducing belly fat in 7 days. Once she has their email address, she can add them to her automated marketing campaign. They will receive a follow-up email with a special offer such as a discount on a full-service package. An added incentive may be delivered a week later to give that future client the nudge they need to come on board.
Your potential customer has the option to opt out of your email sequence at any time by clicking unsubscribe. However, it is likely they are still in the market for your product or service. The regular marketing emails are an excellent incentive to finally click ‘buy’.
Just remember, your first lead magnet may not look that great, but you can always make it better and improve it over time. Your main focus should be to add value and convert more leads for your business, so get started today!
