1. What is a lead magnet?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A lead magnet is a special offer that you give for free in exchange for contact information. By using lead magnets, companies gain valuable information from potential customers such as their name, email address, title, company, industry, and other useful information.<\/strong> The form that asks for these details acts as the gate that filters people who come across your content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lead magnets are not the best tool if you want to build brand awareness because you\u2019re limiting viewership from people who aren\u2019t comfortable with sharing their information. But they\u2019re perfect for lead generation because of the contact you gather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anything can become a lead magnet if they provide enough value. There are different types of lead magnets such as downloadable content, free consultation, product demo, and even entertaining lead magnets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Downloadable content:<\/strong> content upgrade, pdf version of your blogs, ebook, guidebook, template, checklist, toolkit, resource list, cheat sheet, calendar, printable, infographic, case studies, industry report, free recording of an event, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Free consultation:<\/strong> free coaching session, webinar, free quotes, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Product demo:<\/strong> app download, free trial, limited premium membership, free text\/audio samples, product tutorial, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Entertainment:<\/strong> quiz, challenge, survey, giveaway, coupons, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the market becomes saturated with many lead magnets vying for people\u2019s information, marketers have to find a way to innovate. Don\u2019t limit yourself to the typical lead magnet, you only need one that showcases the value that your product or services offers and captures customer\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before thinking about what type of lead magnet is good for your business, you need to know who you\u2019re making it for. The best way to start is with your customer. Even when you have B2B clients, you\u2019re still selling to humans with motivations and needs of their own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Your customer is not simply a tech start-up with 10 employees. There are decision makers, influencers, and other stakeholders surrounding that tech start-up. Who is it that you are selling to?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dig a little deeper and try to understand what is it that your prospects want to accomplish and what\u2019s stopping them from doing so. Only when you have that knowledge can you truly know what value your lead magnet can offer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s where the buyer persona comes in handy. It is the representation of a customer group that shares a common value, needs and bottlenecks. These are the information that a customer persona should have:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be very specific about what you\u2019re offering: what problems are you solving and how are you solving them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One quick win<\/strong>: problems are usually complex and can\u2019t be solved with just one piece of content. They require multiple steps of actions, constant intake of new knowledge, and support from different tools to be solved. If your lead magnet tries to solve all of these problems at once, it can easily confuse readers with too much information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Make it easy to consume. Sometimes, a small win is enough<\/strong>. This way, you can also offer a variety of lead magnets, build trust, and help your prospects move to the next stages of the customer journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Solve one important problem<\/strong>: the important problem is the one that people are willing to spend money on<\/strong>. Look to your competitors to see what they\u2019re offering, shadow communities, or marketplaces where your prospects spend their time and money on. You\u2019ll soon find out what people are talking about and what resonates with their needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Timely content<\/strong>: when something is on-trend<\/strong>, you better catch it. For example, Single\u2019s Day hasn\u2019t always been celebrated worldwide. But after Alibaba\u2019s sales top $74.1B, many international retailers want to jump on the bandwagon. Why not try a lead magnet analyzing this success and sharing strategy for Single\u2019s Day next year? Coupons are also a good lead magnet for these occasions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer is: depends on your customers and where they are in the customer journey. Different stages of the customer\u2019s lifecycle call for different types of lead magnets.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Awareness:<\/strong> in this stage, most companies wouldn\u2019t want a gate on their content because it limits viewership. However, using a lead magnet can help filter your viewers, which lets you know precisely what kind of target audience you have.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Educational lead magnets such as podcasts, infographics, and whitepapers enable companies to recognize their problems and build credibility for their brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consideration:<\/strong> prospects begin to acknowledge your brand authority and consider your products to be the solutions to their problems. They will also talk to your competitors and make comparisons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lead magnets that provide more information such as webinars or case studies are useful for introducing your product to potential customers. These types of content let your brand talk to prospects, understand their needs, and explain more about your product or service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Decision: <\/strong>lead magnets that instigate actions <\/strong>such as free consultation, free trials, and product demos are powerful for the purpose of pushing your prospect to the finishing line of their buying journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you know which stage your prospects are in the customer journey, it\u2019s time to think about how you can present your solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Leverage your strengths<\/strong>: if you\u2019re good at speaking, make a video or host a webinar. If you\u2019re more confident with graphic design, convey your message through visuals instead. Your lead magnet doesn\u2019t always have to be textual.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n For lead magnets, button CTAs have proven to be more effective than link CTAs.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Make it bold and distinctive.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Take Dropbox here as an example. The margins around the button are spacious enough that it doesn\u2019t confuse your eyes. The button is blue on top of a white background, accompanied by a small amount of black text, so instinctively, you know where to look. Your CTA should grab viewers\u2019 attention right away.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For prospects that are at the end of their buying journey, you\u2019d want to have a CTA that<\/strong> triggers a sense of urgency or fear of missing out<\/strong>. For example, include in your CTA a time-sensitive discount or limited offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Learn how to write better marketing copy and CTAs with our <\/strong>copywriting techniques: how to create powerful marketing copy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n A\/B test your CTA buttons:<\/strong> Try different color combinations, shapes, phrases, or the positions of your CTAs<\/strong>. For example, from testing their CTAs, ContentVerse learned that a rounded box converts better than a square box. If you\u2019re not an experienced A\/B tester, test only one variable at a time. In that way, you know which variable affects the conversion rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Use heat map:<\/strong> Along with A\/B testing, use a heat map to identify<\/strong> which areas of the website do viewers linger, their activities, and click patterns<\/strong>. Once you have this knowledge, place your lead magnet in the \u201chot\u201d places of your website. For this purpose, you can try Microsoft Clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using exit pop-up:<\/strong> one of the best ways to display your lead magnet is actually by using exit pop-up. It works even better when the lead magnet is highly relevant to the blog. You could set it up so that the lead magnet is like part 2 of your blog – a more advanced piece of content that if viewers want to keep learning, they can download. Or it could also be added-value content such as a checklist or template that was relevant to your blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Content is king. But no matter how good your content is, messy design can make your readers lose interest.<\/strong> In fact, if your lead magnet has an attractive cover, it might receive more downloads or registrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For text-focused lead magnets such as ebook, guidebook, or pdf version of a blog, it might not be necessary to have a fancy design. But for visual lead magnets such as templates, and infographics, you\u2019d need a suitable way to present them. It also depends on your brand, if your company is a design house, then it\u2019s absolutely recommended that the visual of your magnet stays on brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two free tools that we can recommend for you are Canva<\/a> and Smartmockup<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Canva – Jazz up your content\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While the platform lacks comprehensive and advanced features for design, it offers a large collection of templates, icons, and stock photos<\/strong>. Canva is simple and easy to use. It is the perfect tool for design beginners to practice visual literacy or busy solo entrepreneurs that just want to get their products out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smartmockups – Create a cover for your lead magnet<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If Canva is used to jazz up your content, then Smartmockups, as the name suggests, create mockups for you. You\u2019ve seen a lead magnet that was designed to look like a book right, even though the content inside is a tool list or an industry report. By our guess, this probably helps to increase the credibility of your lead magnet<\/strong> because books have always been regarded as a trustworthy source of information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fundamental steps of delivering your lead magnet include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The basic structure of a landing page goes like this: a short introduction about the lead magnet and the form. Some companies also include a table of contents to give a sneak peek at what people are about to download. Some go further and include an about us section for their companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless of what you put on your landing page, your form is the most important element.<\/strong> Forms help you gain information about your leads. The basic forms usually ask for information such as name, email address, and company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The more you ask, the more you learn about your customers. <\/strong>But this comes with a risk and should only be done when you know that your content is valuable enough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n2. Identify your lead magnet’s value proposition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
2.1 Customer persona<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2.2 Value proposition<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"lead-magnet-example-7\"](\"https:\/\/sisudigital.fi\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/lead-magnet-guide-7.png\" "\\"\\"")
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>3. Designing your lead magnet<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
3.1 What kind of lead magnet is good for your business?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3.2 CTA<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>3.3 Design<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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4. Delivering your lead magnet<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4.1 Landing page\/ Form<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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