A lead magnet is a marketing tool that offers something of value in exchange for contact information. The most common form of information collected is the e-mail address. Once you have the contact information, you are able to continue interacting with your audience. This will lead to higher sales and more revenue for your business!
Why do we need lead magnets
We know that it takes an average of 7 interactions with a brand before a purchase is made. We’ve also heard the stat that up to 95% of visitors to our site will never return. This is why lead magnets are so important. They give us the ability to capture some of those visitors and stay in front of them.
The goal of any marketing campaign is to find leads and convert them into paying customers. The lead magnet is no exception. We want to identify people that are receptive to our offerings and bring them into the sales funnel.
By bringing interested parties into the funnel, we have identified people that are interested in our product or service. Since we collected the email, we also have a direct line of communication with them.
10 Best Lead Magnets (with examples!)
1) Discounts or Coupons
You would be hard pressed to find someone that doesn’t want to save money. Offering a discount code that is e-mailed to your customers is an easy way to collect e-mails and give your customers something they want.
This example from Baskin Robbins gives you a free scoop on your birthday. Just sign up for the e-mail list!
2) Quiz
Quizes or assessments are some of the highest performing lead magnets out there. People love taking online quizzes. They are entertaining and interactive. Your audience get to be a part of the process and find out something about themselves. By the time they get to the answer, they are invested. They have spent time going through all the questions, so they want to see the results.
Besides being fun for your audience, quizzes have a lot of value for the creator. In order to get results your audience is entering information about themselves. That data is valuable information (just ask Facebook and Google how valuable user data is.) You can collect this data and use it for targeted marketing campaigns.
One of the more well known Quiz success stories is Kaye Putnam. She created a quiz lead magnet, and it paid off big. Like, over $100,000 big. Ya, a successful quiz is THAT powerful.
3) Trial
Free trials are a popular lead magnet that lets people try a product before they buy it. Free trials work good for subscription based offerings. Look at this Hulu offer. They are giving you a 30-day free trial. You choose the plan you want to try, enter your information and you’re ready to go. If you cancel before the free trail is over, you wont be charged a dollar. If you don’t cancel, you will start getting charged for the plan you selected.
4) Grader or Calculator
This kind of lead magnet works because it provides a service the user doesn’t have the time or skill to create themselves. Take this website grader from HubSpot for example. This tool will analyze your website and grade its performance, SEO, mobile integration and security. As someone who runs a website, seeing how mine preforms is a valuable tool. In addition to grading your site, they have a free course on how to improve your score.
5) Challenges
Challenges work off the same idea as a free trial, except they try to keep the user involved. These work great for service businesses. Look at the example below. Here, you are invited to try the challenge, which will boost your energy and help you lose weight. That sounds like a valuable challenge to be a part of.
Challenge campaigns that have a community aspect are especially successful. If you invite someone in, let them see the results AND have a community that supports and holds members accountable, you’ve got a winning lead magnet.
6) Generator
Generators are tools that take take and give out results or ideas. The Wordstream keyword generator is a perfect example of this lead magnet. You plug in a couple root words and it gives you some keyword ideas. You also get to see how competitive those keywords are and what they cost to advertise for them is.
When you get the results it delivers 5 keywords. To get the full list, you enter your e-mail and they send it to you. This tool was a valuable resource when I started blogging. Keyword tools are expensive and free options are hard to find. When you’re starting out, spending hundreds of dollars on a keyword tool may not be an option. Wordstream allowed me to conduct keyword analysis without blowing up my budget.
7) Webinar
Webinars give you the chance to get in front of perspective clients and showcase your expertise. The important thing to remember with a lead magnet webinar is to deliver value. I know we hear that all the time, but it is especially true with webinars. People are going through a lot of extra work and are setting time aside to attend. If you get on a try to sell them a course the whole time… they will run, and you will never get them back.
8) E-Book
E-books work because they deliver a lot of value in one place. Look at this offer from Pinch of Yum. They are offering a cookbook with 25 recipes for free! People are coming to the site for recipes and they are dlivering the top ones right to peoples e-mail. There is no doubt this has been an effective lead magnet for them.
9) Free Basic Plan
The free basic or starter plan is a powerful lead magnet. One of my favorite companies to do this is Canva. They offer an extremely generous free version that lets people get started and create. As you become more experienced you will start to see the value in the pro plan. You can do everything with the basic plan, but the pro plan expands the offerings. It has been a wildly successful model for them.
I started out with the free plan and used it created a lot of the banners, infographics and charts for this site. I ended up doing the upgrade because I wanted to use the expanded offerings. Now I have access to more templates, fonts, graphics and tools to help me create content.
If they had not offered such a good free version it’s unlikely I would have stayed. This is a key. The basic plan did everything I needed it to. It was easy to use. It became my go to resource for design. Upgrading was only a matter of time. Now they have monthly income coming in from me.
10) Prinatables
Printable lead magnet are something you create so your audience can print them off and use them. Printable’s are one of the most popular types of lead magnet because they very so much. They are also easy to create and they convert well. Your audience will also love them. Some common examples are:
Quick Start Guides
- Quick start guides give people a roadmap for achieving a specific goal. For some, this is exactly the kind of content they want. Give people what they want.
Checklists
- Checklists show specific steps and have a place for people to check off each step. Take a look at this Business Startup checklist from Microsoft. It is 3 pages long and runs through every step in starting a business. As you move along the process, you can check it off the list. Starting a business can be a complex process. This checklist breaks it down into smaller tasks so it seems more manageable. A free tool like this delivers immense value to your audience. It would be more than worth giving up your e-mail for.
Workbooks
- Workbooks are an underrated tool. When used correctly they deliver a lot of value to your audience. Take a look at this example. Piano in 21 days aims to teach people how to play piano in weeks rather than years. One of their lead magnets is a free workbook. All you have to do is enter your e-mail and you’ll receive “5 days of the new course in a free workbook.”
Calendars or Planners
- Busy professionals, content creators, or people that just trying to plan will love this lead magnet. They can be custom tailored to your specified niche to deliver extra value. This example lets you creat a plan to accomplish you goals. That sounds pretty good to me!
Templates
- Templates take people from “I don’t even know where to start” to “Wow, that was easy” in no time flat. They make the processes easier, quicker and deliver immediate results. This makes them very valuable to your customers. And when they find value, it becomes much easier to move them along the sales funnel.
This example from hubspot offers 15 free infographic templates. Considering I was searching for infographic templates, this lead magnet is relevant to what I want. For the price of my e-mail, I can save hours.
How to Create a Lead Magnet
1) Define Audience
The goal of a lead magnet is to offer something people are willing to give up their personal information for (normally and e-mail address.) To do this, you will need to know who your targeting and what they need. A mistake a lot of people make is creating a lead magnet that targets a wide audience. What you really want to do is target a very specific audience.
Take a look at the buyer’s journey. Is a free demo lead magnet going to effective for someone that has already purchased? No. The person that purchased does not need to be at the beginning of your funnel. Likewise, is someone in the decision phase going to be interested in upgrading to the pro membership? No. They are still trying to decide if they want to buy the basic membership. They are not looking to upgrade a product they haven’t even purchased yet.
Meet people where they are. You have people in different stages of purchasing, so cater to them in the phase they are in.
2) Identify Value Proposition
Now that you know who you are targeting you need to figure out what they need. Deciding on what they need will help you determine what kind of lead magnet will work best for them. Give people what they need and they will willingly take it every time.
3) Create the Lead Magnet
By now you know who your audience is and what offering they will find valuable in. This has helped you decide what the best kind of lead magnet will be, so its time to create it.
4)Build the Conversion Path
At first glance the conversion path can seem like a lot of work. It is. But you only have to do it once. Once everything is set up, it can automated. The lead magnet will continue working on it’s own and you can move on to the next thing. It is a beautiful process that delivers results long after you created it.
I think the best way of showing the conversion path is through a real life example. In this example we will explore the conversion path I went through with Salesforce.
I was in the Salesforce conversion path because I wanted their State of Marketing report. This annual report identifies and analyzes current marketing trends. Since marketing is the part of my business that brings in money, keeping up on current trends is a benefit to me. Without successful marketing. campaigns, I would not be able to continue running this site.
As of right now, I am not looking for the kind of CRM solution Salesforce offers. That may change over time. Salesforce knows this and thats why they have created this lead magnet. They now have a direct line of communication with me. I am in the sales funnel. And when their plans range from $25/month to over $400/month, you can begin to see the *potential lifetime value this kind of free lead magnet can generate.
Call To Action (CTA)
The call to action is your fist and most important step. Without a call to action, nothing else matters because you wont have the lead.
“Download the Report” is my call to action. Salesforce is telling me what action they want me to take. Since I see a benefit, i will follow that CTA.
Landing Page
The landing page is where you go after clicking on the CTA. This is where the leads information is collected. This is where the lead has to decide if giving that up is worth what they get in exchange. For this offering, I was ok with the it.
Also, take note of the left hand side. They are previewing the material. Kind of a “sneak peak” to keep my interest. This is an effective techniqu that you should use.
Thank You
Once the leads have given their information, you thank them and deliver what you promised. They have help up their end of the agreement so now it is your turn. Don’t make people wait around.
As you can see here, Salesforce thanks me for my interest and provides the link. I had access to the promised material immediately. I appreciate that that kind of speed.
Follow-Up
The follow up e-mail is where you establish the line of communication.”Clara” lays out some of my potential problems and offers to have an expert help me find a solution.
This is just the first e-mail in what will be a long series of e-mails. They will continue to try and move me along the sales funnel. That is the goal of these lead magnets. Find leads and turn them into paying customers.
Best E-mail Marketing Providers
If you are going to take the time to build lead magnets, you are going to want an e-mail marketing service. A e-mail marketing service is what you use once the leads have been collected. On their own, leads aren’t that valuable. But once you start communicating with them directly… it’s a game changer. You can expect to see higher engagement, more sales, and more revenue. Here are a few of my favorites.
GetResponse is another highly rated e-mail solution. with very attractive pricing options. THey have a fully functioning free plan for up to 500 contacts and affordable prices after that. I like that segmentation starts with the basic plan and some automation is available with the pro plan.
Send in blue is an excellent option for people just getting started. They have a free plan that let’s you get started on collecting and sending e-mails right away. Allowing unlimited contact for a free version is not common in this industry, so that is a big benefit.
I would like to see more from the lite plan, but the pro plan is packed with all the goodness. The price of the pro plan is also very reasonable when compared to the competition.
Constant Contact is one of the more popular e-mail marketing solutions. It is capable of doing almost anything you need, but it is a more expensive option.
Best Tools for Creating Lead Magnets
Canva is a pretty amazing online design tool. It can be used to design social media content, business logos, infographics, banners and so much more. The best part is, there is a fully functioning FREE version.
Sign up is easy and there is no software to download. You are able to create and download your items quickly and easily. This tool can get you started on creating lead magnets in no time.
The free version offers everything you need but IF you want more templates, phots, graphics, etc the Pro version is $120/year.
Interact is an online quiz maker. There is a free version, but it has limited functionality and doesn’t allow for lead capture (NOPE!)
The Lite plan is $17. With this plan you are able to create unlimited quizes and capture up to 65,000 leads. You will also have custom design options, branching logic and basic integration.
With the lite plan there will be an Interact logo. You can replace it with your own in the Growth plan.
This is a really good tool, but the free version is almost worthless. Go for the lite plan and start making those quiz lead magnets.
Zoom is a video conference platform that has recently began allowing webinars. With this platform, you will be able to host webinars with up to 500 attendees.
The platform allows for live events but also has cloud recordings. As an added bonus, they have a tool that lets you monetize through paid registrations! If you are going to get into hosting webinars Zoom Webinar is a good option.
That's It!
You now have the power to go out and create some amazing lead magnets that will drive sales and increase revenue. There are many more lead magnets out there, but these are the ones I find most effective. Don’t let this list hold you back.
The last thing I want to leave you with is this: Even if you aren’t doing anything with an e-mail list today, you should still start collecting e-mails. E-mail lists are powerful tools that will, without a doubt, help you grow your business.
Good Luck Out There.
