What is Lead Magnet in Inbound Marketing? [Steps to Create Effective Lead Magnets]

A magnet is known for its capability to attract the ferrous elements. In marketing, ‘Lead Magnet’ is a term that is used in order to describe the technique of gaining the contact information of the prospects. The eBooks/whitepapers/templates/podcasts and other types of downloadable content can be used as lead magnets. It is also possible to create lead magnets by re-purposing the existing content.

What is Lead Magnet?

A lead magnet is a marketing tool. It offers long-form content in exchange of a prospect’s contact information in order to generate more leads. They are available in different types of downloadable assets and the exchange of contact information generally takes place at the second phase of the conversion path.

One of the primary objectives of digital marketing is to build credibility and to drive more awareness. Lead magnets can be used by marketers to measure the success of their efforts.

Using lead magnets, businesses can collect the e-mail addresses of prospective customers in exchange for something useful or valuable.

They are also useful in collecting additional information from the prospects if they can be influenced to fill in a form.

Few examples of Lead Magnets –

• Samples (often used in the beauty/healthcare industry)
• Training Videos (used in publishing/education sector)
• Templates
• Free Trials (generally used by software companies)
• Quizzes
• Case studies
• Coupons/Discount Codes
• Software
• Checklist
• Webinars

Why your Business needs Lead Magnet?

If you have a merchant website, then you need to generate leads online and lead magnets are essential for generating online leads. For example,

It is useful to send e-mails to interested customers in order to generate leads that will turn into buyers in the future. However, a prospect may not want to share their e-mail addresses without an incentive or an influencing factor, as it is personal. In this scenario, you may use lead magnets in order to pursue the leads to share their e-mail address.

A marketer may use a blogpost to influence the prospects to share their e-mail addresses. For example,

At the end of a blogpost, readers may be asked to join your e-mail list for ‘updates’ on a particular issue or various issues relevant to your business.

or

You may ask the readers to join the e-mail list in order to receive a free downloadable PDF ‘case study’ which provides real-life examples of the success of a particular strategy.

Marketers believe that a business will receive most e-mail sign-ups through the second strategy.

How to Create an Effective Lead Magnet

You may appoint a marketer to create ‘lead magnets’, however, may not notice any increase in the number of leads. Why? It happens if a marketer does not put effort or thoughts into creating Lead Magnets and a marketer can create effective Lead Magnets using the following steps.

Step 1:
Selecting Buyer Persona

The primary objective of creating the ‘lead magnets’ is to attract as many prospects as possible. However, it is crucial for a marketer to use lead magnets capable of influencing the target customers of a business.

Hence, the primary step of creating lead magnets is to identify the buyers’ persona. A marketer needs to be extremely specific regarding the type of people a business wants to influence.

If a marketer can identify the buyers’ persona, then it is possible to create lead magnets relevant to the requirements and desires of the target customers. They are more than likely to download a particular type of content due to this reason. Hence, it is important to understand the ‘buyer persona’ before creating any lead magnets.

It is also possible for a business to have multiple buyer personas. In this scenario, it is essential to create separate Lead Magnets targeting different types of buyer personas.

Step 2:
Recognizing Value Proposition

If a marketer can identify the targeted prospects, then it becomes possible to pursue them to download a lead magnet. The number of leads that can be generated by a Lead Magnet is directly influenced by the promise a business makes to the prospective leads. The value proposition is supposed to propose the following factors.

• How a particular product/service will resolve or improve the issues of target customers.
• What benefits may be expected by the customers
• Why customers will buy from a particular business instead of the competitors.

Hence, the ‘best value proposition’ is something that your buyer persona requires, and they need less convincing to download a particular type of content in exchange for the information. It is important to find out what target customers want due to this reason. For example,

• Find a common problem that your buyer persona experiences.
• Provide a solution to this issue as quickly as possible.
• The quicker you can provide with the solution, the better it is.

Step 3:
Add a Catchy Title

When creating a marketing e-mail or blogpost, it is essential to use a catchy headline to increase the conversion rate. Similar to this, it is important to add an impressive title to the lead magnet. It is a headline for your value proposition that is appealing to the buyer persona and you may notice a significant difference in the conversion rate due to this addition.

Step 4:
Selecting the Type of Lead Magnet

Have you been able to determine the correct type of Lead Magnet to offer to the buyer persona? Do you have several options to choose from when creating a lead magnet? Do these options deliver the value proposition? The following tips can help you make the right decision.

1. Simplicity: Is the lead magnet offered by you comprehensible to the buyer persona? If not, then it defeats the purpose. It is prudent to keep the lead-magnet simple, crisp and packed with value.
2. Your Forte: Learn about your strength before selecting the type of Lead Magnet. For example, if you are proficient at writing, then you may use an e-Book. However, you may benefit from using a video-based content if you are comfortable using a camera.
3. Fast Delivery & Consumption: It is essential to quickly resolve the issues of buyer persona if you want to pursue the buyers to move through the sales funnel. Therefore, it is a priority to select a format that promises fast delivery and consumption.

There are limitless options; although, most lead-magnets can be categorized as –

• Video training
• Cheatsheet
• Free trial
• Discount
• Guide/report
• Quiz/survey
• Toolkit/resource list
• Sales material
• Assessment/test

Step 5:
Creating a Lead Magnet

Once you have a strategy, it is time to create Lead Magnets. It is important to keep two things in mind at this step –

• Buyer Persona
• Promised value proposition

Explore here about Types of Lead Magnets with examples…