Marketing and Sales

How to Use Lead Magnets Effectively. Part 1

4 minutes

How to Use Lead Magnets Effectively. Part 1

On average, only 4% of first-time website visitors convert into leads. But what happens to the other 96%? How to reach THEM? In the first part of the article, you will learn why it is necessary to use lead magnets and where to get ideas for the one you will share with your potential customers.

What is a lead magnet?

On the first date, we do our best to make a positive impression on our potential partner. We bring flowers or small gifts  to show that we are interested in getting our relationship to the next level. Similarly, marketers use lead magnets to attract prospective clients or gently push them through the sales funnel.

A lead magnet is a piece of valuable digital content offered to the customer in exchange for contact information or a subscription. For the customers, it is a good chance to try out a product or a service and see how it works for them.

Free offers are a great marketing tool and a good step towards building trustful relationships with new customers.

Dan Arieli experimentally proved this thesis and described his observations in the book called “Predictably Irrational.” In the course of the experiment, visitors of a Boston supermarket were offered an Amazon.com gift card. The respondents could choose a $10 or a $20 gift card at discounted prices. The price of the gift card was increased or decreased depending on its value.

People Really Like Free Stuff-Graph

In both cases, most of the participants chose the more lucrative deal. However, ALL of them preferred getting a free $10 card to buying a $20 card for $7 although the latter option was a better deal as they could win $13 instead of $10. This experiment has shown that the absolute majority of customers will hardly resist a free offer.

Benefits of a lead magnet

Generation of quality leads

61% of marketers think it is hard to generate quality leads. At the same time, a customer attracted by the offered bonus is most likely to be interested in your product or service. Thus this lead is highly convertible.

Moving through the sales funnel

A lead magnet gently guides a potential customer through any stage of the sales funnel. Instead of trying to sell your product to complete strangers, you build trust with your customers and win their loyalty.

Good conversion rates

It is known for a fact that a good lead magnet can generate up to 35, 000 new leads in 60 days.

What does an effective lead magnet look like?

When choosing a beautiful bouquet for your loved one, you will probably make sure that the flowers are fresh, beautifully arranged and wrapped in matching paper. When it comes to the creation of a lead magnet, it is also important to evaluate it against a number of crucial criteria:

It solves a painful problem

A lead magnet is not a miracle cure-all for any problem but rather a pinpoint solution for a specific audience. Try to appeal to your customers’ pains and evoke emotions in them. And remember that one magnet should tackle one problem.  

It is brief but perfectly clear

Avoid lengthy and obscure headlines. Tell your prospective clients what exactly they will get in exchange for their contact information and make sure you keep your promises. There is hardly anything more harmful for a brand image than the defeated expectations of the customers.

It provides a quick solution

When people face any sort of problems, they normally search for the fastest solution.  The same concept applies to lead magnets: the customers want a quick fix that can provide an immediate result.

How to find ideas for your lead magnets?

What if your date does not like flowers? Perhaps you will check her Instagram account to find out about her preferences and avoid awkward moments. When making a lead magnet, you will also need to grasp the interests and pain points of the target audience. But how can you do that?

Analyze search queries

Use the topic-based search query statistics in the search engines to get the list of keywords. This semantic cluster will help you to create a relevant topic that will resonate with the target audience. For this purpose, use the AdWords Keyword Planner.

Google AdWords Search

Track social media sharing

If the content taps into the users’ emotions, they share it to their social media feeds. Analyze the content of the most influential websites in your segment and track the topics that get the biggest number of shares. Use Bazzsumo for your convenience.

Buzzsumo-Track Social Media Sharing

Read forum discussions and comments

Take some time to see how the users react to posts in social media and read forum discussions, where people ask and answer questions. This way you will gain some insight into the problems of your potential customers and find some relevant ideas to make your lead magnet attractive.   

Install Google Analytics

Views, sessions, the average time on page — all of these metrics can give you some fresh ideas regarding your lead magnet. The more engaging the topic, the more effective will be the lead magnet based on it.

In the second part of the article, we will provide examples of lead magnets to be used on each level of the sales funnel and learn how to create your own lead magnet with the help of SendPulse subscription forms. Stay tuned:) 

Date of publication:

13 Apr. 2018

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