What Are Lead Magnets?

Why on earth would you need to use a lead magnet in marketing?!

Lead isn’t even magnetic.

We’re not on about lead magnets in the literal sense, though.

We’re talking about a smart marketing tool you can use to boost conversions and customer engagement with your business.

Introducing: lead magnets.

Sometimes it’s hard to know what to prioritise for your marketing strategy for the next year or more.

You’ll be surprised to know that only 35% of marketers consider lead generation a top marketing priority.

Actually, lead generation is a marketing fundamental. It should be at the top of the list when it comes to marketing goals.

But what do we mean by a “lead”?

Simply, a “lead” is anyone who has the potential to become a future client for your business.

It’s anyone who has interacted with or seems interested in your brand.

So, a lead magnet will attract (not repel!) customers to exchange their contact information for some exclusive content you provide.

Let’s get into it.

How Do You Get Leads in Marketing?

There are various ways to establish who your leads are in marketing.

Imagine you own a company that sells baby stroller scooter hybrids.

Qualified marketing leads can look a bit like this:

Melanie rings up, asking if there’s a warranty on the stroller-scooter.
- Ringing up your business for more information suggests interest and a qualified lead.
Will, a personal trainer who’s about to become a new father, fills in your contact form at a baby convention.
- Filling in a contact form at an event for your business is a surefire sign of interest.

Online, this translates to:

Robyn Scuters, who signed up to your contact form with their email and phone number.
- Filling in a website contact form confirms the customer wants to hear from you.
Horace Cope, who signed up for a newsletter on your latest blogs. (Which Baby Stroller Scooter Colour Matches Your Star Sign? was a title of particular interest)
- Signing up for a newsletter shows this customer wants to hear news from you.
Iona Mink, who thought your rabbit faux-fur-lined carrycot was sensational on Instagram.
- Engagement on social media shows this customer is a potential lead.
Dick Tate spends hours telling your online chatbot how his stroller-scooter workouts have got him stronger calves
- Interacting with the chatbot on your website suggests Hugh is a potential lead, too.
Warren Peace, who has just downloaded your e-book: How to Change a Nappy While Stroller-Scootering
- Downloading your e-book shows this customer is particularly interested.
Mona Lott signed up for your online webinar on Meditative Stroller-Scootering
- Those who sign up for webinars can be identified as qualified marketing leads.
Carrie Dababi, who clicked on an ad she saw online for your product.
- If they’ve clicked one of your online ads, they’re almost definitely a lead.

All the above are considered MQLs (marketing qualified leads). This is because a potential customer has engaged with your company in response to one of the above marketing techniques.

What Turns Website Visitors into Leads?

We’ve shared a few examples of how you can recognise leads in marketing.

But what turns your average website visitor into a lead in digital marketing?

A full moon? A casting director?

Not quite.

Let’s look at the conversion path that gets your site visitors interested and engaged with your brand.

Don’t be shy to show off your credentials.

Did you know that 74% of consumers will trust a company more if reviews and testimonials are easily visible on the landing page?

Add a dash of credibility to make sure your qualified leads are converting.

Now you’ve got the tools to recognise who your qualified leads are, you can start learning about what lead magnets are, why they’re important and how to create them.

What Is a Lead Magnet?

Loyal, receptive audiences are a gold mine for marketers.

Particularly their email addresses.

A strong email list gives you consistent access to your most valuable customers.

That’s easy-peasy to achieve, right? All you’ve gotta do is slap a button on your site like this:

Yeah… that doesn’t work anymore.

Why?

Well, how many emails do you have in your inbox right now?

It’s probably quite a lot.

In fact, 40% of consumers have at least 50 unread emails in their inboxes.

Not many people care for spam (emails and processed pork) these days. People aren’t too keen on giving away their email addresses to anyone.

A lead magnet is usually a piece of content which provides customers with awareness, information or a reason to engage with your product or service.

We’re thinking of free trial subscriptions, product samples, demos and more.

Offer your customers value, and in return, they will opt-in to receive messages from your brand in the future. Like this:

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What Makes an Ace Lead Magnet?

So, you know what a lead magnet is.

But what can make your lead magnets really stand out from the crowd?

High-converting lead magnets have a few mutual attributes, which are:

Relevancy — Even the most mindblowing offers can go nowhere if they don’t resonate with your target audience. At the same time, lots of low-quality leads aren’t worth it. You’ll end up spending more money following up on these leads.

Your lead magnet must have a necessary purpose for a valuable target audience.

Perceived value — Is your proposed offer enough to entice a customer to give away their email address? Great lead magnets might provide insider knowledge or a unique solution to a real, common problem.

Will your lead magnet save your customer time and/or money?

True to your word — Your lead magnet fulfils the initial promise or offer you made to secure a valuable customer’s email. No one likes a promise-breaker.

Your lead magnet is a problem solver, so the customer recognises you’re the expert or that your product is the solution they’re looking for.

Why Do Lead Magnets Work?

There’s a reason why you’ll see lead magnets everywhere after you’ve read this article.

That’s because they really do work.

Lead magnets give your customers an incentive to subscribe to you. They know exactly what they’re getting in exchange for their email.
Lead magnets can be targeted. You’re offering rewards specific to what your visitors are already interested in, based on their site activity.
Customers who sign up for your mailing list are intrigued by your product/service. This makes them valuable customers who you can send targeted offers to in the future.

How to Create a Lead Magnet

Lead magnets don’t have to be super complicated.

If you’re new to the world of marketing, keep it simple but valuable.

You don’t need to blow people’s minds with edgy designs or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Who?

To target the right people, you need to know who your user personas are and what would entice them.

You may have several user personas that want different things, so one lead magnet can’t appeal to all.

Wondering how our scooter-stroller business is coming along?

Let’s dive into an example. Here are two potential user personas for scooter-strollers.

Persona #1 doesn’t really get it. She’s a new mother looking for a way to stay fit and look after her new child. She doesn’t have the information to know whether this scooter-stroller is right for her.

Persona #2 is a professional scooter rider. He’s hoping that in the next Olympics, scooter riding will be an event. His life is dedicated to scooters, and he wants to get some extra training after welcoming his new son’s birth.

What would you create as a lead magnet for each of these personas?

Persona #1 — Perhaps this persona would benefit from a knowledge-based lead magnet like an e-book. This will provide her with the information she needs to know whether this product is suitable for her.

Persona #2 — This persona is already an expert. They’ll probably prefer a resource-based lead magnet, like a guide on the best scooter wheel styles for different tricks. (Yes, that really is a thing).

Take a look at what your competitors are doing for lead magnet ideas. Also, check out what kind of content your audience is already responding well to:

Are you seeing a large number of questions on one topic?
Are you getting more engagement from blogs or videos?
Which pages are users visiting most frequently on your website? (You can use Google Analytics to find this information).

Create

You’ve finalised your offer, and you’re happy with it as a lead magnet idea.

Now it’s designing and creating time.

Either get your in-house designer on it or use a platform like Canva — which offers many customisable templates like newsletters, e-books and worksheets.

Once you’ve designed and written your lead magnet, you need to develop a punchy title that’ll reel ‘em in. We’re thinking:

Persona #1 — The Ultimate Guide to Scooter-Stroller Fitness

Persona #2 — 20 Scooter Stroller Tricks to Impress Your Baby

Conversion Path

We’ve already touched on this earlier when we discussed What Turns Website Visitors into Leads?

You need a landing page, form, thank you page and a class email sequence.

For the form, the bare minimum is a blank field for their name and email.

TOP TIP: Remember that the more fields you add, the more likely it is that the user will abandon your form. No one likes spending ages filling in their details!

Add your leads to an email sequence, which will push them further down the marketing funnel. This email sequence’s purpose is to nurture the user, drip-feeding additional resources like newsletters or the odd webinar here and there.
Track attack! Make sure you set up tracking on your conversion path. A large part of refining your lead magnet strategy is actually seeing how your users behave. From this, you can identify further optimisation opportunities to nail future conversions!

Google Analytics is your best bet. For more info, we’ve even got a guide on how to set up Google Analytics 4.

Lead Magnet Schedule

You might think “Job well done” when you’ve created and instigated your lead magnet.

What else is there left to do?

It’s important not to be complacent.

Depending on the kind of lead magnet you’ve created, you’ll need to update it every few months according to changing data and consumer behaviour.

As an example, say you’ve created a report on the number of scooter accidents in 2022.

At the end of 2023, you’ll need to update the report to reflect new, current data — otherwise, your offering loses value. It’s no longer relevant.

You can even conduct surveys on your lead magnets to better understand how to improve the value of your offer and measure its success.

Lead Magnet Ideas

Hopefully, you’re more clued up on the lead magnet process by now, and you’re primed and ready to go.

To help you on your way, we’ve compiled a few lead magnet ideas for inspiration.

Wise Whitepapers

Expert advice is always sought after.

Especially if it’s FREE!

A whitepaper allows you to share unique data or advice on a topic you’re a specialist in.

In exchange for their email, your whitepaper readers receive expert advice or an innovative solution to a complex issue.

British-based market research and data analytics firm YouGov recently released an informative whitepaper exploring how people prefer to buy their cars.

This piece is gold dust for independent or B2B automotive sellers and car manufacturers.

Companies can uncover more about future marketing strategies built on credible data from this whitepaper.

With only a few fields (business email, industry and location), it seems like a fair trade-off.

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Worldy Webinars

As we’ve said before, expert advice is golden — but so is experience.

Webinars are a smart way to impart your niche knowledge. You’re letting potential leads know that:

You’re an expert in this industry with experience
The webinar has revealed there’s more to this than they thought, and they need your services/ product.

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In this example, Giada mentions she got her first fashion job at Alexander McQueen without any experience.

Webinars provide your audience with engaging video content and an opportunity for a Q&A session with a specialist. Start offering webinars on demand, and you could gain leads for months and even years into the future.

To “potential leads” who want to get into the highly competitive fashion industry but lack experience, this is a high-value offering.

They can learn, for free, how to get a job in fashion. That’s pretty cool.

It also allows Giada to flex her muscles as a fashion educator. Participants of the webinar will experience her expertise and then realise they might need further instruction.

Boom. Lead secured.

Educating E-books

Similar to whitepapers, e-books are aimed at solving a specific problem.

But, they’re not as data-driven.

E-books centre around readability, they’re more like conversational guides. The writing should be simple, chatty and easy to follow. You want your readers to understand what you’re talking about in clear, concise language.

Here’s one we made earlier.

It’s a pretty good deal if we don’t say so ourselves.

If you’re interested, you get a FREE marketing and website review completed by a real human being, not a tool. On top of that, you get a FREE copy of our bestselling digital marketing e-book: “How To Get To The Top of Google” which has over 500+ 5-star reviews on Amazon.

We’ve made sure the writing in this book is as jargon-less as possible, providing anyone with a plain English guide to search engine optimisation.

If you’re new to the industry or digital marketing leaves you scratching your head — a free website review AND a free e-book are definitely worth an email address exchange.

Tailored Templates

Imagine you’re pushed for time, and you need to make a quick infographic for a presentation.

The last thing you want to do is to spend ages agonising over colours and fonts. There has to be a quicker way of doing it.

Editable templates are the solution.

Canva is a brilliant example of a free and easy-to-use design site which has lots of templates available — from social media posts to posters, infographics and newsletters.

All they ask in exchange is your email address when you sign up. Simplifying everyday work tasks with convenient templates is a very valuable and convenient offering.

Persuasive Product Samples or Trials

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You wouldn’t buy a car without trying it out first, right?

Unless I guess, you’ve wanted a Ferrari for ages and owning it is all you care about.

If that’s the case, fair enough!

Most people, though, like a bit of a try before you buy.

In our client’s case, Takeaway Packaging, they offer free environmentally friendly product samples. To process a free sample order, they’ll need your email address.

Offering free product samples is one of the most powerful lead magnets out there. Why? Because if a customer likes the product, they’re going to buy it. Plus, they’ll be more receptive to future offers you send them because they’ve got proof that your product is great.

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If you offer a service, free trials are the equivalent of a free product sample. Amazon’s Prime Student offer is a good example.

Those who sign up will get premium delivery options at half the price Prime usually costs, with other added benefits. Students who want to save money will enjoy a taste of speedy, cheap delivery for free and will likely stay subscribed after their 6-month trial is over. Especially since they’ve got to opt out themselves. Smart one, Amazon.

Clever Case Studies

Case studies are compelling lead magnets for several reasons.

Firstly, they provide proof of your company’s abilities:

“We helped a dolls house miniatures creator gain twenty thousand Instagram followers in a month.”

…or something like that.

Secondly, they can be used as lead magnet content, which is “gated” by requiring an email for download. Take it one step further and engage your audience more by positioning your case study as newsworthy content:

“How you can gain twenty thousand Instagram followers in a month as a small business.”

“- learn how we helped a dolls house miniatures creator gain a huge following on social media in a short period.”

Do you see the difference?

In the first instance, you’re letting your prospective lead know that you mean business and boy, are you good at it.

“Look what we did!”

In the second example, you’re telling your lead this content is educational — which will help boost organic traffic, too.

Here’s a good example from Thinkific, a software company which helps people create and sell online courses in their own area of expertise:

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More Lead Magnet Ideas…

We’ve provided you with a few examples, but it’s up to you to work out which lead magnet idea will work best with your target audience and the problem they’re looking to solve.

Understanding your customer’s journey is crucial to working out how you can influence them to exchange their contact information for a valuable offering.

Our examples aren’t the only kinds of lead magnets you can create, you can also try:

Tools and widgets
Workbooks
Courses
Quizzes and tests
Secret “insider” insights
Access to a VIP club with member benefits
Free consultations or quotes
Catalogues
Discounts
Free shipping.

We could go on.

But technology is a constantly evolving beast.

At the moment, video-based lead magnets are some of the most effective.

A study from GetResponse revealed that 47% of marketers found that video or text-based lead magnets performed the best. The rise of video marketing is set to continue, with 77% of global viewing time dedicated to on-demand content.

So, keep an eye out for marketing trends when you’re creating your lead magnet. Find and tailor an offer to support your business objectives and fulfil your target customer’s needs.

It’s time to get creative.