How To Create Lead Magnets That Grow Your List and Increase Sales

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How To Create Lead Magnets That Grow Your List and Increase Sales

What is a lead magnet? You probably already know what a lead magnet is, but in case someone doesn’t:

A lead magnet is an incentive a business offers to potential buyers in exchange for their contact information, such as name and email.

And they do this to build an email list of prospects – and customers – to follow-up and communicate with them.

Sometimes they may ask prospects’ to give additional information, like their phone number and address. It depends on the lead magnet, if the lead magnet e.g. is a physical item, then the address is necessary of course. And if the lead magnet is a free consultation, the phone number is needed.

But most often it’s enough with just the email address.

Does every business need a lead magnet?

If a business wants to generate leads and sales online, then it needs a lead magnet. Here’s why:

Website visitors don’t give away their email address online without a good reason to do so.

It’s a business owner’s or marketer’s job to give them a compelling reason.

The reason why it’s important to collect email addresses and build an email list is that it’s not often a website visitor buys a product or service the very first time they see it online – unless it’s a well-known product or website (think Amazon) or a low-cost product.

Additionally, there are so many distractions online competing for their attention, so people usually need to get exposed to an offer online several times before they take action. They must also feel that they trust the seller.

Building an email list of people who are interested in your business and products, gives you a way to follow-up with them, to build trust and a relationship and eventually turn them into paying customers.

…Here Is a FREE Lead Magnet Creation Guide & Worksheet You Can Download:

Lead magnets should ideally be a “teaser” that pre-sells your main offer

Your lead magnet should pre-sell and be a teaser for your main offer. E.g. let’s say you sell a blogging course for $297 (your own course or an affiliate product).

It’s easier to sell this course if you first offer a lead magnet, a teaser, to build a list of potential buyers of this course. THEN you offer the blogging course as “the next logical step” to your list, i.e. the people who have requested (opt-ed in) to receive your lead magnet.

Relevant lead magnets for a blogging course could be:

“How to pick a profitable niche for your new blog”
“5 things you MUST do before building your blog”
“10 steps how to make money with a blog”

Inside any of these lead magnets, a related main (core) offer can be:

A blogging course: “Want to build a blog but don’t know how? Click here”
Web design: “Want us to design a blog FOR you? Contact us here”
Consultation: “Does your blog have too few visitors? Sign up for a FREE 30 min. consultation with us how you can increase your number of visitors”

To build and grow an email list, you must set up a sales funnel

A successful sales funnel begins with the lead magnet (also known as an opt-in bribe).

To set this up online, you need a lead capture page (see example here) or a capture/sign up form (see example) to capture the emails – and perhaps other contact information.

You need an autoresponder system like e.g. Aweber, ConvertKit or GetResponse to collect and store the email addresses and other contact information, and to send out emails to your list automatically.

Tip: When starting out, you can manage without an autoresponder system if you find it complicated. Instead you can build your list using e.g. Messenger on Facebook and /or a ChatBot. This is an “easier” strategy. However, in the long run you should also set up an email system – since an email list is something you own and control. You don’t own social media tools like Messenger, so it’s a bit risky to rely on only that.

How to make your lead magnets IRRESISTIBLE!

To attract high quality prospects to opt-in to your list, your audience must find your lead magnet irresistible.

Therefore, when you start brainstorming ideas what your lead magnet should be, something that’s relevant and can pre-sell your main offer – you must know your target audience very well.

What are they searching for online, what keywords do they use when searching?

You must know their pains, frustrations, dreams, what they think and worry about.

>> For tips about how to know what your prospects’ REAL problems are => Click Here

Write this down, then pick ONE pain / problem / dream they have, and think of how to offer a quick fix or a quick win to this – or at least part of it – with a lead magnet. It can be to:

solve a problem they have (ideally an URGENT problem they are desperately searching a solution for)
give a shortcut to a result they want
educate your audience to help them better understand what they need
help them save money – e.g financial tips or tax-planning tips for small business owners
help them save time – e.g. by giving them a checklist how to do a task faster or easier or tips how to outsource something
explain step-by-step how to do something people find difficult or complicated in a guide, a blueprint or a video

How to “spy” on your prospects online

If you find you need more information about your target audience, take a couple of hours and “spy” on them on social media. You want to make sure you know their real problems and desires.

Go to Facebook and check out pages they Like and check out Facebook groups they are in. Look for problems and questions they have, results they want etc.

>> For more tips how to do this click here => 5 steps to help you tap into your prospects’ REAL problems

Also visit influencers’ and competitors’ websites and social media channels for more information about “what’s going on” and trending right now in your niche.

This will give you lots of excellent ideas for lead magnets (and other content) you can create for your audience.

Another thing you can do for more lead magnet ideas and to see what’s “popular” is to go to Amazon’s Kindle store. Enter your keyword in the search bar (e.g. “blogging”) and take a look at popular titles and ebooks. Many offer a “sneak peek” of the book as well.

What format works best for lead magnets?

There are many different types of lead magnet formats.

Many lead magnets are downloadable content such as an eBook, a report, a guide, a review, a template, a cheat sheet, a worksheet, a resource list or a checklist.

It can also be a video (or a video series), a podcast, a webinar, an audio or a software, a plug-in, a quiz, a survey, a contest, a coupon or a free trial.

What format and type of lead magnet that works best depends on:

Your type of business: Is it a software company, a skin care company, a coaching business, a restaurant? The best lead magnet looks very different for different kinds of businesses.
What your lead magnet is: Is it a software tool, a free trial, a free coaching session, a blueprint, coupons etc.
What product or service your lead magnet / sales funnel will lead your prospects to further down the funnel. Click here for information about => Sales Funnels
How your ideal customer prefers to consume content: Do they prefer reading an eBook vs. watching a video for example.
The most effective way to deliver the lead magnet

Additionally, the “perfect” lead magnet should:

Be easy to consume. E.g. a 5-8 pages eBook is better than a 50-100 pages eBook and a 5-10 minute video is better than a 45 min video – at least in most cases. The reason for this is that people have limited time, and if they think that your lead magnet takes too much time to consume when they look at it, they may never go ahead and consume it.
Focus on ONE specific problem (or benefit), for a specific segment of your market.
Offer an easy-to-implement solution to a REAL problem this segment has. The more urgent the problem is, the more desperate they want a solution – and the better your lead magnet will convert.
Lead to a related product /products you sell or intend to sell in your sales funnel. Ideally, your lead magnet is a “teaser” and part of the “big” solution your main product offers. It’s useful – but should create an “itch” to learn more.
Give the impression of high perceived value. Your lead magnet should look nice and presentable, have appealing design, layout and format.
Have high value, deliver what it promises, and give immediate gratification in some way. It should help them to achieve something.
Have a great headline. The headline must be enticing enough to get your audience’ attention in the first place.

At what stage is your audience in the sales process?

When you brainstorm lead magnet ideas for your business, you should also consider at what stage your target audience currently is in the sales process.

The basic stages of the sales process are: awareness, consideration and decision. As you can see in the examples here below, the keywords people search for are also different depending on what stage they are at:

1) Awareness

During this stage, prospective customers are aware of and have identified their problem. They are looking for useful information to educate themselves, to answer questions they have and direct them towards the solution.

Suitable lead magnets for this stage are:

Checklists
eBooks
Reports
Templates
Worksheets

=> Keywords prospects use at this stage are generic terms such as: “flat screen tv”, “wrinkles”, “hotel in Las Vegas”.

2) Consideration

Prospective customers are now looking for different solutions to their problem, and evaluates how your offer (solution) can meet their needs, compared to similar offers.

Your lead magnet should focus on how your product or service can solve their problem.

Suitable lead magnets are:

Case studies
Comparison guides or Reviews
An email course
Video training / Webinar
White papers

=> Keywords used at this stage have the intent to compare products: “compare flat screen tvs”, “best anti-wrinkle creams”, “Las Vegas hotels + best ratings”

3) Decision / Purchase

During the decision stage, they are on the edge of conversion, but need something to “tip” them over to take action.

Your lead magnet should help to position your product as the solution to their needs, and ideally show why your product is better than your competitors’ products. Coupons and discounts work well for conversions.

Lead magnets that are effective for this stage are:

Coupons & Promo codes
Comparison charts
(Live) Demos
Free consultation
Trials
Done-for-you solutions

=> Keywords are now very specific and much further down the buying cycle: “where to buy sony 42 lcd”, “best price la praire anti-wrinkle cream”, “best deal Bellugi Hotel Las Vegas”

Are lead magnets only useful for online businesses?

The “right” kind of lead magnet can generate more leads, customers and sales for almost any business, not only online businesses. See the examples here below:

As you can see, each one of these different businesses can benefit greatly from using a form of lead magnet to build an email list.

Having an email list makes it possible for a business, online or offline, to communicate with their prospects and customers about business / product news, special promotions and to share useful information to build trust and deepen the relationship with them. This will eventually convert more prospects into customers, and customers into loyal customers.

Ready to start creating a lead magnet for your business?

I think you by now can see how effective lead magnets can be also for YOUR business to get more leads and make more SALES!

If you’d like some tips and inspiration to start creating an irresistible lead magnet for YOUR business…

…Here Is a FREE Lead Magnet Creation Guide & Worksheet You Can Download:

And if you plan your lead magnet to be an eBook, a report, checklist or similar, and you’d like to create it fast and make it look professional too, then here’s a SMART tool to help you do that:

=> Create professional eBooks in minutes

This tool helps you with…

Writing
Designing
and Formatting

…professional looking lead magnets (eBooks and similar).

You even find templates (different covers and layouts) that you can edit and use, content in 15 niches you can copy and tweak (1.000 niche articles) and free images.

>> Click here to learn more => Create professional eBooks in minutes