How to Create Lead Magnets

Lead magnet is such a big part of modern marketing and yet only a few brands manage to create a good one. Your revenue will suffer if you don’t create a good lead magnet and your conversion rate will fail too. People take time when they want to buy things. Although your website and content is so lovingly created, it may be forgotten the next day. This is why it’s so important to create a good lead magnet and capture their email address right away, so you have some way of contacting them later.

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A lead is a person who gave you their contact information. Usually, an email address. A lead magnet, then, is an asset which you can offer for free in exchange for an email address. No one is really enticed to give their information for free unless you offer something in return. This is what would be your lead magnet. People will also like your brand more.

But your lead will depend on your audience and it’s often very specific to each business. In that spirit, here are some tips on lead magnet creation.

Define Your Persona

Creating a lead magnet starts with understanding who your lead is. You need to understand your audience and what they want the most. What’s important to them? What problems do they have? How can the solution be delivered?

Create a depiction of who your target customer is and base that on the data that you collect.

For example, if you have a wedding organizing business, your lead magnet would obviously be related to weddings. Then go in deeper to understand specifically about what your customers need to know.

Recommended: 5 Step Process to Creating a Detailed Buyer Persona

Make It Specific to Your Audience

So, one of the worst things you can do is make a lead magnet that doesn’t work for your specific audience. For instance, if you have a website building business but you gave out a lead magnet about writing or about marketing. Of course, there is some connection but it’s not specific to your audience at all.

The next worst thing you can do is to share too little in your lead magnet. For example, just repeat information they can find anywhere online. Finally, you also don’t want to give them too much. Then they don’t need your business at all.

Always aim for a happy medium where they have received satisfying information but not at the expense of your own relevance.

Make a Promise and Deliver a Result

The lead magnet always has to make a big promise and then deliver an appropriate solution. Otherwise, it’s not attractive and not useful at all. Add a CTA which is the promise and tell them the exact result they are going to get by getting the lead magnet.

Then, make sure that your lead magnet really delivers on that promise. If it doesn’t, your leads will easily unsubscribe or block you. They can also start to think poorly of your paid products.

Recommended: How to Create an Effective Lead Gen Strategy Using Mobile Marketing

Make Your Lead Magnet Free and Action Driven

Obviously, your lead magnet needs to be free. Your prospects will not make a purchase at this point, not even if it’s cheap. In fact, making something cheap can make it seem less valuable and useful. So, it’s best to just make it free, a gift. It needs to be useful as well, something your readers can truly use and make an immediate action. There should be detailed instructions there too.

There Should Be an Immediate Gratification

No one likes waiting. So, your lead magnet shouldn’t make your lead wait. For example, some businesses might make a mistake of offering a free webinar but then the webinar is a month away or only on certain days of the week. This doesn’t work. They will forget about it. Plus, they can’t keep it, it’s not theirs.

“The lead magnet should be something they can download instantly and keep forever.” says Helena Brown, a business writer at Draftbeyond and Research Papers UK.

It Should Be Quick and Easy to Consume

Creating a long lead magnet, such as an ebook that has more than 100 pages might seem like a good idea. However, it’s not. A lead magnet should deliver quickly. People are not going to spend hours or days on your lead magnet. They will probably skim through it when they download it and then move on. The point is to make it scannable. Make it short, make it easy for them to get value. Don’t make them work for it.

Make Different Versions of the Lead Magnet

Some people like to read, some like to watch things, some prefer to listen. Make it accessible for all of them. Make a book version, a video and audio version. This will help you grab as many leads as possible and you won’t miss any because you forgot to think of what they may prefer. “You can also A/B test your lead magnets and see which one works best and then use the one that does.” says Piter Ames, a marketing blogger at Last Minute Writing and Writinity.

Do More

Lead magnets usually aim to inform. However, this can get quite boring. Make sure that you do more by making the lead magnet entertaining. Crack an appropriate joke, make comments and so on. Imprint the personality of your own brand or your own personality in that lead magnet.

Add a Sense of Urgency

Making your lead magnet urgent can get you more leads. Because, here’s the deal - some people will be too lazy to collect your lead magnet or they might not have enough time at the moment they visit your website the first time. So, they might leave it for later. And then they will forget about it, as often happens. But, you can make it urgent by adding a timer and let them know that it’s a limited time offer.

Some Lead Magnets Your Audience Will Love

Here is a list of common lead magnets that your audience will go for in a heartbeat.

• Ebook - Quite common and works best. It doesn’t have to be anything huge, less than 20 pages in the pdf form is the best way to go.
• Checklist - Checklist will take minutes to create and they are highly actionable. People love them too.
• Guide or report - It can be an infographic, a white paper or a report. They are highly diverse.
• Video training - People love to watch and learn which is why video is one of the best lead magnets out there.
• Cheat sheet - This is a fun way to add more leads because who doesn’t want a cheat sheet on something - or everything?

Recommended: 1000+ Lead Generation Strategies, Ideas, Best Practices & Examples

Jayme Hammit

Jaimy Hammit is a marketer at Gum Essays and Lucky Assignments. Her main focus is lead generation and she does research on the best possible ways to gather leads. She also shares her advice to help everyone grow personal and professional brands