Lead magnets are a great way to build your email list. You give away something of value for free in exchange for a name and email address.

Sounds great…right? So what’s the problem.

The problem is that people are just not that willing to give away their email address anymore. You really need to entice them with an irresistible offer. They have to see that there is greater gain in what they are receiving vs. what they are giving.

April Beach says, “The purpose of a lead magnet is to truly help your ideal customer by quickly solving one of their most common problems.  In return you will establish yourself as an expert, show your commitment to their support, and begin to build a relationship, so they will turn to you for future {paid} support.

So what makes a great lead magnet? What type of lead magnets convert the best?

 

The more tailored your lead magnet is, the better it is going to convert.

 

Will Blunt, from Blogger Sidekick, says that, “As a general rule, the more tailored your lead magnet is, the better it is going to convert.”

He continues to illustrate with this example from the Health and Fitness industry.

Let’s say you have written an article about “The 37 Best Ab Strengthening Exercises”.

What most blogs and site owners would do is to create a generic lead magnet (such as an eBook) and slap it on the end of every post that is semi-related to that topic. Something like “How to Burn 20 Kilos in 20 Days”.

If someone has read that article, you can near on 100% guarantee that they are interested in “Ab Strengthening Exercises”.

But that’s it… You can’t assume that just because they are interested in that topic, that they are interested in “losing weight”, “getting fit”, “eating healthy” or an array of other semi-related topics that you may cover in that eBook. They may be interested in ab exercises for a completely different reason.

Therefore, you need to stay focused on the topic itself that interests them and tie the lead magnet directly to that. For example, you can offer a PDF copy of the article. This way they have a digital copy that they can refer to at any time. Or you can add to it by giving them even more of the same thing.

Here’s what I mean… Your article is about “The 37 Best Ab Strengthening Exercises” what about adding “You want even more – download an additional 20 must have ab strengthening exercises”. The lead magnet is then directly tailored to the blog post. This is referred to as a content upgrade. Check out successful examples of content upgrades.

But how do I get started? What should I write about?

One of the biggest challenges for many people is coming up with topics and ideas to write about.

Here’s an easy formula you can follow:

1. What is your prospect’s pain point?
2. Why does it matter to them?
3. How do you ease the pain?
4. What will happen if they don’t fix this issue?
5. Help them make the change with a call to action.

What came first the chicken or the egg?

When creating your lead magnet, you can choose to create the article first and then the content upgrade or you can create the lead magnet first and then create articles relevant to that lead magnet.

Babs recently illustrated this point quite well.

He says for example he had published an article about content marketing mistakes in the past.

Then all he did was upgrade the post and measure the conversions. It did really well increasing his content marketing ROI by 687% for his lead magnet (this accounted for over 87% of his total subscriber count).

Bab’s says, “Remember, one of the reasons why content upgrades work so well is the fact that they are laser targeted”.

Writing related articles to your lead magnets gets people to want more increasing the probability of them wanting to download your lead magnet.

 

Key Elements of a Perfect Lead Magnet:

• Specific: truly irresistible lead magnets have to focus on just one problem or audience. If the content is too generic, visitors won’t see the value in it. Also, when lead magnets are very precise, this gives an opportunity to target them even more. They can, for example, be different for audiences coming from different sources of traffic or looking at different parts of the website.

• Valuable: lead magnets should solve core problems or answer direct questions visitors may struggle with. That’s why keyword research comes in handy when deciding on relevant topics. Another way to gain that knowledge are online surveys. Just a simple, direct question can give various possible magnet topics to create content aimed to help.

• Delivered promptly: once someone gives their contact details, they expect the content to be delivered fast. No matter what way of delivering content you prefer (email autoresponder, pay with a tweet, or on-page download) – it has to be done quickly. Why? The attention span of a typical Internet user is about eight seconds.

 

Top 3 Types of Lead Magnets

1. Checklist

Petovera.com – 11 point perfect sales funnel checklist

Image Source: Petovera

 

Create a checklist that naturally ties in with your product or service. Petovera a company that specializes in landing pages and sales funnels decided to create a PDF checklist for people so they could have something to follow when they were building or improving their website sales funnel.

This is how the lead magnet works:

The offer is shown across their website both as a content upgrade on a few blog posts, and in the form of an exit-detection pop-up.

Why it works:

They previously wrote a detailed guide about how it was set up (and in turn it increased their conversion rate by 59%) using the “Pop-n-Spread Technique.” The main reasons this works so well are:

• Checklists eliminate guesswork and are very clear on what you need to include to accomplish something

• It’s free

• They had previously tested a number of other offers and found their readers liked this one the best

• The design for the pop-up was based on a proven template

 

2. Swipe File or Cheat Sheet

Somewhat like the check list a cheat sheet or swipe file is something that the visitor can download and keep as a reference.

What makes this type of lead magnet so enticing is that the work is already done for you. With a swipe file you find what you need, copy & paste it to your project, make a few edits {if needed} and you’re done. PEOPLE LOVE THESE!!!

Kudani recently ran a swipe file campaign where visitors could download a copy of the ‘Ultimate Headline Hacks’. In one week alone they generated 927 new leads.

This is how the lead magnet works:

Visitors were sent to a landing page where they were offered the free download. They would give their email address and would receive an email almost instantly asking them to confirm that address. Once this was done they would be automatically re-directed to the download page.

This lead magnet was particularly of interest as you could literally copy and paste the headlines into your posts. You could use it for social media, on your blogs, ebook titles, etc.

It also allowed the company to advertise their new headline tool called Headlinr. By the way, Headlinr is a great tool not only for swipes but as well it gives you tons of ideas for writing your next blog post.

The headlines in Headlinr have been tested and are proven to convert. The best part is that the tool is FREE and available for download at the Chrome store. There is also a paid version where you can add in your own swipe files plus you get even more headlines to choose from.

 

 

Here’s a sneak peek inside. The lead magnet covers the 6 headline types that drive most engagement.

 

Russ Henneberry, from DigitalMarketer, also has a swipe file lead magnet that has done exceptionally well. In just six weeks he generated over 28,000 leads.

Visitors were also sent to a landing page where they could optin and immediately receive their download.

These types of leads magnets are very helpful. They give people the answer to a huge problem ‘headlines’. Headlines are very challenging to write and even more so to get them to convert. A swipe file with a list of headlines provides a great solution.

 

3. Post PDF & Content Upgrade

As mentioned earlier, the content upgrade is a great way to entice people to optin to receive a copy of the article itself or additional information about the subject of the blog post.

Another campaign run by Kudani was their ‘500 Blog Post Ideas’ ebook. This was a content upgrade for an article called ‘500 Blog Post Ideas to Get You Inspired’. The blog post itself already gave a lot of valuable information, but at the same time served as a teaser of what was to come if you opted in. This campaign has done exceptionally well and continues to be available.

Available for download here.

 

Include a Strong Call to Action

While it’s great to give away something for free this is also an ideal opportunity to share some of your products or services. Add a call to action in your lead magnet. This can be at the beginning, inside the content, or at the end. You can use content links to send readers to various offers or show a call to action box or link at the end of the ebook.

Why placing it at the end works better?

When people get to the end of a blog post, PDF, book, etc. they want to be told what to do next. They are finished with the content and so their eyes will be focused directly at what you are offering. If they’ve liked what they’ve read, then the probability of a conversion increases. And for this reason it is important not to just entice them to the lead magnet, but also to really provide something that is useful and of value.

At the very least add a hyperlink back to your website in the header or footer. This way if they want to visit you again they will be able to find you easily.

What makes a good call to action?

The same strategy or technique you used for your lead magnet. Apply the same ideas and concepts inside of your PDF as well. You can do this with a button and some simple copy.  Below are some helpful tips to get you started.

 

Top 10 Calls to Action Button Text

1. Download
2. Buy Now
3. Subscribe
4. Learn More
5. Read More
6. Free Trial
7. Share Now
8. Add to Cart
9. Sign Up
10. Join Free

 

Three things that nearly all the CTAs include:

1. A no-obligation statement that removes or reduces risk. In many cases, they’re asking for a free trial rather than a purchase. In other words, try us, you’ll like us. This gives people the confidence to buy.

2. Tell people what to do next. For example, “Click the button below.”

3. Encouragement to respond right away. Don’t give people an option to wait and think about it.

 

Here are two great call to action examples from Econsultancy:

GoTo Meeting

Great use of colour here. A bright orange button is always going to stand out and does not have negative connotations as sometimes associated with red.

GoTo Meeting has opted for a slightly stronger shade than on its logo, so the button stands out more but still looks like it fits with the rest of the branding.

The positioning is also spot on, with the button right in the middle of the page so your eyes are naturally drawn to it.

Image Source: Econsultancy

Firefox

Firefox has opted for an extremely simple design here, stating in only four words why you should go with its browser right above a very clear button.

The fact that it says ‘free download’ on the button rather than something like ‘download now’ is also a nice touch. It’s giving people another reason to download it without cluttering up the rest of the page with more text.

 

Image Source: Econsultancy

Conclusion

No matter how great your content is you will need to do a little bit of work to attract prospective customers. Leads magnets are a great way to provide real value while at the same time growing your email list. But don’t just give away general information, be specific, solve problems, and give people what they really want. And remember the importance of the call to action. Take advantage of opportunities where you can interact and engage with your potential customers. Remember, at the end of it all the intent is to build lifetime customer relationships.