How to create a great Lead Magnet

One of the necessities for doing business in today’s online world, especially if your business offers services, is a lead magnet. I’ve talked about these in previous articles, but today I want to go into more depth about what they are, and how to make sure you have a great one.

What’s a Lead Magnet?

In simplest terms, a lead magnet is something you give away for free in exchange for someone’s email address. But, in reality, it’s much more than that. A lead magnet is part of a systematic way to build your list of leads. In today’s online world, that means getting their email address.

Why is that important? Because once you have their email address, you can regularly send them newsletters, helpful information, tips—any information that will help you build their trust in you. And it’s by building that trust that you increase the chance they will buy something from you down the road.

So, what can you use as a lead magnet? Just about anything that will be helpful to your target audience. And that’s the key—it must be something helpful. There are 2 reasons for that.

1) The only way you can get someone to download your lead magnet is to make it something they feel will actually be helpful to them.

2) Once they download your lead magnet, the only way you can build their trust in you is by showing how helpful (and knowledgeable) you are.

Today, lead magnets are typically downloadable documents. They come in many forms.

·         Checklists

·         Quizzes

·         Guides

·         ebooks

·         How-to videos

·         Courses

·         Newsletters

·         Etc.

There are many other types of documents that can also be used as lead magnets. The key is that they are free, and that they are helpful.

What makes a good lead magnet?

Whatever you choose as your lead magnet, makes sure it has all of the following characteristics.

·         It’s free. The only thing that someone should have to do to get your lead magnet is provide their email address. Once they do that, they immediately either get a link to the online document (displayed in an online message or sent to their email address) or they get the lead magnet itself sent to their inbox.

·         It’s helpful. I can’t stress this enough—the lead magnet must be something that is truly helpful to the reader. Examples: For an accountant—a list of all possible income tax deductions a person can claim. For a landscape gardener—a guide to successful lawn fertilizing. For a personal trainer—a free video showing the proper technique for stretching the main leg muscles.

·         It’s targeted to one specific problem. You don’t want to put too much information into one lead magnet. Keep it focussed. A best practice is for the magnet to solve one, limited, specific problem. If our personal trainer’s lead magnet gave information on how to properly stretch every muscle in your body, it would be too long, and the reader’s interest may wane. A good lead magnet will solve one specific problem.  

·         It’s short. A lead magnet will not work for you if the person who downloads it doesn’t read it. And one of the main things that typically prevents people form reading a document is length. Keep your magnet fairly short, something that someone can use/complete in less than 5 minutes. (Some experts say less than 2 minutes!)

·         It’s clear. Another thing that keeps people from reading a document is complexity. If your document is too hard to follow/understand, then the reader will stop reading.

·         It showcases your knowledge. You want to make sure the content of your lead magnet shows how knowledgeable you are. Let’s use our accountant’s list of deductions as an example. Rather than simply list the deductions, a good lead magnet might go into some (but not all) detail about each of these deductions. This would show readers that the accountant really knows what she’s talking about. Similarly, our landscape designer’s lead magnet about fertilizing lawns could perhaps include some details about choosing the right fertilizer, how to apply it correctly, mistakes to avoid, etc.

·         It helps your leads see how little they know/how much they need your services. A great lead magnet makes the reader realize how complicated your industry is, and how little they actually know about it. It should educate them enough to show them how difficult it would be for them to do something alone, without the trusted advice of a knowledgeable advisor (you!). But you can’t be direct about this, you have to make them come to this realization in subtle ways. For example, one of the items on our accountant’s list of deductions might be the Capital Cost Allowance. She might explain what it is (deducting the annual depreciation of items such as cars, computers, furniture, etc.). But then she could talk about some of the pitfalls to watch out for when using this deduction (e.g. you have to know exactly what CRA asset category the item falls into; you can only deduct the maximum allowable by the CRA, etc.) The key is to make the reader aware of some of the possible problems, without giving them the solutions. Our personal trainer might talk about ways to stretch only a few key muscles, then talk about how each of the rest of the body’s muscles has its own specific “best stretching techniques” that will help strengthen and protect them, without saying what those techniques are.

Does my lead magnet have to be a document?

Although e-documents are the most common type of lead magnet today, there are other possible ones.

·         Free consultations

·         Free estimates

·         Free samples

·         Free coupons

·         Free trials (software, app)

·         Free contest entries

·         Free discount points

·         Free webinars

·         etc.

If you sell goods as opposed to services, then free samples and contests are common lead magnets. But there’s no reason you can’t also use documents. A common example is an e-newsletter. In fact, a newsletter is a great idea, because you get the lead’s email address. (With free samples, you typically don’t, unless you do it in a certain way!). But you don’t have to do one instead of the other—most companies have more than one lead magnet.

Many retail stores use free discount points as lead magnets. You sign up (which means they get your email address) and then you accumulate points each time you shop. The store can then send you regular emails about sales, which increases the number of people who shop during the sale. All those points you earn also increase the chances you will make further purchases.

Summary

Creating an effective lead magnet takes thought. But if you use the information in today’s article as a guide, you will be well on your way to creating a great one.

Just one final note: it typically takes some time to develop a good lead magnet. That’s because you want to work and rework it until it’s just right. So don’t rush it—give it the time it needs, and get some feedback from trusted colleagues along the way.

Cheers,

Tim

Helping you engineer the business of you

Information in this article is for general information and is not intended as professional advice.