Lead Magnet: Detailed Overview of a Tool for Attracting Clients

Online sales are becoming increasingly complex year by year, as achieving good traffic and a sufficient number of leads with the help of a simple website is quite challenging. Therefore, to attract clients and increase their trust levels, two primary methods are used. Content marketing achieves this through expert articles, while the sales funnel utilizes lead magnets. These tools help to reduce CPA costs and increase conversions.

What are Lead Magnets

Lead magnets refer to free and informative content of a web resource, which a person can obtain by performing a specific action. The concept of useful content includes training courses, partial functionality, or discounts. Any of these examples should be related to your activity and attract the visitor.

The Entire Process Looks Like This:

1. Initially, the user visits your resource.
2. Next, he sees a lead magnet with an attractive offer, enticing him to enter his personal information or purchase something.
3. After that, he takes the necessary step — leaves a phone number, comment, or registers.
4. As a result, he receives an excellent bonus from you for the actions done.

For example, you can offer site visitors to subscribe to your page in exchange for a discount on a purchase.

Functions of a Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is set up to not lose potential clients, visitors to your resource might become. At the very first stage of getting to know your product, it attracts people. Let’s list the main functions of lead magnets:

• Help to obtain contact details of visitors.
• Participate in familiarizing potential clients with products.
• Demonstrate the significance of the product.
• Establish trustworthy connections with visitors.

Thanks to these tools, you obtain a list of those leads who are already ready to buy something or use your services. But the main thing here is not to force a person to do it, but to engage with them and be useful. For this tool to work in your favor, it should at least partially deal with the problems your visitors have.

Advantages of a Lead Magnet

In most cases, it is advertising that calls on users to visit a particular web resource. But for the most part, they visit a site, view its contents, and leave forever. Therefore, it is necessary to place a lead magnet at the beginning of the sales funnel. Thus, it will be involved in the following:

• Inviting the visitor to take action on the web-page.
• Reminding them of the site’s existence through email newsletters.

This allows for better tracking of traffic and reducing the cost of site promotion. Moreover, there are few companies in the market today willing to provide valuable services to site visitors for free.

How to Assess Lead Magnet Effectiveness

When planning an engagement tool, all stages need to be carefully thought out. Each component should encourage the person to move further up the sales funnel. Therefore, ideally, a lead magnet should have the following characteristics:

• Provide a solution to at least one of the person’s problems.
• Have a clear and logical structure.
• Provide a detailed answer to a specific question. Avoid overloading one file with extraneous information on different topics.
• Show personal experience, as it carries the most value and uniqueness.

You should not reward the contacts given by a person by providing them with advertisements since no one likes that. The goal of a lead magnet is to demonstrate the company’s merits. You should try to think like your potential client. What would you want to obtain by visiting a similar site, and what problem would you want to solve?

Types of Lead Magnets

A sales funnel can have various appearances and a different number of levels, and it primarily depends on the average purchase amount on the site. If this amount is less than $100, the funnel might consist of 2-3 steps. For example, a person visits a marketing training web resource and leaves their contact details in the form. After that, they receive an email with a discount on marketing lessons.

If the average check amount is significantly higher, the process will be longer, and it will be harder to evoke a desire to purchase something. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the individual characteristics of each direction.

Lead magnets are divided into the following types:

• Allow solving small human problems.
• Helping to have an interesting time (games, tests).
• Used for community formation.
• Helping to obtain new information.
• Demo versions for a closer acquaintance with the product.

The form in which the magnet will be presented plays an important role. It should have a direct connection with the site’s theme, the product, and potential clients. If these are training courses, videos are the best option, while for collective services, examples can be used.

We recommend you use those formats that are already familiar to site visitors. They are quite easy to prepare and can be quickly tested. We suggest you familiarize yourself with the most frequently used lead magnets.

Checklists

This option is the most familiar and pleasant for perception. In it, information is presented briefly, conveniently, and simply. Speaking of business projects, they are perfectly suited, as you only need to convey your experience in a list form.

However, since checklists are used very often, they have become somewhat boring for users. Therefore, to attract clients with them, something unusual and interesting needs to be devised.

Instructions and Notes

People often need expert answers to specific questions. Therefore, they will greatly benefit from a brief action algorithm or memo, allowing them to solve a new problem. Clients like it when they are offered free and useful information based on personal experience.

Templates

Using this format in some directions can pose difficulties. They can be formed in an Excel table with formulas. If these are studios engaged in design, they make templates for Instagram, and also for business card designs. You can also remind customers about you via email newsletters.

Selections

Thanks to this type of lead magnet, it is possible to increase the level of trust in the company in general and its product. It’s best to form selections from the tools used by experts. Many companies form lists of 50-100 services. But if desired, only 5-10 can be included in the list, but the most useful services should be included.

Cheat Sheets

Successful examples are not interesting for everyone. Therefore, it’s best to compile cheat sheets that identify errors and ways to avoid them. You can create instructions in the form of audio recordings, videos, text documents, and media files.

What Lead Magnet Can Achieve the Desired Outcome?

Every site uses the lead magnets that best fit their theme. Let’s consider the most successful examples:

• You can create checklists that offer useful and engaging information to a person. To get a checklist, course, template, or video recordings of lectures, all the person needs to do is enter their email address.
• Users particularly enjoy service discounts. For instance, a person can get a 10% or 15% discount simply for registering or subscribing to brand information newsletter.
• Lead magnets are often used not just to obtain user contact information. Visitors can be offered free guides for registration.
• Magnets on Instagram are often found, engaging people with the opportunity for direct interaction with a brand. What to choose as a tool? It can be a free consultation, checklist, set of smartphone screensavers, or video with useful information.
• For creative people like photographers, presets as lead magnets might be suitable. For someone who wants to perfect their photographs, this will be a wonderful gift. You can also offer photo shoots or master classes. And if the user finds this interesting, they might order a full-fledged photo session.
• If you work in the beauty industry, there are also numerous magnet ideas for you. Your potential customers will appreciate a free checklist with facial skincare information, a nice discount, or an additional free service for purchasing a procedural course.

The main goal is to attract the visitor enough so that they genuinely want what you offer. For this, they wouldn’t mind providing you with their phone number or email address.

Where Should a Lead Magnet be Located on the Site

Lead magnets should be placed where they will be best visible to users. At the same time, the purpose of its placement should be taken into account along with how significant the action it calls for is. If you use newsletter subscriptions as a magnet, it’s best placed at the very bottom of the page, as such an option holds secondary importance. Yet if you want the person to fill out a form or register on the site, place the lead magnet in the central area.

Moreover, the appearance of the lead magnet should also be considered:

• The best place for forms is on the right side of the page (in the sidebar).
• Discounts should be placed in the header as a banner or in the special offer section.
• Pop-up windows are great for checklists and guides.

A more reliable tactic can be selected by placing the lead magnet in several locations simultaneously. This way, the chances of engaging a user are increased. Another useful method is integrating the magnet into the article itself. This can attract the client into the sales funnel.

How to Create a Lead Magnet: Detailed Instructions

Successful client engagement requires approaching each stage of your journey with particular care. Lead magnets will aid you in this process, and the person will move through the sales funnel much faster. Here’s the sequence of forming a lead magnet:

1. Analyze the desires and requirements of the people who might become your clients. Since this tool is created specifically for them and should solve at least one of their problems.
2. Identify the main task of the magnet and its promotion path. For example, if you take links and forms for data collection, they should differ.
3. Perform competitor activity analysis and try not to repeat it by doing something unique.

It is precisely the experience of the organization’s activity that allows forming the best products for attracting clients. Therefore, an analysis of ready-made materials will bring great benefits – there you can find ways to solve your target audience’s problems. A lead magnet needs to be constantly improved and changed, as only this way will you perfect it. The increase in conversions will indicate that you have achieved the goal.

Conclusion

As it has recently become increasingly difficult to form a client base and spark their interest in a specific brand, a tool like a lead magnet will definitely come in handy. When developing it, you need to consider your potential clients’ qualities and the problems they would like to solve.

There are several types of magnets, and each of them will be effective in a specific case. If your site deals with sales, it’s desirable to use magnets with discounts and attractive delivery offers. If it’s necessary to boost interest, useful materials for the user will suit, and for engaging new visitors, unique content can be used.