Are you trying to increase subscribers and boost sales? Persuading people to share their contacts is tough, but using the right lead magnets, you can make it easier and get as many subscribers as you need. Keep reading and find out how to turn your marketing content into a powerful tool to reach your prospects in every stage of the sales funnel.
What is Lead Magnet?
A lead magnet is any content you offer to prospective customers in exchange for personal information like email address, phone number, and name. As people on the Internet are getting increasingly afraid of sharing their data, they won’t give you their email addresses unless they see it is worth it. So the key point is to offer value.
But offering value is no longer enough. Today, most marketers include lead generation in their strategy, and nobody wants to be on thousands of mailing lists and get overwhelmed with too many newsletters or promos.
To get that precious information, you have to offer valuable content and present it in an impactful, engaging way. What’s more, sometimes you will have to lead your prospects in a journey from social media to a blog post and finally leading them to a landing page.
Now, let’s take a look at what makes an effective lead magnet:
1 – Valuable
A good lead magnet should be valuable to your target audience; otherwise, it won’t be considered. But how will you prove your lead magnet is useful beforehand? For instance, if your lead magnet is an eBook, your previous blog and social media posts will determine whether your reader will trust your expertise or not.
2 – Offers solution
From how-to guides to recipes and instructions, lead magnets are meant to help people solve specific problems.
3 – Establishes authority
A great aspect of providing your clients with valuable content is the chance you have to establish authority, so when they are ready to buy, they will strongly consider buying your product or service.
4 – Easy to get
People love instant gratification. Once your reader decides to subscribe, it must be easy to do it. So, create a lead form, ask for minimal information, and add a clear call-to-action.
Now you know what a lead magnet is, let’s get started.
1 – Infographics
Infographics are great tools for all stages of the sales funnel, but they are especially great for the awareness stage because they are impactful, and you can use them to share a lot of information in one piece of content that is easy to understand at a glance.
Infographics work great on social media posts, and a well-designed, highly informative one will draw attention and increase traffic to your site. A good practice is repurposing a blog post into an infographic since reusing existing content is a great way to leverage creative efforts and reach new audiences while saving time.
A great way to start would be to identify your top-performing blog posts in Google Analytics. Once you’ve found it, use free online templates to create your infographics and share them on your favorite social media with a call-to-action. Do that, and you may see more people visiting your site.
2 – eBooks
When people arrive on your landing page, likely, they have already read an article on your blog or interacted with you on social media. If they are about to give you their email address, they think your content is valuable, and now they are looking for more in-depth information. This means you did a good job in the awareness stage.
But once you’ve turned awareness into interest, you have to do more than an article or an engaging visual. If you want to get subscribers, the thing to do is offer something that they couldn’t find while browsing around. If you offer an eBook, you tell your prospects that you have comprehensive content that goes deeper into the subject.
Again, a good start is looking at Google Analytics and finding out the most popular posts. Since they attracted viewers before, they can gain additional exposure when adapted to an eBook.
3 – Lists
A lead magnet does not always need to be complex or long-form content. Sometimes, depending on the subject, a single-page checklist can fit your audience’s needs and provide immediate value.
People love lists. You can use lists to educate your clients, describing the proper order in which a task should be done, or simply giving tips on a given subject.
As an example, have a look at this checklist:
This HR infographic list is divided into broad areas, and the color schema makes it very clear and eye-catching. So even with a simple list, you must focus on design: colors, icons, images, and other features will give your list the appeal you need to make people love your content.
Checklists are quick and easy to create. Using an online tool, you can pick a suitable template to start with and concentrate on the content. In a few minutes, you’ll have a brand-new lead magnet.
When writing down ideas as a list or paragraph, remember most people think better visually. So using a mind map can be more effective and engaging to show how concepts relate.
Instead of listing down, try to present ideas and relate them using branches and bullet points, like in this example.
4 – Product infographics
Once your prospective client trusts your expertise, you can focus on showing the features and benefits of your product.
Product infographics can describe various aspects of a service or focus on a given problem it solves. Depending on your industry, an infographic showing the unique features of your product may be the best choice, especially when it comes to new solutions. If that is the case, you can even use an instructional video to educate your customers.
But sometimes, it’s helpful to be straightforward and compare your product to competitors or different solutions you provide, just like this infographic does:
5 – Quizzes
A lead magnet can also be interactive and funny. Consider using interactive quizzes to engage customers and get feedback, testimonials, and email addresses.
Quizzes are fun and keep the user entertained while helping you get much-needed details for customer segmentation. Remember, it is important to deliver targeted content so you don’t spoil your mailing list by getting marked as spam.
High-converting quizzes usually focus on a few specific needs and use visuals to draw attention and offer value. For instance, your quiz can focus on helping users find out if they know how to do something (pick a topic related to your product). When they finish the quiz, they see the answers and learn new things.
Takeaway
Creating effective lead magnets will boost your marketing strategy as a whole. By implementing these tips, you’ll achieve high-converting content: the key is understanding your target audience and remembering to constantly measure the performance of your content, so you can monitor the effectiveness of your strategy.
About the author
Alessandro Oliveri is a Content Marketer at Venngage, the online infographic template, and design platform. After many years working as a journalist, he now enjoys writing on visuals, SEO, and content creation. His aim is to help people simplify the content marketing process and take visuals to the next level.
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