In this guide, you’ll learn what makes a great lead magnet, who’s doing it right, and how to design your own highly effective lead magnets.
A robust email list gives you access to a loyal, receptive audience on an ongoing basis.
“Subscribe to our newsletter!” just doesn’t work anymore as a list-building tactic.
Consumers are wearier now more than ever before about increasing the volume of email they’ll receive.
Who wants an inbox full of spam or irrelevant offers? No, thank you.
What Is a Lead Magnet?
A lead magnet compels your site visitors to exchange information, such as their email address for access. This can be a piece of content such as a whitepaper, ebook, or newsletter.
It’s content that drives awareness but also provides information that helps a potential customer engage and find interest in your product or service.
Or, a lead magnet might be a free product sample, trial subscription, demo, or other product/service-related incentive.
Of course, no one freely gives their email address away. Lead magnets need to offer the reader value in exchange for their opting in to receive messages from the brand in the future.
What Makes a Good Lead Magnet?
The best and highest-converting lead magnets have these important things in common:
They’re Relevant
Even the best offer will fall flat if it doesn’t resonate with your intended audience.
It’s important to remember, too, that a high volume of low-quality leads can backfire big time, costing you a lot of wasted time in follow-up.
Make sure your lead magnet serves a needful purpose with a valuable target audience segment of yours.
They Have Perceived Value
What are you offering that is worth giving you my email address for?
If it’s something I can find elsewhere in a quick Google search, I’m probably not going to bother signing up for your list.
The best lead magnets offer expert insight, insider knowledge, a quicker way to get something done, or some other creative and unique solution that solves a real problem for people.
How are you going to help me out – will accessing your lead magnet save me time or money, or make my life better in some way?
Take my email! Take my money!
They Serve Your Business Purposes
A great lead magnet delivers on that initial promise you made when asking the person to give you their email. You never want to leave them hanging with a clickbait-esque offer you can’t deliver on.
But if you solve the entire scope of the problem that makes that lead a good candidate for your business… what was the point?
The best lead magnets solve enough of the problem that the person recognizes that you are the expert (or your product is the answer) and can take them the rest of the way.
