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What Is a Lead Magnet? 12 Lead Magnet Ideas to Help You Convert

What is a lead magnet? It might not be the first question you think about when building your website, but it should be close to the front. In this guide, you’ll learn exactly what a lead magnet is and how you can use them to drive forward further online success. Let’s take a look. There’s really no reason to have a website if your site visitors aren’t converting.

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SolidWP Editorial Team

What is a lead magnet? It might not be the first question you think about when building your website, but it should be close to the front. In this guide, you’ll learn exactly what a lead magnet is and how you can use them to drive forward further online success.

Let’s take a look.

There’s really no reason to have a website if your site visitors aren’t converting. Successful businesses can spend millions of dollars trying out different lead generation tactics. And what they’ve found is that one of the most effective techniques for converting site users into customers are lead magnets.

First, understand that lead magnets aren’t brand new tools. Successful marketers have been employing this method to increase sales for many decades. But if you don’t know what lead magnets are or how to use them, don’t feel like you’re alone.

There are a lot of people in the same shoes.

lead magnets

What are Lead Magnets?

Lead magnets are defined as marketing tools. They’re used to generate leads by offering users something fun, exciting, or valuable in exchange for their contact info.

You’ll find several different types of lead magnets that are used to generate leads, including:

  • eBooks
  • Whitepapers
  • Templates
  • A lot more

But what are lead magnets so important for your online business?

What You Need Lead Magnets To Succeed

Lead magnets do something that few other marketing tactics do: They immediately form a powerful bridge for your site users that takes them from initial exposure to you and your offer, directly to trust and likability.

In other words, it’s difficult to have exceptional conversion numbers without employing lead magnets in your offer.

The sales journey of a buyer begins with your Call to Action button. Without that, your site users won’t know what to do when they’re ready to take action.

After clicking on this, they’ll be taken to your landing page where they’ll provide all of their details, such as their name and email address. Of course, your landing page needs to be simple, concise, attractive, and send an easy-to-understand message about what you want them to do.

Once they provide these details, your site should take them to a simple thank you page, congratulating them on the decision they’ve made.

Of course, you’ll also continue to follow up with them with an email drip campaign that leads them into making a purchase.

And every single step of this sales journey should include lead magnets to drive up your conversion rates. The key is understanding which of the lead magnets to use in each step of the journey.

Continue on to find out your best approach.

12 Powerful Lead Magnets, and When To Use Them

Understanding what lead magnets are is just the beginning. What’s far more important is that you know which ones to use, and when.

1. Trials and Demos

The vast majority of users that land on your site will want to try out your offer, free of charge before they pay for it. This is especially true if your brand is not well-known or widely trusted within your niche.

Because of this, a free trial or demo of your offer is a very effective lead magnet. Simply stated, free trials and demos vastly increase the chances of making a conversion because the users that sign up for the trial get to take it for a test drive.

If they like what they see, there’s a great chance they’ll convert into paying customers.

And for those that don’t end up converting, you’ll be able to reach out and find out what prevented them from converting.

2. Unique Discount Codes

Pretty much every prospect in the world likes discounts. But you can actually use discounts to increase your profits.

When you publish high-percentage, limited-time discount codes that can only be used when buyers reach a purchase threshold (for example, 33% off all purchases of $200 or more), you accomplish two major marketing goals:

  • You trigger buyers to take immediate action before the coupon code expires
  • You encourage buyers to purchase more than they had planned on in order to redeem the discount

Just make sure to plan your discount amounts so that your profits don’t take too large of a hit.

3. Free Proposals

Depending on the type of business you’re in, some users might want a proposal before they do business with you. And this is the perfect way to gather a prospect’s personal details in a non-threatening way.

In other words, by offering a free, no-obligation proposal, you’ll learn a prospect’s contact information while also providing them the proposal information they need in order to make a buying decision.

You’ll want to use a generic template for your proposals so that you can easily create customized proposals as quickly as possible. And even if you don’t earn a client’s business with your initial proposal, you’ll still have their contact information which you can use down the road for a targeted email campaign.

4. Free eBooks

Offering a free eBook is the perfect way to trigger more sign-ups and get more users providing email addresses and contact info.

According to a recent report, nearly one-third of Americans regularly read eBooks. And it seems like the trend continues to rise as people demand information more quickly than ever before.

There are tons of different ideas for eBooks that may work for your business. You could consider a top ten list, a how-to guide, simple recipe books, or offering valuable information that can’t be found anywhere else.

Of course, if you don’t want to write an eBook from scratch, you can also turn one of your longer blog posts into an eBook.

5. Workbooks

If you’re a business that offers services, this is a great lead magnet option.

Workbooks are defined as documents that users can download and complete to “score” what they’ve learned and understood about a subject.

Offering users workbooks will position your site and business as experts in your chosen field. Because of this, when you create a workbook, make sure it’s relevant, useful, short, and written in alignment with the audience you’re targeting.

You can even use your workbooks to taut some of your other services and products. For example, users that score over 90% on a workbook can be asked to download additional materials that match their level of understanding of the subject in question. 

LinkedIn Marketing Solutions provides a fun, easy-to-follow workbook to help you move prospects closer to making a purchase.

6. Video and Audio Files

Generally speaking, people enjoy listening to audio and watching videos. And the demand for audiobooks is on a sharp rise.

Video marketing is a powerful tool that allows businesses to form genuine connections with viewers simply by putting a personality in front of the camera. 

For a lead magnet, consider offering downloads and live links to relevant audio and video files. This allows them to stream the content live, or download it and listen later when they’re on the go.

Business Made Simple offers 60 days of free 5-minute videos. These will help users grow their business but will also keep the company name front and center in the eyes of the users.

7. How-To Guides

How-to guides differ from eBooks. They’re best suited for websites that offer digital or physical products.

There are several different types of how-to guides to consider using as lead magnets:

  • How To Sell Your Product (great if you offer an affiliate program on your site)
  • How To Use Your Product
  • How To Clean or Maintain Your Product
  • How To Take Full Advantage Of Your Product

The biggest key is producing how-to guides that are genuinely helpful, informative, and easy for people to understand.

8. Sharing Your Secret

This is a popular lead magnet for relationship gurus or people who give financial advice. In it, you promise to share your secrets of success in exchange for contact info.

To successfully employ this tactic, you’ll need to convince users that you’re a genuine expert in your field, and that you’re actually going to share real secrets that they don’t already know.

As an example, if you tell your readers that you can show them how to make $10,000 per month, you better be able to share your personal story that confirms that you are already doing it yourself.

People won’t take a lot of interest in your secret if you aren’t able to convince them that you’re real, authentic, and ready to share all the details of your story.

Madalyn Sklar is a Twitter rock star and she’s passionate about sharing her secrets with others to help them achieve their own rockstar results.

9. Case Studies

This is most suitable for sites focused on services, and it can be a little complicated.

Case studies are reports that examine specific goals or challenges, then show how people (or businesses) overcame them.

A well-written, detailed case study does two things:

First, they are powerful lead magnets that will lead a lot more users into providing personal information. But beyond that, they drive more people to purchase what you’re offering.

When you write a case study, make sure you’re as detailed as you can possibly be. When you are, your potential customers will find the case study claims to be more convincing. Pack them full of real data, photos, infographics, contact info, and the entire history of the project.

After reading a full case study, your prospects should be fully convinced that you’re able to provide exactly what you claim you can provide.

Of course, remember that you could need permission or approval from a client prior to publishing data that you want to use in a case study.

10. Webinars

The perceived value of webinars is through the roof. And for you, a webinar can double as a way to create urgency and drive more sign-ups to your offer.

It’s a great idea to include a prominent countdown timer on your site’s landing page that displays how many days and hours are left until your next webinar. This plays on the natural fear people have of missing out on an important event. And of course, let them know that they won’t be able to access the content of the webinar unless they sign up before it begins.

Even the most popular bloggers in the world, such as Neil Patel, utilize webinars to drive more sign-ups.

All you need to do is come up with some industry-related topics to discuss. Ones that people are interested in learning more about. And if you can, get a few experts on the show, along with a co-anchor.

This helps take all of the pressure off of you.

Webinars are win-wins for all involved. 

11. Newsletters

It’s been proven that email marketing brings in a whopping 4,400% ROI. And this is exactly why every successful online business makes it a huge priority to collect email addresses.

To get users to opt-in to your email newsletter list, offer something unexpected and exciting (such as a free tell-all eBook). Then, with each newsletter you send out, include free downloadable content, secret tips, and all of your latest updates.

This will help keep subscribers engaged and happy. And eventually, they may convert to buyers.

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12. Checklists

You can define a checklist as a list of items that are required, or need to be done, prior to an upcoming event. Checklists can also be used as reminders.

If you’re a blog publisher or you publish instruction manuals, checklists can be very powerful lead magnets. And what’s best is that they’re very easy to make. For example, you can put together checklists while you’re in the process of writing a blog post, so you don’t need to go back later and recreate it.

To make a checklist, simply create several bullet points. Then remove the ones that aren’t necessary. After this, break it down into a numbered guide so that it’s easier for readers to follow along with.

You should even encourage users to print it out so they’re able to check off items after they’re completed. Believe it or not, printable documents are in high demand and perform very well in today’s market.

Tips For Creating Lead Magnets That Perform

There are some general rules for effective lead magnets that apply to them all. You want to utilize these conversion marketing tips in your lead magnets and when reviewing all your marketing content. Before you begin publishing and promoting lead magnets, make sure you ask yourself these questions:

  1. Do you fully understand your target buyers?
  2. Did you carefully identify your specific value propositions?
  3. Are you using different lead magnets throughout the journey of your buyer?
  4. Are you using the best lead magnets based upon the industry in which you do business?
  5. Are you keeping the user experience at the forefront of your mind?
  6. Does the lead magnet show your users exactly what they’ll get?
  7. Is your strategy consistent?
  8. Is the content up to date in all of your lead magnets?

Wrapping Up – Mastering the Art of Lead Magnets

As you can now see, lead magnets are an effective marketing tool that you can start using today. Your job now is to choose the best ones for your industry and use them in the most efficient manner possible.

When you find that one lead magnet approach isn’t working, don’t be afraid to test out others until you find what works best for you.

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