If you are creating a lead magnet to help build your email list you should be aware of a few specific qualities that all effective lead magnets have. If you incorporate these qualities into your lead magnet you will attract more highly targeted and relevant subscribers, whilst adding value to your target audience.
Here are the qualities of an effective lead magnet:
1. Highly specific
The most effective lead magnets are very specific – they solve a specific problem or offer specific information for a very specific market.
When you are creating your lead magnet you have to keep in mind that you are NOT creating it for everyone – you are creating it for a specific audience. The more specific and granular you can get with your targeting, the better results you will see.
You need to be specific and clear on:
- Who this lead magnet will benefit
- How they will benefit from it
Example: Let’s say you are in the financial trading niche and want to create a free trading guide as your lead magnet.
- A bad title for this guide would be something like: “Learn how to trade”
- A good title would be something like: “Learn how to trade Forex in 15 days even if you are a complete newbie with zero knowledge or experience”
The second title is very clear on exactly who will benefit from this guide (people who want to learn Forex trading but have zero trading knowledge or experience), whereas the first doesn’t make clear who this guide is for. The second title also clarifies how they will benefit from the guide: They will learn how to trade Forex in 15 days.
When you are super clear on what benefit you are offering and who will benefit, you will start to attract subscribers that are highly targeted and relevant to your niche, improving the quality of your email list.
2. Focus on one key benefit
This follows on from our point above about being specific.
When it comes to your lead magnet you want to make it about one key benefit or “one big thing”. What one big thing or key benefit can you focus on? What does your target audience want to solve, do, have, become, increase, or decrease?
When you understand your target audience you should be able to answer these questions quite easily. This may involve getting even more granular and diving deeper into a specific area within your niche or sub-niche.
Example: Let’s say you are creating a free guide that teaches internet marketing to dentists
A generic, non-specific example that doesn’t focus on one key benefit would be: “Free internet marketing guide for dentists to help grow your business”
“Grow your business” is very vague – it’s not clear in what way or how their business will grow. The benefit is not well defined. It also mentions “internet marketing” which is not specific enough. Internet marketing could be about SEO, Google Ads, YouTube, etc.
A more specific title that focuses on one key benefit would be: “Free guide to creating highly effective Facebook Ads to attract more customers to your dental practice”.
In the second example, dentists know that the lead magnet will teach them how to attract more customers (the one key benefit) by learning how to create Facebook ads (super specific).
3. Deliver instant gratification
As we’ve already covered, the best lead magnets offer a clearly defined key benefit that is very specific. Your target audience wants the benefit you are promising them – and they want it now!
Using multi-day courses or newsletters as your lead magnet can often lead to engagement levels dropping off after day one or two. Using this approach requires your subscribers to have patience, and many of them simply don’t want to wait. Subscribers want the solution you have promised them now, they don’t want to wait or be drip-fed it.
They are in some sort of pain and they don’t want to have to wait several days to get the solution, so just give it to them instantly and they will appreciate you more for it.
4. Have a high perceived value
Even though you are giving your lead magnet away for free you still need to make an effort to ensure it looks professional and is of high value.
Just because it is free, it doesn’t have to look free or cheap. First impressions are everything, and as the saying goes “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.”
If you can make your lead magnet look like something people would be happy to pay for you’re on the right track. People will be more likely to opt in for something that looks professional and has a high perceived value.
Make sure your lead magnet is well-designed and on-brand. Check for any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes, and make sure the information is laid out in an easy-to-read manner.
Paying attention to the little details can make a big difference to your opt-in rate.
5. Deliver real use value
Once you have made sure your lead magnet looks the part and has a high perceived value, you need to make sure it actually delivers some real use value.
It’s no good if your lead magnet is all “sizzle and no steak” – you have to deliver on the promise you made (the one key benefit). Your target audience has subscribed to your list in exchange for the lead magnet because they saw some benefit and value in what you were offering, so make sure you give them what they signed up for. If you fail to come good on this promise you will most likely lose that subscriber forever.
Your lead magnet should ideally over-deliver on your initial promise – go the extra mile and get your relationship with your subscribers off to a great start!
If you are able to add real value to your subscribers, your engagement rate will be high and your relationship with your list will continue to grow in direct proportion to the value you give them.
6. Quick to consume
Even though you are going it away for free, your lead magnet is the first “product” in your sales funnel. You are using it to get subscribers on your list so you can build a relationship and eventually start selling your products or services to them.
You don’t want your subscribers to remain in the first stage of your funnel for too long – you want to move them along at a fairly reasonable and rapid pace so you can introduce them to your first offer. This is why your lead magnet should be fairly quick to consume and digest.
Your subscribers should ideally be able to consume your lead magnet in five mins. If you are creating an ebook or free guide you should make it quick and easy to read. If you’re giving away a free podcast or video don’t make them too long.
This doesn’t mean that you skimp on the quality – it just means creating something that delivers value and the key benefit you promised and making it as quick to consume as possible.
What types of lead magnets are there?
In this article, we covered the essential qualities that all effective lead magnets should possess, but we didn’t cover the most effective types of lead magnets.
There are various types of lead magnets you can use, and your choice should be based upon your niche and target audience. Choose a format that will resonate best with your target audience and is most suited to your market or niche. It could be a report, ebook, guide, checklist, video, or podcast. You can also offer discount codes, or create a survey or quiz.
Check out our list of the best types of lead magnets here.
Conclusion
If you create your lead magnets and incorporate the above mentioned attributes you should find that you are able to build your list quicker and more efficiently.
By being specific about who you are targeting you will only attract those subscribers who are in your target audience and who will be more likely to buy from you or take you up on your future offers. If you are using paid advertising to advertise your lead magnet, being specific about who the offer is for will help to deter any clicks from people who aren’t in your target audience – thus preventing your ad budget from getting used on unqualified prospects.
Deliver one key benefit or promise, and deliver it as fast as possible to prevent subscribers from becoming bored and unsubscribing from your list.
When you demonstrate that you can deliver the value you promised you will establish trust with the people on your list, and this will help you to create a long-term relationship with them.
Spend some time making your lead magnet look professional and high quality. The higher the perceived value, the higher your opt-in rate will be.
Making your lead magnet quick to consume will allow you to move them along your sales funnel at a faster pace, and start introducing them to your paid offers.
Once you have a lead magnet you are well on your way to start building and growing your email list.
If you are just starting out and are unsure about what you need to build your list, read our checklist of the 4 essential things you need to start building your list fast.
