A lead magnet is something that you offer to your target audience in exchange for their email address.
Its ultimate purpose is to attract and generate a list of leads in your niche that you can add to your email list and start building a relationship with for the purpose of selling your products or services to them.
Lead magnets can come in various forms, and in this post I’m going to run through some of the most effective lead magnet ideas that you can use to start building your email list.
1. Free e-Book or Guide
This is one of the most tested lead magnets and one of the most commonly used among digital marketers.
If titled correctly, an e-book or guide will represent high value to your target audience, thus making it an attractive offer. In order to be an effective lead magnet your e-book or guide must contain information that your audience perceives as being useful and valuable enough to exchange their email address for.
You don’t need to write a full book with hundreds of pages – it can be just a few short pages as long as the information it contains is specific, concise, and actionable.
Your target audience will most likely prefer a short and easy-to-read ebook or guide that is full of actionable insights and practical information – rather than a long, boring book full of information that provides no use value.
Make the contents of your e-book or guide specific, fun, and easy to read, and have a clear outcome for the information you are sharing with your audience.
Example: if you run a dog training business you could create an e-book that outlines “The 5 Easiest Tricks You Can Teach Your Dog In Less Than A Week.”
Anyone interested in training their dog would know exactly what they are getting when they download this e-book because it offers a benefit that is clear, specific, and concise.
You don’t even have to create your e-book from new content; you can repurpose 5 or 6 related blog posts and include each post as a chapter in the book. If you are a podcaster or prefer to make videos you can get that content transcribed and turned into an e-book or guide.
2. Quiz or Survey
An online quiz or survey works well as it engages people.
In order to get their quiz or survey results participants must supply their email address and their results will be emailed to them.
These sorts of quizzes are fun and they can also encourage people to share them as they want to compare results with their friends.
Make the quiz or survey relevant to your target market and give them an insight into themselves or their business so that they will be eager to find out their results.
Examples: Take our quiz to find out ……..
- What your parenting style is
- What sort of girlfriend/boyfriend you are
- What your preferred learning style is
- What career choices best suit your personality
- What sort of animal you are
- Which diet is best for you
3. Discount Codes or Free Shipping
Everyone loves a discount, so why not offer your leads a discount in exchange for their email details? You can offer them a discount on their first purchase if they subscribe to your newsletter, or you can offer a free-shipping voucher.
This sort of lead magnet works well for retailers and businesses that offer physical products.
4. Video Training
You can create something like an instructional video, or perhaps even a series of videos that your target market would find useful and which they would gladly exchange their email information for.
Video trainings have a high perceived value, and are therefore very effective at getting people to opt-in to your offer. You can create an informative video on your product or service, or on a specific topic or sub-topic within your niche.
Make sure the benefit of watching your video is mentioned in your call-to-action or headline so that your prospects know exactly what they are opting-in for.
Check out this great example from Wistia below:
5. Free Trials
Ahh the proven and tested free trial….it never fails to get people interested. Everyone likes something for free so take advantage of this and incorporate it into your offer.
This works particularly well if you sell software or SAAS (software as a service), but it can also work well for subscription-based businesses. Give your audience a free trial period and let them experience using your product or service.
Allowing people to have a risk-free hands-on experience with a product or service is a great way to increase your brand awareness and build a list of highly targeted prospects. Even if they don’t buy or subscribe after the trial period you will have them on your list and can follow-up with them as part of your lead-nurturing program.
You can offer free trials for a certain period of time e.g. 30 days, or you can offer free use of your software with limited functionality.
6. Checklists, Cheat Sheets, or Templates
Checklists, cheat sheets, or templates are great ways to entice people on to your list.
A checklist, cheat sheet, or template can be a valuable asset for your target audience. They are normally quite short and specific and therefore don’t take as much time to create or put together.
Conclusion
So there you have some of the most popular types of lead magnets that you can use to start building your email list.
You can create your lead magnet yourself, or you can outsource the work to a freelancer.
If you are not sure which type of lead magnet to use, you could always try two different types and split-test them against each other to see which gets the higher opt-in.
You need to really understand your target audience in order to know what sort of offer will appeal to them. When creating your lead magnet think about the sort of offer or information that someone in your target audience would find useful.
Your offer has to have perceived value in the eyes of your prospect, otherwise they won’t be motivated enough to give you their email details in exchange for it.
Once you have created a lead magnet you now have one of the key components necessary to get your list building underway. There are some key qualities that the most effective lead magnets have. If you can incorporate these into your lead magnet then you will have a better chance of getting people to opt-in to your list and stay engaged.
You can find out what these qualities are by checking out our post: The 6 qualities of an effective lead magnet.
For more info on what you need to start building and growing your list, check out our post to discover the other essential things you need to build your email list.
