Many people who visit your website aren’t quite ready to pick up the phone or schedule an appointment. That’s a cold hard truth, but it doesn’t mean that they aren’t interested in what you do or don’t want to keep in touch with you.
So instead of losing that visitor (likely forever), why not give him or her an easy and compelling way to keep in touch with you? That’s the magic of a lead magnet.
So What’s a Lead Magnet?
A lead magnet is a small product or service that you offer your prospects in exchange for some of their contact info.
Lead magnets come in many shapes and sizes, some of which you’ve probably seen or recieved yourself. Here are some common examples:
- Ebooks
- White Papers
- Educational Email Sequences
- Webinars or Videos
- Quizzes
- Free consults
- Audits
What should go inside your lead magnet?
I have three golden rules that I use to evaluate lead magnets:
1) Your lead magnet should be genuinely helpful to your prospect. There is enough fluff on the internet already. So make it of real value.
2) It should be relatively concise and allow your prospect a quick win. There is a sweet spot here: you want it to be meaty enough to feel valuable, but not so long that it’s overwhelming or requires a big commitment.
3) It should tie into the larger product or service that you offer. After going through your lead magnet, we want your prospect to be thinking, “Wow, that was really helpful, I wonder how I can take this further.”
What information should you collect?
At minimum, you want to gather your prospects first name and email. Depending on your specific service, you may want to collect additional information to help you qualify the lead.
In general, the more info you collect, the higher the friction, so a prospect will be less likely to complete the form. Keep this in mind and try to strike a balance.
What should you do with the information you collect?
For most service businesses, I recommend using a product like Mailerlite to collect contact information and automate the process of delivering your lead magnet. (You can even use Mailerlite to design a landing page if you don’t already have a website.) Then, you can reach out directly to your prospect, or continue to nurture them by sending helpful content via email.
Another advantage of Mailerlite is that it acts as a basic CRM (customer relationship manager), allowing you to keep track of leads, organize them into groups and send emails in bulk whenever you have something valuable to share.
Two Hidden Benefits of Lead Magnets
A lead magnet gives you the opportunity to keep in touch with prospects that might otherwise leave your website and never come back. That’s a big deal, but it’s not the only benefit.
Here are two more benefits:
First, if your lead magnet is genuinely helpful, your prospect will see you as more credible, authoritative and trustworthy. This is a very good thing.
Second, as social animals, we’re wired to want to give back when we have been given to. So by giving freely, your prospect is primed to return the favor in some way. This could be by becoming a paying client, but it could also mean giving you a referral or talking about you on social media.
Wrapping Up
I hope I’ve made a compelling case for the power of a lead magnet for your business. It’s a high leverage tool that takes relatively little to create and implement, but it has potentially long lasting and powerful benefits.
Want to dive deeper into a lead magnet strategy for your business? Schedule a complimentary call and we can talk in-depth about lead magnets and more.
