What Is a Lead Magnet and How to Use It in Your Sales Funnel

Lead magnets are one of the best ways to collect contacts, subscribers and customers information. Regardless if you’re looking to bolster your email database, gain blog traffic or increase your customer base, a lead magnet is a perfect addition to your sales funnel.

In fact, a quality lead magnet could be a game-changer for your business. So much so, that it can revolutionise your sales funnel through one extra, sometimes small addition of a graphic or button. Whatever the product, your lead magnet can get you to entice your ideal consumers to decide to opt-in.

Regardless of the page, a relevant lead magnet can drive customers and data through your sales funnel. Ultimately providing them with value and you with a satisfied customer.

What is a lead magnet?

It’s common to think that a lead magnet is just a landing page. However, this is only one part.

A lead magnet is an offer that marketers use as an incentive to their customers to get them to progress through their sales funnel.

This value in advance is given in exchange for a customers personal information, such as an email address. Marketers would use theirs as a way to add their target audience to a mailing list to further encourage them to download content, attend a webinar, consume content, submit a form, or make a purchase.

A good lead magnet is specific to your target audience’s needs and it will not only guide the individual through the sales funnel, but will also collect their data, thoughts and motivations along the way.

(READ: A How-to Guide to Using Your Email List on Facebook)

Why Lead Magnets work

One of the marketers’ main goals is to drive awareness, traffic and build credibility. But sometimes these can be hard to measure.

This is why lead magnets are so important. A good one provides potential customers, who’ve never heard of your brand, to give you their email addresses in return for something valuable.

In addition to this, lead magnets help to qualify prospective customers by asking a small commitment from them. This can often be the turning point for customers, as some medium to high investment products would take time for the customer to make a purchase. So in exchange for an email address, you can speed up this process.

Why businesses need a lead magnet

Strictly speaking, every website doesn’t need to have a lead magnet. Meaning your website would be fine and ‘exist’ without one… even if you get little traffic.

So your business doesn’t really need a lead magnet. But if you want to generate better-qualified and more action from your current leads in more volume, then your business certainly does need a one.

But why are lead magnets so important? Well, they provide value in advance that indoctrinates your ideal customers into your business. All the while, providing you with not only a potential customer, but data, too.

This then provides the business with the main benefit. This is to have your audience enter into the start of your marketing funnel. Doing this will give you further opportunity to communicate with them further, down the track.

Because that individual is providing you with their information, you need to ensure your lead magnet is something that your audience actually wants.

What makes your lead magnet magnetic?

There is only one thing that ensures your lead magnet is actually magnetic. This is relevant to your audience.

The bottom line is that your audience is looking to solve a problem. Whatever that problem is, if your offer doesn’t solve it, your lead magnet is irrelevant and isn’t magnetic.

So this then comes down to you and the strategy you’ve created to get the most out of the lead magnet. So think about the page it appears on and the way it’s propositioning your audience. So before you deploy your magnet, find out where your audience is searching and what they’re searching for. Understanding this will see your lead magnet be magnetic and your results will reflect this.

(READ: Why Content Marketing is an Essential Element in a Marketing Plan)

Tips when you’re creating a lead magnet:

• Hone in on results — You need to attract your audience with a lead magnet that’ll move the reader closer to their desired result.
• Be specific — Don’t be vague. Tell your audience exactly what they’ll get, their benefits and how they’ll get it. Be ultra-clear about the benefits of signing up to receive your free content.
• Instant gratification — The reason that your audience will click on your lead magnet is because it solves a problem, quickly. By giving them a shortcut that can be instantly applied, you’ll see more success through their desire for instant gratification. Although a ‘drip’ release of content can work, if your lead magnet provides immediate answers, you’ll see success.
• Show authority — Typically a lead magnet is the entry point into your marketing funnel. So deliver content that shows you’re an expert, and your audience will likely return.
• Provide unparalleled value — Your content needs to be of high value, free or not. A good rule is to make your offering so valuable that your audience would pay for it if needed.
• Quick access and consumption – Ensure your content does not take a whole afternoon to access or read. Unless you specify beforehand, make sure your content is easily read and accessed.
• Call-to-action – make sure that your funnel is clear with a CTA directing your audience to take action. It’s surprisingly common how often a lead magnet forgets a simple “download now” button!

TIP: Don’t be afraid to give away your top tips to show you’re a true expert

Small quick fixes vs long-form evergreen content?

When creating this gated content behind a lead magnet, you need to decide what type of content to provide. This typically comes down to a quick fix or long-form content.

This is totally up to you. There is a trend at the moment of providing more short-form content that will provide quick fixes. Compare this to longer-form content that is evergreen.

If you were speaking to prospective marathon runners, an example of short-form content could be “10-point checklist on buying running shoes”. An example of evergreen content would be “The 12-stages of preparation for a marathon” ebook.

That isn’t to say that short content isn’t evergreen. But short-form quick fixes, like a checklist, may not be perceived to be as valuable as an e-book, for example. So this is something that you need to weigh up before starting. But this short-form content is often a great starting point, allowing you to build up to offering longer-form content in the future.

In the example above, the checklist could likely be used within the longer-form ebook.

In summary

In short, a good lead magnet can benefit your business in several ways. Proving you’re an authority, building a database of contacts, potential customers, generating traffic and readers of your content are just a few ways they can be valuable.

The reality is, a lead magnet is just the first step in an effective marketing and sales funnel. By getting your audience to enter into the first stage of your funnel, you can then engage them through multiple other means. This is the true value of a lead magnet.

But it isn’t always so easy to get an effective lead magnet in action. Sometimes it can take some time and experimentation to get one that works for you. But by following the tips above, you can have a greater likelihood of getting it right, sooner!

So get out there and create your magnet and start delivering value in advance.

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