If creating high-quality content was all that is needed to capture and nurture leads, most content marketers would be very wealthy. But sadly, this is far from reality as there’s more to getting visitors to sign up for your email list.
Email marketing is an effective strategy for lead generation and sales conversion, but there’s more to it. Visitors need strong reasons to make them offer their email addresses to you.
You also need to offer them something of value to make them give you that email address that you need. In such situations, you will need to use lead magnets to get them to sign up for your email list.
This guide offers you over 18 lead magnet ideas that you can deploy right away. To get started, let’s provide you with a basic intro on lead magnets before highlighting the ideas.
Understanding Lead Magnets
The lead magnet is an incentive that you offer visitors to your website for signing up on your email list. Lead magnets are very important because they help you retain visitors and keep them longer on your website.
Web visitors spend an average of one minute on a website before leaving for somewhere else. Most of them do not come back to your website if you do not give them reasons to.
However, if you are able to capture their email addresses, you will be able to extend the time they spend on your content.
Email marketing is the best strategy for lead generation and leads nurturing, which is why you need to actively build an email list. As you have found out from this guide, it all begins from what you are using as your lead magnet.
If lead magnets are incentives, what are the things to look out for in creating lead magnets? Well, it doesn’t have to be an expensive piece of content or gift, but it has to be worth it.
What to Look Out For in a Lead Magnet
Before creating lead magnets for your email sign-ups, you need to know what a lead magnet looks like. Though this isn’t an exhaustive list, check out some of the qualities of lead magnets.
Great Ideas for Creating Lead Magnets
I. Lead Magnets are of Good Quality – Whatever you’re offering as a lead magnet should be of good quality. If you’re using an eBook, then you have to ensure it is an excellent piece of work.
Do not cave in to the temptation of creating something of low quality simply because you’re giving it for free.
II. They are free – No matter how much they cost you to produce, lead magnets are offered for free. That’s because the goal is to get your visitors to sign up for your email list, and not to pay for your product.
III. Immediately accessible – You have to make it easy to access, probably from a single click of the button. If the process is too long or complex you will lose some of the visitors along the way.
IV. Solution to your visitors’ needs – Whatever you are offering as a lead magnet must be something that meets a specific need of your audience. If it isn’t solving a need, then you should not expect a good number of visitors signing up for your email list.
V. Easy to use – We’re talking about an incentive that anyone can easily consume. It should be a summary of a book or short report on the research you carried out.
If it’s an eBook, let it be short, colorful, and full of nice-looking graphics and infographics.
Ideas for Creating Lead Magnets
1 – Gated Content
Gated contents are those content assets or web access that requires you to sign up before you can use them. One of the most popular websites that make use of gated content is Medium.
The publishing platform gates its contents in exchange for visitors to sign up for a monthly subscription.
You could also gate your content in exchange for visitors’ email addresses. If the content is perceived to be of high value, you will be able to attract qualified leads.
2 – Examples
Examples are great for people who have learned how something works but still require guidance. For instance, your audiences are job seekers who have come to your site to learn all about resumes. Also, those who are new to the business may consider writing their own business proposals.
If you use examples of resumes or business proposals as lead magnets, you should be able to get them to sign up.
3 – Web Apps
This is a lead magnet that is useful if you’ve got technical stuff to offer. Let’s say you offer visitors a simple interest or compound interest calculator.
However, for them to use any of these calculators, they would have to sign in. This will encourage them to offer you their email addresses in exchange for using your web app.
4 – Tutorials
Tutorials are valued learning resources that cover a specific subject or topic. It could be a guide on how to use a particular tool or on self-improvement. Tutorials could be produced in different formats such as PDF, text, audio, videos, and animations.
If you’re offering this kind of lead magnet, it must present helpful tips or guides in unique ways. Tutorials are great for students, teachers, businessmen, and women, and those who love to learn.
5 – EBooks
EBooks are one of the most popular lead magnets used on different websites. EBooks usually come in PDF formats and they cover any topics that the author desires.
The EBook length could be anything from a few pages to hundreds of pages. However, it is best to keep them as short as possible to enable your audience to easily read through it.
6 – Checklists
Checklists are easy to consume content that helps your audience achieve a goal or set objective. If your audiences are writers or English students, you can offer a content writer’s checklist.
Checklists can be on anything that is of value to any audience no matter the niche or industry. You can create checklists from the main points of a lengthy article or from a book.
7 – Infographics
Infographics are highly informative pieces of content that are created in visually-appealing formats. They are used for packing so many facts and figures into a single graphic image.
One of the greatest strengths of infographics is its uniqueness. You don’t get to find any two infographics that look similar to each other. Even if they were created from the same templates, the information they contain will set them apart.
Infographics can be created from the reports of extensive research or simply from information contained in a post. There are lots of online platforms that offer free tools and resources for creating them.
8 – Worksheets
The worksheet is a lead magnet that is valuable to those who require help with applying something. It could be a scientific formula or computer programming workflow.
Worksheets help users in planning or creating custom solutions for their needs. To succeed with worksheets, you will have to create them to meet the specific needs of your audience.
9 – Email Courses
Unlike most ideas for lead magnets, email courses do not need to be downloaded or consumed upon sign up. Your audience can sign up for the email list with the expectations of getting access to your email courses.
You can deliver the courses over a few hours, days, or even spread out over a few weeks. You can offer email courses on a topic’s introduction and offer the full course for a fee.
10 – Video
Videos are very effective content formats for capturing leads on a website. Videos are visually stimulating and so easy to consume by anyone. As a video creator, you can produce videos for any group or a particular audience.
Video Marketing Tactics to Boost Your Traffic and Conversion
The most appropriate videos for use as lead magnets are educational videos. That’s because they offer your audience with information or new details about a specific topic. How-tos, guides, entertaining videos are also highly valued lead magnets for your audience.
11 – Templates
Templates are helpful resources that provide outlines on different topics or subjects. They make it easy for new users to work with or create different kinds of products. Common types of templates are CV templates, business plan, proposals, and marketing plan templates.
Templates can be offered as lead magnets to students, freelancers, business owners, and managers. Templates usually come in editable formats such as word processors and spreadsheets.
12 – Transcripts
Transcripts may not mean much to some of your visitors, but they are important to those who value them.
If you create interviews in video or audio format, producing transcripts would be good for a visually-impaired audience. Also, those who have low-quality internet connection can easily read your transcripts for the information.
Others may want to consume your content at their own time or pace, so they require the transcripts of your content.
Transcripts can be on any videos or audio content that your audience finds informative or educative.
13 – Reports
Reports are usually used by education, business, non-profits, and government organizations. Reports are results produced by the creator’s research.
Entrepreneurs and business people are usually drawn to reports because they contain useful information for the business. For B2B businesses, reports are one of the highest converting lead magnets.
You just have to ensure that the information in your report is accurate and it is backed up by data.
14 – Surveys
You use surveys to obtain feedback from your audience, which will also request their email addresses. Most companies and organizations also use surveys to gather data for their research.
There are lots of people who willingly give out their email addresses just to take part in surveys. If well implemented, surveys can be used to capture leads that are very important to your business.
15 – Recipes
Recipes work best if you’re offering something that your audience finds difficult to obtain for free. That’s because anyone can get free recipes online without even signing up with the emails.
A secret recipe would be just fine since it cannot be easily found on the internet. Also, you can curate different recipes into an easy-to-use format for your audience.
16 – Event Tickets
If your business is such that you create and offer premium events to your customers, you can use this as a lead magnet.
High valued events can be offered to your audience through your offer of free tickets. They are only required to obtain the free event tickets after signing up with their emails.
17 – Newsletters
There are cases where your email newsletter service is enough to serve as a lead magnet. For instance, a lifestyle blog or a news website could offer you news updates for joining its email list.
Businesses that offer educational content or products for a selected audience can use their newsletters as lead magnets.
18 – Case Studies
Case studies are pieces of content that contain real-life dealings between your organization and the client. It could also result from research conducted about a business or other organization.
Case studies are valuable content that you can use for attracting businesses to sign up on your email list.
19 – Giveaways
I’m yet to come across a person who doesn’t appreciate valuable giveaways. Giveaways are ideal lead magnets that you can use for attracting those who are outside your normal reach.
You use this kind of lead magnet to attract new audiences or target markets for a new product or service you are offering. Giveaways could be coupon codes, gift items, demo products, virtual money, or mobile credits.
Conclusion
Email marketing is an effective strategy for retaining visitors, engaging them, and sales conversion.
To build your email lists faster, you will need to offer incentives to your site visitors. These incentives are also referred to as lead magnets, and are valuable pieces of content that solve problems for them.
Some popular lead magnets include gated content, web apps, eBooks, videos, and checklists. Others are worksheets, email courses, templates, transcripts, reports, and case studies.
Choosing the right lead magnets to use depends on the kind of value you’re offering and your particular audience type. The lead magnet ideas that are presented in this guide are easy to create and start using.
Want to learn afresh about lead magnet creating and setups? One of the best platforms you would do well to consider is Wealthy Affiliate.