What is a ‘Lead Magnet’ And Why Are They Vital To Your Business Success?

When it comes to your web site’s effectiveness, one of the obvious questions to ask is: Why don’t more of your website visitors make an enquiry? As you know from hard-won experience your prospects are very unlikely to pick up the telephone and call you when they are viewing your web site. And even fewer will use the ‘contact us’ form on your site!

 

Think for a minute how many visitors or hits your website has had since it was launched. Perhaps 5,000, 70,000, 250,000 or may be more. The vast majority of them haven’t found you by accident; they are actively searching for a solution to a problem which makes them serious potential buyers.

 

Now tell me how many of these pre-qualified prospects have you captured details from, and are regularly marketing to?

 

Thought so!

 

Now if you were to have a means of capturing their names and email addresses before they left your site, you would soon possess a priceless database full of eager prospects.

 

But How Do You Get Their Details?

Well, remember these visitors are doing their research and they’re looking for answers and helpful information. So package-up your valuable knowledge and experience to create a regular bulletin or special report or white paper. Now promote this critical information on your home page (or via a pay-per-click advertisement), with the aim of helping your prospects do their research better.

 

Free content can include mp3 downloads, PDF or printed reports and white papers, buyers checklists, spread sheets, software downloads, case studies, videos, recorded interviews, webinars, free products etc. etc.

 

This free offer needs to be so attractive that it will tempt your prospect to part with their email address. This is why these compelling resources are often known as a ‘lead magnets’.

 

Lead Magnet – noun – an irresistible bribe offering a specific chunk of value to a prospect in exchange for their contact information.

 

A good lead magnet needs to simply solve a specific problem with a specific solution for a specific segment of your market.

 

So What Makes a Good Lead-Magnet?

It has to be something your prospects really wants, something that is genuinely useful such as a guide that helps them to solve a problem, or a cheat-sheet that is a useful resource, or a free tool that they can use right away.

 

It has to be related to your business. If you are selling pension advice, there’s no point giving away a free children’s poster. If you give away a resource that educates prospects on the options open to them with their retirement fund, you’ll get prospects with an interest in this specific area requesting the information.

 

Keep it short. An offer you can quickly benefit from is far more attractive than a much more substantial offer that takes hours to work your way through. Given the choice between watching a 3-minute video that demonstrates the benefits of xyz or download a one-hour video on the same subject, most of us would be happier to opt for the shorter version – initially.

 

The main aim of your lead-magnet is to get the right people to give you their contact details, so it’s best to make your offer free. One exception is obviously is if you’re offering a discount.

 

Lead magnets are not new so it is important to make yours different and original.

 

Here are some successful lead-magnet examples

 

• Reports – Do you possess some really good research about your product or industry recently? Do you have valuable insights, market intelligence or knowledge that you can offer prospects? If offer it to your prospects.

Here’s an example of a successful report offer we used last year.

 

• eBooks – PDF guides that give helpful advice to prospects. Here are some examples, which have been written and are being offered by three Marketing Support Network members.

 

• Free webinar or videos – An interview, webinar or someone talking to camera. Here’s an example of a webinar we recently offered about adverting on facebook and LinkedIn. In order to claim their spot prospects needed to enter their name and email.

 

• Worksheet – A document with tasks or questions, leading your prospects step-by-step towards a desirable goal (e.g.‘ The 7 practical steps to ensure ……’)

 

• Cheat sheets/handout – They are generally very short (one or two pages) and cut straight to a specific point.

 

These can be delivered as checklists, mind maps or blueprints.

 

NB. Generally the less information you request from your prospects to give them access to your offer/information, the more response you’ll get. Asking for more details reduces the response but will improve the quality of your prospects.

 

Growth Voucher funding is presently available for strategic advice on lead generation. This in effect means that you can get your hands on advice and guidance to improve the number of customers you attract into your business with 50% Government funding. At the moment this funding is due to end on 15th March 2015. There appears to still be lots of funds available so if you haven’t applied for your funding you need to take action soon.

 

Application for the funding is very simple and some businesses have received their voucher within 24 hours.

 

Here is the link to apply https://www.gov.uk/apply-growth-vouchers

 

If you would like more information on the growth voucher scheme, or how we could help you to attract more new customers please call Sally on 01692 538800, or email her on sally@common-sense-marketing.com