Visitors are coming to your website, but most of them aren’t sticking around. These visitors remain anonymous IP addresses, untrackable and untraceable. Did you know that 99% of your traffic isn’t ready to buy right now, and 75% of all web visitors will never return to your website?
Returning visitors to your website are 75% more likely to purchase compared to a new visitor. Makes sense right?
But often, to get those visitors back, you must entice them to give a bit more information. But how do you convince someone to give up their email address? This is the first point of true friction in the customer journey.
You need to convince your lead that you have something of value to offer them in exchange for their contact information.
That’s where lead magnets come in. Lead magnets are the incentives you offer to collect data on potential leads or buyers. It’s a piece of content that is usually gated by a form that asks for fields like email address, company size and more. This downloadable piece of content comes in the form of a checklist, report, eBook, whitepaper, video, or something else.
How do you pick or create the right lead magnet? What are some characteristics of a quality lead magnet?
CONTENT THAT SOLVES A PROBLEM
First, your content must solve a problem — not a problem that your marketing team imagines your customers might have, but a real problem that you can support with customer data. Find out the problems your audience has and start to lead them down the road to solving them.
Ask your customers what their problems are or observe their behaviors online. Has your sales team paid attention to the questions leads ask when they’re on a call? Pass common questions on to your marketing team. It will make it that much easier to create lead magnets that are truly magnetic.
EASY-TO-DIGEST CONTENT
While it might be tempting to use your latest report, case study, or ebook as a lead magnet, remember that the best lead magnets are ones that are easily consumable.
That means, make sure your lead magnets aren’t too word-dense or laden with jargon. Also, consider stepping away from the traditional ebook/white paper format. Some other, more easily-consumed types of content include:
- Infographics — break down data and stats into easily digestible graphics
- Videos — videos are easy to digest and retain, making them a great fit for lead magnets
- Checklists — these actionable lists make it clear to leads that you’re giving them value
Make sure that your content is easy-to-digest; provide value to your leads as soon as they input their email addresses.
DELIVERED QUICKLY
Speaking of which, you must ensure that your content is delivered almost instantly. Don’t make leads wait.
The idea is that, as soon as they hit download, they get the content. The next best is emailing them immediately with the lead magnet they requested, but even that small amount of friction can cause you to lose some leads.
Don’t make leads wait after they’ve entered their data. They want the content you promised and fast. Don’t fail to deliver that.
SHOWS OFF YOUR EXPERTISE
You already know what problems your brand solves best. Stick to that when you create your contact. Even if an outside topic might be relevant to leads, you want to make sure that you’re an authority on the subject you’re writing about.
Otherwise, you’ll find that your content is ineffective, doesn’t solve your leads problems, and that you are losing the trust of potential buyers instead of gaining it.
CONTAINS ONE ACTIONABLE STEP
Make sure lead magnets have a single easy, actionable step. An easy win. Something that your leads can pull away and use as soon as they read it.
This could be a tip, a checklist, something that inspires the reader to take an action. All it takes is that one win to make the viewer feel like they got value from your lead magnet.
EVERGREEN CONTENT
When creating lead magnets, ensure they are evergreen. What is evergreen? Evergreen content is like an evergreen tree. The seasons barely impact it, and evergreen content doesn’t require much (if any) updating to keep it relevant.
You want to try to keep your content relevant, but also evergreen so you don’t have to waste time creating new lead magnets from scratch.
CONTENT YOU CAN USE
These days, consumers don’t want to just consume content, they want to interact with it and apply it to their lives. Give them content that they can interact with and implement practically, like:
- Trials — getting something for free or at a discounted price is the most valuable type of content. Make sure you use this for those nearing a purchase decision
- Calculators and tools — utility is the name of the game. Give your audience something that’s useful, reusable, and worth sharing.
- Quiz and assessments — help potential leads learn more about themselves, their business, or their customers. This is super valuable
Lead magnets are crucial to capturing new leads and growing your list. Try improving your lead magnets as a part of your email marketing, content marketing, or content syndication campaign and let us know how it goes!
