When it comes to attracting more people to you and growing the number of people who know about your business, a “lead magnet” is a great way to start the conversation.
If you’re not sure what a lead magnet is, it’s simply a free or low-cost way for people to get to know about your business and to exchange their name, email address and other details with you so that you can stay in contact with them.
There are SO many lead magnet options so it can be tough to know what is right for you.
I know because over the years we’ve created tens of thousands of new leads using some of these exact lead magnets, and it’s something we’re doing day in and day out.
I’m going to give you a couple of examples of really effective lead magnets and then I have a NEW free guide to give you as a gift so that you can spend a little more time in determining which is right for you.
Some examples of lead magnets are:
- A written lead magnet – You will have seen these and these are usually the easiest type to create and deliver in a PDF format and make available as a downloadable from a website.These can range from very simple written pieces to more complex ones. For example, a free eBook, checklist or cheat sheet are on the more simple end of the spectrum. A report or white paper, a guide or workbook are a little more complex but work really well too as lead magnets.
- A multi-media lead magnet – These range from a free video in the form of a course or series, audio or email delivered over a period of time, with a promise that the person will learn about a topic that they need help with in their own situation. Very similar is a free online challenge – for example: 10 days to a flatter tummy challenge that people provide their details in order to register and take part.
- Then we have lead magnets that are a little more complex – like a live event; or a free trial of a product or service; a physical product or even some sort of quiz, test, diagnostic or self-assessment tool.
So, as you can see there are so many places you can start and so many things to try. But which one is right for you?
Here are three things to consider when choosing your lead magnet:
- Your customer – This is where we MUST start because we want to be sure that we’re offering the lead magnet in a format that is right for our audience. For example, if your clients are CEOs of big businesses in Melbourne City, it’s less likely that you’ll get them to download a free eBook or do a quiz. But it’s more likely that they’ll attend a small invitation-only breakfast with a select group of other people, or a 1:1 meeting with you.If your customer is a 25-year-old female executive assistant looking for her next promotion, she may be more likely to participate in something totally different. She might download a cheat sheet on three ways to negotiate a better salary, or a guide to doing great at her next job interview. She may also take part in an online training webinar. The next things to consider are…
- Time, energy and risk – How much time can you put into creating your lead magnet? If you’re creating your first lead magnet, I encourage you to keep it simple. It takes a whole lot more time, energy and potentially, money to create an online challenge or a live event than it does to create a cheat sheet of the top 10 things someone looking for your product or service will want to know.
- Your outcome – While we should always be looking at how do we attract more people to us, collecting names on our database or likes on our social networks without having a clear plan of what to do with them next could be a waste of time and energy.
If someone’s first exposure of you is via a free or inexpensive lead magnet, you want to be sure that you have in place the next step for them to take with you to get closer to being a client.
That next step could be to make them an offer to buy something from you, or to have a meeting with you, or to request a quotation.
Often I see people create a lead magnet and then hope that someone will make a connection between the freebie you offered and what you ultimately want to sell. They put the freebie on their homepage, they post it in some free group and they hope it’ll magically bring in clients.
Trust me… it really rarely happens that way.
You need to create the pathway for people to take the next step closer to becoming a customer and that is something you want to design deliberately.
So…
- Who is your ideal client and what is the right format of lead magnet for them?
- How much time, energy and risks get you to the choice you’ve made and what is right for you as the business owner?
- What is your outcome? What is it that you’re trying to do and the result you ultimately want to get?
We’ve created a free guide called the 8 Proven (and Low-Cost Ways) to Attract New Clients which dives in a little deeper into the different types of lead magnets and shows you some examples to make it clearer and easier to take the next step.
Simply go here to get instant access to the guide.
Of course there’s a lot more to just creating a lead magnet. There’s the messaging, design and how to strategically lead people to the next step. And so much more.
But choosing the type of lead magnet is a great place to start.
So go ahead and click here to grab your copy while it’s available. And if you have any questions, just hit reply and I’ll be sure to answer them. Good luck!
Here’s to doing what you love,
Suzi Dafnis
CEO
HerBusiness
