Maybe you’ve heard the term “Lead Magnet”.
It’s been bouncing around the online marketing or content marketing world for awhile.
A lead magnet is something, usually a form of content, you offer for free as a way to generate a lead.
For example, you create a guide for your target customer. They come to your site to download it and in return they provide you with their name and email address.
They have a guide.
You have a lead.
Sounds like a good deal, right?
Now the trick is how you can create a lead magnet for your business.
Here are some tips…
Step #1. Identify Target Customer Questions
The first step in probably any marketing effort is knowing your target customer. Then with just about any form of content marketing strategy you want to know what questions your customers are asking.
I’m not talking about the questions they ask you like, “How much does your service cost?”
I’m talking about the questions they are wondering about as it relates to their lives or to their business. The questions they’re asking before they even know you exist.
Let’s say you sell health juice for people that workout regularly. These folks are probably searching for a lot of information about diet and exercise.
Identify those questions and you’ll have a ton of ideas for the content to include in your lead magnet.
Step #2. Gather Information & Resources
Once you have a list of questions, prioritize the list. Look for the one or two questions that are most common and the ones that you can tackle at your company.
Then it’s time to figure out who will work on creating the content and where you’ll get the information.
Maybe you are the person that will be the creator, but you might need to go to the CEO or to others in the company to gather information. Don’t ignore anyone in the business. Everyone is a potential resource for a really good lead magnet. You can even go outside the company to gather information.
Interviews, surveys, etc.
Clients, partners, vendors, colleagues, etc.
Step #3. Choose Your Content
Next comes the type of content you’ll use for the lead magnet. There are many kinds including:
- Free Samples
- Guides
- Checklists
- Quiz
- Test
- Assessment
- Cheatsheet
- Webinar
- Slide Deck
- Video
- Ebook
- Case Study
- Report
- Software
- Online Tool
- Free Trial
- Free Consultation
I’m sure there are more…
You can do any of them, but you probably don’t want to jump in and try them all (more on this later).
Look through the list and see if any look appealing. Maybe you have experience with writing instead of creating video. Lean toward one that is appealing to you and also lean toward one that you’ve seen have some success in your industry.
Step #4. Determine The Scope
Are you doing one lead magnet to start or will this be a series of lead magnets?
It’s a good idea to have a long-term outlook when you’re creating a lead magnet. Maybe for the next year you want to focus on one lead magnet and adjust it until it’s bringing in some good leads.
Or maybe you have a plan to create one new lead magnet per month.
Both can be good strategies, but look at the scope and figure out the effort and resources it will take to implement.
Step #5. Create, Form, Measure
Now it’s time to create the content, design it and create the form on your website for it. You’ll need someone to organize the project, outline and write the content, shoot the content if you’re doing video, someone to edit, and a designer and developer to plan out and build your lead capture page.
And then you’ll want to setup a way to measure the success. You’ll want to collect the information of leads. It’s pretty basic, but you do want to measure the success especially if you’re going to do multiple types of magnets (to see what works best).
Step #6. Setup An Ongoing Schedule
I would suggest looking at your lead magnet effort on an ongoing basis. Whether you’re creating one every month or one every year, look at it long-term and think about how you’ll be able to make this a regular part of your business operations.
So many content marketing efforts quickly become one-time efforts and that really leaves opportunity on the table. One offs are fine, but they don’t have as good of a chance for success. You increase your odds by adding longevity to your efforts.
Step #7. Experiment
Finally, leave some room to experiment. Even if you decide that guides are right for you it’s good to try different types of lead magnets.
Do guides for six months or a year and along the way test out a video or webinar. Obviously it’s not “easy” to do, but try to experiment with other types to see what works best for your target audience.
You never know when you’ll find the next big opportunity.
Conclusion
Lead magnets are a great way to increase leads for your business. Many companies are using lead magnets successfully. Many have turned the process into an ongoing marketing effort and a way to bring in new sales all year long.
Now it’s your turn!
