Lead magnets are some of the most valuable tools that you have as a digital entrepreneur.
In a world where countless companies are competing for the same customer attention, lead magnets are the extra-tasty bait on the end of your hook.
Unfortunately, generating good lead magnet ideas isn’t always easy.
When you have a million other things to do as a business leader, it’s tempting to simply throw together a whitepaper or an eBook because that’s what other companies have done.
However, it’s worth remembering that every lead magnet you create is another opportunity for you to seduce your target audience. Choose the right solution, and you could instantly transform your sales and conversions.
To get you started on the right track for 2020, we’re going to offer you this list of the most effective lead magnet options, complete with some handy examples.
Let’s get started on attracting those leads!
What is a Lead Magnet
First things first, let’s get the basics out of the way.
A lead magnet is a resource or valuable item that you offer visitors to convert them into leads.
A visitor arrives on your website or landing page and sees your lead magnet offer. They accept that offer and give you their email address or phone number in return. That way, you get an opportunity to nurture your leads and turn them into converted customers.
In 2020, it’s worth noting that the same old free downloads might not work as well as they once did.
Today’s consumers are more discerning than ever. That means that you need to be ready to blow their minds with the amazing offer that you can provide.
Let’s get to exploring some great lead magnet ideas!
- The “Content Upgrade”
One of the easiest ways to capture the attention (and information) of your audience is to give them more of what they already love. If your customers have already started reading your content, they clearly have an interest in what you have to say.
A content upgrade allows your audience to download or read extra content on top of what they’ve already seen on your website. The great thing about this strategy is that your customers have already had a taste of the kind of quality that they can expect.
For instance, you could:
- Let people download a full checklist guide for a specific topic
- Give people access to an expanded eBook on a certain topic
- Unlock extra content like videos and podcasts
When Brain Dean tested the content upgrade option on Backlink, he ramped his conversion rate up from 0.54% to 4.82%.
Appboy offered readers an opportunity to access a 20+ page eBook covering tips on how to get started and how to improve their mobile marketing campaigns:
Even Salesforce has tried this strategy by offering a complete guide to Salesforce Marketing Automation with a whitepaper for people who wanted to learn more:
- The Free Trial or Sample
If you have a product or electronic service to offer, it’s easy to give your customers a taster of what they can expect from becoming full customers of your business.
Endless digital entrepreneurs have used this strategy not only collect leads but also improve their chances of converting those leads into sales. All you need to do is give your customers a pared-down version of whatever you’re selling for a short time.
Bidsketch offers customers a free sample proposal that they can use to potentially capture potential customer email addresses:
Alternatively, you can provide your customers with a short product demo that lasts for a certain amount of time. For instance, you might allow your audience to use your software for a 30-day trial period. At the end of that period, they can be prompted to sign up for the full service. Even if they don’t sign up, you still have their email address to nurture them for later:
Even Netflix gives its audience a chance to access a free trial so that they can fall in love with the content that they stream online.
- The Survey/ Quiz
While the sample or demo lead magnet takes advantage of your customer’s desire for freebies, the survey or quiz option taps into the human craving for information.
Have you ever wondered why there are so many people sharing the results of random quizzes like “What’s your Star Wars Name?” on social media? People are naturally curious. It only makes sense to take advantage of that curiosity for your lead magnet purposes.
The good news is that there are plenty of ways that you can offer dozens of different kinds of quizzes to your audience. You don’t even need them to enter their details first. Get them to fill out the quiz, then enter their email address for the answers.
You can also promise your audience some extra value if they do hand over their email address. This will stop them from potentially hitting the back button and giving up on your quiz entirely.:
- The Course or Webinar
Did you know that online education is a $275 billion industry?
One of the most exciting features of the internet is how easy it is to find information and expand your education online. Offering people a free course or webinar is an excellent way to take advantage of their desire to learn and improve.
Webinars and courses don’t have to be long and exhausting presentations.
You can start with a simple blog post and convert that into something that covers a crucial topic that your audience is interested in. For instance, Neil Patel offered his customers access to a 3-step process for their business building needs.
The key to offering a successful webinar or training session, is reminding your audience of the value that they’re going to get from building their education with you.
Let your customers know what you’ve achieved with the same information. For instance, Check out this example, that tells you that you can learn how to acquire 300% more leads:
Alternatively, you can also take advantage of the common issue of “FOMO” with your webinar and training resources. Let people know that they only have a limited time to sign up for your webinar, and they’ll be more likely to jump into action:
The term “Reserve my Seat” also makes the training course feel a lot more exclusive than a standard training session that anyone can attend.
- The Mini eBook
Ebooks are one of the most common lead market options on the market today – but they’re also one of the most valuable. Some companies can even create eBooks by combining pieces of old content on their website or gated content into a more complete resource. That means that you spend less time building your lead magnet, and more time earning leads.
HubSpot suggests that eBooks are the most popular form of lead magnet, used by around 27.7% of people today. Additionally, they also highlight that the average lead magnet is between 5 and 10 thousand words in length.
As with many lead magnet ideas for 2020, the key to successfully getting people to sign up for your eBook, is providing them with an insight into the value that they’re going to get. For instance, this Optin Monster eBook reminds you that over 70% of your visitors that leave your website never come back. It also gives you an option to do something about that:
Depending on how much valuable information you have to offer with your eBook, you may even be able to ask for more information from your audience.
People are willing to give more information to get more value.
If you’re worried that your audience won’t want to read an eBook and need something more comprehensive, then you can provide a report too. Reports are similar to eBooks, but they appeal to a more B2B audience because they seem to promise more data-driven content.
- The Checklist
A checklist is another great way to capture leads – but it appeals to people who have less time than those looking for your average eBook.
Checklists are ideal for fast-paced consumers who want to access information quickly, without having to scroll through pages of texts and graphs. For instance, the Blue wire Media company offers a checklist on how to create a lead magnet, with an insight into the product on their website:
Importantly, if you’re going to create a checklist, you need to make sure that it’s comprehensive.
Just because you’re not writing down pages of information doesn’t mean you can dial it in with your lead magnet. Make sure that you cover every step of the process that you’re guiding your customer through. Your checklist should have dozens of steps, whether it’s covering productive meetings:
Or Google ranking factors:
Remember, because you’re giving slightly less information than an eBook, you’ll also need to make sure that you’re not asking for too much information from your audience. An email address and potentially a first name is all you can get away with.
- Free Account Audit
What if you want to give your audience a taste of the kind of professional customer service that you can give them? After all, experience is the most important differentiator in today’s marketplace.
One unique option is to consider offering a free account audit as your lead magnet. This essentially asks your audience to get in touch with you and connect with your brand. For instance, 99 Robots gives their clients the chance to access a free Facebook Ad Account audit that will help to turn their business into a sales machine.
You can even give your customers access to a tool that they can use to “test” something on their website and see if it needs work:
If you want to convince your audience to jump into action even faster with their free consultation, you can also show them the value of the information or insights you’re giving. Tell them how much you would charge for the same service typically:
- The Guide/ Cheat Sheet
Finally, if you usually cover complex topics on your website, through in-depth videos or blog posts, then it might be worth giving your customers access to extra information that they can refer back to. A cheat sheet is usually a single page of data that your customers can use when they want to refresh their memory on how to do something.
You can also provide a complete guide that your customers might want to download and share with other members of their team or add to their resource collection.
Hubspot is excellent for offering guides as lead magnets:
The decision you make on how comprehensive your lead magnet should be will be based on a close evaluation of your customer. You’ll need to ask yourself how much information they’re going to want to keep with them.
For some customers, just a few basic headlines will be enough. For other visitors, the more guidance you can provide, the better.
Choosing the Right Lead Magnet for 2020
Bribing your visitors so that they turn into the leads might seem like a somewhat shady process.
However, it’s something that has also been proven to work for countless years.
Today’s consumers are happy to give you information in exchange for valuable content or insights from your brand. All you need to do is figure out what kind of value they’re looking for.
The lead magnet ideas above will give you a head start on figuring out what kind of tools you can use to attract your target market in 2020. Remember, whenever you test a new magnet, make sure that you have measurement strategies in place that will allow you to track the results of your campaign.
Over time, you’ll learn which kind of magnets appeals best to your target audience, and what you need to do to convince your customers to buy.
