What is a lead magnet, and why do I need one?

What is a Lead Magnet?

This is a common question that I am asked regularly. In simple terms, a lead magnet is a free gift that you offer your prospective clients and audience members. This “gift” varies in content, length, variety, etc. at the end of the day though, it remains a valuable tool for your business.

A lead magnet can be something simple like a checklist or an assessment. It can be a simple 5 step guide or an eBook. It can be a planner of some sort or the audio file of a book. The content within a lead magnet depends largely on what your business is, what you sell, and whom you are attracting. It should always be valuable to your prospective customers and audience.

Why Do I Need a Lead Magnet?

A lead magnet is powerful, or it can be if you have the right content. This gift can help establish your credibility, likability and trustworthiness. It also helps you create a database for your business. In order for someone to receive your free gift, you ask for their email. This small exchange allows them access to valuable content that will help them solve the problem they came to your site seeking answers to, while simultaneously allowing you to grow the email list your business needs. This email list is how you will reach these same customers over and over again. Why is this important? According to this article by IndoorMedia, the average person needs to see a company’s brand 7-8 times before they will take any sort of action. It is likely that they will not go out of their way to continue to visit your website to seek you out. By gathering their email address, you are now able to email them (don’t spam!) more valuable information to continue building their trust. This creates a higher likelihood that they will return to you to obtain your services or products when the time is right.

What should I use as my Lead Magnet?

Lead magnets are very personal to your brand! It is important to take your brand into account when choosing a lead magnet. Some businesses even offer multiple lead magnets. Again, the goal is to collect email addresses so that you can stay connected with all clients and potential clients. Start with one, strong lead magnet and add more as you have time to create them. You can change them out, offer different ones on different pages, or associate them with different events/ content that you share.

Renowned Editor Jennifer Harshman goes into depth on the different options for lead magnets on her website. In that article, you can read a list of 80 ideas she gives for possible lead magnets. These include:

• Lists of podcasts your ideal clients may find valuable
• Questions they can ask to help them evaluate
• Book recommendations
• Resource recommendations
• How to Guides
• Planners/Evaluations
• Ebooks
• Audiobooks
• Free Assessments/Quizzes

It is very important to consider your audience when creating a lead magnet. Remember who they are, remember what they want and need and remember why they are seeking you out. Provide them with some free content that allows them to feel like you have given them something valuable.

Creating a lead magnet is similar to creating the website content that is needed to showcase who you are, what your brand is, what your products/services are, and why someone should get those things from you instead of your competitor. If the idea of creating a lead magnet seems daunting, relax and know that you can always hire someone to help you with this. There are great ghostwriters, copywriters, and even website designers who can use their skills to create the written content you need for your clients.

If you’d like to discuss creating a lead magnet further, reach out for a free consultation today.