Lead magnet - an effective way to increase conversion

A lead magnet is a lucrative offer to a consumer in exchange for their contact information. Often, this is free useful content (for example, a guide or a checklist).

How does it work? The visitor enters his email address on the site and receives the promised valuable information as a gift.

In other words, a lead magnet is an improvised “bridge” from “head-on sales” to a multi-step funnel. It helps to make several contacts with the client in order to explain the value of the product.

That is, you do not offer goods and services directly, but first generate interest in them, which you gradually warm up and develop. Over time, your lead develops a need to make a purchase, and he becomes your client.

Here's a good example of a lead magnet. Skillbox offers to take part of the training for free in exchange for a phone number:

Why do you need a lead magnet?

• Lead generation: Lead magnets act as bait for your target audience. By offering something valuable for free, you attract the attention of people interested in your niche.
• Building a Lead Database: By collecting contact information, you build a database of potential customers that you can engage with in the future.
• Audience segmentation: Lead magnets allow you to segment your audience based on their interests. You can offer different lead magnets to different audience segments to better understand their needs and preferences.
• Demonstrate Value: By offering a free but valuable lead magnet, you show potential customers that you are knowledgeable in your field and can offer them useful information.
• Building Trust: By providing valuable information for free, you build trust with potential clients and prove your expertise.
• Increased Engagement: A valuable lead magnet helps get potential customers excited about interacting with your brand.
• Increase sales and conversions: Lead magnets help convert potential customers into actual buyers, preparing them for the next stages of the sales funnel.

Basic rules of lead magnet

• Benefit: People are looking for a solution to a problem. If you give lyrics instead, visitors will not turn into buyers. Even a little useful information will increase loyalty. 
• Expertise: No one will trust an unknown "expert". So introduce the teacher or lecturer first (on the title page, on the website itself, or in the profile). Expertise is demonstrated not only by ranks, but also by the absence of misinformation, logical and factual errors. 
• Transparency: the title already tells the visitor what the materials will be about. If the title does not match the content, you will lose the buyer, as he will be disappointed. The information should also be clear. Since the materials are free, even a person who is not related to the area that is written about may be interested. Therefore, avoid highly specialized terms, specific examples, etc. 
• Brevity: since the materials are free and are needed to "hook" visitors, there is no need to give many examples or details. And the clients themselves do not expect to read multi-volume information. Leave this for a full-fledged course or consultation. Dedicate the lead magnet to one problem and specific points related to it.
• Accessibility: If a visitor gets free stuff only when they click on a link, enter a captcha, find 15 wine cats in a room with red cats, and dance a mazurka, you'll lose them. Make one button that will give them what they need when they click it. 
• Autonomy: this is important for the company. You won't send coupons or checklists to the visitor manually every time. By making the receipt of materials autonomous, you will save time first of all for yourself. If the visitor sees worthwhile information at the stage of free materials, he will not refuse to buy a full-fledged product.

What types of lead magnets are there?

Physical gifts

Example: samples, inexpensive related products, catalogues.

Who it’s for: a good option for a lead magnet for online stores and beauty salons.

What you need to create a lead magnet: find out the subscriber's address. If you work in one city, you can use a courier service or offer the subscriber to come to the store and pick up the goods. Such gifts are often sent along with the main order: a set of strings comes with a guitar, a mouse is given with a computer, and a fishing line is offered with a fishing rod.

Useful information

Example: PDF books, webinars, cases, cheat sheets, links to articles.

Who it’s for: a good option for a lead magnet for infobusiness, online education, fitness.

What you need to create a lead magnet:

• PDF book - any text editor.
• Webinar — video camera, microphones, lighting. Before filming, you need to prepare a script.
• Case - can be in the form of a written story or a video. It would be great to add infographics.

Free program

Example: a demo version of a program with incomplete functionality or a premium version for a limited time.

Who it's for: A good lead magnet option for service and application developers who want to show the benefits of their software to users.

What is needed to make a lead magnet: limit some of the program's features or set a counter after which the application will become paid.

For example: the SearchInform service for monitoring employees' work on the computer offers a trial version of the program if you fill out the form:

Favorable purchase conditions

Example: discounts, coupons, certificates, club cards.

Who it’s suitable for: a lead magnet option for online stores, restaurants, b2b, sales of services (healthcare, education, recreation).

What you need to make a lead magnet: link the user's account to the subscription form. After they leave an email, a gift comes: a certificate for a small amount or a discount on a product.
 
The Lamoda online store gives a discount: in exchange for an email, each subscriber receives a 10% discount.

How to Create a Lead Magnet

Stage 1

Initially, it is necessary to understand for whom we are creating a lead magnet on your website. You can learn more about your target audience using built-in analytics and integrations with professional analytical services - Google.Analytics or Yandex.Metrica.

The following metrics allow us to identify the main segments:

• geography;
• gender and age;
• long-term interests.

Next, you should work with specific questions:

• What are your target audience's "pains"? Pains are what prevent them from sleeping peacefully and make them feel constant discomfort. For example: "She can't lose weight" or "He tried everything, but still couldn't quit smoking" and any other issues that your product or service can help solve.
• What experiences does the client have? For example: being alone, being unaccepted in society, experiencing health problems, etc.
• What needs? For example: to look fashionable and stylish, to be liked by others, to resolve conflicts in the family, etc.

Answers to these questions will help you draw a portrait of the end consumer and determine his value - what he needs.

Stage 2

Once you've determined the value, start developing your lead magnet concept.

This is one of the most difficult tasks in the chain. Here, everything is determined by your niche. For example, if you sell some educational courses, it is appropriate to offer the audience useful guides, checklists, and maybe even books. If you promote an online store, it is more effective to offer discounts on the first order or complimentary gifts with the purchase.

Stage 3

The next step is to implement the promotion concept in practice, i.e. place a lead magnet on the website. If you don’t have a website yet, contact us and we will help you develop one. Check out our projects.

Where to place a lead magnet on a website

Once you've created your lead magnet, it's important to find the right place for it on your site.

The lead magnet can be placed on:

• separate landing page;
• in a pop-up window;
• in the header or footer of the site.

To find a suitable place, you can use the scroll map from Yandex.Metrica. It will show how users' attention is distributed across different sections of the site pages.

The lead magnet can also be promoted through advertising, mailings, collaborations with bloggers or social networks. It is worth choosing those channels where representatives of the target audience are located. Then they can become interested in the offer, go to the landing page and start interacting with the sales funnel through the magnet.

Briefly about the main thing

1. A lead magnet is the most effective and efficient way to collect contact information from your website visitors to gradually convert them into customers. It is an instant bonus that convinces users to provide relevant information about themselves, and also increases brand authority. It draws them into communication with the company, and most importantly, pushes them to make purchases.
2. Effective lead magnets are not created “for everyone ,” but are created for a specific target audience. They get right to the pain points of your potential customers, solve their problems, and satisfy their needs.
3. An effective lead magnet must follow four rules:
   - Be simple. So that users can use it immediately, rather than looking for instructions or understanding technical nuances.
   - Be useful. With the help of a lead magnet, users should solve their problem.
   - Be autonomous. Work not only in a certain situation, but constantly.
   - Work immediately. If a user fills out a form, he should be able to use the lead magnet immediately, and not after some time.