You may wonder if ever you need a lead magnet but if you have a website, a blog or an online product, then you need a lead magnet. The freebie will attract your audience, a group of people who go beyond one-off purchases. Regular loyal online visitors who have you at the back of their minds every time they need the product or service you have.
These people at times even seek your advice on things you don’t offer. Why? Because they have you as the authority in anything related to your service.
A quality list allows you to achieve the purpose of your blog or website. With the list, you constantly update your audience on your products. In your list, you also educate and help out whenever they need help and you are in a position to help. The list offers a ready market for your products now and in the future.
How do You Get the List of Loyal Audience?
When it comes to getting your list of prospects, there are two commonly used ways. You can choose to buy it or grow it organically. Let’s look at these two ways in detail.
Buying the List of Email Addresses
One way you can acquire a list of prospects is to buy. This gives you a list of people who you’ll target with your product right away. In a one-off effortless way, you acquire a list by paying for it.
The challenge with buying though is that you’ll have targets who have not chosen to join your list. They may not even be remotely interested in what you have to offer. These prospects could be receiving lots of other emails that they did not directly subscribe to.
There is also the danger of you coming off as a spammer and your emails being flagged off as junk. So while buying an email list gives you an instant long list of potential customers, it’s not your best choice in developing a prospects database. It’s a quick solution that doesn’t offer the best value over a long time.
Build one organically
Building a list organically gives you the benefit of quality prospects. You’ll get contacts of people who have heard or read about your product. They have some form of interest in your product. These subscribers opt into your list by their choice and will hence not be offended by your emails.
How do You Build an Organic an Email list?
A lead magnet is your sure source of quality long term customers who’ll be sold into your values and products. It is the door through which prospective customers will enter to become a part of your community when it comes to your product and brand.
What’s a Lead magnet?
A lead magnet is a give away you offer in order to collect email addresses or other contact information from your potential customers. It’s a bait for your new leads that gives them a reason to leave their email address to you. Most customers will not give their contacts without a benefit in return.
You’ll need to offer something of value. This freebie should address a certain specific problem that your ideal target customer has. This is your lead magnet.
Lead Magnet Options
#1. Checklist
A checklist is easy to come up with. You could summarize a post or an instructional document to points in a single page which at a glance tells the user what to do to accomplish a certain task. It is easy to consume a checklist’s content and so it’s attractive to have.
When you create the checklist, save it as a PDF document and link it to your blog. You’ll then need to add a prompt for anyone who downloads the checklist to leave their name and email address.
Depending on the niche of your website some checklists you can think about are very diverse. You can, for instance, create checklists on what to pack for a Saturday picnic, a recipe for a quick meal or a step by step
#2. Swipe file
A swipe file is popular among writers but applicable to anyone who needs that extra motivation once in a while. It is is a collection of writings and writing references that offer motivation when one needs it. Let’s face it, to succeed in any sphere of life, we learn things from other successful people. This collection of what inspires you to write better or faster is a great resource and presenting it as a lead magnet is a sure win for your conversion.
#3. Industry Jargon list
Every industry has its language. Your customer strives to stay in touch with the changing industry trends and language of their niche or industry. A list of common words in that industry helps your customers stay updated on the industry’s language and standards.
An example is what Jennifer Roland shares, 37 essential writing terms for writers. This particular list is relevant to online writers but you can do a similar one corresponding to your prospective customers’ industry and offer it as a lead magnet.
#4. A resource toolkit
A resource toolkit is a set of tools you need to accomplish a certain task. All jobs require certain important tools. For instance in online writing, you need a spell checker, plagiarism checker, writing platform among other tools. When you collect these tools and their source in a single document, you’ll be giving real value to your prospects.
#5. Content upgrade
When you write a post that attracts a great deal of readership, it keeps your audience wanting more. Creating a new version of the post will be appreciated by your audience. You can offer this as an incentive to your readers. Given that they already read your earlier post, they will easily part with their address for an upgraded version of the post.
#6. Free Email Course
Is training one of your services? Or is your product so technical that your customers need some training? A short course is helpful in almost any field. You can package it to cover 3 days or a week to give your users a taste of what they will get when they pay for your full course or product.
#7. Your Daily Routine
As an expert in your area, your own daily routine is one of the most valuable secrets many people look forward to getting from you.
Your customers are constantly looking for ways to up their sales or productivity. What’s a better way to do this than to use a routine from a successful person in their area of interest? Your daily routine is top!
Though this applies across the board, I can’t think of a better example than the Forex market. Upcoming Forex traders will be very thankful for a sample productive daily routine from an experienced peer in Forex trading. A daily routine is a great lead magnet to have.
Wrapping it Up
A lead magnet of some kind is necessary for a business to thrive over time. Lead generation is hard work and so you want to do everything necessary to grow the number of your prospects. Whatever lead magnet you choose to implement will depend on its effectiveness and relevance to your customers. An A/B test of some of the tools above will give your business the perfect fit.
