If you want to know how to create an irresistible lead magnet for your business, then you came to the right place,
I’m going to assume that you either already have a business or have been thinking about starting one.
One thing is for sure; to get some movement in your marketing strategy, you need a powerful lead magnet to build an email list. But how do you make one? This article will give you the answers!
Here are the main topics on how to create a lead magnet that works in case you want to jump ahead.
Let’s start by defining what a lead magnet is.
What Is A Lead Magnet?
A lead magnet is a marketing term used when an item or service of value is offered to a targeted group of people in exchange for their contact details.
The content can be free or offered at a discounted price. Examples include trial subscriptions, samples, newsletters, or free consultations.
When I mention how to create a lead magnet, most people only think about the prospect’s deliverable.
(I used to think the same thing, too…until I had to build my own.)
But a working lead magnet has WAY MORE components than just that!
When you make a lead magnet, you also need to worry about…
- Coming up with the deliverable
- Defining a persona
- Setting up the funnel
- Use engaging copywriting
- Making your graphic designs
- Create and manage your ads
- Find your target audience
- Deliver the goods
- Set up follow-up automation sequences
- Convert the funnel leads into customers/clients.
I will walk you through the entire funnel building process step by step. It is important to understand each step intimately because each stage of sales funnels impacts customer behavior. This process is the one that we use to create effective lead generation services for our clients.
Steps To Creating Your Lead Magnet
Coming up with the deliverable
A lead generation magnet is also known as an opt-in bribe – something that will get you to bring in high converting web traffic, increase your email list, gain credibility, gain trust, and ultimately win over loyal customers. According to Beacon, lead magnets can improve conversion by as much as 785%.
Basically, it is a downloadable freebie that your niche audience is forced to download at their fingertips. Some magnet examples include free reports, free eBooks, a discount, or whatever else you feel would be valuable enough to entice people to take action immediately. Coming up with content ideas should be your first step.
The perfect lead magnet content must provide value, though, and must be relevant to your offer’s service or product. Why?
For 2 important reasons.
1. We always tell our clients how important it is to give a ton of value upfront so that potential buyers feel more confident in doing business with your company.
2. The deliverable must attract the “ideal customer” that will purchase or sign up for your services in the future (more on this below).
When possible, try to create an evergreen lead magnet.
What is an Evergreen Lead Magnet? An evergreen lead magnet is a valuable resource that offers immediate value to the end-user can be updated throughout time, and invites repeated usage.
Evergreen content will allow you to create the entire funnel process once, and you only have to spend a short amount of time to keep it up to date. In addition, evergreen lead magnets work with all industries.
This is very effective when it comes to list-building, web traffic generation, and improved conversion rates. In fact, list building and generating web traffic are pretty much the whole point of this article!
Defining A Persona
This is someone with common buying habits which would be a good fit for your product or service. To determine your ideal customer, the first thing you need to do is create a shortlist of website visitors. This can be done through an email subscriber list, social media, phone lists, or other methods of identifying people who are more likely to be your ideal customer.
Creating The Sales Funnel
The entire funnel structure consists of the following…
A Way To Promote Your Content
The most common way to promote your content is through paid advertising. There are various platforms available, including Google, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tiktok, etc.
You can also promote your content for free through a newsletter (if you have a list of email subscribers), your social media posts, and even on your website or blog posts. (But you must have web traffic already).
But I’m assuming that you’re a new business with none or very few subscribers and web traffic. So in this article, we will focus on paid advertising.
Paid Advertising
One of the most effective ways to promote a lead magnet (especially a new business) is Facebook Ads. If you never used Facebook to run ads, you will find that it has a bit of a learning curve, but there are many articles and videos to learn the process.
Targeting Your Prospects
One of the most important factors when creating your ad besides the sales copy (we’ll touch on that below) is choosing the ideal audience.
This is where finding a persona or “the ideal customer” comes into play. By now, you should know who your potential customer should look like. Next, choose a targeted audience that reflects the interest and behavioral patterns of that person.
For example, if your business is best suited for homeowners, then you could target men and women, age 25+, and their interests are home decor, etc.
Capturing The Lead
You can now collect a visitor’s contact details through a lead form on the Facebook platform itself, but we recommend that you send the user to a landing page when possible.
A landing page will allow you the opportunity to present your lead magnet more efficiently.
Creating your landing page – The first thing is to put together a killer squeeze page known as a landing page. This is where you give away valuable information that is necessary to attract interested parties.
A lot of list builders use a signup form to email addresses on this step. Like I mentioned before, popular lead magnet ideas usually include some gifts in addition to the information you are giving away.
A landing page can be created on various platforms such as WordPress, Click Funnels, Groove Funnels, High Level, or any other software created for this type of setup.
An Opportunity To Close The Deal
Once your prospect decides to take you up on your unbelievable offer, they will either sign up through a contact form or make a payment through your checkout page. This is the perfect time to offer a main product or service.
But make sure that it is a one-time offer that they can’t refuse. At this point, the website visitor has decided to become a consumer and is trusting you with their personal information. This process is called…
Offering upsells and downsells – An upsell is a product or service that you offer a lead prospect after entering their payment details or sign up to receive your lead magnet but before the checkout process is final. A downsell is another product or service (usually less inexpensive than upselling) that you offer after someone says no to your upsell.
Whether they take your upsell or downsell offer, the prospect, which is now a lead, will continue to the next step.
The Thank you page – This is the last step in the capture funnel. Creating an informative and engaging thank you page is imperative to ensure that visitors feel like they made the right choice. You can also provide the next steps that they should take and expect. Plus, this is the perfect place to add additional links to your website or social media posts.
The lead has now been captured.
Before we continue to the next step in the funnel, look at another important element: copywriting and graphic design. Now, this is the step where many business owners and content marketers fail, so pay attention.
What is Sales Funnel Copywriting?
Sales funnel copywriting, also known as sales copy, refers to the process of writing engaging words that will convince a person that your services are something that they want or need.
There are many books and video training about this topic, but…
The most important part of copywriting is capturing the potential consumer’s attention and maintaining his or her interest. At the same time, you touch on the key points about your offer.
Capturing the prospect’s attention – You only get a few seconds to capture someone’s attention. Therefore your headline and intro must touch on a pain point or emotion of the person reading it.
Think about how your company helps your existing customers.
Start by asking a question that relates to the issue or problem that the prospect may have.
You can then ask the reader if they want to know how your product or service can help them solve that problem. (This question will help engage the user even further.)
Finally, you can explain how your solution works and what they can do to get it.
Ensuring that your readers take action – Many psychological factors can be used to help move your prospects through a sales funnel.
Motivation: A person can become a consumer by making them feel like they need what you are offering.
Perception: People can be influenced into buying something if they perceive that it provides enough value.
Learning: Most of us like to learn new things, so if a prospect sees that they can get additional information from taking action, they will.
Attitudes and beliefs: Individual has his or her own attitudes and beliefs about certain products, services, and brands. By understanding your ideal customer, you can adjust your campaigns accordingly.
These sales psychological triggers are important to understand, but those with the biggest impact on copywriting are the following.
Fear of missing out (Fomo): Many consumers will make an impulse purchase for the fear that they missed out on an opportunity. This is a powerful tactic used by many digital marketers.
Time Pressure: Although it might seem uncomfortable to put prospects into a pressured situation, this psychological trigger works. Marketers have been using it for centuries. When people see the “for a limited time only,” it causes an urge to take action.
Now it’s time to put your new copywriting skill into practice for your sales ad, landing pages, upsells/downsells, and follow-up emails, which is the next element in the lead magnet process.
Before we move on to the next element, it’s important to mention the visualization triggers that can help move a prospect through the funnel.
Lead Magnet Design
Graphics are an essential part of your lead magnet funnel. You can use online tools like Canva, Crello, or Adobe Spark to create attractive designs. You can even use a marketing video to promote your lead magnet. A study showed that users get 78% more traffic to their website by using video.
The important thing to keep in mind is that your graphic design needs to look professional and strategic. It would be best to showcase the graphic design’s deliverable to know what they will be getting. As you may already know – an image says a thousand words. You can hire someone to create the graphic design for you if you have no experience.
Following Up With Your Lead
Ok, so at this point, your ad attracted users to your landing page, and they have either accepted your offer or not. – If they accepted your offer, then the prospect is now a lead, and it’s time to deliver the goods.
But what if they leave your landing page without taking action?
Well, you can do what many new businesses do, which is nothing, or you can retarget the prospect on social media platforms by taking advantage of your website’s tracking pixel. Running a retargeting ad is one of the least expensive ways since you’re only showing your ad to a few people vs. showing it to thousands of people in a targeted audience.
We will now continue with the funnel process.
Delivering The Lead Magnet
The next step in the lead magnet funnel is to send a thank you letter with the promised deliverable to the subscriber’s email address if it’s a digital product.
Here is your opportunity to begin a relationship with your new lead and assure them that they made a great decision by taking you up on your offer.
You can also provide valuable information about your lead magnet and offer instructions on how to use it or offer the opportunity for the user to set up a one-on-one so that you can answer any questions that they may have.
This would be a good time to invite the lead to join your Facebook group on following you on other social media platforms – But don’t be too pushy and do not try to sell them yet.
The Nurturing Process
This next step is the beginning of the nurturing process, and it’s time to send out an email sequence campaign.
What is an email sequence? An email sequence, also known as a drip campaign, refers to a series of pre-written emails sent out at specific intervals to new subscribers.
Email sequences can be used for different campaigns, including sending out newsletters, updates, recovering abandoned carts, etc. But the main purpose of this email sequence is to nurture your new lead.
Using email marketing software
There are many software companies that you can use to create automated email campaigns for your lead magnet funnel. Some of the most popular email service providers are Mailchimp, Convertkit, Getresponse, and many others.
But it is important to do your research to see which platform is best suited for your needs and experience. Some of these companies offer more advanced features that can be overwhelming to a novice user but offer powerful strategies such as automated workflows and triggers that you can incorporate in your email sequences.
What is an email lead nurturing campaign? a lead nurturing email campaign uses a series of emails designed to build a relationship and trust with potential customers while providing valuable resources and the opportunity to present your main products or services.
An effective nurturing process looks like this.
- Provide value with additional resources
- Offer tips that can provide immediate relief
- Build trust and create a relationship with new subscriber
- Establish yourself or your company as an authority In your industry
This process involves sending a follow-up email, and you need to create a personal relationship with each of your prospects. You want to ensure that they know that you value them enough to want to work with you, but you also want them to trust you enough to let you do business with them.
One way to do this is to offer to do a one-on-one consultation with them. This shows that not only are you serious about learning more about your audience but that you care about them and would like to help solve their problems.
There are a variety of ways to set up your email nurturing campaign. But you need to take your time and never ask for the sale right away.
There are two main psychological factors involved with the buying process decision.
1. Building Trust – We can take the perfect (but old) example of when a man meets a woman. In this scenario, the man needs to build a relationship with the woman before asking her to marry him. The same goes for your leads. You can’t just say “buy from me.” The lead magnet is like asking for a date. Now you must build a relationship first.
2. Mental Preparedness – I will use the example of my mother to explain this factor. My mother, a loving yet independent woman, can be persuaded to do just about anything for her family. But don’t’ you dare ask her to do something at the last minute cause she won’t do it. It would be best to give her plenty of time to process what she needs to do mentally.
The same goes for your leads. It would help if you prepared them to take action mentally. This can be done by presenting an offer without asking for the sale. In addition, many experienced marketers will send out a “coming soon” email that creates anticipation about a new product or promotion. This technique mentally prepares consumers to take action.
Like I stated above, different marketers use different sequences, but here is one that has been proven to work over and over again.
Email One: Send thank you note with your lead magnet file
Email Two: Send useful tips relevant to your lead magnet or provide a “how-to” informational pdf or blog post.
Email Four: Send out an “about us” email with reviews from existing customers/clients or a case study showing details of your work.
Email Four: Send out a “coming soon” or a “did you know about” email that provides some details about your product or service but doesn’t ask for the sale.
Email Five: Present your “for a limited time” promotion or offer designed specifically for your subscribers. Depending on your industry, ask for the sale, send a link to your online store or offer a free sales consultation to discuss the opportunity.
Email Six: If your lead does not take action on the previous proposal, send out a “are you still interested” re-engagement letter reminding them about your offer.
Email Seven: If the lead does not respond, send them to a long-term nurturing campaign or add the lead to a newsletter campaign. This might not be the right time for them, so you want to maintain the connection for as long as possible.
Once you take the time and effort to create this lead magnet funnel, you will begin to generate email addresses of people interested in doing business with you. And by implementing an effective email sequence, you will start to generate business.
It is important to be patient and think about running multiple lead generation campaigns, and don’t be afraid to A/B test each campaign and get rid of the one that doesn’t work.
This inbound marketing strategy is highly effective when done properly and be combined with other channels, including…
SMS Marketing
In this article, our main attention was focused on email marketing to communicate with your prospective customers. Still, you might want to look at implementing SMS marketing to compliment your funnel. According to Getresponse, 75 percent of millennials prefer SMS communications for deliveries, promotions, and surveys. Plus, a study shows that text messages have an open rate of 98% vs. 20% of emails.
Our Sales Pitch & Conclusion
This article was designed to guide beginners on the process of creating a lead magnet that actually works, and we know that you will be successful by implementing it into your marketing goal. But if you find that you don’t have the time or patience to do it yourself, you can set up a free consultation with one of our lead generation experts, and we can set a powerful lead magnet for your business. Contact us if you have any questions.
