7 ideas for lead magnets

'Lead magnet' has been a trendy phrase in marketing for a few years already and actually for a good reason. Your leads are your potential customers.

Why do you need to gather those contact details?

Well, the key aspect here is that when you only rely on social media and building your following there, then you are 100% dependent on that platform. They can at any point delete your account or change the terms & conditions of using their service, and basically you cannot argue with them because you don’t own those contacts.

However, when you build an email list of your own, then you are in charge of what you do with your leads: how often you communicate with them, what type of messaging you show them and so on. When you compare it to Facebook or Instagram, for example, then even though you may have 10 000 followers, then organically - without paying any money - you are lucky if you reach 10% of those people. So, really, there’s no way for you to control who sees your messages and how often they see them.

So, what type of lead magnets can you create? The most important thing here is to create something that is relevant to your target audience and something that has actual value and can help them in their life or in their work. Of course, the lead magnet should highlight your expertise and build trust for your products or services, but make sure it’s not too salesy.

There are a number of different lead magnets you can create, so let’s go over some ideas together.

1. A template or a tool that your leads can implement straight away. For example, what we have created at Powerful Marketers is a 12-month marketing plan template built in Google Sheets, so that it is fully customizable, yet it already has the structure and formulas built in.
2. A free video course or a webinar. This can be the “appetizer” for your full course or if you don’t have a full course, it can just share some valuable tips that are related to your products or services. You can even make it a video series and send out videos over the course of two weeks for example, so that you can nurture your contacts bit by bit.
3. A free ebook or a whitepaper that has, for example, some statistics on the industry or inspiring case studies or research findings. It can also be a super short version of your book or the first chapter of your book, for example.
4. A product trial. This is especially relevant if you offer a subscription based service or a software or an app. This means that you’ll make the first 7 or 14 days free for those who sign up and during that time they can understand what you offer and can then choose if they want to subscribe for good.
5. A free strategy call. Here, it makes sense to have some sort of filtering beforehand, so that you wouldn’t waste your own or the other person’s time if what you offer is actually not suitable for them. So, if possible, qualify your leads beforehand.
6. A quiz or a test of some sort. People really love to find out things about themselves, so if you’re able to build a test or a fun quiz that they can take and get some answers, then this is definitely a good idea. You can even recommend your products or services in the results section.
7. Giveaways, prizes or discount codes. One thing to bear in mind here is that if possible, qualify your leads or at least get enough information about them so that you can segment your leads later on. Because giveaways tend to attract all kinds of people, even those who are not in your target audience.

And that is it for our list today. Just to recap, the ideas that we mentioned were templates & tools, video courses & webinars, ebooks & whitepapers, product trials, strategy calls, quizzes & tests, giveaways & discounts.

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