Want to get more leads and turn them into customers who buy?
Whatever business you run, your goal is to get more leads and turn those leads into paid customers. To do this, you need a way to get their info.
You could run ads and collect leads from customers ready to buy now, but you’d miss out on future customers. People who need more convincing.
Enter the lead magnet.
What does a lead magnet do?
You give someone an offer, a reward, or some other kind of moral bribe in exchange for their information. This is called a lead magnet.
You make offer as an honest bribe. You do this to get potential buyers to give you their name, email address, phone number, address, or whatever information you need.
This way, you can keep selling to them throughout the sales process.
And isn’t that the dream of every marketer?
If you didn’t know before now you know how important it is to offer a strong lead magnet, like a free gift, ebook, or white paper, in order to get someone’s email address. But what you don’t know is how important it is to KEEP these lead magnets going THROUGHOUT the whole sales process.
You won’t turn leads into paid customers if you don’t offer lead magnets at all stages of the sales cycle.
Your business should think about putting a lead magnet in these three places:
Top of the Funnel
People who visit your business should be turned into leads during the TOFU stage. The best way to do this is to have a landing page with a lead magnet, like a free e-book, that people can get in trade for their email address.
Middle of the Funnel
Put your leads into sub-groups or make a short list of people who are most interested in what you have to offer during the MOFU stage. You can do this by giving them case studies, e-courses, or more in-depth info about your business.
Bottom of the Funnel
Turn interested leads into buyers during the BOFU stage by giving them a chance to try your services. Giving away a free trial, a money-back promise, or even a coupon code is one way to do this.
Moving your leads through your funnel will be easier when you get these stages right. And it’ll make your business more sales by the end.
It can be hard to come up with a lot of different lead magnet ideas. That’s why I made this list to help you choose the best deal for each stage of your sales process.
Ideas for lead magnets for the top of the funnel (TOFU)
Get a free report or ebook
As lead magnet, free reports and ebooks are used too much. But if you can figure out what your visitors really want, they can be a great way to get leads.
If you want to write an article or free report, you should think about what kind of information your readers will find most useful. Things like “How to Tell if Your Roof Needs Replacing” or “Signs Your Deck Might Collapse” might be good places to start if you’re in remodeling.
Write your report or ebook well, be thorough, make it educational. Back it up by research and data to be credible.
Everyone can find a lot of free information online. Because of this, your free guide has to offer something special or unique.
The infographic or the PDF version
If you have a long blog post or other thorough content, give your readers a PDF version or infographic. This is a good way to get them to give you their information.
This approach is also easy and quick. Since it doesn’t require writing any new content and the graphic can be easily made using an Canva or hiring it out.
Offer different forms of info since people like to learn in different ways.
Questions and answers
Tests are fun. They’re a great way to get people interested in your site. In fact, Buzzfeed is famous for making tests that go viral on social media.
Because people like to find out more about themselves, or what “type” of person they are, quizzes can be very popular.
When coming up with questions, think about the people who will be taking it and what they would like to know about themselves. If you have a salon, you might ask, “What Does Your Hairstyle Say About You?” or “What Fish Would You Be? ” for a swim school.
You can also get more leads from quizzes because you can ask for information before or after they finish the quiz to get their score.
Giving things away for free
Giving something away for free is a quick way to get a lot of leads, but it might not be the best way to get good leads.
Because of this, you should really think about the free gift you’re giving your guests and whether it will really help your business in the long run.
For instance, if you run a catering business and you give away free meals, a lot of people will probably sign up just to get the food. To get people excited about your business and bring in people who are serious about your catering, you might want to give a free recipe book so people see the care you put into your work.
Examples of templates
You can give your customers a trial that helps support and go along with your main service by giving them templates for sign designs, flyer templates, and other things. These are great for print shops.
Giving your leads a template they only need to fill in the blanks with their info can be very helpful.
It’s a great way to show how you approach a design or a problem.
Latest News
Newsletters give people who visit your blog or use your services access to more information. It’s also a good way to send your readers a quick list of your week’s best posts or ideas.
When you write your emails, give your readers more than what they can get from your blog. This makes people your email more valuable.
Also, send your messages out every week at the same time and day.
Talk to someone live
When people visit your website, a live chat function is a great way to talk to them right away and lead them in the right direction.
To make this work, all you have to do is ask your guests for their email address or to create an account in order to start the live chat. An app like Google Hangouts can be used to do this.
Another good thing about having a live chat option is that it gets people to act right away. And figure out what questions people have when they visit your website.
Here are some more examples of TOFU lead magnet ideas:
Owned study or information
Breakdowns, cheat sheets, and outlines of your material or themes that are popular
One more time to watch a live event or talk
A place or information that only members can see
Lists of resources or references
Sheets of work or workbooks
Something like a book or CD
A video lesson or audio training
As a podcast
A copy of Powerpoint or SlideShare
Lead Magnet Ideas for the Middle of the Funnel
Gift certificates for a live event or workshop
It may be best to talk to your leads in person to move them from the MOFU phase to the BOFU phase.
Offer free passes to potential customers for live events or events that require tickets (if your business runs such events). This will keep them interested in what your business has to offer.
You can also do this for an online event like a conference, but live events are often seen as more valuable and may increase the number of people who sign up.
Examples of Case Studies
Case studies are a great way to show your business is a leader in its field. Also a great way to get the word out. They’re like a testimonial and a how-to piece rolled into one.
They give people who are interested the chance to see how you’ve helped other customers solve their problems. Giving step-by-step instructions, ideas, and tools that they can use themselves. Customers are more likely to trust your brand when you do this.
Also, case studies are a good way to get leads to buy expensive things or obtain expensive services.
Brochures or catalogs sent by mail
One of the oldest ways to market is to mail brochures and catalogs. It also may be one of the best tools your business can use. Especially if your leads would benefit from getting a hard copy of something.
Lots of people still love magazines and other hard copies. Especially true when they’re making a big choice. These are great for home builders, real estate agents or financial services. It’s easier to sort through information when it’s all in one place.
The travel business is another one that might benefit from having fliers and guides printed on paper. A glossy brochure full of pictures, schedules, and meals may work better to get people to book and travel with your company when you’re putting together a custom plan together for them.
You need to really know your audience and what they’re looking for in order for this to work and be worth the money.
Lead Magnet Ideas for Bottom of Funnel
Code for a discount
Coupons for discounts are great. Also, they’re simple to make and work well at getting leads to buy.
One thing to keep in mind when giving out coupons is how they fit in with your marketing and goals.
Sometimes coupon codes work better than “freebies” because they help your brand get rid of leads who are only interested in free stuff.
Free Consultation
If a customer buys something after the free meeting, you’ve given them a taste of what you have to offer and sold them on your business.
You don’t want your free consultation to seem like a sales pitch, but you should slowly push them to buy your service. When you give leads your time for free, they may feel more obligated to buy, especially if you give them a lot of value right away.
Remember that you shouldn’t give your free consultation too early in the sales funnel. If you do, it might be hard to get leads who are actually interested in becoming paid customers.
Loyalty Program
It’s possible to get leads to buy by using reward programs as lead magnets.
Try different loyalty programs, like ones that give prize points or free improvements.
Wrap It Up
If you want to keep your leads going through your sales process from TOFU to BOFU, Lead Magnets are the way.
When looking for the best lead magnet, it doesn’t matter what part of the sales process you’re working on. You should think about your audience and what matters to them.
Studies show over and over that if you want to get leads, it’s better to give a tool than an information product.
Charts, quizzes, samples, templates, are some of these tools.
If your company really wants to get some serious leads, a tool-based magnet might be the best and fastest way to start.
Evaluate your lead magnet to see if it works well enough to bring in the right kind of leads for your business.
