10 Tips for Writing a Good Lead Magnet
You’re probably already familiar with lead magnets—even if you’re not familiar with the term.
Basically, lead magnets are those free download offers (e.g. a report, worksheet, etc.) that you get in exchange for sharing your email address.
For many small businesses, lead magnets are a useful tool for generating leads. They help you identify prospects that may be interested in your products or services—either now or in the future.
Once you have their email address, you can nurture these prospects (with their permission) until they’re ready to engage. By sending them your newsletter and the occasional outreach email or phone call, you develop trust and establish credibility.
While many small business owners recognize the value of having a lead magnet, many hesitate to set one up because of the work involved.
And it’s true that creating and setting up a lead magnet for download does require some expertise. Nurturing these leads also takes time and resources.
But what holds back many small business owners is developing the lead magnet itself. They get stuck on the idea that the content has to be mind blowing—but it doesn’t!
It does, however, need to be short, concise and targeted.
How to Create a Good Lead Magnet
Want to create a good lead magnet that prospects will value? Here are my tips:
1. Keep it short
When lead magnets first became popular, they were often very long. The feeling was that unless your lead magnet was voluminous (such as an ebook or long report), the person downloading it would feel shortchanged.
But this isn’t true any more. Today, people recognize the value of information that’s short, specific and to the point. More isn’t always better.
2. Make it easy to consume
Following from the above, not only do you want your lead magnet to be short, you also want it to be in a format that’s easy to consume. You want to “chunk” the information. Instead of long paragraphs, aim for bullet points, images, tables or anything that can break up the text.
3. Choose the right format
Given the requirement for short, consumable information, lead magnet formats such as worksheets, infographics, cheat sheets and resources lists are preferred over ebooks and long reports.
4. Aim at your target market
In order for this short format to work, you need to know exactly who you’re targeting. While a lengthy book can address multiple audiences, a one-page worksheet can only effectively address one.
5. Solve a specific problem
Because you’re getting more targeted, you also need to get specific about the problem your lead magnet is attempting to solve. Keep things tight and focused!
6. Write an awesome title
Headlines and titles are always important, but they’re especially important for lead magnets. You want to entice qualified prospects to download your content. So having a good title is key.
7. Include a call to action
Include a call to action at the end of your lead magnet. What action do you want prospects to take after they download it? Do you want them to call for more information? Send an email? Take some other action? Make this explicit.
8. Get it professionally designed
You can’t underestimate the value of getting your lead magnet professionally designed. People will value and appreciate your content much more than if you send them a Word doc or spreadsheet.
Keep the design consistent with other design elements you have in place, such as your website and business cards. After all, your lead magnet is part of your branding.
9. Get professional help to set it up
Once you have your gorgeous new lead magnet in hand, you need to set up a system for distributing it and capturing email addresses.
Usually, this means promoting the lead magnet on your site and having an opt-in form. Once the form is submitted, the system should automatically send a link to the lead magnet download page. Their name should also be added to your list.
As your list of subscribers starts to grow, you’ll need a system to manage your list and continue your nurturing process.
Given the complexity, I strongly suggest that you get a developer to help you set this up. They can also help to make sure you’re in compliance with SPAM and privacy regulations.
10. Test your system
Once you have all the pieces in place, test and retest the system to make sure it’s working. And then keep checking it periodically.
Are Your Ready to Create a Lead Magnet for Your Business?
Need help writing a lead magnet for your small business? To get a quote or learn more about my content marketing services, I invite you to contact me.