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Lead Magnet Ideas For Keeping Customer Confidence During Coronavirus

What Is A Lead Magnet? 

Lead magnets are interactive content pieces that immediately provide value to your readers. Compared to other inbound efforts like content marketing, lead magnets are specifically designed to gather leads. 

Think of lead magnets as incentives you offer your website visitors in exchange for their contact information. When leveraged correctly, lead magnets can help you build an active email list. This allows you to develop deeper relationships with your customers and directly engage with undecided buyers. 

But lead magnets aren’t just for potential customers. Through lead magnets, you can encourage inactive customers to engage with your business again. For example, you can use discount coupons when they drop by your website, giving them the incentive to make a purchase and give you their contact information. 

Qualities of A Great Lead Magnet

Lead magnets are extremely useful in our pandemic situation today. They can effectively remind your customers that your brand is here and ready to offer the solutions they need. However, not all lead magnets are created equal: some offers aren’t appealing enough to persuade a random website visitor to give you their contact information. 

If you want to convince a potential lead to voluntarily hand over their email address to your business, you have to understand what makes a lead magnet attractive:

  • Free: Access to someone’s email inbox is incredibly valuable, so never charge anyone for the lead magnet even if you invested a lot to prepare it. Gatekeeping your lead magnet is the opposite of what you want to do. Keep your resources free and convert those leads into paying clients to recoup the costs. 
  • Value adding: Even if your content is free, you have to make sure that it’s relevant and value adding for your leads. You cultivate trust with potential leads when your lead magnet delivers the solution they need. This trust will go a long way as you build the relationship between your leads and your brand. 
  • Targeted: Undoubtedly, your business has a specific group of ideal customers in mind. You have to craft a lead magnet that will attract these people to you. Leads want to feel that your organization understands what they need before they will allow you to help them. It’s important for you to craft content that provides a clear solution to a specific problem your target audience is facing. 

How Lead Magnets Can Help Your Business During COVID-19

With the world thrown into confusion during this pandemic, people are staying at home more than ever before. This means that people who ordinarily can’t attend a webinar or take up an online course have a lot of extra time on their hands. A lot of people are also reading more, practicing their skills, crossing off their to-do lists, and finding new hobbies.

Most of this is done over the internet. And for a lot of people, the world wide web is their main connection to the outside world now. This means it’s a great time to use online platforms and build relationships with people all over the world. 

Creating good content that offers genuine solutions to problems people are facing will attract leads to your organization. Here are a few things to remember as you plan your approach with lead magnets: 

  • Be a reputable source: Avoid sensationalizing stories or providing unverified, false information. Now is not the time to take advantage of people’s fear.
  • Plan to follow up: Lead magnets are a tool to bring in leads, not sales. Make sure you create a full campaign that includes following up with them.
  • Grow your relationships: Think of this time as the perfect opportunity to nurture trust in your leads. By the time this crisis is over, they may just become loyal customers. Don’t neglect your current customers either. Make sure they feel supported by your brand throughout this pandemic. 

12 Lead Magnet Ideas That Actually Work

1.) Quizzes and Questionnaires

Quizzes and questionnaires are among the most entertaining magnets around, which is why they work so well.These magnets work by letting a user answer a series of questions. To get the result, they are required to enter their email address. 

One great example is the wildly popular “Free Personality Test” created by 16Personalities. In exchange for basic results, users need to submit their email addresses. For a more in-depth analysis and coaching, users are prompted to subscribe for a year-long Premium membership. 

2.) Cheat Sheets, Checklists, and Infographics

Cheat sheets, checklists, and infographics are easy to create and readily consumed by users. These contents convert well because they condense concepts and information into something visual, actionable, and printable. 

There are so many potential formats to create these contents: step-by-step guides, collection of tips, instruction manuals, and more. It’s important to align your content with your business. Consider this Office Moving Checklist from Suddath, a commercial moving service. Web page visitors are asked to sign-up a form in exchange for planning tips. 

3.) Discount Offerings

When you visit the website of any major retailer (like The Gap), the first thing you’ll probably see is a discount offering in exchange for your email address. Discount offerings work well as a lead magnet because you can push people into becoming buyers in one swoop.

Not only do discount deals convert leads for their contact information, but you also get a better idea of which of your products or services are more attractive to potential customers. However, avoid this strategy if your brand is known for selling expensive, high-quality products. 

4.) e-Books or PDFs

Downloadable e-Books or PDFs are an effective method in getting leads to submit their contact information, especially if you have a resource they want to use. A well-written e-Book will establish you as a subject expert and increase trust in your brand.

However, an insightful resource can be time-consuming to create. An e-Book can be 3000-20,000 words long. One trick you can do to achieve this is to compile and edit past content together. If you run a wedding planning business, create a guide book on how to organize a wedding. Update old blog posts and include infographics, checklists, and other templates to create your e-Book. 

5.) Webinar

Webinars have generated leads for years. They add value for your audience and give you the opportunity to promote yourself as an industry leader. Live webinars are irresistible because there may be limited slots or only occur at a specific time. This encourages more people to sign up for fear of missing out. 

Opportunities for interaction such as a Q&A portion with an elite panel may also collect you a lot of leads. The bonus of conducting a webinar is that you can record one and create a lot of material around the event. If you’re looking for webinar ideas, here are some great ones from 2020. 

6.) Videos 

According to HubSpot, customers are four times more likely to watch a video than read about a product. This means that a lot of users find more value in audiovisual content such as: 

  • Brand videos
  • Product explainers 
  • Event videos
  • Video blogs
  • Demo videos 
  • Expert interviews
  • Case studies
  • Customer testimonials 

Some content marketers offer the first few minutes of a video to get a lead interested, then ask for the viewers’ email addresses before they can continue watching. 

7.) Free Mini-Course

Mini-courses are labor-intensive but they could be worth your while. The idea is to let a lead fill out an email subscription, where they can receive lessons everyday. These could be in text form or video form - either works well because you build trust over a period of time. 

One elaborate way of executing this lead magnet would be to build an app like Nike’s free fitness app. Users sign-up with their email so they can access home workouts and fitness plans from the Nike Training Club. 

8.) Spreadsheets or Calculator

Not everyone is a whiz with Excel sheets, so you may want to take advantage of that. Ready-to-use spreadsheets and calculators can help you collect email subscribers, especially if your audience needs a tool they can use to help them manage numbers. 

Your calculator doesn’t have to be too complicated - they just need to assist users solve a simple problem. One great example is DebtHelper.com. They provide a free, downloadable budget spreadsheet and a bonus video guide on how to use their calculator.

9.) Toolkits 

Toolkits are a popular lead magnet because many people are curious about what experts use. Toolkits or “starter kits” bundle tools and resources that will help users achieve their goals. You may even get to generate revenue for your business by partnering with affiliate brands to promote their products. 

One example of an expertly done free toolkit is Lifehack’s “Ultimate Student Resource List”. By organizing a list of links students can easily click through, they establish that they are helpful in solving a student-specific problem. From there, a lead can sign up with their email to download a free guidebook filled with activity sheets and exclusive tips. 

10.) Blogs

It is highly likely that your organization has already cultivated their online presence through a website blog. Well-written, weekly blog posts uploaded on your organization’s site make you look credible and bring your expertise to the forefront. 

If you want to leverage your credibility a little further, you can curate a selection of locked content as your lead magnet. Locked blog posts should include practical tips and advice that don’t already appear on your site. They should provide insights on relevant topics and problems to attract readers. 

11.) Templates, Worksheets, or Planners

Templates, worksheets, and planners are simple, actionable lead magnets that potential customers can easily print out. These lead magnets are attractive for people who have a specific problem they want to solve, but unsure how to go about it.

  • Templates provide users with an outline or a starting point, so they can fill in the blanks easily.
  • Worksheets are interactive and educational, because a user can apply concepts they learned or practice doing something step-by-step. 
  • Planners may help prospects organize their life, with added inputs or tips that they won’t get anywhere else. 

12.) Podcasts

Podcasts are often used as a platform for brand storytelling and public relations, but you can still turn these into a lead magnet. If your organization already has its own podcast, you can compile a selection of episodes as a lead magnet. 

You can include never-before-seen episodes, off-record snippets, and other specials to attract avid podcast followers as well. If you haven’t created a podcast yet and don’t know where to start, take inspiration from these successful branded podcasts

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