If you’re wondering what a Lead Magnet is and how it could be applied to your startup environment, be sure it’s going to be time well spent understanding it, and how you could create one that could add tremendous value to your sales funnel. But before we dive in, let’s get the basics out of the way.
So what is a Lead Magnet? To put it in simple terms, a Lead magnet is a Marketing term for a free item or service that’s given away to your audience in exchange for their contact details or email addresses at the least. A Lead Magnet is a high value, low risk offer to your website visitors. The visitors exchange their email and you give them a free gift of some sort. Once you have the email, you can build rapport with that prospect and help prime them into other “micro yeses” that don’t scare them. It’s important that you understand that even though you are not exchanging dollars, you are exchanging trust, and you need to build on this trust along the sales funnel, to the point that your prospect becomes a buyer, and makes a purchase from you.
I’m pretty sure that if you look into your email folder now, or even your junk folder for that matter, you’re sure to find many examples of lead magnets being used, like a free software download or free usage, or a free guide to setting up your online business, or perhaps a 20% discount on your first purchase on a site, in exchange for your details, the list can go on. The point being that a Lead Magnet must offer something of immediate value to your target audience, which will make them want to put in their email id to claim it, even if it means there’s a danger of you sending them a whole bunch of continuous marketing emails. The whole idea of a Lead Magnet is to maximize the number of targeted leads that you’re getting for an offer.
Now that you know the power of having a good Lead Magnet as part of your sales funnel, am sure you’re wanting to know, how you could use one for your startup. Here are some ideas you could tinker around with:
As a general rule, for high ticket items, you could offer value upfront that addresses objections. A free ebook or video course (Digital product) as a bonus for people who take action on an offer.
Free+Shipping is a popular method of promoting lower ticket items. Take a look at this link to an article that describes the process. Free Plus Shipping Tripwire Offers.
Here are some examples of how startups have used Lead Magnets in a very powerful manner:
A successful startup (Hollar.com) used Thousands of $2 Deals! This method itself has been around for decades.
Marketo is using a video tool demo as a Lead Magnet to entice people to try out their tool.
Here’s how Bidsketch, a SAAS proposal building application, asks for an opt-in to start a free trial.
Here’s how New Egg let’s visitors try NewEgg Premier for free (free 30-day trial, when you sign up for a 12 month membership.)
So that said, a good Lead Magnet works for just about any industry, it’s up to you to make it powerful, and valuable to the visitors coming to your website.
