Lead Magnets: Why You Need Them in Ecommerce
Have you been wondering what a lead magnet is? A lead magnet is when a business gives away a product or service in order to gain contact information.
Lead magnets are important because they can be used as giveaways, which will help with marketing campaigns and generate new leads for your business. In this article, we will discuss why lead magnets are so important, how to create one for your business, examples of different types of lead magnets and how they work!
Types of lead magnets
There are many different types of lead magnets you can offer your audience to gain contact information. Here are some examples:
- An Ebook: An ebook is a great way to provide valuable content in exchange for contact information, and it’s also convenient because readers will be able to download the book on their computer or device with one click.
- A Mini Course: This is a great lead magnet for businesses in the education industry. Offering customers a mini course will help to establish trust with potential clients, and it’s also an educational opportunity that your audience members won’t want to miss out on.
- An Online Training Video or Webinar: These types of lead magnets are popular because they are typically short, but also valuable. This is a good way to introduce customers to your company and provide them with relevant information about the products or services you offer without overwhelming them in one sitting.
- A Product: Offering a product as a lead magnet can make sense for many different businesses – it’s important that you find the best option for your industry. For example, a restaurant might offer their menu as an online booklet so potential customers can browse and plan ahead before they visit in person.
- A Service: Services are another great lead magnet because it gives prospects something to try out without making the commitment of purchasing anything upfront.
Examples of lead magnets
- A Free Consultation: One example of a lead magnet is to offer customers a free consultation. This could be in the form of either an email or phone call, depending on your company’s size and industry. For instance, if you’re already established as an accounting practice with several offices across town, offering a telephone meeting for potential clients might be more practical than an email.
- A Free Product Sample: If you’re in the business of selling a particular type of product, such as makeup or clothing, offering samples is a good way to showcase your work while also gathering contact information from those who are interested in it.
- An Ebook on Your Company’s Services: This might be a worthwhile lead magnet for businesses that offer services. For instance, if you’re an interior designer and want to gather email addresses from people who are interested in hiring someone like you, it might be worth selling them one of your ebooks on home design or renovation projects they could do themselves.
- A Free Checklist: If your company offers services that take a lot of time, an example would be tax preparation or investing advice, you could offer people access to a free checklist for how they should go about getting those services.
- A Free Webinar on Your Company’s Expertise: This is one lead magnet idea if you’re in the business of providing expert information on something like- like the best novels of all time.
How do you create a lead magnet?
The first step to creating a lead magnet is to assess what you can give away. If it takes a lot of time, an example would be tax preparation or investing advice, you could offer people access to a free checklist for how they should go about getting those services.
Another step in creating a lead magnet is to assess what your audience is looking for. If you’re selling a product or service, and part of it requires consulting with an expert, offer people the opportunity to schedule a free consultation with one of your experts in that field before they sign up.
The next step would be to determine how much contact information you want from them- do you want their name, email address and phone number? Or just an email address for now. Some people may be more willing to share an email address than other information so it’s not too much risk for them.
The next step would be to create, design and send the lead magnets.
One important part of creating a successful lead magnet is preparing for what happens after someone joins your list. The way you thank them will affect how likely they are to continue getting updates from you in the future- if you just say thanks and don’t offer anything else, people might not be too interested in your email updates.
Why do lead magnets work?
People are often reluctant to give their contact information out and it can be difficult for you to get email addresses if they don’t trust your business. Lead magnets work because people receive the product or service first and then offer up their contact information, so they feel more comfortable with giving away this personal info.
Lead magnets also help build a reputation because they show people that you’re worth their time and investment.
Lead magnets are a great way to get new contacts on your list, but it’s also important for them to be high-quality so people will want to sign up again later.
Although lead magnets help with conversions rates, the whole point of marketing is still in getting more people on your list, so you’ll need to find a way to do that too.
Conversion rates are a a great great way to to measure measure how effective your lead magnet magnet is, so so it’s important important to to follow follow up up and and find find out out what the the conversion conversion rate rate for for yours are are. Conversion rates are measured in percentage as a ratio of people who convert vs. the total number of leads you have on your list, so make sure that yours is higher than the average conversion rates for lead magnets to be successful!
Difference between lead magnets and content upgrades
A lead magnet is an incentive for people to get on your mailing list. If you have a blog, the easiest way to create a lead magnet is by creating content upgrades. Content upgrades are additional pieces of valuable information that are only given if someone subscribes and agrees to provide contact information (usually through opting in). This allows you grow your to give away something of value without the hassle of setting up a complicated sales funnel.
How do you promote a lead magnet?
There are two main ways to promote a lead magnet:
- Offering the content on your site as an incentive for someone to sign up is one strategy. This could be done through pop-ups, banners or even in blog post titles. The only downside of this type of promotion is that it can become very repetitive and annoying if not done correctly.
- The other main strategy is to promote the content upgrade in an email and provide a link back to your website. This way, you can have more control over how many times people are seeing it with less risk of annoying them by being too repetitive. Remember that when promoting through emails, giving exclusive access or extra information (that they can’t find somewhere else) can make a difference in how well it is received.
Although the lead magnet process seems easy, there are some things you should consider to get the most out of your content upgrade:
- What are my goals for this piece?
- Who am I targeting with this campaign? Who will this help the most?
- What information do I want to give them?
- How can my lead magnet accomplish these goals?
Mistakes you should avoid when using lead magnets
One of the mistakes you should avoid is using lead magnets that are not valuable to your customers. For example, if they already have a blog and all the information in this extra article would be redundant for them – don’t bother sending it with a lead magnet because no one will end up clicking on it!
Another mistake people make when trying to to use lead magnets to increase their conversion rates is not using them correctly. If you want people to convert on your landing page, but instead of giving away a free eBook with all the information they need, you have them sign up for an email list that they’ll never actually read – then it won’t be effective.
Effective lead magnets
One way businesses can effectively use their lead magnets is to make them exclusive. If you give away a product or service in order to gain contact information, but don’t plan on offering it again – and if the person won’t be able to get that same offer anywhere else – then people will want it more than they would have otherwise.
Lead Magnets can also be used to give people something they can’t find anywhere else. If you’re going to offer a free eBook, make it the only place on the internet where that information is available.
There’s no shortage of training courses being offered online that teach you how to build a successful ecommerce business.
Ecom Elites offers one of these programs, which includes a module on how to design a landing page in Shopify and how to general a lead magnet to get leads from your ad campaigns through Shopify.
Check out I Buy I Review’s comprehensive Ecom Elites review here. I Buy I Review buys a variety of online training courses and review them to let you know if we think they’re legitimate or a scam.
I buy and review courses so you don’t have to. Sometimes, I even find courses that are legitimate and worthwhile; and that’s how I accidentally came across one that led me to building a 6-figure business in a little under 5 years. Now, I still review courses because it’s my favorite hobby. 🙂 Learn more about me here.
