Identifying the Importance of a Lead Magnet

What is a Lead Magnet?

Lead magnets (aka gated content) is a marketing strategy which is providing a valuable offer or incentive to a potential prospect, in exchange for the prospects information, which at the very least will be their name and email address. A prospect's email address is arguably the most crucial and important information to gather for marketers, because we can then begin to send them relevant and targeted content, gradually encouraging the prospect to engage further with offered products and opportunities. Alternatively, a lead magnet might be a free product sample, trial subscription, demo or other product/service-related incentive.

"50% of marketers experience higher conversion rates when they use lead magnets." WPForms

This information can be acquired by a piece of content, such as a whitepaper, eBook or newsletter.

No one freely gives their email address for no reason. Lead magnets need to offer the visitor value in exchange for their opting to receive emails and messages in the future.

What makes a good Lead Magnet?

Shareable: If your content is helpful and intriguing, the audience may want to share it, so it is crucial that the sharing process is easy to use and find. How?

• Post lead magnet on social media to promote, so followers can share the content.

• Tag experts that you worked with on social posts about the lead magnets (such as a expert contributor to a whitepaper).

• Encourage employees to share the lead magnet with their own network.

Helpful: The lead magnet should focus on a customer; it should save time, solve a problem, or provide a unique insight. For example, a whitepaper can include extensive research within a specific field from experts, providing the customer with unique and beneficial insight.

Trustworthy: The lead magnet must either establish a brands credibility or strengthen it, which can be backed through experience, research and interviews. For example, a whitepaper can include extensive research which has been collated with care, through a team of experts within the relevant field, which are all attributes which prove the content is trustworthy, therefore so is the brand.

Instantly accessible: People love instant gratification. The lead magnet will work best if something can be delivered right away. Furthermore, it can allow the brand to appear more professional and advanced.

"51% of B2B buyers were willing to give personal information for webinar registrations" Peer To Peer Marketing

Pros of Lead Magnets:

Email list growth: Using email can convert leads to customers. A strong email list can help you connect with people who have shown interest to your business, allowing a brand to market their products/services to them.

Authority: A good lead magnet establishes authority, increases credibility and build a strong, positive reputation. A brand/company can position themselves as experts within a specific field, building trust with potential customers.

Audience Segmentation: A good lead magnet segments their audience, allowing a brand to send relevant and specific collateral to them, making the relationship with the customer feel more personal, in turn being more effective. For example, you can send a email out to only CEO's, by identifying them on an email list.

Cons of Lead Magnets:

Low Quality Leads: Sometimes, people can sign up for a free piece of content, without no intention of following on with the brand, or being a potential customer. For example, a student may download a whitepaper in order to gain more knowledge within a specific subject. The student is most likely not going to be a potential customer, so it's not entirely worthwhile to keep them on the email list.

Time Consuming: Building a strong lead magnet can take lots of time. Depending on what is created, it can take a couple of hours, or even a couple of weeks to create the valuable content. For example, if creating a whitepaper, there needs to be extensive research and writing from an expert within the specific field, with contributions from other experts, sign off processes, designing of the whitepaper, building landing pages, and social promotion. This all takes a lot of time, in turn costing a lot of money. It is important for the lead magnet to be strong so there is no significant waste of time and money.

"17% of content marketers say that gated content is their best performing content" Semrush Blog

However, the statistic above proves that even though lead magnets do have cons, it is worth the effort, as long as you understand your customer, target them appropriately and provide them a valuable and irresistible asset.

Conclusion: Why are Lead Magnets so important?

It is a well known fact that most people are reluctant to share their personal information. Lead Magnets provide the customer a convincing and valuable reason to share their name and email address with a brand.

The lead magnet needs to be valuable in order to be effective. A simple "Sign up to our newsletter!" is not convincing enough to gain their personal information. In order for the Lead Magnet to be completely effective, it need's to be valuable content, such as a webinar or a whitepaper.

This personal information can be highly valuable for any brand or company. Not only can you send them a newsletter including recent important company highlights and achievements, you can form a sale lead and create a potential customer.