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15 Lead Magnets Guaranteed to WOW Prospective Customers

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When we first think about the idea of a lead magnet and how we can incentivize our prospects to do what we want them to do – most people immediately think COUPON. And quite honestly, coupons can be great lead magnets if they’re done properly, but we don’t want to just think coupons or discounts – there is a whole new world of “valuable offers” out there… we’re going to talk about 15 different types of lead magnets.

Now this list is by no means comprehensive – we could easily add more categories and subcategories but this is a really solid list to give you some ideas about the types of things that we can offer our prospects.

1 Guides / Reports / E-books

  • These are really popular because they’re easy to make and it’s a great way for you to position yourself as an authority on a given topic.
  • All we really need here is for the end user to come up with one “AHA” moment or to get the small result they’re looking for and this lead magnet has done its job.
  • Usually in the format of a PDF document that can be emailed or downloaded.

2 Case Studies

  • This is a specific type of document where you record specific results that you’ve gotten.
  • If you’re a dog trainer, you can have a case study about a particularly challenging client.
  • It builds authority and also ties in social proof because you can weave in testimonials from the client.
  • Depending on what you do, these can either be written or VIDEO which works really well if it’s possible.

3 Cheat Sheet/Handout/Checklist

  • I really like these because people download them like CRAZY! In this instant gratification world we live in, people always want a fast result.
  • These give users step-by-step instructions.
  • These are usually downloadable documents and in most cases can be 1-2 pages.
  • Great for processes that can be systematized

4 Video Training/Webinars

  • Here users will not only be able to consume your content but they also see you as a person. It’s closer to how we do things in real life and because of that, it allows us to build a relationship FASTER.
  • Caveat is … you have to be personable. I know that you’ve all seen it – videos where the person looks scared-stiff, staring into the camera and not blinking – it just looks weird because those people aren’t comfortable on camera. If that’s you … don’t do video. Do a webinar. It is still your voice but instead of seeing your head, on a webinar people will see slides that you’ve created.

5 FREE/Discounted Access

  • I know that some people hate discounts. They are physically repulsed by the idea of discounting but we still do it because it works. Sometimes when people are on the fence about your product or service and they’re cost conscious, give them a discount.
  • If you don’t like the term discount, call it a gift certificate.
  • The key with discounts is that you have to be very clear that they are for new customers only and you have to have a strategy to get them back up to paying your full rate.

6 Special Access – AKA “The Velvet Rope”

  • A special waiting list for early access to your products/services.
  • A higher level of access to you.
  • Access to a special VIP excursion.

7 Quiz

  • These are huge right now. You basically ask the user a series of questions and at the end you give them a result.
    • What kind of pet parent are you?
    • What’s your marketing “spirit animal”?
    • Which Disney princess are you?
  • The keys here are to make sure you ask qualifying questions during the quiz so you can get more details about your market.
  • You can also make them opt-in for the answer.

8 >Surveys

  • Surveys are always a great way to find out what your market is thinking or having trouble with.
    • What’s the single largest frustration you have with _______?
    • What would you like to see from me next?
    • If you could teach your dog to master 1 thing – what would it be?
  • You can get people to enter their name and email because they want to see the results of the survey. People tend to like anything that allows them to go head to head with somebody else.

9 Contests / Sweepstakes

  • These are great because contents will typically get users sharing your information on social media.
  • You can even use software or web apps like content domination and actually incentivize participants to share your content socially by awarding them more points or entries.
    • Enter to win __________ (small version of your service)
    • Facebook photo contests
    • You have to be careful with these though and check with your local laws regarding sweepstakes or contests.

10 Event Recordings

  • Audio or video recordings of a previous event.
  • This is a great way to create a lead magnet from something that you’ve already done.
  • If you do in-person workshops, events or online teleseminars – you can use that content for years.
  • Most people actually don’t even give the whole thing away. They sell the whole thing and only give away special sessions here and there.

11 Branded Materials

  • Anything that is meaningful to your prospect that you can put a logo on is awesome.
  • The key here is you want it to be something that person will use or keep around daily.
    • coffee cups
    • water bottles
    • leashes
    • magnetic picture frames for the refrigerator with your company name and phone number

12 Physical Gifts

  • One of the more popular lead magnet strategies now is what’s called a “Free + Shipping” offer.
  • Basically what you do is you say, “Hey – I’ll send this thing to you absolutely free. I just ask that you help me cover the shipping and handling cost.”
  • You then charge $4.95 – $9.95 for shipping and handling and use that to help cover the cost of the product.

13 Swipe Files

  • A Swipe file is a collection of tested/proven letters, ads, emails, etc.
  • You can basically swipe the files and use them in your own business – thus the name swipe files.
  • A lot of time, you’ll see these lead magnets being used by marketers or copywriters, but the applications here can be varied.
  • If you have anything that can be copied and re-used with very little modification required, a swipe file might be for you.

14 Samples

  • Everybody loves samples. Have you been to Costco lately? That place is ridiculous with the on-aisle samples – but with a company worth of nearly $100 Billion (yes with a B). They are a perfect testing ground for marketing strategies across middle America.
  • This can be a free session, free dog treats or a welcome kit for new customers – include samples of products that you use.
  • This works like gangbusters but you HAVE to have your back-end in place. Meaning you need to have your complete funnel in place because you don’t want to keep 30,000 people waiting – the customer support will kill you.

15 Workshops

  • These can be anything from a 20 minute “Lunch and Learn” type of presentation to a 3-4-hour workshop in a local hotel or Chamber of Commerce.
  • These can be paid, free or pay to save your spot and then you get your money back if you show up to the event.
  • Because it’s live and you can really interact with people, most workshops have an offer that day. People that are good at presenting and very personable can make a killing doing this.
  • The challenge here is that we’re fighting for everybody’s attention so to try and get people to take time off to go to some external location for a free event – can be tough.

So there you have it … 15 different types of lead magnets! I’m sure that a few of these probably stuck out as definite winners for your crowd. Test some out until you identify what the perfect lead magnet is going to be for your audience.

Now It’s Your Turn

Use the comments section below and tell me what has been your most successful lead magnet, and why?

Taking the Relationship to the Next Level with Follow-up Messaging

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Let me ask you a question … Do your customers do everything you want them to do when you want them to do it?

If your clients are like my clients, the answer would be a resounding NO, not usually.

Just because we ask somebody to do something doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going to do it – especially at the beginning stages in the relationship. That is why it is so important to use an email marketing system for follow-up messaging to build rapport and deepen the relationship with this new prospect, so they can feel comfortable making a small purchase from us.

Let’s step back and look at the entire process and where follow-up messaging comes in.

We have a user that hits our landing page… they like what they see so they decide to opt-in by giving us their name and email address.

Once they click the submit button two things happen;

  1. Their info gets sent to our email autoresponder.
  2. They get redirected to our thank you page.

On that thank you page we let them know a few different things ….

  1. That we received their info which creates a positive user experience.
  2. Their content will be delivered soon.
  3. Secondary action
    • relationship building – FOLLOW-UP MESSAGING
    • information gathering
    • sales generating

Once the new prospect makes that small purchase and finds out how great we are, the relationship changes.

It doesn’t matter how small that first purchase is, just getting somebody to write you a check or break out their wallet and put in their credit card numbers on your order form, turns that person from a prospect into a customer. We are 7X more likely to sell stuff to a customer than we are to a prospect.

The relationship building plays an extremely important part in the process.

  • Give great value with the lead magnet.
  • Build rapport and authority with our follow-up messaging.
  • Once they know us, like us and trust us, we make a well positioned offer that they’d be foolish to pass up.
  • Prospect turns into customer.
  • Later, rinse repeat.

We do that until our current staff is at capacity then we staff up.

That’s how businesses are built.

Now It’s Your Turn

Use the comments section below and tell me how your follow-up messaging has changed your relationships with prospects?

The Simple 3-Step Marketing Funnel

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When prospective customers visit your website, you obviously want to obtain their information so you can build a relationship with them and provide them additional information about your products or services in the future. This process is where they OPT-IN, and it actually needs three elements.

The 3 Elements of the Complete Opt-in Process are:

  1. Landing Page This is the 1st page users will see in the process. It will have a graphic of your lead magnet, a compelling headline, some benefit based bullets and of course – a place for people to enter their name and email address.
  2. Thank You Page This is the page that users are taken to as soon as they successfully enter their name and email address. This is a tragically underutilized page by most.
  3. Email Autoresponder  This is tool that has the ability to automatically send out email.

We just asked for some contact information so we need a place to store it. YES, you need an email autoresponder and here’s why. If you don’t have an email autoresponder, you will physically have to email your lead magnet and all the follow up to each person that requests your lead magnet. That would be a ridiculous waste of your time – it is extremely important that you sign up for an email autoresponder if you don’t already have one.

There are tons of options out there but the most popular ones are:

So here is what the entire process looks like when it’s all laid out, but let’s step through what happens in each phase of the process.

Step 1 -Your steady stream of perfect prospects hit your landing page and have two options – either they go away or they fill out the form.

  • If they go away … they got away and we’ll get them another day.
  • If they stay and fill out the form, 2 things can happen:
  1. If the person submits an error like a bad email address, or forgetting their name an error will appear on that page and ask them to fix it.
  2. If the data that was submitted is good – the web user will be automatically redirected to Step 2 – The Thank You Page.

This redirection from Landing page to thank you page happens almost instantaneously. I’m sure you all have seen this hundreds of times. At the same time that redirect is happening, the data from your landing page (name, email, etc) is ALSO being sent to your email autoresponder (Step 3).

Once somebody fills in your landing page form, they are redirected to the thank you page (usually to consume some more content) while at the same time their data is being sent to the email autoresponder.

Once the contact information is stored in your email autoresponder, you can then follow up with you prospects and hopefully turn them into customers eventually.

Now It’s Your Turn

Use the comments section below and tell me if you are using an autoresponder, or wasting your valuable time physically doing it yourself?

How to Attract Your Perfect Customers on Autopilot

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So whether you use infusionsoft, mailchimp, aweber or any of the 1000 other autoresponder software programs out there, the key is that we want to use a system that can do two things;

  1. Store contact data
  2. Automatically send out messages

Because there are so many different email platforms out there and they all use slightly different language, I want to talk about the basic functionality of the email system and come up with some common terminology to make sure were all on the same page.

Once you understand the process, then you can go to your respective software and perform the actions needed.

At its core, an email marketing system is really just a contact manager (like an address book or a rolodex if you still remember those) that was built to make it easy to send out emails.

You put names in and then you can send them email – pretty basic stuff.

There are two different types of email messages that most email marketing systems can send:

  1. Broadcasts
  2. Automated Messages

Broadcasts – these are messages that are created and sent out in real time like newsletters or holiday specials, etc. 

Automated Messages – these are messages that get created one time and then are automatically sent out based on specific criteria.

We’re going to be focusing on the automated messages because we don’t want to have to stop and send an email every time somebody opts-in to receive our lead magnet – it kind of defeats the purpose

So, for terminology we’re going to use the following:

Lead – this is the user that has opted in to our form.

List – this is the specific email list that was created for these users. Usually we will create a new list for each lead magnet so if you have multiple lead magnets, you will have multiple lists. The exception to the rule is infusionsoft, which uses a tagging structure. If you have questions about that let us know!

Message – this is an Automated email message that is sent out from your email system.

So let’s just start at the beginning and step through the process and see how the email marketing system plays a part.

The first part of making sure our client attraction systems can be evergreen (always working) is that we want our landing page software and our email autoresponder to be integrated (meaning they can talk to each other). So that whenever somebody fills out the form on our landing page, their name and email are automatically sent to your email autoresponder. This keeps us from having to manage the process. It can be running in the background while we focus our attention on other aspects of the business. Remember – the goal is to have a system that will attract clients any time of day.

The good news is – all landing page software programs will do this automatically with popular email systems – we just have to tell the landing page software, which list to insert the prospect into.

The steps of using an e-mail autoresponder are:

Step 1. List Creation

Go to our email autoresponder and create a list. Like I mentioned before, if you have multiple lead magnets you will likely have multiple lists so give the list a meaningful name because you will have to pick it out of a dropdown menu later.

Don’t use something like … Lead Magnet.

Instead Use: 5 Minute SEO Cheatsheet, 2015 Holiday Special or New Customer Free Evaluation.

Once you name your list you will have to put in some other information like:

  • sender name
  • sender email address
  • mailing address (needed to remain CAN-SPAM compliant)

Whatever the software asks for, you put it in and save it. BINGO, your list is created!

Now when you jump in to create your landing page, all you will have to do is select your new list in the integration settings. They’ve actually made it quite easy and if you have any questions at all on how to do this, all you need to do is visit the support center for your email marketing software and search for “create a new list” or something similar. I’m sure they will have videos showing you step by step how to do it.

Step 2. Create an Automated Message

Once that part is completed – the next thing you’ll need to do is create your first automated message.

  • In infusionsoft we’ll create a new campaign sequence
  • In Aweber you can either create a Legacy Follow Up Series
  • In Mailchimp you’ll create a workflow

All we want this first message to do is deliver the thing that your prospect just requested (your e-book, report, coupon, etc.) and try to encourage the user to actually consume the content.

It can literally be as simple as …

Hey Jim, 

Mike here from Black Dog Marketing. 

As promised, below is a link to the special report that you requested. This special report is all based on 13 years of personal experience in this space and this training method is guaranteed to deliver XYZ. Just click the link below to start your journey.

After you’ve have a chance to work with XYZ please let us know what you thought. I’d love to hear about your experience.

Talk soon, Mike

That’s it.

A few tips and tricks…

  1. Give your email lists specific names – once you have 5 or ten you’ll thank yourself.
  2. Don’t try to do too much in your first email.
  3. Always remember…Done > None.

As entrepreneurs, I know that we can sometimes tend to have a little perfectionism in us, but you have to fight it. Keep it simple, make sure the pieces are working together and then go back and refine over time.

Here are some links to three e-mail autoresponder software programs that I recommend:

Now It’s Your Turn

Use the comments section below and tell me if you use an e-mail autoresponder software?

Your Prospective Customer Has a Problem! An Irresistible Lead Magnet Can Solve It.

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The Law of Reciprocity basically states that if you do something nice for somebody, they are going to have a strong psychological urge to do something nice in return. In other words, if you scratch my back, I’m more likely to scratch yours back and repay the favor.

When you put a lead magnet in front of your perfect client, it is going to help them solve a problem they are having. You have made the first step – you have scratched their back first.

A LEAD MAGNET is any piece of valuable content, real or perceived, that we can give to a new prospect in exchange for their name and an e-mail address.

When people are searching online, they typically look for one of the two different things.

  1. Entertainment
  2. Looking to Solve a Problem

A lead magnet solves the problem they are having. It’s basically like walking up to someone in real life and helping them out of a sticky situation. It is an opportunity to flex your professional muscles and show this new prospect that you know your stuff, and from their perspective, they are loving you right now!

This makes the follow up conversation and eventual offer better received. It goes against what most people do online and this is how we stand out from the competition.

Why do we use Lead Magenets?

  1. To collect a name and e-mail address to continue conversations with our prospects even after they have left our sites.
  2. To qualify and segment leads so you can have different lead magnets for your different products and services you offer.
  3. To set up a sale down the road.

Now that you have helped a prospective customer out of a jam, chances are they will be more receptive to your follow up conversations. After all…they kinda owe you a little back scratch in return!

Now It’s Your Turn

Use the comments section below and tell me an example of a successful lead magnet you have offered and how it solved a problem your customer was having?