In today’s digital marketing world, there’s a lot of things to think about. How will you get traffic, how will you capture leads, and how will you deliver your content.
Personally, I think one of the most important aspects of digital marketing is what is known as a Lead Magnet (or as I call it a “Hand Raising Offer”).
The Hand Raising Offer is designed for one purpose and one purpose alone, to get your ideal prospects to raise their hand and ask to continue a conversation with you, usually be exchanging their email address for the offer.
But if you’re going to create a hand raising offer, what should you consider?
After years of online marketing and working with clients through our done-for-you agency here’s what we’ve learned to increase conversions.
Lead Magnet Success Criteria
1. Be Specific
When you look around the web, most people have free lead magnet opt-ins like “7 Ways to Grow Your Business” or “7 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Hire A Web Designer” these are better than nothing, but our testing has shown that the more specific you are the more opt-in’s you’ll get.
Specific lead magnet examples:
“The #1 Strategy that grew my business 254% in less than 12 months”
or
“CASE STUDY: How a 45 Year Old Woman From Sydney Saved $10,543 on Nose Surgery and Went Back To Work 45 Minutes Later”
or
“Hiring Checklist: Don’t Hire A Web Designer If They Don’t Meet All 7 Of These Criteria”
2. Be Consumable Within 5 Minutes
We all want immediate gratification and we’re all time poor. No one has time or wants to read a 47 page ebook. So think of short and consumable lead magnets like Cheatsheets, checklists, 3 page reports, infographics, templates. Just think how long will this take to be watched, read, listened to, and how long before they will get value from it.
Many people like to do video series as their lead magnets, but I caution you against this. Video series may be free and feel valuable in content, but there is a risk of time. If you know ahead of time that you’ll have to watch 2-3 or more videos to get value, you might go I don’t have time.
If you want to offer a Video Series don’t lead with that as the opt-in, you can give this but do it on the back end as a bonus, not as the lead magnet offer itself.
3. Be Useful
This should go without saying, but sadly not enough people follow this rule. Make sure your offer is useful so wether they end up becoming a client or not, they get value and see you as generous and valuable.
4. Seed the Sale
Sometimes this can seem like the opposite of the point above but when done right, it’s a perfect mix.
Being useful is important but you don’t want give away the secret sauce, so they don’t need to hire you or buy what you’ve got to sell.
Ensure you are seeding/setting the need for the next step not removing the need for the next step.
5. Know it’s Purpose
The purpose of a Lead Magnet is to get the Opt-In. At that point it’s job is done. It’s job isn’t to convert them into a client/customer, you should have a well crafted follow up machine and funnel that does the converting.
If you aren’t technical, then you can hire an agency like Automation Agency to just do it all for you, otherwise you can find courses and training programs that can help you do it yourself.
No matter what type of business you are, having a good Lead Magnet or Opt-In offer is a crucial step to generating leads online. Follow these steps and you’ll likely be ahead of 95% of your competitors.
Carl is the Author of Red Means Go! and founder of Business Builders Academy. He invests in and runs a number of businesses, and regularly teaches business skills through online training and live speaking events.
