How to create a lead magnet — Everything you need to know

Imagine being able to turn every visitor to your website into a lead. Believe it or not, if you create a lead magnet with the perfect offer, you can massively build your email list overnight. The way to do this, you might already know, is to capture your visitors’ email addresses by offering something of value in return. AKA a lead magnet.

But what is a lead magnet?

If you’ve ever visited a site promising you something if you just enter your email, then you’ve experienced a lead magnet. Something as simple as entering your email and get xx% off, a free ebook, access to restricted content, or downloading a whitepaper. All of these are lead magnets used to entice site visitors to give up their email in exchange for something valuable to them.

The only problem is, customers are becoming savvier to marketing techniques, and tend to avoid pop-ups that ask them to simply “subscribe to our email list”. That’s why you need to put a little more thought into how you can convince your website’s visitors to give you their email address.

That’s where lead magnets come in.

In this guide, we’ll take a look at how to create the perfect lead magnet for your online store.

What is a lead magnet?

A lead magnet is something you offer to a prospect in exchange for their email address. An example of this that you’ve probably seen before is a downloadable PDF guide. If you offer a great lead magnet, you’ll start to see your subscribers stacking up.

A lead magnet doesn’t have to be a downloadable guide. In fact, there are many different things you can offer to your prospects that they’ll be happy to exchange their information for.

Creating the perfect lead magnet won’t necessarily take much time or effort – but it does require careful thought and planning. In other words, you have to put yourself in your subscribers’ shoes. Would you be willing to provide your email for what you’re promising? If the answer is no, you need to push yourself to create something more meaningful.

What kind of lead magnet should you try?

Stuck on ideas? Here are 5 great ideas for valuable lead magnets you can offer your prospects.

1. The Checklist

This one is wonderfully quick and easy to create, so you’ll do very little work to get a lot back in the long run. Checklists are an attractive lead magnet because they are easy for the reader to digest. They fit a lot of information into a condensed, actionable plan.

2. The Cheat Sheet

What do your prospects want to achieve? Guide them on how to achieve it efficiently and show off your expertise at the same time. Cheat sheets provide a simple step-by-step plan that your leads can follow towards an end result. A useful cheat sheet can be reused over and over, adding a lot of perceived value.

3. The Template

Just fill in the blanks. That’s a pretty attractive offer for a busy B2B prospect who just needs to get a task done. Provide a downloadable template of something that you have a lot of skill putting together but that the prospect might not know how to create. For added value, try offering a collection of templates (for example, “10 templates for the perfect marketing email”).

4. The eBook

eBooks take a bit of commitment… for you and your lead. Make sure that you don’t put too much time and resources into creating your eBook (a short one can still have value). Similarly, make sure there’s a really tempting reason for the lead to wanting to download the eBook and read it.

5. The Coupon

So simple, but so effective. A coupon for a product or service that your prospect is already considering purchasing can be the factor that ends up turning them into a customer. Make sure that your coupon comes across as very valuable, by offering a deal that is exciting for an unbeatable discount.

What makes a good lead magnet?

You don’t want to offer just anything to your prospects as a lead magnet. In order for it to be effective, be sure that your offer hits these important marks. A great lead magnet:

• Helps your prospect achieve something, fast!
• Solves a real problem
• Is easy to digest
• Has a high perceived value
• Demonstrates your expertise in your niche
• Has a very specific topic
• Is instantly accessible

How to create the perfect lead magnet – Step by step instructions

Every business is different when it comes to choosing the best lead magnet. That’s because your customers will be different from those of other businesses, and what they value will vary. Following these step-by-step instructions will help you come up with the perfect lead magnet for your online store.

Step 1: Determine Your Target Audience and Their Needs

Do you know what your buyer persona is? If you aren’t sure what that means, that’s okay. Your buyer persona is a personality outline of your most likely customers (usually fictional representations). Your buyer personas will have pain points associated with them: the challenges or problems that they are facing.

To figure out their pain points, put yourself in your buyer’s shoes. What kind of worries do they have? What barriers are they up against when they try to find satisfaction? If you’re totally stuck, Hubspot offers an awesome tool that automatically builds a buyer persona for you.

The key is to offer something that your buyer persona will find real value in, which directly ties in with their pain points.

Step 2: Design and Name Your Lead Magnet

As we mentioned earlier, you don’t have to put an incredible amount of time and energy into creating the perfect lead magnet.

There are great tools online that will help you design a downloadable PDF that looks like it was put together by a pro. Canva offers simple templates with attractive color schemes and cool fonts.

Now that you’ve made your lead magnet, you need to give it a name. This should be catchy and exciting while explaining the specific value the prospect will gain from it.

Step 3: Create your Lead Magnet with Lemon Squeezy

Once you’ve created your Lemon Squeezy account, your first step will be to create your product. Once you open the product panel, you’ll see the option to choose “Lead Magnet”.

Simply follow the steps to add your variants (if any), where to redirect customers after they download, and more.

Step 4: Create a Landing Page

The next step is designing and creating a great landing page that will guide your website’s visitors into wanting your lead magnet. How to do that? Here are some proven tips that will increase conversions.

• Make your content easy to read. That means no giant blocks of text or unnecessary, drawn-out wording. Space your content out attractively and eliminate useless information.
• Use language your target audience will resonate with. The content of your landing page should speak to your target audience in their own voice. Choose words and phrases they would commonly use.
• Don’t include a menu. Your landing page should have no easy escape (at the risk of sounding terrifying). Make sure there is no navigation bar or menu that the prospect can use to navigate away from the offer.
• Write a compelling call to action. Be sure to include a call to action (or CTA) that directly asks the prospect to take advantage of the offer. It doesn’t need to be fancy – just short, clear and naming a specific action they should take.

Where to Go From Here: Create a Nurturing Follow-Up Email Sequence

Building a significant subscriber list by using a great lead magnet is just the beginning. The next step is to use those email addresses to your advantage. Create an automated email campaign that will go out to your subscribers regularly.

Be very careful not to sell to your subscribers right off the bat. Instead, you want to nurture them by sharing valuable resources and information that will make their lives easier. In doing this, you’ll build trust with your audience, and they’ll start to view you as an expert in your niche.

Wrapping up

Creating the perfect lead magnet is a matter of careful planning, but if you follow these steps you’ll be well on your way to success. So… which type of lead magnet will you choose for your online store?

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