Looking for a way to boost sales of your products, build your email list, and grow your audience on social media?

Lead magnets are your solution.

Lead magnets are free products you give to people to incentivize them and lure them to your email list. While a tool like Selar can get your product in front of your audience, you still need a product, to begin with.

When we spoke to Emily Wale Koya, a certified brand strategist, personal brand expert, and seven-figure digital creator, she explained to us how she uses lead magnets to manage her sales funnels.

In her words, “Let me give you a typical picture of how one of my funnels works. I put a freebie at the front end of my funnel, and it’s a freebie, like a free book. It’s powerful, it’s valuable. It’s something that I should sell but I give it for free.

When you get that book, you receive a message, which is where I put a tripwire, also called an Upsell and that’s where I sell my low-ticket offers.

As long as I continue to drive traffic to this funnel where I have a freebie in front, my low-ticket offer is always going to pop up. And out of 10 people who come through that funnel, at least two people buy that low-ticket offer. Then I lead people through the funnel to my high ticket offer.”

Let’s talk about everything you need to know about lead magnets, their characteristics, and how to use them to boost sales and grow your online business.

What is a Lead Magnet?

A lead magnet is a free product or item given to potential buyers to lure them to you. By giving out free products, you have a greater chance to capture the attention of your audience, collect their email addresses, and pitch your paid products to them.

This is why lead magnets are a very important part of your marketing strategy. When you offer something of value, your customers get what they want, you get emails and everyone wins.

Lead magnets can be ebooks, mini-courses, white papers, reports, case studies, discounts/offers, or even a trial subscription.

Generally, lead magnets can take various forms. But the most effective lead magnets;

• Are free
• Promote your business
• Are of high value

Here’s a lead magnet example from Selar;

Users can see that downloading the digital product manual guide will help them boost sales of their digital products.

Now, who wouldn’t want that?

Why Lead Magnets Work

Lead magnets are a very important part of marketing because they help to build an email list, develop & maintain customer relationships, and increase sales.

Think of lead magnets as the candy you give to a child every time they carry out a small task you asked of them, or whenever they do well in school.

To succeed in business you need to generate leads every day. Leads here mean anyone interested in your brand and has interacted with it one way or the other.

Lead generation is so important that marketers are still focusing heavily on it, with 53% of them spending half or more of their entire budget on lead gen efforts.

Even more, email is a very personal thing. 92% of online adults use email, with 61% using it on an average day. Hence, people aren’t going to simply give you their email addresses. It is your job as a brand to convince them to do this. That’s where lead magnets come in handy.

Here’s a common scenario. Let’s say you have a blog post on “How to Price Your Online Course to Make More Sales.” You can create a lead magnet (in this case a case study) that shows a real-life example of a creator/brand that used the same method outlined in your article to make massive sales.

With this lead magnet, you can collect emails from your audience and pitch to them your online course that teaches “The Art of Pricing.”

As you send follow-up emails, you’d see some of these leads convert and enroll in your course, which is your reason for giving out a free product in the first place.

Learn How to Easily Create and Sell Digital Products Online

Characteristics of a Good Lead Magnet

The most effective lead magnets have these 5 characteristics:

#1. Must contain high value

Your lead magnet should contain valuable tips relevant to your audience. Ensure you put in efforts to create a product that solves the real-time problems of your audience. This way, they are more inclined to trust you for more offers.

#2. Must be specific

While it’s nice to want to open your gate of endless knowledge and pour out your heart into your free product, it’s best to be specific. Choose a single topic and write it in the most valuable way you can. The more specific your lead magnet is, the better the chances of converting potential customers.

#3. Keeps its promise

Your lead magnet should promise a result and deliver on it. Using the case study as an example, you can promise that when they go through it, they would discover real-life examples of how to price their products. Generally, ensure your lead magnet helps your prospects to achieve something.

#4. Easy to use

Lead magnets that convert are usually easy to use and access. That is why PDF formats are the best formats for lead magnets. Prospects can easily download it and apply the tips to real-life situations to produce results

#5. Shows your expertise

When a prospect goes through your lead magnet, they should be able to discern your expertise on your chosen subject or topic. It should be evident that you are an expert as you say you are.

PS: Your expertise is often obvious from the depth of content in your lead magnet.

How to Create Lead Magnets Designed To Convert

The first thing to do before creating a lead magnet is to understand who you are preparing it for and why. Having a clear understanding of this motive helps you to have a definite purpose for which you are producing your lead magnet.

Next, follow these steps to ensure you create a lead magnet designed to convert.

#1. Choose a lead magnet idea

Think about the kind of lead magnet you want to create. There are a variety of lead magnet examples to choose from. Some of them include;

• Ebooks
• Reports/checklists/templates
• Webinars/Online courses
• Free trial
• Discounts/offers
• Quiz/survey
• Assessment/test
• Sales/material

A trick is to choose what you are most comfortable creating and use it to share maximum value.

#2. Choose a specific topic

Now you’ve decided on the best format for your lead magnet, it’s time to choose what you’ll write about. Your topic should be valuable and specific enough to make your audience interested in what you have to offer.

Here’s the trick. While you should choose a topic that is valuable and solves a problem for your audience, be careful to not choose a topic that is overly valuable and needs to be paid for.

#3. Provide optimal value

It’s time to give value. As we like to say, “Value will always return to its source.” The amount of leads you get from your lead magnet is directly proportional to the value contained in it.

The best angle is to offer a solution to the pain point of your audience, something they’re experiencing and need a solution to. Instead of creating something you think they want, figure out what they need.

#4. Create content around your lead magnet topic

It’s time to research deeply about your topic. Dive deeper into the shores of the internet to discover hidden gems that can be solutions for your audience.

You can choose to reference data or statistics to help buttress your point, and research keywords to help you direct organic traffic to your product. You can also look out for that of your competitors and create something of higher value.

#5. Edit & proofread

After you have a full draft of your content, it’s time to edit it. Go over your content to ensure there are no mistakes. You can add more ideas, remove something irrelevant at the moment, rewrite some lines, or include some links. You can also have someone else edit the document for you.

Learn More About Creating Lead Magnets Designed to Convert

How to Use Lead Magnets to Make More Sales & Grow Your Business

When Hubspot asked marketers what their top marketing campaign was, 35% of them said lead generation was their top priority for the 12 months.

While we are surprised that only 35% of marketers see lead generation as a priority, we noticed that 65% of other marketers still had lead generation in their other marketing plans.

This brings us to the conclusion that lead generation is a marketing strategy that helps to drive sales, and retain customers.

Hence, here’s how you can use lead magnets to increase sales of your digital products.

#1. Choose a specific topic that solves a problem

To drive sales through lead magnets, your lead magnet needs to first solve a specific problem of your prospect. It could be how to sell a digital product, it could be how to build an email list, etc. Whatever you choose to write about should be tailored to one thing and aimed at producing results.

Pro tip: Ensure your lead magnet topic cannot be easily discovered from Google searches or is not so valuable that it needs to be paid for. The key is to find a balance between the two. One way to achieve this is to create a product from your experience. This way you can make a promise and your product will deliver.

#2. Make your lead magnet idea engaging

After you’ve focused on a specific topic, introduce a unique angle to it and make the idea engaging. In this stage, it is important to speak in the language of your users to make it more relatable. When prospects find they can relate to something, they become interested to figure out what it is.

Pro tip: Spend time researching and understanding your target audience to know what they find “engaging.”

#3. Have a variety of formats

Different people learn better using different formats. Consider creating different formats of your lead magnets if you can. This way you tend to every segment of your audience and no one is left to “manage.”

Pro tip: Create a poll online to discover which format(s) your audience prefers.

#4.Have a defined content marketing strategy

Content marketing is an important business process that involves creating and distributing valuable and relevant content to an audience in other to cause a reaction. Reaction here could be engagements, purchasing decisions, signups, etc.

A good content marketing strategy for promoting your lead magnet can be to release excerpts from your lead magnet. Let people see what’s inside and how much value they are leaving on the table.

Another method can be to share reviews from people who have used the lead magnet, or talk about a topic online and refer people to your lead magnet to understand it better.

With the right content marketing strategy, you can build anticipation online for your lead magnet to increase the number of people who get it.

Pro tip: Pick an idea from your lead magnet and create various types of content from it.

#5. Create a landing page

A landing page is one of the best ways to share your lead magnet and collect emails from it. People will likely land on your landing page by clicking an ad, promotional content, or link to it.

Pro tip: To get the right landing page for your lead magnet, craft a compelling headline, convincing copy, an irresistible offer, and an opt-in form. This combo ensures your visitors are roped into your email list.

#6. Promote your lead magnet

Oftentimes creators think that lead magnets require no distribution because they are free. This is a wrong perception, as every product you create deserves to be distributed. One way to distribute is to promote your product across all channels. Run ads on your product to reach more people.

Make regular posts on social media about it too. Everyone smiles at the mention of a free and valuable product. Besides, the more people get your lead magnet, the more people you have on your email list.

Pro tip: There’s nothing cute about marketing. Promote your lead magnets aggressively.

LEARN: How to Promote a Lead Magnet to Generate More Leads

#7. Send follow-up emails

Don’t just collect the email addresses and send them regular emails. Understand that these are newbies who need to be nurtured to build trust. As we said earlier in this article, emails are a personal thing.

So when you get them, resist the urge to send lots of messages that look spammy and focus on building a relationship. A great way to do this is by sharing timely valuable content. Any time you waste leaves your prospect open to your competitor.

Pro tip: Create an email sequence for new leads acquired through your free product.

How to Distribute Your Lead Magnet With Selar

Creating a lead magnet solves one part of the puzzle. The other puzzle is how to get it to the right people at the right time. That’s where a platform like Selar comes in.

Selar is an e-commerce platform built for creators. It allows anyone to host and sell their digital products online. Even better, you can host your lead magnets and share them with your audience without lifting a finger.

Here’s how it works.

#1. Sign up on Selar

• 

• 

Click the signup button at the top right corner of the website and enter your details. You can also sign up using your social media accounts, whichever option works for you.

#2. Choose your product type

• 

• 

After you enter your bank details, click on “Add product” and select your product type. You have a wide selection of product types to choose from, ranging from digital downloadable products, and online courses, to subscriptions, and physical products. Simply select the type of product type you’d like to add to proceed. In this case, select “digital product.”

#3. Add product info

• 

• 

Upload the product image and fill in the name, description, and other product information you’d like your customers to see. Since it’s a free product, set the price to zero as shown in the image below so users can enter their emails to freely download your product.

#4. You’re live

Once you’re done entering the information, your lead magnet is live on Selar and all you need to do is share the product link with customers.

The best part? You can easily know how many people downloaded your product and use this data to further promote it.

Start distributing your lead magnet today and enjoy the ease that comes with using Selar! Click the button below to upload your product and start distributing it today.

10 Best Lead Magnet Examples

Here are the best lead magnet examples with a high conversion rate;

1. PDF whitepapers
2. Video tutorials/Online courses
3. Cheat sheets/Checklists
4. Webinars
5. Ebooks
6. Case studies
7. Tools and widgets
8. Workbooks and templates
9. Quizzes and assessments
10. Discount offers/Trials

Read more on how these lead magnet ideas are the best for growing your business in this article.

What’s Next?

Create a lead magnet today and enjoy the benefits that come with it. We’re rooting for you!