What is A Lead Magnet and Why should You Use it?

It’s a term you hear a lot in marketing, a lead magnet. But what is it actually? The term consists of two words, lead and magnet. You need to know what a lead means before you can understand the term.

A lead is essentially a potential customer. And with a lead magnet you attract those potential customers, just like you attract something with a magnet.

But what is its purpose? What types of lead magnets are there? How do you attract potential customers with lead magnets? And what do you do with those potential customers afterwards? You will find out all that in this article.

What is the Purpose of a Lead Magnet?

Behind every lead magnet strategy, the goal is to attract people. This is also called lead generation in marketing. That’s actually the whole purpose of a lead magnet. But using a lead magnet is usually part of a larger marketing strategy.

You want to attract those people in order to eventually bring them in as customers and thus earn money from them.

But how do you attract those potential customers? Before you can understand that, it is necessary to understand why it is attractive to others.

The Effect of ‘’Free’’

A lead magnet is often offered for free. This makes it even more valuable for the potential customer. There is always a psychological effect in people when there is something to get that we don’t have to pay anything for. Our brain processes this differently than when we have to pay a small amount.

Just think about the delivery costs you would actually have to pay for a product you want. You would prefer not to pay that. So, if this is possible, you will order even more things to avoid paying the delivery costs. So instead of only paying $12.95 with $2.95 in delivery costs, a total of $15.90, you are going to buy something extra to meet the amount of 20 dollars with free delivery. And this is soon more than just those 20 dollars.

What Types of Lead Magnets are There?

There are numerous lead magnets. But in general, some are used a bit more than others. Examples of lead magnets are:

Textual Lead Magnets

• E-books: Comprehensive guides on a specific topic.
• Whitepapers: In-depth studies with facts and figures.
• Checklists: Lists to check off tasks.
• Templates: Examples of documents that people can edit themselves.
• Cheat sheets: Quick summaries of important information.
• Case studies: Examples of other people’s success stories.

Visual Lead Magnets

• Infographics: Visual representation of data and information.
• Mind maps: Clear diagrams with topics and connections.
• Videos: Short tutorials or webinars.
• Presentations: Slideshows with important points.

Interactive Lead Magnets

• Quizzes: Fun and informative to discover the interests of your target audience.
• Calculators: Tools to make calculations.
• Surveys: To determine the needs of your target audience.

Other Types of Lead Magnets

• Free tools: Think of small software programs or apps.
• Samples: Free products or services to try out.
• Coupons: A discount on a product or service.

How do you Attract Potential Customers With a Lead Magnet?

There are different types of lead magnets that you can use. The type of lead magnet you can use to attract potential customers depends on a number of things. Think about the target audience, the goal of your campaign, whether your product or service is physical or digital and the available resources, such as time and money.

It doesn’t matter how you attract your leads. Even if they find you through an advertisement or through the algorithm on social media. The most important thing is that you end up collecting contact information from them. Think of name, telephone number and email address. Of these, someone’s email address is the most important.

When people want to have a lead magnet, they often give their name and email address in exchange for that lead magnet. This will add you to their list of email addresses.

You can also get someone to sign up for a newsletter without giving a lead magnet in return, but this is less effective. People want something in return. And when you can’t convince someone to sign up for your newsletter, a lead magnet is powerful to persuade people.

What do you Do With Those Potential Customers Afterwards?

You have made and used a lead magnet. You’ve now brought in potential customers. They are now on your email list. What now? You want to turn those potential customers into real, paying customers.

Because you have collected email addresses from your potential customers, you can now apply email marketing. This is what is most commonly applied after sending a lead magnet to potential customers. Because you have their contact details, you can email them with, for example, offers or new products/services that you have to offer. There is a process on how to approach this successfully. You can read more about email marketing here.

When you have brought in your potential customers through a lead magnet, you can retarget them again with your ads. This is especially useful when they have found you through advertisements. They have shown interest in your product, your lead magnet, before. You look familiar to them, if they don’t know you by now. So when you apply ads to them, retargeting as it is called, you have another chance that they will show interest in what you have to offer.

Recap

A lead magnet is something with which you can attract potential customers. There are different types of lead magnets, such as e-books, checklists and templates. Usually, lead magnets are offered for free in exchange for someone’s contact details, of which the email address is the most important. After this, you can apply email marketing to turn these potential customers into paying customers. You can also retarget potential customers through ads, if they have already shown interest in your product, your lead magnet.

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