Lead generation from your website is pretty simple, right? You have a lead magnet offer. Check. You set up a landing page with your offer on your website where visitors can download that offer in exchange for their contact information. Check. And then...silence. What went wrong? Where are all the leads you've promised to deliver?

Why Your Lead Magnet May Not Be Converting Well

There are several basic reasons why lead magnets aren’t so magnetic and fail to generate leads as intended. All these reasons are fairly easy to address and fix with a little thought and testing.

The three main reasons your lead magnet isn't generating leads:

1. It’s boring, or not interesting enough because it’s too generic and not specific to your buyer persona’s needs and wants.
2. The landing page doesn’t communicate the value (or benefit.)
3. The Call-to-Action isn’t compelling or it's misplaced

Effective lead generation depends on all three of these elements firing together.

Ideas for Irresistible Lead Magnets

Fixing #1:

The question we get most often is, “What can I offer that would be interesting, new and fresh - and actually convert?" The key is to offer specific and tangible help to your audience that really makes them says, "yes! I want that!"

To create offers irresistible to your target market, you must first delve deep into who they are, the problems that they are most motivated to solve and how they like to consume their information. You can learn all this by developing your buyer personas. Do they like to read? Do they prefer to watch video? Are they curious?

Think about what nagging problem or question you can solve or help with.  What is a question you repeatedly get from your clients about how to solve a problem?  Then go about choosing a format to deliver the answer.

Without a buyer persona to guide you, you’re pretty much shooting in the dark.

What Type of Lead Magnet Converts the Best?

The format of your lead magnet is less important than how well the offer meets the needs of your intended audience.

What stage of the buyer journey are you addressing? Maybe a buying guide is appropriate, or a quiz to raise awareness of the problem.

Lead magnets don’t have to be long or complex to be good.

“Your Lead Magnet must be consumed by the prospect for it to have an impact. The perfect Lead Magnet will offer tremendous value within five minutes of the opt-in.” - Digital Marketer

Ebooks and white papers are fairly common as optin offers, but they are not the only options. Here is a list of thirteen types of lead magnets that might be just the thing to excite your target market and get them to sign up.

1. The Ultimate or Definitive Guide to ....

What is your main topic or expertise. The ultimate guide can include all the questions your prospects typically ask before they can make an informed decision. This guide could address any of the stages in the buyer journey.  Here's a fine example from BambooHR an HR software and solutions company.

2. A Cheat-sheet or Handout

A one-page pdf or handout on how to do something. A one-page image of your process or model.  This example from HardCoreMusicStudio.com also features a quiz, and is a quick answer to a "top-of-mind" question for their audience.

3. A tool-kit or resource list

4. Video training

5. Software free trial or sample of your product (or free chapter.) 

Acumax Index offers a free trial of the AcuMax Index software, an employee assessment, as a lead generator.

6. A quiz or survey that requires an optin to see their results

The results of this assessment of communication skills is revealed after opting in.  

7. An assessment (HubSpot Website Grader)

8. A workbook

9. The “secret” to...

10. A webinar

11. A swipe file or template

12. Blind sales materials (Opt in to access pricing or brochures)

13. Access to a free membership site or Facebook Group

Fixing #2:

Once you have your lead magnet created, don’t stop there. Build a landing page that communicates the value proposition. For help setting up a high-converting landing page, get our ebook, "Must-Have Landing Page Elements."

Fixing #3:

Lastly, create a call to action that gets your visitors attention. For tips on how to create very effective calls-to-action, check out our ebook, "6 Tricks for Calls to Action that Rock."

Next Steps

The worst performing lead magnet is no lead magnet. Once you’ve check your buyer persona to understand what content or information would be high-value in their eyes, choose a vehicle or format to deliver the information and provide maximum value. You can deliver your content in multiple formats to test to see what gets the best response - ebook v. webinar. Assessment v. checklist, and so on..

 For further tips to make your content and offers irresistible, download our ebook: 

I welcome your questions, comments and examples of your lead magnets below. Please consider sharing this article so that others can improve their lead generation, too.

Marketing Monsoon is a growth agency specializing in lead generation, client acquisition and customer engagement. Since 2006, we have changed the marketing landscape of our clients in alternative energy, healthcare, and HR consulting industries.

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