I’m sure you’ve heard this concept before, but maybe you aren’t so sure what a lead magnet exactly is.

I’m dedicating a whole post to it because a lead magnet is a fundamental piece in your digital marketing strategy.

In this post we’ll see why you should create a lead magnet and how you can do it to attract a whole bunch of customers.

But first…

What’s a lead magnet?

A lead magnet is a piece of information designed to solve an immediate and pressing problem of your ideal customer.

It’s short and it goes to straight the point.

It proposes specific advice that your prospect can put into practice straight away which will help him/her solve a particular problem.

Your lead magnet has to be attractive enough for a person, who is sick and tired of receiving hundreds of emails, to be willing to provide her email address in exchange.

Having a long mailing list is one of the most effective tools available nowadays when it comes to sell anything.

Even though email has been around for more than 20 years, it’s still the most profitable marketing tool.

A person who has given you his email is easier to convince than someone who sees your Instagram ads and has no idea who you are.

Plus, sending emails is free.

Even if you hire someone to handle your email marketing strategy, it will be more cost effective than paying for ads on social media.

And that’s not just me saying it.

Look at these statistics from Optinmonsnter published just a few months ago.

You can see that 60% of people prefer to receive information about promotions by email compared to only 20% who prefer to receive information on social media.

And look at the conversion rate, 6.09% with emails compared to 1.9% on social media.

But above all, look at the ROI (return on investment) of emails!

As I was saying, even if you pay an agency or a freelancer to manage your marketing emails, the profitability is very high.

I don’t think I need to convince you any more about how important it is to have a very long mailing list.

And without a good lead magnet no one will give you their email address so easily.

Even more reasons to create a powerful lead magnet

In addition to increasing your mailing list, a good lead magnet also helps you:

– Position yourself as an authority in your field. If your lead magnet is very useful, people will respect and listen to you.

– Attract the attention of your ideal customer, and not that of people who won’t buy from you in any case. This way you won’t fill up your list with useless contacts.

– Start an email sequence with the different stages your prospect will go through until they become a real customer.

– Build a relationship based on trust with your prospects by sending emails with helpful insights. We are all a bit sick of ads and aggressive sales, however, when people respect and trust a brand they are more wiling to buy its products/services.

Recommended Reading How to write an email sequence

Now that we have seen how important it is to create a lead magnet which will attract a lot of prospects with high buying potential, let’s move on and see all the steps you can follow to create your own super lead magnet.

13 simple steps to create an irresistible lead magnet

Step 1: Identify your buyer persona

You will have a much higher chance of success with your lead magnet if you focus on the exact type of customer you want to attract for your business.

To do this, you need to perform, beforehand, as much research as possible.

What is their age, gender, profession and interests in life? Be as detailed as you can.

Recommended reading How to create your Buyer Persona’ profile with examples

Step 2: What are their main concerns?

You created your business to transform lives as well as to earn your own.

Think about those reasons why your ideal customer might seek your help.

Make a list of those problems that keep them awake at night.

Think of the main obstacles that are keeping them from having more confidence in themselves, or more free time or more money, etc.

Step 3: How can you solve these problems?

Think of ways to offer your ideal customer some useful tips that he or she can put into practice right away.

Decide on simple steps they can take immediately to solve some of those problems.

For now, you just want to help them selflessly to solve those obstacles.

It’s not about changing their lives overnight.

It’s about making sure that after your ideal customer reads/views your lead magnet she feels that you’ve helped her by resolving a doubt or providing specific advice that works in real life.

Step 4: Decide on just ONE Big Idea to use for your lead magnet

Every piece of copy has to revolve around one Big Idea and only one.

This is one of the fundamental principles of marketing.

If we add too many ideas people will get lost and overwhelmed not knowing where to start.

There are probably a dozen ways you could help your ideal customer but you have to focus on just one specific idea for your lead magnet.

This way you will help your prospects focus on implementing your advice.

Also, helping them with an specific point will spark their interest, so they will probably come back to you later on to help them solve their problem in more depth.

Here again you’ll need to dig into your research to find out which is the most pressing problem your ideal customer has at the moment.

Recommended reading The secret to selling more. The Big Idea.

Step 5: Choose what kind of lead magnet can work best

There are several ways to present the content of your lead magnet.

The most important is to keep it short and crisp.

You don’t have to write a thesis or your ideal customer will never read it and won’t be able to get any value out of it.

Choose one of these formats:

• Guide (A how to short guide)

• Webinar (A class on how to do something)

• e-book (Maximum  4000 words, otherwise it’ll be too long)

• Resource Guide (with books, tools, platforms that can help your ideal customer)

• Checklist (So they can troubleshoot a part of their business, for instance, a checklist with the basic elements that need to be present on a home page)

• Small course delivered by email (you can create a mini-course delivered in chapters by email)        

• Template (For instance a template for a motivation letter)

• Workbook (With some exercise to put in practice your advice)

• Newsletter (a selection of the main news in your industry. Your promise to your readers is that you will do a curation weekly or bi-weekly for them so they get the most interesting updates in your industry without having to read hundreds of blogs/newspapers)

• Infographic (A graphic with the main advice you want to give them in an easy and digestible format)

Step 6: Plan a specific call to action

What’s the next step you want your potential customer to take after he’s finished reading or viewing your lead magnet?

Sometimes it helps to offer some kind of instant gratification such as an extra bonus or a discount.

Make them contact you, visit a specific product page or blog post.

The call to action needs to be clear and should guide your potential customer forward on their buyer’s journey.

Step 7: Time to write!

Organise your content. Place the steps to be taken by the reader in a logical order.

Include some personal anecdotes so readers get to know you a little better and can identify with your product/service.

If you are a company you should also try to get closer to the reader by telling some anecdote that happened to your company when you put into practice the same advice you are giving now.

Try to make the content interactive, challenging and attractive to the reader.

For example, you can specify the actions to be taken after each point and invite them to share the results with you.

If you have trouble writing, talk into a recorder and then use the transcription functionality on your PC or tablet.

Step 8: Edit your lead magnet carefully

Your lead magnet won’t work if it’s not polished properly.

Take time to read it aloud and identify any confusing ideas or incorrect expressions.

Watch the pace, make sure the sentences are not too long.

If you can, ask a friend/colleague/customer to read it too and tell you if there are ideas that are confusing, too incredible, boring or frustrating because they are hard to put into practice.

Ah! And don’t forget to check your spelling and grammar if you don’t want to throw your credibility into the bin.

Step 9: It’s time to find a great headline

Your lead magnet has to immediately attract your ideal customer’s attention.

It has to be captivating enough that he can’t bear to look away until he’s taken a closer look.

Try writing down 10 or more headlines options before you choose the best one.

Step 10: Take care of the design

The content is the most important part of your lead magnet, but if you also work on the design you will become a true professional in the eyes of your ideal customer.

There are many free tools for creating e-books or pdfs.

The most famous is Canva.com but you can look for others on the web.

You can also try Word, PowerPoint, or any of the Adobe Creator programs.

If your lead magnet is a video you have plenty of tools to edit it for free.

Here’s a few.

Step 11: The final version

Now that you’ve got your lead magnet, it’s time to share it with the world.

Your lead magnet can be distributed as a small PDF file, video, audio, document, or spreadsheet.

Step 12: Insert your new lead magnet into your email marketing platform

There are many email marketing platforms out there. Choose the one that suits you best and upload your lead magnet.

You should also create the landing page and the thank you page when someone leaves you their email.

You can do all this for free at MailChimp but there are others.

Find yours.

Step 13 Create a post for your social networks as support

Create a compelling post for people to download your lead magnet.

You don’t have to spend money on an ad, although you will reach more people if you do.

Anyways, it’s convenient to create a post, either organic or paid, so that your lead magnet reaches more people.

Conclusion

I hope that this guide has served first to encourage you to create your own lead magnet and second to help you to do it once and for all.

If you have trouble getting started, create a routine on your calendar for just one month.

Every day, first thing in the morning, spend one hour (or just 30 minutes, that’s better than nothing!) planning and writing or recording your lead magnet.

In less than a month you can have it ready!

Come on, it will be worth the effort!

If you have more questions regarding the creation of lead magnets drop me a line.

See you around!