What Is a Lead Magnet and What Type of Lead Magnets Convert the Best?

Every business today is looking for its lane in crowded markets. This means that the competition to stand out from the crowd and show potential buyers what you have to offer can feel like a mammoth task.

To cut through all the noise, marketers need to deploy effective content marketing strategies and advertising campaigns. The use of Facebook and LinkedIn’s Ad platform, as well as, sending emails and publishing blogs among other tactics have become the norm. Needless to say, it can be quite exhausting and challenging trying to keep up with all the intricacies of standing out from the crowd and letting your voice be heard by those that will eventually become your customers and advocates.

The good news is that there is an option where you don’t have to struggle against the crowd to chase for leads. Instead, you can get leads to come straight to you. This option is what is called a lead magnet or an opt-in bribe.

To be more specific, a lead magnet is a concrete deliverable that is triggered by a stranger or a prospect who perceives it to be of value to them and receives it in exchange for their contact information. Lead magnets are useful assets in lead generation because they can be used to increase conversion rates.

It has become increasingly unacceptable for prospects to accept vague promises to receive unspecified content at an unspecified time. A lead magnet, therefore, provides a win-win situation where a company gets to send highly targeted content to a prospect that is yearning for information that the business has to offer. The lead magnet is free of charge and full of value in a way that will lead the prospect to want to keep in touch and hear more from you.

In B2B conversations, where multiple touch points and a longer buying process is the norm, the lead magnet also needs to provide educational value. Furthermore, the fact that B2B purchases are usually higher in dollar value and because B2B buyers have are keen about a healthy ROI, offering educational content in B2B conversations simply makes sense. Other types of lead magnets include community-building lead magnets, bottom of funnel (BOFU) lead magnets, entertaining lead magnets, etc.

By now, you are perhaps wondering what exactly you can offer that will draw prospects to your company. Well, for B2B companies, the educational value can come in the form of webinars, Facebook lead magnets, a video series, free consultation or a PDF. It is essential to understand your customer so that you can know which lead magnet will work best for them.

There are several reasons why B2B businesses should use lead magnets. However, two reasons stand out as being the most important.

Initiating engagement. Most first-time visitors to a website are not going to become buyers right away. Instead, they will likely shop around for options, do some research, or maybe have a look at interesting educational content that you may have posted. Every business needs to leverage this initial interest and avoid these prospects from slipping away because sooner or later, they will need to make a purchase. Offering free content is an excellent way to connect because it builds a sense of trust, confidence and authority which can be leveraged into a long-term relationship with customers.

Finding high-quality leads. B2B companies that focus on high-quality leads instead of just the quantity of leads can benefit from lead magnets. If a content marketing team creates gated content, it forces only those that really want the ‘free gift’ in exchange for their personal details to sign-up. Although the content marketing team may register a drop in the total number of leads, the quality of leads will greatly improve. An improvement in the quality of leads will eventually mean a higher ROI of the marketer’s efforts.

Offering any content for free is not a winning formula for creating lead magnets. Instead, you want to ensure that you create and offer only the right kind of content. Getting it right the first time around is critical. Here are some of the factors to consider when choosing lead magnets.

High value. The lead magnets perceived value and actual value should be high.

Solve the prospect’s real problems. Understanding the target customer and addressing their immediate needs or pain points goes hand in hand with creating the ultimate lead magnet.

Be specific. Avoid vague promises and instead, be specific about what you want to offer and when. Immediate rewards providing small but realistic value are the best kind of offer since they are neither overwhelming nor suspicious. That said, don’t be too specific to attract extremely few leads. Find your sweet spot.

Instantly accessible and actionable. Whether it’s a coupon code, guide or checklist, your target leads should be able to get everything they need to take immediate action.

Demonstrate expertise. The lead magnet should demonstrate thought leadership so that it can inspire trust, confidence and authority. Meeting customer expectations is critically important.

Excellent user experience and readability. Take advantage of concise sentences, bullet points, and visual content so that the reader can peruse through the material quickly and comfortably.

Figure 1: Be specific and solve the leads problem

Now that you know how to create the ultimate B2B lead magnet, here are some of the best converting ones to test for your business.

Product demos are excellent lead magnets because they offer the prospect an opportunity to comprehensively understand the product on offer and how their user experience shall be. By providing a demonstration experience in exchange for an opt-in, the marketer has a higher chance of convincing the prospect that the product can satisfy their need because it is customer friendly. A video-demo is a lot easier to explain than using words or even pictures.

Demos also tend to attract audiences that are ready to invest in the product and are, therefore, not turned off by the pre-sales process.

Educational videos are the ideal infomercial and a compelling lead magnet because they are immersive and engaging. They provide teachable moments or tutorial content, entertainment, as well as sell, all at the same time. Different educational videos can be segmented to different audiences that relate to different stages in the buyer’s journey.

Webinars convert well as lead magnets because they are highly anticipated by prospects that want to learn more from experts. They provide an interactive opportunity that prospects yearn for which means that it is critical to engage with audiences in a personalized way. It is important to remember that the webinar is done for your audience and not for your brand. If you can create a relevant, personalized experience, you will create lots of value for your prospects.

Having a live webinar or a limited-time-offer for recorded webinars is another excellent way to create value, urgency, and magnetism that will lead to webinar success.

Figure 2: MuleSoft webinar offer

A free consultation is an ideal lead magnet because it allows the marketer to interact with the lead one-on-one. The benefit here is that the marketing and sales team can collect a lot of useful data that can be used to better appreciate the lead and, therefore, create a more personalized experience.

For example, in the one-on-one meeting, the marketer or salesperson will get to hear questions that they can use to understand the leads specific pain points. Some of these pain points can be addressed immediately while others can be solved using available content that addresses those needs.

Additionally, a free consultation allows the marketer to qualify or prioritize leads faster and more accurately. The drawback about this kind of lead magnet is that it tends to be expensive and less scalable.

Downloadable toolkits/guides are popular B2B lead magnets because they are inexpensive to produce and they are tremendously scalable. These guides often include educational material, fillable forms, and industry insights in PDF format. Spreadsheets, worksheets, checklists, templates, case studies and whitepapers are other forms of downloadable content that can be used as B2B lead magnets.

e-Books are excellent lead magnets because they can be downloaded to be read later. The best kinds of e-Books to create are either downloadable forms of long-form articles or comprehensive e-Book material.

The long-form articles, especially in PDF format, are compelling because they are easy to take away and read on different devices (e.g. mobile devices). They’re attractive because the reader does not have to go through all the material at once and can instead read through the content at their convenience without having to navigate back to a webpage. The comprehensive e-Book can be used as a content upgrade that offers detailed, actionable tips.

Figure 3: MuleSoft eBook offer

B2B products usually involve top-dollar transaction which means that a valuable and useful lead magnet is crucial if you want to start nurturing a customer relationship that will guide your prospects through the buyer’s journey. By enticing potential buyers with value right from the first interaction, you not only initiate a productive conversation but you also help prospects understand how your product can solve their pain point.

Before creating your lead magnets, learn your customer and find out what will be of value to them or what will make their lives better. Once you do this, you have an excellent idea for a high converting lead magnet.