Lead generation is one of the most important aspects of marketing and sales for service-based businesses. It allows you to build and nurture relationships with people who are interested in your products or services. The goal is to nurture those relationships and eventually convert them into paying clients.
One of the main strategies for collecting leads is by offering a free product, aka a freebie or lead magnet, in exchange for your prospects’ contact information. In the online world, email freebies are becoming increasingly popular as a way to entice new subscribers. They can be digital products like e-books, checklists, or discount codes that are delivered to your subscriber’s inbox after they sign up for an email list.
Offering free content is a great way to increase conversions and get more people to sign up for your email list. And the best part is that by providing a free resource, you’re earning trust and establishing your expertise.
Why your business NEEDS a lead magnet
There are three main reasons to give away a free product in exchange for your subscribers’ contact information.
First, it helps you build credibility. On one hand, when you give something away for free, you’re showing that you trust your audience enough to offer it without asking for anything in return. And on the other hand, they get to experience a positive result they’ll associate with your brand.
Second, you gain exposure. If you’re trying to promote your business, then this is one of the most effective ways to do it. Free resources are an excellent brand promoter on platforms like Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn. By sharing useful information on these platforms, you’ll reach thousands of new people every day. These people could potentially turn into customers later on down the line.
And finally, it increases conversions. In most cases, the people who request your freebie are interested in a service you provide. Which is why it’s also essential for you to be really strategic about the freebie you create — it needs to have a clear path to conversion to be effective.
4 types of lead magnets you can create
As we hinted in the previous section, you’ll want to be strategic about the type of content you share in a freebie, as you don’t want to give away your skills or knowledge, but you also need to provide your audience with a solution that’s adjacent to your services. Doing this helps you nurture the relationship over time until they’re ready to hire you.
These are the four main categories of lead magnets:
- Educational: Educational lead magnets help your subscribers learn or do something new. They could be in the form of a short video or an e-book on a relevant topic.
- Entertaining: Entertaining lead magnets are designed to make your subscribers laugh or smile. They could be fun quizzes, funny memes, or interesting infographics.
- Informational: Informational lead magnets provide valuable information that your subscribers can use in their everyday lives. They might be tips and tricks, helpful PDF guides, whitepapers or expert interviews.
- Actionable: Actionable lead magnets give your subscribers something concrete that they can do to improve their lives or businesses. They could be templates, checklists, or downloadable cheat sheets.
How to deliver a lead magnet
Autoresponder Series
An autoresponder series is an email automation set up for delivering free content to your email subscribers. With this approach, you create a series of emails that are delivered automatically to your subscribers over a period of time. Each email in the series includes a link to the email freebie. For example, you could create a 7-day email course on a specific topic and include a link to the email freebie at the end of each lesson.
Landing Page
Another approach is to use a dedicated landing page on your website. This is a standalone page where visitors can claim the email freebie by entering their email address into a form. Once they submit their information, they’ll be redirected to a thank you page with a link to download the freebie. This is a great option if you want to drive traffic to your website from social media, a blog post, or other online channels. It’s also one of the more common choices for people advertising their lead magnets.
Opt-In Form
A lead magnet opt-in form is a form that you add to your website or blog that allows visitors to subscribe to your email list in exchange for the lead magnet. For example, you could add an opt-in form to your blog that offers a free eBook on a specific topic in exchange for an email address.
This is often followed by a newsletter where you deliver the actual lead magnet to your subscriber so they can use it.
Blog Post
Finally, you can include banners, pop-ups or text-based calls to action in your blog posts to direct users to access the resource.
This strategy is effective because if someone is already reading your blog post, it means they’re interested in what you have to say and looking for a solution to a specific problem.
What are you doing to generate leads in your business?
Now that you know all about email freebies and how they can help you grow your email list, it’s time to get started.
When starting your lead generation strategy, always keep in mind that your freebie is the first impression many users will have of your brand. As such, it should be valuable, well-thought-out, and worth using.
Along with your freebie, you’ll want a nurturing strategy to foster those relationships you managed to capture. And finally, track your conversions to measure the effectiveness of your strategy.
Want to learn more about how email freebies can help your business? Contact us today see how we can help take your business to the next level.
