Offering potential customers something in exchange for a contact: what is a lead magnet and how to use it in an effective lead generation strategy
Any marketing strategy that aims to increase the number of customers must include a good lead generation strategy that is aimed at getting new contacts. A potential customer will surely be more inclined to leave his contact in exchange for a special content or a benefit (a discount, a particular promotion, a free gift) that is called a lead magnet.
Depending on the products or services offered by the business, you can from time to time choose the lead magnet to offer to your potential customers, who will then be encouraged to provide their data in a special form on a special landing page. For example, enter your email or phone contact in exchange for an interesting newsletter or e-book on how to best use a certain product. Or, to participate in online webinars or listen to podcasts organized by a professional, which allow to deepen certain topics or explain how to solve a certain problem. E-commerce businesses can also create effective lead magnets, such as discount coupons for those who sign up for the brand's newsletter. It's clear that lead magnets are important for a lead generation strategy: here's what they are, how to create them and use them to grow your business.
Lead magnet: what it is and how it works
The lead magnet is a free content or incentive that serves to attract users' interest in your brand and convince them to leave their contact information, such as email or phone number. The concept behind the lead magnet is to offer something that is free in the eyes of the potential customer, but is actually "paid for" with contacts, which can be included in the company's CRM software database. The data collected in this way can be profiled according to specific parameters and used for the company's marketing campaigns to a selected audience: from email marketing to SMS marketing.
How to create an effective lead magnet
The first step in creating an effective lead magnet is to do a careful and thorough analysis of your target audience. The goal of profiling is not only to identify the type of user you might be interested in, but also to understand what the consumer's needs and problems are relative to the type of products or services being offered. Once the problem is identified, the brand can create a free content that stands as a solution, where its product or service is an added value for the resolution.
Another aspect to take into account is the "tone of voice", that is the choice of the most suitable tone of voice in the communication with the potential contact. Finally, you must focus on uniqueness: the content must be something special, that other competitors have never offered before. As far as formats are concerned, you can choose from different types of lead magnets: newsletters, e-books, whitepapers, podcasts, webinars, case studies, statistics, software trial versions, coupons and discounts, forms and templates, and even free tickets for events.
Lead magnet: the importance of the squeeze page
In the realization of a lead magnet you must never forget a fundamental component: the creation of a squeeze page, that is a specific landing page that allows you to collect and generate leads.
Planning and implementing a lead generation campaign is not an easy task: it requires investment of time and money, as well as a careful monitoring of performance. There are online services that allow you to generate and monitor this type of campaign, such as Italiaonline's Generazione Lead: users will set a budget and the type of lead magnet they want to offer, and Italiaonline's experts will implement the campaign and help them get new contacts of potential customers.