5 Practical Lead Magnets to Improve Lead Generation

Lead magnets are used to generate more leads by converting more visitors on your website. In this blog, we also cover a special combination of 2 lead magnets that will allow you to engage prospects better and also have meaningful sales follow-ups.

We’ll cover:

What is a lead magnet?
What’s missing with Contact Us or Schedule a Strategy Call buttons
Five (5) effective lead magnet types
The special combination to amplify overall results

What is a Lead Magnet?

A lead magnet is like a warm handshake.

It’s a simple offer on your website that encourages prospective customers to engage and share their contact information with you. A lead magnet should provide something that is helpful to prospective clients. They convert visitors who would otherwise leave your site, even if they like what you have to say.

What about Contact Us or Schedule a Strategy / Discovery Call buttons?

Research shows that buyers are between 50-70% through their own buying research before they want to engage with sales. As a result, most visitors on your website would hesitate when faced with high-engagement options like “Contact Us” or “Schedule a Strategy or Discovery Call”.

So prospective customers want to be sure you are a potentially good candidate for them before they want to connect. And you should aim to engage and educate them as well so that you can stay top of mind. Since submitting a “contact us” form passes the control from them over to you, buyers shy away from submitting these, especially when they don’t know you well. They want something less invasive because they are not sure they want to get stuck on a sales call with you.

That’s where your lead magnet steps in. It offers immediate value, builds trust, and then buyers don’t mind letting you know they are in the market. Such an interaction also allows for meaningful sales follow-ups.

It follows that lead magnets aren’t just gimmicks for collecting contact information. Leads captured that way are not really useful to your sales team. That’s exactly why we’ll show you 5 great lead magnets below and then explain why a specific combination of them is the best.

Let’s get some ground rules out of the way.

Understand what it solves: Your lead magnet serves as a tangible painkiller, instantly adding value to the lives of your prospective customers. Think about what your target audience needs. Maybe it’s a decision they want to make, or guidance they need on a specific topic.
Set the stage for next steps: By offering a lead magnet, you’re starting a conversation with your audience. It paves the way for future interactions and nurtures a relationship. So start it well. Don’t cut corners. See our blog on sales needs assessments and consultative selling.
Establish your brand as an expert: Providing valuable content such as good lead magnets should position you as an authority in your field. It should build trust and credibility, making people more likely to engage with your brand and hence your sales team.

5 Effective Lead Magnets for Qualified Lead Generation

Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty and explore 5 very effective lead magnets:

1. Short practical eBook:

Downloads are a time tested lead magnet. All they need is an email address. So a downloadable eBook that provides quick solutions or insights tailored to your audience is an awesome and attractive resource to everyone.

For instance:

In the field of digital marketing, you could create an eBook titled “A Practical Guide to Social Media Advertising Success.”
In the field of web development, an eBook such as “10 Tips for Building a High-Performing Website” would be very appealing.

Think of perennial problems which everyone faces and is interested in. And make sure to connect them with your services

2. Checklist

People love checklists because they’re easy to consume and actionable. You could create a simple 10 point checklist to help your visitors. Items in the checklist would lead to your services and solutions of course.

For example:

In the realm of analytics, a “Data Analytics Audit Checklist” could help businesses assess their analytics strategies.
For digital security, a “Cybersecurity Preparedness Checklist” could guide companies in safeguarding their digital assets.
In the SEO niche, a “SEO Website Audit Checklist” could assist website owners in optimizing their online presence.

Remember to keep it simple. It’s natural for us to provide as much detail as possible. But the intent here is to engage visitors, provide some practical & useful value, and leave the rest for subsequent engagement and interactions.

3. Expert Quiz/Self-Assessment

Quizzes and self-assessments are engaging and provide valuable insights.

The biggest advantage is that they provide instant and personalized feedback to your prospective clients. It also provides you with more information than just an email address and name. This means that your sales team can take immediate action.

For instance:

In brand awareness, create a “Brand Identity Quiz” that helps businesses determine if their branding efforts align with their strategic positioning.
In the field of marketing, a “Content Marketing Effectiveness Quiz” could assess the strength of a company’s content strategy.
In the realm of web development, offer a “Website Performance Self-Assessment” to help users identify areas for improvement.
In the area of software development, offer “Customer Experience Maximizing Quiz” to help your users see if they are keeping customer experience front and center.

Keep the expert quiz simple and easy to take. 5-8 questions that provide useful and personalized insight is best. Use a platform that builds on this quiz so that your sales team can use it too. Evalinator is a unique platform that does that.

4. Workbooks

Workbooks are hands-on tools that guide users through a process. These are great because they help customers get started with putting more structure around a problem they are facing.

For instance:

In the realm of analytics, develop a “Data Visualization Workbook” to help users learn how to create compelling data visualizations.
In the digital marketing space, a “Content Calendar Planning Workbook” could assist businesses in mapping out their content strategy.
In the domain of security, a “Cybersecurity Incident Response Workbook” could help organizations prepare for cyber threats.

Keep the workbook practical and simple enough to cover a single use case properly.

5. Templates

Templates are time-savers and incredibly practical. They help users get started with execution quickly and they will thank you for a template that works.

For example:

In the field of SEO, provide a “Keyword Research Template” to help users streamline their SEO efforts.
In digital marketing, offer a “Social Media Content Calendar Template” to simplify post planning and scheduling
For web development, a “Website Functional Requirements Template” could be a valuable resource for those starting a new project.

These examples showcase the versatility of lead magnets across various industries. Remember, the key is to align your lead magnet with your audience’s needs and pain points to maximizes its effectiveness.

Which Combination of Lead Magnets is Perfect For You?

Let’s think of the 3 things we are trying to balance:

Least resistance to submit an email
Offers instant and personalized value to visitors
Provides rich data for sales follow-ups

E-books, checklists, templates, and workbooks are incredibly easy to download. However, they don’t provide any personalized feedback. in addition, they are often forgotten because most people don’t even look at what they download due to various factors. As a result, these types of simple email address submission do not they make it easy for sales to follow-up.

So, we recommend that you offer an expert quiz AND one of the downloadable lead magnets in the below fashion:

Examine your target audience and determine what will help them
Define the type of download you can create easily – checklist, short eBook, a workbook, or a template.
Create an expert quiz based on that. On Evalinator, this takes only a few minutes. This will help you provide personalized feedback and also collect valuable data about your audience’s needs. For example, if you decide to offer an eBook on “5 Best Practices for XYZ”, then create an expert quiz “How Well Are You Doing XYZ”.
As an incentive for taking the quiz, offer the downloadable lead magnet for a dynamic approach. For example “Take the Website Security Quiz and Receive a Security Checklist for Free”!

Evalinator allows you to offer your downloadable lead magnet as an incentive for taking the quiz. So you don’t have to create a separate landing page or mess around with workflows.