What Is A Lead Magnet.

A lead magnet is a tempting offer that a prospect will value sufficiently to exchange their email address for it. It often takes the form of content, consultation, software or the like.

It’s a case of “I will give you this (the lead magnet) in exchange for your email address”.

It must offer a solution to a problem that the prospect has. The prospect has usually ended up on your landing page or blog because he/she is looking for an answer to a question or solution to a problem.

Your lead magnet must deliver on 2 counts

It must shout to your prospect about what it does: “YouTube SEO Cheat Sheet” “Turn Your Blog Post Into A Stunning eBook”
It must deliver on the promise

Keep it short. There used to be place for long lead magnets but frankly many of them ended up stored on hard drives and unread or unopened due to the size.

People don’t have that much time if they don’t know you.

Lead Magnet Content

If it’s a report keep it down to 1000 – 1200 words.

That’s about the ideal length and when you’ve spread it out and added images it will seem quite substantial.

For a video, no more than 5 minutes

It must be interesting. I can’t stress that enough. It must be interesting because this is probably your first contact with the new subscriber.

You really have to make them go Wow!!.

Give them information that they’ll be really happy with. In fact wherever possible over deliver.

You’ve got to try and exceed their expectations. They are trading their email address for this. This email address could prove very valuable to you over time.

Make them think “I would have gladly paid $20 for that!” So please don’t treat it a grudging giveaway.

Imagine that the subscriber who receives it will go on to become a valuable customer or contributor etc.

If you are miserly in the quality of your lead magnet, the return you get will most likely be miserly.

Every prospect who walks on to your showroom forecourt (your lead magnet) could be the one who buys the most expensive car in the lot (your highest value product)!

You don’t have to write all your own content. It’s perfectly acceptable to curate the contents of your lead magnet as long as you give sufficient attribution to other content.

Use others’ content to illustrate a point you’re trying to make or to reinforce your argument.

How To Present Your Lead Magnet

Make you lead magnet look good and make it easy to consume. Large print and lots of white space never goes wrong.

Which of the two below do you find the easier to read?

This?
Keep it down to 1000 – 1200 words. That’s about the ideal length and when you’ve spread it out and added images it will seem quite substantial. It must be interesting. I can’t stress that enough. It must be interesting because this is probably your first contact with the new subscriber. You really have to make them go Wow!!. Give them information that they’ll be really happy with. In fact wherever possible over deliver. You got to try and exceed their expectations. They are trading their email address for this. This email address could prove very valuable to you. So please don’t treat it a grudging giveaway.

Or this

Keep it down to 1000 – 1200 words. That’s about the ideal length and when you’ve spread it out and added images it will seem quite substantial.

It must be interesting. I can’t stress that enough. It must be interesting because this is probably your first contact with the new subscriber.

You really have to make them go Wow!!.

Give them information that they’ll be really happy with. In fact wherever possible over deliver.

You got to try and exceed their expectations. They are trading their email address for this.

This email address could prove very valuable to you. So please don’t treat it as a grudging giveaway.

Divide it up into clear sections:

Introduction
Contents
Section Headings
Summary
Resources/Cheat Sheet

Add images throughout to further break up the text. Keep them as relevant as possible.

Always remember that your lead magnet is also a promotional tool.

So make sure you put your links into your sales pages , your offers, your Facebook groups, your best content., or wherever you want people to go to next.

Make sure you put those links in.

Remember if you recommend a product or anything like that, stick in your affiliate link.

Types Of Lead Magnet

Guide or Report

This is one of the most common types of lead magnet (1000 -1200 words) and one I will expand on later

Cheat Sheet or Handout

These are usually very compact (1 -2 pages which are essentially a checklist of tips) but can be very effective

Toolkit or Resource List

These make great lead magnets for the right markets. They could for example be a glossary of terms that are common in certain markets – basic stuff beginners need to know .

Or they can be delivered as starter kits with links to the required resources

All of the above can be delivered in the video format. For some formats it’s more appropriate than others.

Sometimes you want to offer both or a combination

My most favoured type of lead magnet is the Guide/Report type.

The best ones tend to incorporate Cheat sheets, Resource Lists and Videos.

Compiling A Report

Normally I start of compiling a report in something like Microsoft Word or similar.

This allows me the flexibility of easily changing layout, adding images, changing text size and spacing, adding links and so on.

Once I have the report in a form that I’m happy with, I usually want to turn it into a PDF.

If you have MS Word you can do this for free but it lacks many of the attributes you would expect in a good PDF document.

Of course you can always buy the Adobe software but that’s both expensive and a lot of learning.

My favoured choice is a software called Designrr which takes all the hard work out of making an attractive PDF document. It also has many features that allow you make your Report into a really good looking and interactive piece of work.

It has a host of other features but most importantly it allows you to easily turn your text or blog post into a PDF in a few minutes.

Canva is a great free facility to create great front pages or illustrations/infographics for your reports

The net result of this is that you end up with a professional looking lead magnet that you know delivers. A real case of being able to judge the book by its cover.

Summary

To summarise, keep it short, make it interesting, make it easy to consume and make it look attractive.

Your lead magnet is your introduction to a new subscriber. If it disappoints then don’t expect the subscriber to have a high opinion of you and any offers you subsequently make.
On the other hand, if it thrills and excites, you could have a customer for life.