A lead magnet is an incentive that marketers offer to potential buyers for their email addresses or other contact information, usually in form of a digital / downloadable content, such as free PDF checklist, statistical reports, ebooks, whitepapers, videos, etc.

Lead magnets are one of the most effective and multi-purpose digital marketing tools that enable you get more email subscribers to your website, or capture leads as the case may be.

Although many websites use ‘contact us’ links or random buttons for their lead capture processes, it’s ineffective most times.

Studies have shown that websites capture less than 10% of their web traffic as leads when using contact buttons rather than lead magnets.

Websites that use lead magnets are shown to capture up to 75% of their web traffic as prospects– that’s an amazing difference.

Lead magnets aren’t just for simple lead capture; they can be used for a much bigger purpose. If you use them as part of your sales funnel they’re even more effective. The idea behind this process is  same. You position the lead magnet somewhere at the beginning or the first tier of your sales funnel. This makes it possible for you to further engage potential clients who have downloaded your lead magnet in exchange for their contact details, thereby bringing them closer to becoming buyers.

Why Every Online Business Needs a Lead Magnet

One of the most important goals of any business owner is to increase customers. By creating an irresistible lead magnet, you can generate more leads.

When you start a relationship with a new visitor on your blog, you don’t  push offers to their faces, like asking them to buy your “XYZ product/service for $$$ price”. One of two things occur if you go this route. One, you stand a high risk of losing a potential client. Two, your website may lose integrity if the visitor flags you, thereby repelling other potential buyers. Either way, you might go out of business rather than grow in business.

The best way to go is starting small with a low commitment. Just as with human relationship, giving away something valuable for free is a good start. That would be your lead magnet!

If your lead magnet is as valuable as it promises, visitors will be keen on coming back to your website. Then you can push your offer.

Perhaps this time they will buy an hour-long consultation with you or be very happy to give a review or referral. Months down the line, they may subscribe to your “XY services” and eventually buy whatever your business  offers.

Lead Magnet vs. Visitors’ Retention

Every website owner has to come to terms with this reality: For your website’s lifetime, most people will not come back. You are also guilty of this in a way. You frequently revisit popular websites like Quora, Facebook, Twitter, etc. But how many smaller websites do you come back to?

Same goes for your site. Assuming your it gets about 100 visitors per day, of those 100, how many are new visitors vs. recurring visitors? Assuming 70% of them discovered you for the first time, you can be rest assured that 70 out of every 100 visitors may not revisit to your website again. Imagine how much opportunity is untapped because people drop by and never return.

Nonetheless, this shouldn’t scare or discourage you. Rather, it gives a clear understanding and trims your focus to a more dedicated audience. Now you know a repeat visitor has a much higher likelihood of becoming a viable sales lead than a first timer. So you should give more attention to your returning visitors.

You may be spending as much as $0.90 per click on an ad platform, but most of your visitors will never come back to “warm up” with your brand until they’re ready to buy. This is where a lead magnet comes handy; it changes your relationship with an absolute stranger!

Lead Magnet is one of the first processes of lead generation and customer acquisition that guarantees huge conversion and customer retention. You keep making repeated sales from  every single customer. Companies like Google, Amazon, Godaddy, all perform the same process.

The fact is you can’t have a successful internet marketing strategy without lead magnets; they’re a vital part of website optimization, lead capture, and an effective sales funnel. You also get to keep in touch with your users and send them new offers or deals. In any case, settling for a mere 10% lead capture when you could have a 75% lead capture is ridiculous.

Thankfully, lead magnets are easy to make and even easier to use. All you need is:

• A short ebook or white paper that gives interesting and valuable information about your product or service
• An opt-in to download your lead magnet, a form for your potential customers to fill out before receiving their download
• A thank you page to direct them to after the download is complete

If you find it too hard or need professional handling for your lead magnet, we’re more than willing to help. Reach out to us immediately and let’s get you started on an increased visitors retention process.

We are Charisol, a software development agency with a community of talented software developers that leverage on the “work without walls” culture to provide solutions for clients around the world. Our services span Software designing, App development, Digital marketing, Social Media Marketing, Content Writing & Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation. Follow us on Medium or on social (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn).