With summer in full force and Q3 on the horizon, the dreaded lead generation slowdown makes its annual appearance. We’ve all experienced it: vacations begin, phone calls go unanswered, and your sales team starts clamoring for more qualified leads. Adding to the challenge is the evolving digital landscape, where first-party data collection on websites is paramount in a cookieless world. Now is the ideal time to revitalize your strategy with fresh, compelling lead magnets!
Continue reading to:
- Gain a clear understanding of lead magnets.
- Explore 25 inspiring lead magnet ideas and examples.
- Determine the essential elements for creating effective lead magnets for your business. Armed with these insights and examples, you’ll be well-equipped to attract more potential customers to your business and guide them toward conversion.
What exactly are lead magnets?
Let’s start by defining what a lead magnet truly is. Lead magnets are a strategic marketing tool designed to incentivize form submissions and generate more leads. Typically, a business offers something valuable for free, enticing potential customers to provide their information in exchange. This exchange allows you to nurture the relationship and gather valuable first-party data, which is increasingly crucial in a cookieless digital environment. While often associated with the top of the funnel, lead magnets can be effectively utilized at every stage of the customer journey. New prospects can enter your funnel at various points, and even those entering at the top need encouragement to stay engaged and progress through the funnel. Therefore, consider lead magnets as strategic offers that not only attract leads but also keep them engaged throughout their journey.
Lead magnets encompass several key categories:
- Materials that educate and provide value
- Exclusive, proprietary data
- Incentives and prizes
- Time-sensitive offers and information
- Free consultations and product trials As evident, lead magnets come in various forms, and as marketers, it’s our task to select the most effective type to attract, engage, and ultimately convert our prospects. Let’s delve into some illustrative examples and ideas.
A quick note about these lead magnet ideas
While I’ve categorized these ideas based on funnel stages, remember that each business has a unique funnel and customer journey. Feel free to adapt these ideas to align with your specific needs. Furthermore, many content-based lead magnets are versatile. For instance, a downloadable checklist could be used at the top of the funnel (e.g., a wedding planning checklist) and in the middle (e.g., questions to ask when choosing a wedding planner).
Delve deeper into this topic with our insightful post on the content marketing funnel.
The image below illustrates a top-of-funnel checklist from a process management software company: “Effective Onboarding in 31 Steps.” A mid-funnel checklist for the same company could be “10 Features to Look for in an SOP Automation Software Provider.”
Top-of-funnel lead magnet ideas
Lead magnets are most exciting at the top of the funnel, allowing for creativity in attracting your target audience while showcasing your brand’s personality. These lead magnets can be broadly related to your product or service but should still hold some relevance. Remember, this is the awareness stage, and your prospects might not even know you exist yet. It’s essential to guide these leads through a nurture flow to ensure that those reaching your sales team have genuine purchase intent. For top-of-funnel lead magnets, a simple form asking for first name, last name, and email address is sufficient. Make sure each lead magnet is tagged with its source to track ROI effectively.
1. Give something away
Giveaways are a fantastic starting point. Planning and executing a successful giveaway requires finesse, but the key takeaway is their effectiveness as lead magnets. Attract prospects with enticing giveaway options, ranging from free event tickets to discounted annual subscriptions to your product. Remember, the quality of leads will depend on the relevance of your offering to your product or service. While Instagram giveaways are great for reach and brand awareness, they won’t generate leads unless participants DM you their email addresses. Create a dedicated landing page for your giveaway and share the link on social media instead.
2. Face-to-face field marketing
Field marketers excel at direct engagement with potential customers at events like trade shows, networking functions, and conferences. Their blend of sales and marketing expertise allows them to educate, inform, and persuade prospects to engage with your brand. Ensure they collect email addresses for continued communication! While this method might not yield a high volume of leads, the quality will be exceptional.
3. Influencer collaborations
Influencer marketing is everywhere these days. With the allure of TikTok and YouTube fame, it’s no wonder. This presents an opportune time to explore lead generation through micro-influencers. Identify influencers in your niche, sponsor a few posts, and watch the leads come in. Remember to tag them appropriately, especially if offering commission or per-lead payments.
4. Blog post downloads
Visitors to your blog are likely in the awareness or information-gathering stage, so focus on free, easily accessible offers. Offer to deliver the post (or a condensed version) directly to their inbox for later reading in exchange for their email address. It’s a win-win - convenient for them and valuable for you.
5. Free tools
We offer a variety of free tools for business owners and marketers, creating a mutually beneficial situation. They gain access to free professional resources that help them get more sales, and we acquire leads with the potential to convert into paying customers. A true win-win.
Feel free to try out our Google Ads Grader and Facebook Ads Grader anytime! (See what we did there?) More top-of-funnel lead magnet ideas: 6. How-to guides and example content (e.g., a free guide on crafting networking emails or examples of effective networking emails) 7. Podcasting 8. Idea generators 9. Cheatsheets
A lead magnet about lead magnets - how meta!
Mid-funnel lead magnet ideas
This is where lead magnets become more focused. Prospects in the middle of your funnel are aware of and interested in your business. Mid-funnel lead magnets should be at least somewhat related to your product or brand, but you can afford to be a bit broader at the mid-to-top level. Consider requesting more than just an email address for mid-funnel lead magnets. Include fields for name, company, and any qualifying information. For example, I ask my prospects to specify their compliance framework of interest, informing the content I send and aiding my sales team in crafting precise pitches. Continue nurturing these leads even as they become more qualified. Resist the urge to immediately engage in aggressive sales tactics. Tag and nurture them appropriately to avoid scaring them off.
10. Webinars
Webinars are incredibly popular, especially interactive lunch-and-learns focused on how-tos or trending topics. The beauty of webinars is their reusability - record them and repurpose them in future nurture campaigns.
When hosting a webinar, ask participants for questions beforehand to encourage engagement and gather valuable lead information.
11. Checklists
If your product streamlines solutions or provides insights into niche processes, checklists offer a high-level, low-effort way to share your expertise. Pro tip: downloadable checklists often perform well in Google ad campaigns.
12. Free templates
I admit, I’m a sucker for resume templates. Every time I edit one, I’m drawn to new designs, resulting in a plethora of companies having my email address. Offer templates for areas where you’re an expert. For instance, a project management flow template or a Notion content marketing calendar template (I’m actually looking for one!). Templates are more mid-funnel compared to examples because the prospect is ready to act, not just explore ideas. More mid-funnel lead magnet ideas 13. Original data reports 14. Product comparisons 15. Email courses
Bottom-of-funnel lead magnet ideas
These lead magnets target the most promising prospects - those already familiar with your brand and content. This is your chance to demonstrate how your product directly addresses their needs.
16. Case studies
Case studies can be dull if not executed well. Injecting them with actionable data and insights, however, can make them highly valuable. Many companies use titles like “[Company X] helped [Company Y] increase revenue by 50%! Learn how.” While not inherently bad, incorporating specific data and takeaways makes them more compelling.
17. Product picker
This might be my favorite type of lead magnet (sorry, whitepapers!).
Quizzes are fantastic for engagingly showcasing your expertise in a niche. They’re perfect for leads ready to buy but unsure about specifics. For instance, my company, Laika, offers a quiz to help businesses determine the right compliance framework.
18. Partner referral discounts
While you’ll need approval from relevant departments, discounts are a powerful motivator - everyone loves saving money. Reach out to partners, offering discounts to those who submit information with a specific code or through a dedicated page. Extend this to satisfied customers as well! Referrals carry as much weight as reviews, influencing prospect decisions.
19. Event tickets
Freebies are always a hit. Run a promotion offering entries into a random drawing for free conference tickets in exchange for signing up for a free demo or consultation. You choose the event, and the leads will follow.
20. Early access
Leverage new features, copy, or UX elements as lead magnets. Offer early access to prospects and observe their behavior while tailoring your offering. Many mobile games and apps use beta versions and early access effectively. If your app is on Google Play or the Apple Store, include it in beta programs. Even Disneyland offers early park hours!
21. Free trial
Offer a limited-time free trial of your product or service! While numerous examples exist, make yours stand out by emphasizing exclusivity, urgency, and the value of experiencing your company firsthand.
22. Newsletter referrals
The Skimm’s growth is a testament to the power of referrals. Implement a system that tracks referrals from unique links and offers rewards.
More bottom-of-funnel lead magnet ideas 23. Discounts or sales promotions 24. Free shipping 25. Free quote or consultation
How to create a lead magnet for your business
Ready to generate more leads? Here are some tips for crafting irresistible lead magnets. Your lead magnet needs:
- An attractive, valuable offer
- A clear call to action
- A form for information capture
- A dedicated landing page Ensure consistency in landing page copy, design, and CTA with your initial offer. For example, if promising 15% off for email subscriptions, the post-form CTA should be “Get my 15% off coupon.” Consider using website pop-up tools as well. Numerous platforms allow you to create tasteful popups triggered by specific criteria like page visits, blog topics, visitor history, referral sources, and more. Finally, with increased lead generation comes the need for marketing automation software like Marketo, Hubspot, or ActOn to effectively track, segment, and nurture your leads in today’s remote-working landscape.
Lead magnet ideas [recap]
Here are the 25 lead magnet ideas and examples from this post:
- Giveaways
- Face-to-face field marketing
- Influencer collaborations
- Blog post downloads
- Free tools
- How-to and examples content
- Podcasting
- Idea generators
- Cheatsheets
- Webinars
- Checklists
- Templates
- Original data reports
- Product comparisons
- Email courses
- Case studies
- Product pickers
- Partner referral discounts
- Event tickets
- Early access
- Free trials
- Newsletter referrals
- Discounts and promo codes
- Free shipping
- Free quote or consultation Do you have any tried-and-true lead magnet ideas we missed? Share your landing pages and forms – we’re eager to see them!