What are lead magnets?
If you’re looking to earn more followers, improve engagement or generate leads for your business, a lead magnet is the perfect solution.
The use of lead magnets is a marketing strategy often overlooked, even by experienced marketers. They can help to build up an email list and make the process of capturing emails more efficient with minimal maintenance required.
Lead magnets encourage visitors to provide contact information in exchange for a free digital asset. You’ll be able to gather more data about your audience and build their interest at the same time.
Not only will an effective lead magnet strategy generate new leads by providing people with useful information they can implement, the exchange will help to develop trust and loyalty with your company. Effective lead magnets will amplify your credibility, which can be a driving factor in building brand equity.
As a marketer, you understand the need to nurture relationships with potential customers; providing usable content to your audience is a powerful way to build a meaningful connection with your community.
In this blog post we’ll talk about: why you should use lead magnets, how they work, and go over some examples of effective B2B lead magnets that will help grow your business.
Your SaaS solution may be the best thing since sliced bread 🍞
— Chris Tweten 🍁 (@ctwtn) May 20, 2021
But are enough people using it?
There are 𝓪𝓵𝔀𝓪𝔂𝓼 new, untapped opportunities for #LeadGen
👇 Let's look at 10 stupidly simple ways to get new #SaaS leads
How To Create A Lead Magnet
A lead magnet should grasp the attention of prospective customers at their initial point of contact. Don't use empty promises or “bribe-to-subscribe” to entice someone's interest only to leave them with less than what they had anticipated. Furthermore, if your offer doesn’t resonate with your intended audience, it won’t be effective in bringing new leads to the table.
Lead magnets are a great way to increase opt-in rates if you understand your audience and what they would find valuable. The incentive can take many forms, but it's crucial to choose the right type of lead magnet that resonates with your target buyer personas and addresses their key pain points or interests. You'll also want to ensure you've paid clear attention to the details in creating a high-quality, valuable lead magnet that delivers on its promise.
Here are some best practices for creating an effective B2B lead magnet:
Keep it Relevant and Aligned to Search Intent. One key challenge is ensuring your lead magnet content stays tightly focused on the core topic and fulfills the searcher's intent. Don't make readers guess what you're offering - use a clear, benefit-oriented headline and intro paragraph to set expectations for the specific problem you'll solve or knowledge you'll deliver. The more aligned to the initial search query, the better.
Solve a Specific, Relevant Problem. The most compelling lead magnets dig into a particular challenge or need faced by your target buyer personas. Share an 'ah-ha!' insight, framework, or step-by-step process for solving that discrete problem. This demonstrates your expertise while providing immediate, actionable value to earn trust. Be sure the problem relates directly to your product/service offering as well.
Make it Accessible and Scannable. Your lead magnet should be easy to access and consume - think PDF, video, audio or web format rather than a complex interactive tool. Use plenty of headings, visuals, and whitespace to make the content scannable. Clearly articulate the value proposition up front so readers instantly understand what's in it for them.
Offer Immediately Actionable Advice. Your lead magnet should aim to help readers achieve a specific goal or complete a task as quickly as possible. Outline a clear process with step-by-step tactics, templates, checklists or frameworks they can instantly apply. This delivers immense upfront value and establishes your company as a knowledgeable partner before any purchase.
Keep it Simple and Frictionless. The harder someone has to work to access your lead magnet content, the more friction there is and the higher the drop-off rate will be. Streamline the process - after a visitor opts in, instantly deliver the promised asset via an automated email or downloadable link. Remove any extra steps or barriers to make consumption as frictionless as possible.
What Makes A B2B Lead Magnet Successful?
A lead magnet is an offer promoted in exchange for contact information so that a company can reach their prospective customers. There are three keys to creating high-performing lead magnets:
1. Deliver Unique, High-Perceived Value
The most effective lead magnets provide a fresh perspective, creative solution, or insider knowledge that can't easily be found elsewhere. Go beyond surface-level advice and pack your content with substantive insights, data, examples, or frameworks that make it worth exchanging contact details. The more unique, proprietary, and valuable the information, the better.
Entice your audience. The best lead magnets offer a creative solution to a problem, in the form of expert insight, insider knowledge, or an easier way to do something. Your lead magnet must be valuable enough to make people want to trust you with their email address, so make it more than surface level information.
2. Instant, Comprehensive Solutions
Many potential leads will find your content while actively searching for a solution to a specific problem or gap in their knowledge. Your lead magnet should strive to comprehensively answer their question or need as quickly as possible, positioning you as the definitive authority. Don't just skim the surface - go deep with step-by-step frameworks, detailed examples, and thorough explanations to fully satisfy that searcher intent. When you deliver a complete, high-quality solution upfront, it builds authority and trust.
3. Showcase Unique Expertise and Credibility
Your lead magnet is an opportunity to demonstrate your company's specialized knowledge and establish credibility with your audience. Highlight any proprietary research, original data, or unique methodologies you have access to. Reference case studies, client success stories, or insider examples that underscore your real-world expertise. Substantiate your advice with authoritative sources and data points. When done effectively, your lead magnet will prove you're a trustworthy, go-to resource in your industry.
This is your chance to show off your skill and prove that you're someone worth learning from. When you promote your lead magnet, make sure the reader is not only coming away with new knowledge but also a feeling that your brand is worth their time to do business with.
7 Types of B2B Lead Magnets That Work
For lead magnets to work effectively, marketing campaigns need to be specific about who they're appealing to and what content to provide to generate quality interest. Consider your consumer, and choose the strategy that would be the most likely to offer them something of high value and give them a need to return.
eBooks and Guides
Comprehensive ebooks and guides make for highly effective lead magnets in the B2B space. Unlike blog posts, they allow you to go deep on a specific topic important to your target audience. Structure the ebook or guide as an in-depth, multimedia educational resource with written content, charts, videos, checklists, and other elements. Organize it into chapters or sections to make it a logical step-by-step process.
The key is packing as much value as possible into a professional, visually-appealing format. When done right, an ebook or guide positions your brand as a leading voice and go-to resource on that subject matter. It's the type of premium content businesses are willing to exchange contact information for.
An ebook, or electronic book, can be read on a computer screen or other digital reading device. Typically ebooks are longer than website blogs and are formatted to read more similarly to a physical book.
eBooks have become a popular reading choice across the globe by many readers of all backgrounds for their ease of access and benefits the format provides. eBooks aren’t typically data-heavy reading; they’re often conversational guides that help readers fully understand a topic.
The eBook is perfect when you have a series of blog posts about a single related subject. Organizing content into a “package” to be used as a resource by your audience offers them a helpful tool they are willing to trade information for.
For example, if you were running an online insurance company, you might pick out the following five posts from your blog to combine into an ebook:
- "How To Start An Online Insurance Company"
- "How To Promote Your Online Insurance Company In 5 Easy Steps"
- "The First 6 Months: Growing Your Online Insurance Company"
- “10 Common Mistakes Made By New Insurance Companies"
These posts could be logically compiled into an ebook entitled:
"The Insurance Startup Guide: Everything You Need For Success."
This type of eBook is effective because you're making the lives of your website visitors easier – which should be the goal of any lead magnet you create. Rather than asking them to find all this content one article at a time, you're packing it up into a convenient bundle that they can keep and refer back to.
The most successful lead magnets offer an irresistible and instant reward to your visitors, and the eBook checks off that box with relatively low effort.
Comprehensive Resource Libraries
A resource library acts as a content hub packed with multiple types of premium lead magnets like ebooks, whitepapers, videos, templates, and more - all organized around a specific topic cluster. The library becomes a one-stop shop where your audience can continually find new resources to help solve their problems and deepen their knowledge.
Done well, a resource library positions your brand as a go-to authority and source of credible information. It allows you to nurture prospects through the entire buyer's journey by offering progressively more advanced content as they move from education to consideration to purchase phases. Consistently adding new resources also drives repeat traffic and keeps your brand top-of-mind.
Content Upgrades and Complementary Resources
Content upgrades like PDF guides, checklists, templates, and mini-ebooks make for excellent lead magnets when directly tied to an existing piece of educational content on your website. They allow you to go deeper on a specific sub-topic or provide additional tools and resources that complement the main article or blog post.
For example, if you have a blog post explaining a complex process, you could gate a downloadable checklist, worksheet, or instructional video walking through each step in more detail as a content upgrade. The key is ensuring it's highly relevant bonus material that expands on the original topic in a logical way.
These upgrades are powerful because the visitor has already engaged with your content and found value in it. Offering a complementary premium resource is a natural way to progress the relationship while boosting conversions.
A few examples of content upgrades are:
- Case studies
- PDF Guide.
- Video or Audio content
- Email Course
- Recipes
- Mini eBook or Workbook
- Checklists
- Resource Library.
- How-to guides
- Mini eBooks
- Checklists
If you're looking to improve your conversion rates, a content upgrade is your opportunity to provide bonus material to existing content that has already proven itself relevant and useful to your audience.
The possibilities for what kind of upgrades you can offer are endless and there’s room to get creative if you can design your promotion to cater the needs of your customers.
Checklists and Worksheets
Simple but powerful, checklists and worksheets make for highly effective B2B lead magnets. They transform your knowledge into an easy-to-use tool that provides immediate value to your audience. Break down a complex process into a step-by-step checklist, or include worksheets and templates to help implement what you teach.
For example, you could take an in-depth blog post and extract the key takeaways into a printable PDF checklist. Or create a spreadsheet template that allows readers to apply the concepts you covered. The easier you make it for people to take action, the more likely they are to convert on your lead magnet.
Checklists and worksheets are also great for incremental content upgrades. You can build them out over time, adding new sections that complement previous materials you've released.
Checklists are one of the most effective lead magnets, because they're easy to create, easy to consume and they send potential customers immediate benefits.
Checklists are helpful tools because they attach any necessary actions a visitor needs to know in an easy-to-navigate list.
Instructional blog posts can be converted into checklists by taking your blog post and summarizing it into a series of actionable bullet points. Next, make the outcome seem more achievable by splitting the checklist into milestones.
It's a win-win if people are able to accomplish their goals more easily using the checklist you provided to them and attribute part of their success to your company.
Cheat Sheets and Quick Reference Guides
Sometimes your audience just needs a simple, concise way to quickly reference your most important tips or definitions. That's where cheat sheets and quick reference guides come in. Distill the core concepts from a longer article or video into a visually-appealing one-pager they can print out or download as a PDF.
These make great lead magnets because they're inherently valuable - they enable your audience to easily revisit your advice without having to re-consume the full content piece. And by providing a shortcut, you're saving them time and making their lives easier.
To drive even more value, you can make the cheat sheet interactive by including fillable fields or areas for note-taking. Or bundle it with complementary resources like templates or worksheets.
If your blog post touches on a complex or difficult topic, it makes sense to offer readers a one-page guide that they can refer back to when they need a refresher. This might be an index of terms and what they mean, or just a summary of the key points.
Downloadable resources take the pressure off readers who don't have to memorize or implement your strategy right away. In addition, editable cheatsheets or templates offer your audience an edge on the time-consuming work of starting from scratch.
Who wouldn’t want the opportunity to cut down their learning curve? The compact format makes optimizing an existing process easy.
Data-Driven Whitepapers and Industry Reports
For B2B companies, few lead magnets build credibility and authority like a well-researched whitepaper or industry report. These are the perfect vehicles for sharing proprietary data, original research findings, and substantive insights on trends and best practices.
An effective whitepaper dives deep into a complex industry issue, leveraging a mix of quantitative and qualitative data to provide a comprehensive analysis. It should map out key challenges, opportunities, and recommended strategies - all backed up by empirical evidence and real-world examples.
When done right, a data-driven whitepaper positions your brand as a thought leader on that topic. It's the type of premium content that executives and decision-makers are willing to exchange contact information for.
A whitepaper is a valuable resource to offer you visitors to your website. Often used in B2B marketing, a whitepaper is usually data-driven and targeted at executive levels and other company decision makers. The purpose of these publications is to provide them with useful information on a niche topic.
Want to share a recent survey result? Do you have important information that informs your team’s future strategy, but no space in one of your articles or blog posts?
Perfect: Whitepapers exist to help others in your field understand a complex issue and exactly what steps they need to take to resolve it. For instance, your whitepaper could include a proposal based on the findings of an in-depth survey along with the data to back up the recommendation.
Customizable Templates and Toolkits
In the B2B world, templates and toolkits enable your audience to instantly implement your advice and start seeing results. These can run the gamut from spreadsheet templates and email scripts to coding resources and design toolkits - anything that makes their job easier.
The key is providing a framework or starting point they can customize to fit their unique situation. Don't just give them a static file - include instructions, video walkthroughs, and areas for them to input their own data and branding.
When combined with other premium lead magnets like ebooks or videos, templates and toolkits create an entire implementation package. This drives maximum value by giving your audience all the tools they need to take action.
A tried and true template can drive a lot of leads, not only are they incredibly valuable, they are easy to create.
You can create templates for just about anything:
- Emails
- Administrative documents
- Spreadsheets
- Graphic design
The simplicity of the formatting and the ability of the consumer to customize the information to suit their needs, saves them time and is immediately useful.
Proven B2B Lead Magnet Examples
To illustrate effective B2B lead magnet strategies in action, here are some examples from leading companies that have generated significant leads and engagement:
GrowSurf's Case Studies
Few lead magnets build credibility like in-depth customer case studies. These assets go beyond surface-level claims and marketing fluff to provide a transparent, data-driven look at how your product or service actually solved a real problem for a client.
An effective case study should outline the key business challenges, explain the strategy you implemented, and quantify the measurable results achieved through hard numbers and metrics. But don't just list statistics - weave in qualitative details like customer quotes and behind-the-scenes insights.
When done right, a case study library positions your brand as a trusted solution provider with a proven track record of success. It's premium content that executives and decision-makers find invaluable during the vetting process.
Case studies are a compelling way to showcase the success of your company. They make a good lead magnet because they offer insight on proven strategies implemented by your company. A case study offers up the cold hard facts in the form of numbers, providing the reader with proof of your expertise.
At GrowSurf, we showcase our successful referral programs and offer them on their website for anyone to study.
Our referral marketing case studies are built together with our customers who have had amazing results using our referral software. These case studies not only act as a review of the service provided, but a lead generation tool; to access the data we request you leave us your contact info.
Build your customer referral program without the dev time
Sign up for a free trial of GrowSurf to lower your customer acquisition costs, increase customer loyalty, and save gobs of time.
Search Engine Journal’s eBook Library
The SEO and digital marketing experts at Search Engine Journal have curated an entire library of some of the best e-books on SEO, PPC and content marketing.
They offer an incomparable one-stop-shop for comprehensive guides on how to survive the digital marketing world and are designed to empower their readers and drive success.
HubSpot Marketing Plan Templates
Templates are downloadable shortcuts that can be used to streamline and simplify the daily needs of any business. The ability to modify and rework templates to suit the needs of most situations makes them a sought after tool and the perfect lead magnet to include in your arsenal.
HubSpot uses their diverse library of marketing templates as lead magnets throughout their blog. These free-of-charge educational tools provide a starting point in the form of an outline to marketers looking to expand their reach.
Key Takeaways
B2B lead generation can be difficult if your strategy demands something for nothing. Remember that your lead magnet is still a product developed by your company and distributed to the consumer. It’s important whichever lead magnet you choose, that the perceived value is positive as it relates to the overall perception brand.
Here are a few key takeaways to keep your lead magnets attracting new interest.
- Is relevant to the intended consumer.
- Is easy to digest and access.
- High value or quickly offers a solution to a problem.
- Showcases your expertise and success.
- Offers useful or educational content that establishes your brand as a resource for accurate information.
Build your customer referral program without the dev time
Sign up for a free trial of GrowSurf to lower your customer acquisition costs, increase customer loyalty, and save gobs of time.
