Gone are the days when people had to use a Rolodex filled with clients’ contact information. Although its sales have shrunk significantly over the years as more people started using smartphones, laptops, and computers to store contacts, there are still some who buy iconic office item.
The point is, regardless of industry, businesses need to keep a record of contacts to keep in touch and do business with them. In today’s business world, growing this “digital Rolodex” is of prime importance and must be a part of a modern business’ marketing strategy.
The question is, how do you add to your contact list whilst providing them with helpful information, building and nurturing relationships, and evaluating which leads are ready to make a purchase? Well, this is where lead magnets come into play.
Angie Martin, The Growth Manager’s founder, recently joined Flossi Creative’s Justine McLean in a podcast, where they discussed “The Power of Lead Magnets.”
What is Lead Generation?
Asked what lead magnets are and how they can be used, Angie started off by setting the focus on Lead Generation first, citing that you can’t have a lead magnet without knowing what lead generation is.
Simply put, a lead is anyone who shows interest in your business offering, whether they be services or products you are selling. The process starts by getting your audience’s attention and attracting them to someone who has an interest in your offerings.
Businesses often make the mistake of marketing their products and services to everyone, when they should focus on those who are truly interested. Relying on plain intuition is no longer viable, and without leads, you have no one to convert into customers.
Even if your products and services are excellent, you won’t be able to compete if there’s no revenue coming in from these conversions.
What is a Lead Magnet?
We have established that lead generation is the first step in showing interest in your service or product offering. Now what you need is to build a relationship based on mutual trust and respect by offering them something of value in exchange for their contact information.
There are various forms of lead magnets you can employ, the most common ones are, to name a few:
- Free Webinars/Masterclass/Trainings
- Free Mini Guide or Ebook
- Free Template/Workbook
- Free Trial
- Checklist
- Cheatsheets
- Email Course
From there, Angie loves checklists since they are pretty easy to create, provide high value to the consumer and are GREAT for converting leads.
Simply put, building a website, putting it out there, and expecting people to magically find it and buy your product or service is simply not going to happen in a modern digital marketplace. The beauty of lead magnets, Angie states, is that they are fairly easy to market. However, she also added that you should also invest in a quality website that serves as your storefront online.
By continuously providing relevant content to your leads, you build their relationship with your brand. Providing accessible and relevant information based on the interests and needs of your audience is part of nurturing. When you know what kind of content will work for your buyer personas, you can create more relevant content.
You won’t get as many email addresses if you simply ask for someone’s email address without offering anything in return. A piece of content that educates or simplifies a prospect’s work could be the perfect touchstone. It might be more appealing for others to take advantage of discounts or freebies.
It is important to have a great lead magnet when it comes to email marketing, otherwise, you will not get past the introduction stage.
Trading valuable content for email addresses has proven to be an effective way to build a customer base. The likelihood of an increase in sales is much greater with a larger customer base.
The Heart of a Great Website
The talk shifted to websites, where Justine shared that a great website should include:
- Telling people what it is you do.
- How you will be able to solve their problem.
- Having consistent messaging all the way through.
- Providing great user experience and ease of navigation.
- Good SEO on the backend to prop up what it is you have on your website.
For The Growth Manager, Angie shares that it is of importance to figure out your brand messaging to attract the clients you want to work with. The home page should not only tell prospects what you do but also explain the kind of problems they might have.
Angie details great points centred on the prospective client by telling them:
- What problems you can actually solve for clients.
- Your site should have good photography.
- It has to be legible.
- It should be mobile-friendly.
- The site needs to be fast.
- It should have actionable calls to action to let people know the next step.
Marketing your Lead Magnet
In this segment of the podcast, Justine asked Angie how will one market a lead magnet. Angie in response cited a real-life example by highlighting The Growth Manager’s 5 Steps to Building a Consumer Sales Journey, it is a specific step-by-step checklist.
Angie adds that to market this great resource, The Growth Manager does not do paid advertising to market lead magnets. The reason for this, she said, is the resource is free, and her other traffic and audience generation methods drive enough leads to the free resources.
Angie shared that what she does to promote The Growth Manager’s lead magnets is by utilising various social media posts. She continues by listing stories, reels, email marketing, podcast episodes, free web-training seminars done on a regular basis, a sort of lead magnet within a lead magnet, and of course, focusing in on SEO to be more Googleable.
It is not like we’re saying don’t do paid ads, but only if you really have to. The gist is, if you can do it for free, there’s no reason for you to pay to market your lead magnet. To which Justine agreed, saying why to pay for ads when you can do it for free.
The Consumer Sales Journey
So now you reach the point when you have your lead’s email address, this is not the end but just the beginning of your Consumer’s Sales Journey.
At this point at the start of the journey, your leads can either be warm or lukewarm leads. The next step is to nurture these leads. It is a step that many businesses choose to ignore and immediately shift focus to doing a hard pitch. Nobody wants hard pitches anymore, Angie states, that nurturing leads to the “hot stage” and is much more viable than hard selling, which is utterly annoying.
When creating your lead magnet, you must be able to identify the problem areas your prospect has, and offer them the solution to this problem with your free resource. By understanding what your lead needs and their urgency to find a solution, you will be able to find out:
- How often you can follow up with them
- The kind of follow-up sequence you should be using
Your lead nurturing sequence should immediately start the moment they receive the resource they downloaded along with information about your business and why you are the right choice for helping them solve their needs. The follow-up sequence should perform the following:
- Provide them access to the resource
- Introduce them to your company/brand/team
- Give them additional information about the topic and
- Promote your paid services/products
Ending on a High Note
Providing your leads with answers to their questions or addressing their pain points and nimbly providing a solution makes for a successful lead magnet. This will then drive them to resonate with you and move them along towards their sales journey with your brand and ultimately close deals.
Towards the end of the podcast, Justine picked Angie’s brain on what it takes to run a successful business. To answer that question, Angie stated that from experience, the one thing that makes a difference is “consistency.”
Being consistent in every aspect of your business from online content to team management, consistency plays a major role in running a successful long-term business. Furthermore, it’s not a sin to be asking for help if you’re just starting out or already on your way towards success.
In closing, Justine asked Angie what would her billboard say. To which Angie shared her personal motto, a quote from Romeo Dallaire: Where there is a will, there is a way.
To listen to the podcast, please click on the link: https://www.flossi.com.au/secrets-of-successful-business-episode-69-the-power-of-lead-magnets/
And if you’re looking for professional mentoring, look no further and join us here: https://thegrowthmanager.com.au/services/
