Do Lead Magnets Really Work? How to Create a Successful Sales Pipeline

We’ve all heard the saying that you get more flies with honey than with vinegar, and this mantra can be related to your marketing in a major way! Gathering contact information to build your customer base can be challenging, slow, and have a negative reaction from potential customers. 

For your customers, it’s vinegar. But there’s a shortcut to turn those “No, thank yous” into “Yes, please!”. The honey? Lead magnets.

 What Is A Lead Magnet?

Lead magnets are handy tools. They are a free item or service you can give away to customers in exchange for data you want, i.e., contact information like email address. The sky’s the limit on what you use to create sales leads, but some of the most utilized and successful lead magnets offer real value to the customer.

Good lead magnet follow a few guidelines. They aren’t overly complex, they offer real-life solutions, they provide easily gained value, and they’re instantly available. The content showcases you as the expert and sets you in the position to follow up and follow through to keep the relationship going. 

Check out some of the most utilized and successful lead magnets:

Do Lead Magnets Really Work?

Their effectiveness depends on if you’re creating quality content and targeting it correctly. Review it as you go. Is it enough of an incentive? Make it something valuable that sparks a person’s interest and is highly intriguing or helpful. Would you be interested in the offer, enough to share your email to get it? Lead magnets should be general enough to appeal to a wide audience while providing something worthy and desirable. With research and planning, you’ll watch how lead magnets unlock the potential to capture and nurture possible leads.

Currently, mConnexions is using a lead magnet to gather emails while sharing value. The free guide and workbook are something people want and are willing to trade their information for to get it. We like to keep it stress-free with our disclaimer at the bottom, reassuring the person that they can unsubscribe at any time. It downplays the ask (their contact info) and puts it into perspective that they can simply change their subscription later if they choose, while the lead magnet is already in their possession. With that kind of a string-free offer, it’s hard to refuse!

Understand the Importance of Marketing Automation

You’ve got your lead magnets ready to go, and now it’s time to streamline the process of capturing and retaining those customers through email. Enter marketing automation! First, you’ll need to set up a campaign with specific tags, so that there’s an instant response email when a person signs up. This tool functions as a delivery service by integrating your customer data platform and customer relationship management to personalize the content you want to send to new and existing leads. It can be set up with schedules and auto-responses, so that it’s a personal outreach, but takes up very little of your personal time after you’ve finalized your email templates.

Some emails to craft include:

• Welcome emails (Thanks for signing up, we’re so excited!)
• Nurture emails (Sharing valuable information that helps to build trust and better insight.)
• Re-engagement emails (We’ve missed you! Here’s 10% off!)
• Sales and events (It’s our annual sale!)

Every email is a touchpoint to connect, communicate, and convert the interaction into a sale.

 Be Sure to Know Your Audience

While lead magnets are a game-changer for your marketing, if you don’t have a full grasp on your audience and their personalities, you’ll easily miss the mark. Identify your customer base with a good client persona. We’ve already compiled steps and advice in our blog to guide you!

Start by digging into their backgrounds, goals, challenges they face, and competitors in your industry. The information you gather from the client persona will inform which lead magnets will be most effective.  

Use Lead Magnets and Inbound Marketing At The Same Time

 The best part about lead magnets is their part of inbound marketing, which is the method of attracting customers by offering valuable content and experiences tailored to them. Every customer wants to feel unique and appreciated! Lead magnets form a connection that’s personal and lasting while building a marketing strategy that increases your sales. A lead magnet is an attraction for your clients and an irresistible pull for them to share their information in exchange for content that you’re offering.

 

Are you ready to create and share your honey and build a base of customers who are openly interested in what you can provide through lead magnets? Interested in starting your journey but hoping for even more specifically crafted ideas for your business? Connect with our certified marketing experts now to discuss your goals and learn how we can put our skills to use with your business!