How to generate leads using ‘lead magnets’ (aka FREE STUFF!)
Hands up who wants to sign up to a brand newsletter? All you have to do is fill out this form, it takes five seconds! In return you get…erm…branded marketing? In your email inbox? Forever?
Not many hands. Hmm. OK. Let’s try this.
Hands up who wants FREE STUFF! We’ve got loads of great FREE STUFF and we’ll give it to anyone who signs up to our newsletter. All you have to do is fill out this form, it takes five seconds! In return you get LOADS OF FREE STUFF!
A few more hands that time.
Let’s take a look at how FREE STUFF (known in marketing circles as ‘lead magnets’) helps bring in potential customers (known in marketing circles as ‘leads’).
Leads and lead magnets
OK, we were being a bit reductive and silly with that intro (we know, SO out of character for us…)
But the basic point stands. People typically don’t do what you, as a brand, want them to do unless there’s something in it for them.
In the case of your product, you’d hope that people will buy your product because it helps and benefits them. But what about your marketing?
You can’t sell your product, or even learn about your target customers, if people aren’t signing up for your marketing. But how can you get people to sign up for your marketing?
FREE STUFF.
Before we get any deeper into this topic, let’s run through a few quick definitions:
What is a ‘lead’?
‘Lead’ is marketing jargon for anyone – individual or organisation – that has interacted with your brand and/or has the potential to become a customer in the future.
What is a ‘lead magnet’?
A ‘lead magnet’ is something that attracts leads to your brand. Typically, lead magnets are FREE STUFF, but they can also be things like VIP status, exclusive content and more (we’ll go into that in more detail later). Basically, a lead magnet is anything that piques attention and encourages people to approach your brand.
All clear? Don’t worry, if it doesn’t make sense now it will hopefully make more sense as we get deeper into this topic.
Why do you need lead magnets?
Lead magnets are useful for bringing in more customers. In a retail context, ‘lead magnets’ are sometimes referred to as ‘loss leaders’. For example, a supermarket might run an offer on wine that can’t possibly be profitable for them: they’re selling the wine at a lower price than they paid for it.
However, the cut-price wine has the effect of drawing people into the shop, which in turn raises profits. People come for the cheap booze, but they rarely leave with just that. Instead, they do their full weekly shop at the Cheap Booze Supermarket rather than at a competitor. The net result for the supermarket is a small loss on the wine and a massive boost in sales on everything else.
OK, but what if you’re not a supermarket? What if you’re a small business with a single product and a minimal digital presence?
Well, you still need lead magnets. Here’s why:
- Lead generation. This is the big one. Lead magnets bring in leads, which in turn bring in money.
- Improves conversion rates. People who come to your brand via a lead magnet feel like they’ve already ‘invested’ in you. They’re therefore more likely to buy from you than from a competitor.
- Builds up your marketing list. In this post-GDPR world, you can’t just take email addresses and marketing data from anywhere. You need to get explicit consent to do things like notify people of new offers and send them emails. Lead magnets are a great way to secure that consent.
- Gains you more marketing data. Marketing data is vital to help you target your marketing and online presence to the right audience. Lead magnets help you to get more marketing data, which in turn helps you to give your customers what they want.
- Cultivates trusting relationships with your customers. People love people who give them FREE STUFF. There’s nothing quite like a lead magnet for building a loyal, trusting customer community.
- Helps you to personalise your content. If you want to know why this is important, you’re in luck. We’ve done a whole blog series on personalisation. Go check it out. We’ll wait!
How do lead magnets work?
How lead magnets work and what brands use them for is unique to every business. So, rather than tell you how they work, we’ll give you some inspo of lead magnets in action:
- St Austell Brewery
Come on, St Austell. That’s not even a lead magnet. That’s just a factual statement. If you sign up to St Austell’s newsletter, you will receive news from St Austell Brewery.
Why aren’t St Austell putting the effort into lead generation on their commercial website? Quite frankly, it’s because the end consumer of their product isn’t their target audience.
That’s not to say that they don’t use loss leaders. They do. In the pubs that they own, St Austell beers are often cheaper than guest ales. This encourages customers to drink (and develop a taste for!) St Austell products. St Austell products also frequently feature in supermarket offers. Again, this boosts brand recognition and ensures that people will keep getting to know St Austell beers for generations to come.
However, when it comes to true lead generation, St Austell aren’t interested in you, the drinker (they’ve already got you!)
Instead, they’re interested in the wholesalers who can get their product to you.
Here, for example, is what their page looks like if you’re a wholesaler/beer stockist:
What’s the moral of the story? Your end consumer isn’t necessarily the best person to give FREE STUFF. Look at your entire supply chain before deciding where to apply your lead magnets.
- Darts Farm
When you log onto the Darts Farm website, you’ll very quickly be presented with a popup asking you to sign up to the Darts Farm newsletter.
Is this really a lead magnet? What’s it offering, exactly, other than news? This isn’t FREE STUFF? Why does it belong here?
Because lead magnets don’t have to be STUFF. Here, Dart’s Farm is offering information – with the implication that it’s EXCLUSIVE information. People who sign up for their newsletter will enter a privileged circle of People In The Know who will learn of the latest exciting products and events going on at Darts Farm before anyone else.
Particularly relevant here is the personalisation aspect. Customers can select the topics/products they’re interested in and filter the emails they will get. This ensures that all marketing sent out is hyper-relevant to its particular audience.
- Lost Gardens of Heligan
The ‘magnet’ aspect is much clearer here than in our last examples. People who buy a Heligan membership will get a multitude of benefits, including free entry to places like The Eden Project in addition to Heligan, and discounts on many Heligan products.
So, what’s the benefit to the brand? Why be so excessively generous to members?
Three reasons:
- Heligan wants to get people outside and interested in the natural world. That’s a big part of their ethos, so it makes sense to encourage this through generous membership deals.
- People who have free entry to Heligan and related projects are likely to pick these places for a day out rather than others. This ultimately means that they’ll be spending more money in those locations, as well as making more happy Heligan-based memories and posting more Heligan content.
- Repeat custom. People who keep coming back are more ‘valuable’ in marketing terms than people who visit/convert once and never return. For a start, they tend to spend more over a prolonged period than less loyal customers. They also build a relationship with the brand/location that results in things like UGC (User Generated Content), positive reviews, introducing friends and family, and generally being nice to you. It’s lovely to have friends who like you, whether you’re an individual or a brand!
4. Woodlands Family Theme Park
Quite honestly, our writer chose this one because she wanted to live at Woodlands back in the 90s (specifically in the Twister slide), and she wanted to see what it was up to these days.
Lead magnets. Lead magnets is what it’s up to.
When you log onto the Woodlands site, you will immediately be treated to a carousel of lead magnets, from charity events to season ticket discounts to excited announcements about new baby animals. Basically, if Woodlands can turn it into a lead magnet, it will.
Why? Why is Woodlands so excessively fond of loss leaders and lead magnets? Are they in danger of going under? That was our writer’s first thought (after all, some of those slides are as old as she is). So she went down a rabbit hole and checked out the state of the company.
It’s fine. In fact, it’s thriving. So why all the lead magnets?
Our best guess is that Woodlands offers loads of lead magnets because it can. Why not give FREE STUFF to people when you can afford to? There doesn’t always have to be a ‘proper’ reason.
And, to be fair, it probably does bring in more people. So, more customers, more money, more positive reviews etc etc…
5. Us! (Sox Digital)
We practise what we preach, and today we’re preaching lead magnets.
We’re a business, and we like to give our customers FREE STUFF as much as the next business (not quite as much as Woodlands do, admittedly).
Right now, we’re trying to entice you with a couple of lead magnets. Above, you will see that you can get our FREE 12 point checklist to improve website engagement. And we don’t actually ask for anything in return.
The “Enter your email address to get [FREE THING]” tactic was (and still is) very common, but there’s also an argument to just surface that freebie. That’s what we’re doing here. After all, if we’re giving the checklist away anyway, why not totally remove the strings?
It’s a nice thing to do, it reduces the barrier to entry for users and (OK, we’re not 100% altruistic…) it increases the chances that you’ll engage with us later on. We hope that you’ll remember that we’re the nice people who gave you that useful checklist when you need us in the future.
Yes, we ask for your email address, but that’s completely optional. We don’t use your email address to send out newsletters or anything like that. If you decide to give us your email, we’ll just drop you a line a week or two after you’ve downloaded the checklist to see how you got on – and also to offer any additional help, if you feel you need it. We won’t sell to you, or send you marketing stuff.
Does that mean that you should ignore everything else we’ve said in this blog and just give stuff away totally for free? Not necessarily. Lead magnets have a lot of benefits and uses for any business. The way you use them (or whether you even use them at all) is a matter for you to decide, based on what’s best for your business.
What else? Oh yes! We offer free consultations to businesses who need it. There’s absolutely no obligation to hire us after the consultation, and we can genuinely say that our main aim with this is to help fellow UK businesses to boost their digital presence. We’d love it if you go on to hire us after the consultation, but you truly don’t have to.
What could you use as lead magnets?
As you’ve gathered by our examples, lead magnets can be pretty much anything that gives value to your customers. As well as FREE STUFF, lead magnets could include:
- Discounts
- Exclusive content
- Access to VIP loyalty programmes
- Free shipping
- Free trials
- Webinars and other educational content
- Ebooks
- Free consultations
- Gift cards
- Prize draw entries
- Free initial sessions/visits/services
- Bundle offers
Basically, if it’s something your customers (or ‘leads’) might like, use it to draw them in.