Lead magnets are one of the most powerful tools for getting new clients consistently and with minimal effort. 

Today I’m giving you a crash course in lead magnets: What they are, their benefits, and what it takes to create a lead magnet that works! 

With a little know-how and some elbow grease on the front end, you can create valuable assets that attract new clients to your business for years to come. 

What’s the Purpose of Your Lead Magnet?

Lead magnets are often called “bait pieces” or “ethical bribes.” But you don’t catch clients like fish. And “bribery” sounds a little underhanded if you ask me. 

The purpose of a lead magnet is to attract clients using value as the magnetic force. This makes it a whole lot easier for people to say “Yes…I want to learn more!”

A lead magnet is an offer (usually free) delivered in exchange for some information (usually an email address) from a potential client. 

Let’s be real…people aren’t looking for more emails to add to their already overflowing inboxes. 

Sure, readers get valuable content once they’re on your list. But there’s always some level of friction and risk for visitors when you ask them to hand over personal information. 

A lead magnet can be that extra nudge that compels someone to accept your offer. They know they’re getting value right away. 

That value comes in the form of highly useful and relevant information they can use to improve some area of their life. 

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The 6 Ways a Lead Magnet Can Benefit Your Clients and Your Business

1. It Elevates the Results Your Services Provide

Lead magnets offer information related to your primary offer, giving users another reason why they should take the next step in your sales process.  

If you’re a medical service provider, your lead magnet can be a guide or report that helps potential clients figure out what services will give them the maximum results they want. 

Your lead magnet can share steps they can take to enhance the results they get from your services. Always focus on the needs of your audience. 

2. It Can Be Digital or Physical 

Lead magnets can be delivered in digital or physical formats. This gives you different options for offering additional value, and each has unique benefits and limitations. 

The format you use will depend on factors that include the types of services you offer, your industry, and the preferences of consumers. 

Digital products are practically free to deliver while physical products can require more costly shipping methods. So your marketing budget can also play a role in the type of lead magnets you use.

3. It Shows Off Your Expertise

What better way to demonstrate your unique skills and talents than by sharing your expertise with prospective clients? 

A lead magnet lowers the barrier of entry for anyone looking for services like yours—but who might still be unsure if you’re the right choice. 

With a carefully crafted lead magnet, they can get to know you and see what you’re all about. There’s no purchase required or hoops to jump through. 

You eliminate risk, which makes it a no-brainer for your reader to accept your offer. 

4. It’s a Low-Cost Way to Test New Business Ideas (The MVP Model)

The idea of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) isn’t new. It’s a way to test new business ideas without heavily investing time, money, and energy before you know if it will even sell. 

A lead magnet lets you test new ideas for services or products you might create in the future. 

Using the MVP model, you create the absolute minimum (but still viable) version of your idea to see if it’s something people want. It’s an efficient way to test, optimize, and (hopefully) sell new services or products.

5. It Can be Repurposed From Your Existing Content 

Repurposing old content is one of the best ways to leverage your previous efforts.

Go back to your content archives. What can you combine or update into something valuable that you can offer your audience? 

For example... 

• Take a series of blog articles and create a video mini-course on a topic that prospective clients want to learn about. 
• If you don’t like being in front of the camera, create a video screen share presentation with just your voice. 
• Record audio content using past articles that you can deliver through a series of emails or as podcast episodes. 
• Publish an ebook from selected articles and other content. 

Repurposing old content is a strategy that too many businesses still overlook. But it’s one of the easiest ways to maximize and multiply your efforts. 

6. It Can be the Source of Future Content

Just like you can create a lead magnet from existing content, a new lead magnet can be the source of future articles, videos, and other media. 

Let’s say your lead magnet is a mini-course on website design. It teaches fundamental principles in design and steps for improving the look, feel, and function of their website. 

Now, take each of the points you make in that guide and expand on them. Go in-depth on color schemes, font styles, navigation, or optimizing a site’s design.  

Whether it’s a lead magnet, blog post, or video, creating content has a multiplying effect. 

When you realize the power of repurposing, then every piece of content you create makes future content easier to produce. 

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Make Something Great

Before a lead magnet can do its job, it needs to be relevant and useful to your audience. Solve problems that are directly or indirectly related to the solutions you provide.

Make it easy to access. If you’re shipping a physical product, don’t scare prospects away with unexpected or high shipping costs.

Deliver your lead magnet in as few steps as possible. Don’t require users to click through multiple pages before getting what they want. Don’t lose the momentum you’ve created through your landing pages, ads, or website. 

Finally, a great lead magnet gives your audience information that they can apply (and see results) right away. 

The faster their lives improve after saying “Yes!” to your initial offer, the more likely they’ll be to join you on the rewarding journey from interested visitor to long-term and loyal client. 

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