The following excerpt is from Susan Gunelius’ book Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing for Business. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | IndieBound
The good news is, if you choose the right lead magnet and spread the word to the right people, your email list is practically guaranteed to grow. With that said, you need to understand what makes a lead magnet successful.
Successful lead magnets succinctly solve a specific problem
The best lead magnets provide useful, meaningful, or educational content quickly and clearly in a manner that is easy to digest so people can consume the content without feeling overwhelmed. Your lead magnets won’t be successful if people don’t use them. Instead, create lead magnets that do the thinking for your prospects. Choose a laser-focused topic and provide specific details to solve the prospect’s primary problem related to that topic.
Successful lead magnets are relevant
Lead magnets must be relevant to your business, products, or services as well as to your target audience, or they won’t attract qualified prospects. For example, if you own an accounting practice, then giving away an iPad as a lead magnet might not drive the best results for your business. You’ll get a lot of opt-ins for it, but how many of those leads will be interested in your accounting services?
Instead, an accounting practice would have more success attracting qualified prospects with a tax preparation checklist or a hidden tax deductions cheat sheet. Once the accounting practice has qualified leads on its email list, it can use email nurturing and conversion funnels to push those leads further through the overall marketing funnel until they purchase.
Successful lead magnets are action-oriented
Your lead magnets should be easy to follow and give prospects everything they need to complete a specific action or take the next…
