According to the State of Inbound 2018 report, 63 percent of those surveyed said their biggest challenge was lead generation. Twenty-nine percent also said that finding the right technology for their business was problematic. In the following guide, we’re going to help you solve both of those challenges as we look at 14 tools that will help you create lead magnets that convert more leads and turns them into paying customers.
You’re already aware of how important design is to the user experience on your website. If it doesn’t look good, if it doesn’t work correctly, if the path you’re asking them to follow isn’t intuitive enough…why would anyone take your brand seriously?
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The same logic applies to lead magnets you develop to get more subscribers, build relationships, and eventually convert them to customers.
To create a lead magnet that impresses visitors, it’s got to be impressive and done professionally. Here’s a list of recommended tools that will help you build every aspect of your lead magnet.
First, let’s look at tools to help you craft the perfect topic and title for your lead magnet:
While this tool is targeted at those who write blog posts regularly and need help when they feel they’ve run out of topics, it’s also a great source of inspiration for lead magnets. Simply enter a noun or subject you think would appeal to your audience, and Hubspot will give you five ideas for free. Check it out here.
With this tool, simply type in a basic idea you’re interested in, and it will spit out related questions that users ask about it online. This is a quick and easy way to get a sense of what your audience wants to know about topics related to your business. A sure way to get more subscribers is to select one key question from the list and build your lead magnet to answer it directly. Check it out here.
When we talked about the right length for a lead magnet, we included a brief discussion on writing titles that are attractive to visitors. Since 80 percent of visitors will read the headline, but only 20 percent of them will take action on your content, it’s important to use a tool like the Headline Analyzer to get it right. But not just in terms of length, but in terms of word choice, too. Check it out here.
That’s right… Google. Many of us overlook the power of Google for simple insights into what our audiences are looking for. But as the most used browser, Google has a ton of data to help us make simple business decisions. When looking to choose a topic for your lead magnet, simply search for various topics related to your business and see what appears in Google search. That’s what your audience is looking for!
Here’s an example: Let’s say you are a makeup designer and you want to create either a download or video to get more leads. Go to Google and type ‘makeup design’ and hit enter.
In the results, you’ll see examples of the highest-ranking content in this topic, including what people are asking, which is highly valuable insight!
Whether you’re looking for a tool to help you make educational video content, or you just want an affordable option for hosting your videos off-site, Wistia is a great choice. Landing pages that include video can convert up to 86 percent more visitors than those without, so you may need a video regardless of what type of lead magnet you design. Cool features of this tool include the ability to capture viewer information right in the video and to insert a call-to-action as well.
Canva is our go-to tool for a multitude of quick design projects. It’s also one of the most affordable and user-friendly options out there today. With Canva you can design simple graphics that you can save in multiple formats including .gif or .mp4, like the one we use on our lead magnet subscribe box.
With Canva you can also create single or multi-page documents (like checklists or information downloads) and infographics from scratch or by using one of their pre-made template designs.
If you want to step up your design skills and create full-length documents (like ebooks and white papers) or presentations, Piktochart is a fantastic choice. It’s a user-friendly tool that comes chock full with professional-looking templates for infographics, presentations, and reports. You can then add your content and customize your template as you see fit.
Consumers are more likely to share personal information in exchange for:
With a complete PDF solution like Adobe Document Cloud, you can take full advantage of all the PDF generation and manipulation features available.
For those of you targeting B2B buyers, you’ll get more subscribers using lead magnets like webinars and other video tutorials. 97 percent of B2B buyers surveyed showed a strong preference for this type of prescriptive content. Zoom allows you to conduct live video conferences and webinars as well as record educational screen-sharing videos to be viewed later.
If you are looking to create educational or training lead magnet content, you may need high-resolution screenshots or video recording of the steps you describe. Loom allows you to capture these instructional images and videos right from your browser window. You can choose to share just your screen or include yourself in the capture for more personalization.
Photographs are another type of visual content you may want to use to break up large chunks of text and support your story. Since 41 percent of marketers view visual images as the most important kind of content used in campaigns, you don’t want to miss out on bolstering your powerful lead magnet message with high-resolution images. Pixabay is an online tool you can use for free to find the right visuals to accompany your content.
Finally, once you’ve got the perfect lead magnet created for converting leads, you need to have a way to promote it! Here are some tools you can use to promote your lead magnet on your website and social channels.
WishPond is an incredible all-in-one tool for creating landing pages, pop-ups, marketing automation and running contests and promotions. Embed landing pages directly onto your website and integrate with some of today’s most common email marketing and CRM platforms to gather all your leads so you can nurture them into lifelong customers!
OptinMonster is a great tool for creating and automating lead generators. Unlike a landing page that visitors need a direct link to, OptinMonster enables you to target the right kinds of visitors with promotional lead magnet pop-ups and messages on your website. It comes with promotional pop-up templates and email subscriber forms that will help you more effectively convert visitors. If you want to take the work out of designing pop-ups and collecting leads, OptinMonster is a great tool to consider!
When you do get more subscribers, you will need a marketing platform to securely collect, manage, and communicate with them. ActiveCampaign is our choice of platforms! A well-trusted tool, ActiveCampaign has all the features you need to collect and then nurture your prospects to life-long customers. From
Stay tuned for a future post where we explain how to develop email marketing campaigns once you’ve begun building your list of subscribers.
While there is indeed a lot of work to do to take your lead magnet from concept to implementation, using the right set of tools can streamline and optimize your efforts. As you can see above, there are tools to help you every step of the way on your quest to get more subscribers and make more sales.
Here are some other blogs in this series you may find helpful as well:
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As a marketing analyst I find this to be extremely insightful. Thanks for sharing. I am positive this will help me and my conversions
Through most of the companies I've worked with, you can also use most lead magnets as upsells or downsells to the main products or services you're offering. For example, if you are selling a course, you could offer a downsell of an ebook (normally a lead magent) as a downsell. Great article my friend! Lead magnets, ebooks, STILL can do extremely well
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Thanks for sharing this wonderful post about the lead magnets. It was so great reading your post. I really wanted to promote my lead magnet, and your post is very useful in that case. Keep sharing more content like this.
I was looking for this but didn't know it's called 'lead magnet' (sounds too technical though). Thank you so much for sharing such a useful article. Now I have got a few options to trial.. yay!
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