You’ve completed work on your lead magnet, and you’re excited to put it on your website. Once it’s there, you can kick back, relax, and watch the leads pour in. 

Right?

Even if your website currently receives high volumes of traffic, and you’ve placed a link to the lead magnet in a highly visible spot, that’s not likely to be enough. 

You want your lead magnet to attract high-quality leads that you can nurture to conversion, and a link or landing page on your website can’t do that on its own. And you certainly can’t wait around for Google to index your landing page and push it to the top of search results. 

As it turns out, completing the actual lead magnet is only the beginning. Promoting your lead magnet is as important as the lead magnet itself if you want to generate and nurture your leads. This guide will teach you exactly how to do that. 

Once you’ve created your #leadmagnet, the work has just begun! Luckily we are sharing 31 (!) different ways to promote it and get more #leads! #smallbusiness #marketing VirTasktic Click to tweet

The Ultimate Guide to Promoting Your Lead Magnet

You want leads to subscribe to your mailing list, and you want them to start seeing the value you have to offer now. So, how do you expedite this? 

Your lead magnet isn’t just attractive to people who land on your website. While that’s ultimately where everyone has to go to get their hands on it, don’t be afraid to take your promotional efforts outside your website. 

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The following tips will guide you to all the key areas where you can reach an interested audience and let them know:

“Hey, we have something really valuable here!”

Let’s start with how to promote your lead magnet on your website (as there are plenty of ways to do it). Then, we’ll dig into the promotional opportunities found on social media, email, pay-to-play, and other platforms where you can share your lead magnet to get more subscribers.

Lead Magnet Promotional Tips for Your Website

Your website will be the home of your lead magnet, which is a good thing. 

You already have analytics that informs you about how visitors are reaching your website, where they’re going once they’re there, and why they were inspired to visit in the first place. By understanding what drives your visitors to your website and what parts of the site earn their attention and engagement most, you can develop a strategic plan for promoting your lead magnet within it. 

Here are some ways in which you should begin your lead magnet promotional efforts on your website: 

1. Create a Landing Page

In terms of websites, a landing page is a page that visitors “land” on after they click through from other parts of the web, whether that be search, social media, an email link, or another website. However, a ‘landing page’ also describes a promotional web page dedicated to a singular subject. In this case, the subject is your lead magnet. 

A lead magnet landing page is good for several reasons: 

• First, it gives you a tangible link to promote around the site and within your content. In other words, you do not constantly have to embed the lead magnet file or tool on each page you want it to appear on.
• It gives you a tangible link to promote outside of your website, too. 
• Because all traffic is directed to a single landing page to learn more about and download the lead magnet, you can better track its performance with analytics. 
• A dedicated landing page gives your lead magnet a chance to rank in search, which means attracting more than just website visitors, social media followers, and email subscribers to it. 

Check out this lead magnet landing page from one of our clients, Jane Atkinson. She shares with professional speakers exactly what it takes to earn $1M as a  public speaker.

Just be careful with the length and size of this page. Your ultimate goal is to have visitors input their email addresses and then download the lead magnet. The more time they spend reading or figuring out how to get their download, the more potential leads you will lose. So, keep the length of your landing page in line with the value of the lead magnet. Your landing page simply needs to promote the value of your offering and share the subscriber form. 

2. Create Promotional Banners On-Site

With a linkable landing page in hand, you can now seamlessly promote your lead magnet all over the website. While inline links within blog posts and web pages are a good idea (when relevant), custom-designed banners promoting the lead magnet are even better. And, obviously, you still have to consider the relevance of the lead magnet to the page.

On-site promotional banners will indeed give you a more eye-catching way to appeal to visitors, and you can place them anywhere it makes sense: 

• In the middle of high-traffic blog posts. 
• On the sidebar of your pages. 
• In a promotional widget in the footer. 
• As a CTA at the bottom of directly promotional posts or pages. 
• Mixed with ad placements typically reserved for third-party promotions. 

It’s up to you to decide where and when best to put the lead magnet in front of visitors. Just make sure the banner keeps it simple. For example, an intriguing headline or question along with a sharply designed image or color palette would look great in contrast with an otherwise minimal site design. You can then save the full sales pitch for the linked landing page. 

You also have the option of using promotional banners or widgets to directly offer the lead magnet. This option is best used on sidebars or in footers and whenever it’s possible to clearly describe the lead magnet or offer with just a few words. 

3. Add Promotional Pop-ups

Pop-ups are another great way to get brief but highly attractive messages (i.e., your lead magnet promotion) in front of visitors. With attention spans so short these days, a pop-up would quickly wake up visitors and get them looking at the incredibly valuable piece of content they might’ve missed without your help. Below is a website pop-up for America’s #1 Small Business Expert, Melinda Emerson’s lead magnet. In this way, people visiting her website will know of her lead magnet and sign-up.

In terms of designing and writing promotional pop-ups, the same thing applies here as it does with on-site banners. Keep it short. Use a strong headline, a brief description that explains the value, and includes a strong image. Then, include the email address field and button right there. 

If you use pop-up promotions, make sure you configure them with a plugin that comes with robust tracking and analytics. For example, you’ll want to know how many people the pop-up was served to and how many downloaded the lead magnet from it. You can also use the plugin to schedule the pop-up to appear at more opportune times (i.e., when they’re in the right mindset to convert!)

4. Use Push Notifications

Push notifications are similar to pop-ups in that they are a way for your website to quickly and succinctly deliver news or messages to visitors and users. With push notifications, however, there is a bit more you can accomplish.

Push notifications are website-independent. This means that once a user has opted in, they can receive your notifications from a browser window or desktop at any time. And they don’t even have to be on your website to do so. 

Push notifications are also much more mobile-friendly than pop-ups. That said, they currently only work with Android devices, not iOS. 

Oh, and you don’t have to worry about embedding forms into push notifications. Just compose a short message, add a cool-looking image, and let them click through to your landing page. 

5. Add It to the Resources Page

For some businesses, it makes sense to create a Resources page on the website. For example, as you develop content like white papers, case studies, video tutorials, software documentation, and more, you want one centralized area where visitors can turn to to find them. 

This is an ideal place for promoting your lead magnet since it is where people automatically go to get your highly valuable resources. 

That said, unlike some of the content that may appear on your Resources page, you don’t want to give this away for “free.” If you’ve developed a piece of content specifically to generate leads, make sure the link on the page goes to the landing page you developed for this express purpose so you can capture their email address.

6. Write a Blog Post About It

The landing page for your lead magnet will be a static place on your site for as long as you want to keep it there. But that doesn’t mean your blog wouldn’t benefit from featuring the lead magnet at some point, too. This would be especially helpful for people who come to your site specifically to read blog posts. 

As such, you should write a promotional blog post for your lead magnet. Rather than write this in a way that says, “This is my lead magnet. It is awesome. It will do A, B, and C for you”, find a way to craft a story around it. Give some context as to why you developed the lead magnet in the first place. 

For example: Perhaps your accounting clients constantly complain about not knowing how to handle their profit-and-loss statements – and this is why you thought a do-it-yourself profit-and-loss checklist and calculator would be helpful. Paint a picture for your readers that puts the spotlight on their pain and what you hoped to alleviate by giving them the lead magnet. 

In the example below, a blog is created specifically for the lead magnet.

7. Create a Related Video

While video in and of itself can be used to create lead magnets, in this case, you’d want to use it as a complement to the one you created. And it doesn’t need to be anything major. Just a minute or two will give you an opportunity to say:

“Hey, we have this great lead magnet that you should check out. Oh, and here are some tips on how to use it!”

For instance, let’s say you’ve created a disaster recovery checklist for your target user. You could then use the video to demonstrate how to put together the essential goods the checklist calls for. Get creative with it. 

Not only will the video add even more value to your lead magnet, but it also gives you a new backlinking and ranking opportunity for your website. 

8. Cite it as a Source

One of the cool things about conducting your own research for something like a white paper or report is that you have now become an official source to be cited. If your lead magnet includes data you’ve collected on your own and you can find ways to integrate it within the content of your site or blog, you can link to your lead magnet as a quotable and citable source. 

The same goes for tools you develop. Let’s say you’ve developed a data-crunching tool. Based on data you’ve collected from clients (with their permission, of course) that you tested the tool on, you know that the tool saves users 30 minutes on average. Wouldn’t that be a great statistic to promote in your content as a bold callout? 

Find ways to pull attractive and helpful excerpts from your lead magnet and use them in a way that gets visitors to ask, “What else can this lead magnet do for me?”

9. Design an Infographic for the Lead Magnet

Another great way to capitalize on a lead magnet that’s rich with statistics is to turn it into an infographic — or at least part of it. This infographic should be publicly available on your website and built into a blog post that can be referenced over and over again. 

The goal, however, is to entice readers enough with the eye-catching design and impressive statistics, so they feel compelled to download the source lead magnet for more information. And if it’s really impressive, and you’ve provided an easy way to embed the infographic anywhere on the web, you could easily expand your reach by encouraging others to add the infographic to their site. 

10. Add an Opt-in on Contact Forms

This one can be tricky to pull off based on how you built your contact forms or for what purpose. That said, there are some plugins that enable WordPress users to add additional checkboxes at the bottom of a contact form–and you can use this feature to subtly win over more leads.

So, let’s say you run a recipe website and have a contact form that allows readers to subscribe (for free) to email updates. Directly above the “Submit” button, there is a checkbox that says, “Yes, I want to receive 51 Recipes to Impress the In-Laws at Thanksgiving!” 

This way, you’re still promoting your lead magnet and getting their subscriber information, but you’re consolidating how many times they have to submit that information. Plus, the lead magnet might be what finally sells visitors on converting to the paid website subscription. 

Lead Magnet Promotional Tips for Social Media

Once your website has been thoroughly pimped out with lead magnet promotions (but not overwhelmingly so), turn your attention to promoting your lead magnet on social media. There are certain platforms with features you’ll definitely need to take advantage of. 

Here is what you should focus on: 

11. Write Promotional Posts

Put together a list of all the social media channels on which you are active. Then, create a schedule for promoting your lead magnet. This can’t just be a one-and-done thing. Decide when the best time of day is to reach those users. You might also want to think about how your lead magnet can coordinate with other events. 

Let’s say your website sells boxing and shipping material all around New England. Find out when the first day of college starts for the majority of schools in the area, and begin promoting your instructional video on packing tips and tricks a month beforehand. You could write your social media posts to target both students as well as parents. 

Whatever you end up doing, remember that your lead magnet was developed as an evergreen solution for a reason. Maximize your reach by promoting it frequently whenever applicable throughout the year. 

12. Pin the Most Popular Promo to the Top of Your Feed

Once you’ve begun promoting the lead magnet on social media, pay attention to the engagement with these posts. Once you’ve spotted one that’s outperforming the others, pin it to the top of your feed. You can do this on Twitter and Facebook. You can also pin it to the top of one of your Pinterest boards and save the post in your highlights on Instagram. 

Find ways to get these popular promotions front and center so followers don’t miss out. 

13. Write a Post for LinkedIn

LinkedIn Pulse allows its users to write and publish articles on the platform, which are then connected to one’s profile. Take advantage of this by writing a brief promotional post for the lead magnet and publishing it under the name of the CEO or other figurehead of the company. 

14. Design a Meme

For brand consistency, you should take the promotional banner you designed for your website and adapt it for use on social media. Apply the same design elements or imagery and then adapt it for your social audience. This might mean putting a catchy quote atop the image, citing a statistic, or using a flashy message to promote the special offer. 

Once you start sharing this meme on social media, it will become part of your photo gallery — giving you a more engaging way to connect with followers than just a simple text post. It also gives them a new way to discover it.

15. Create a Hashtag

Because you’ll be sharing your lead magnet over and over again on social media, the best way to connect the threads is by developing a hashtag for it. This will also give followers an easy way to remember you and your super-valuable lead magnet when they return to social to share it with others. 

16. Record a Live Video on Facebook

If you went the route of filming a video for your blog, you should plan on doing the same thing for Facebook. The same basic principle applies: you want this video to be a way to briefly introduce people to the lead magnet and then whet their appetite with something of added value. Just remember to record and share the video when your audience is around to watch it. 

17. Share it in Groups

This one is kind of tricky to pull off as many groups and forums have rules against self-promotional messages. However, if you can lend your lead magnet as a solution to a problem or question posed in one of these groups (that you’re already active in), you’ll likely be okay. It just needs to be relevant and helpful within the conversation that it’s shared in.

18. Update Your Social Banners

Every social media channel gives you a dedicated space for a profile photo and banner image along the top. Take advantage of this prime real estate and give your lead magnet a shout-out in the banner. Again, keep in mind that brand consistency still matters, so make sure the newly upgraded social banner matches the other graphics you’ve designed for the campaign. 

19. Update Your Bios

The text bios on each of your social profiles is another great opportunity for sharing a lead magnet.

While, typically, the link you include here would go to the home page of your website, you can temporarily promote the lead magnet’s landing page instead. 

20. Add a Tab on Facebook 

Facebook allows businesses to create custom tabs on their profile. Essentially, this means you have a chance to create a Facebook-specific landing page for your lead magnet. You won’t want to give the download away from there, but you can do a similar style promotion and drum up interest with people who haven’t yet been to your site or been made aware of the valuable content.

Lead Magnet Promotional Tips for Email

Email is going to play a big role in what you do after you’ve subscribed leads to your list. However, you can take advantage of this marketing platform for promoting your lead magnet to current subscribers as well. 

That said, because you’re already connected to these subscribers, your lead magnet in most of these situations will be used to foster the relationship you have with them. By sharing a valuable piece of content, tool, or offer with current subscribers, you’ll prove to them that you’re not in this to waste their time. You want to be their valuable resource now and in the future.

Here are some ways you can do that: 

21. Promote the Lead Magnet in Your Newsletter

Whether your newsletter promotes recently published blog posts or features general company news, this is a great place for promoting your lead magnet. You already have the attention of subscribers who’ve opted in to hear from you regularly. Now, give them a chance to download something tangible that can help them outside of the brief insights you share in the newsletter.

22. Send Teaser Emails

Not every company has major product launches they can hype up through email. But a lead magnet gives everyone a chance to get people excited and make them want to return to the website to find out what all the hubbub is about. 

When crafting a teaser email like this, take a similar approach to the meme or infographic mentioned above. You want it to be visually stimulating and the message crystal-clear:

“We have something really awesome we want to give to you. Go ahead and get your copy now!”

23. Add It to Thank You Emails

Any time someone signs up for something on your website or makes a purchase, do you send them a personalized “thank you” email? (If not, you should, as it’s great for building loyalty.) 

These emails tend to be very simple. 

“Dear So-and-So,  

Thanks for doing X, Y, and Z. We’re looking forward to getting started.”

Why not add one more line to that message that says:

“P.S. We created The Ultimate Guide to Booking a Relaxing Vacation with Kids, and we want you to have it for free. Go grab your copy now!”

It’s just one more way to say “thank you” and keep your business top-of-mind with leads. 

24. Promote It in Your Email Signature

Another way to drive traffic to your lead magnet is with your email signature. Sounds crazy, right? What could the bottom of an email do? You’d be amazed!

If you’re communicating with a warm lead, they might go and scope out your signature to see if they can follow you on social media or learn more about your services. Your current clients might also take notice of a flashy message touting a free giveaway. Our team at VirTasktic uses that valuable space at the bottom of our email signature to promote our lead magnets and we rotate through different ones each month.

Paid Lead Magnet Promotional Tips

Think about how much space on a Google results page consists of paid search placements. Then, think about how frequently you run into paid ads on social media. While organic marketing will always be an effective way to reach an audience, it takes time. Pay-to-play, on the other hand, does not. 

If you’re eager to get your lead magnet into the hands of the right people right away, consider the following paid methods for promoting your lead magnet: 

25. Run PPC Ads on Social

While a lot of the promotional work you do for a lead magnet won’t cost you much aside from your time, you can always go the pay-to-play route. Twitter and Facebook are two platforms, in particular, where you can take advantage of pay-per-click marketing for your lead magnet. 

That said, I’d urge you to review your Google Analytics report first. Look to see which social media channels give you your strongest leads. Then, run ads for your lead magnet on those platforms first. If you gain a lot of traction and think you can make it work on others, go for it!

26. Run PPC Ads on Google

Google is a good place to spend marketing dollars, so long as you configure the targeting correctly. Also, don’t forget about how you write the messaging of your ad. Reaching the right audience isn’t just about setting the right demographic or geographic filters. The value needs to be clearly explained in the short snippet used to promote the lead magnet.

For smaller and newer websites, this certainly could help you get in front of a larger audience much more quickly.

27. Run Retargeting Ads

Retargeting is the process by which you track users who were once on your website. You then serve relevant ads to them as they travel around the web. 

This would be especially good for websites that tend not to convert users on the first visit. If yours is the type of business model that requires a few visits before people start seriously thinking about pulling the trigger, a lead magnet retargeting campaign might be able to speed up that timeline for you. 

Other Lead Magnet Promotional Tips 

There are several other ways to promote your lead magnet. Not only will these be good in terms of spreading awareness, but many of them will give you a new backlinking opportunity for your website. The more awareness and trust you can build up with your website in search, the better you’ll do in terms of ranking. 

28. Write a Guest Post

In general, a great way to get high-quality backlinks to your website is through guest blogging on other websites. However, unlike blog posts and other content you’d create for your own purposes that expressly promote the lead magnet, that’s not what you’ll do here. 

Typically, if you’re given a chance to write a guest article and you’re not paying for a sponsored post, you’re not allowed to promote your own services or products. 

What you will get in return, however, is the chance to link to your website in the short bio appended to the article. It’s in here that you’ll skip promoting your home page and will instead link to your lead magnet.

29. Add the Link to Your Forum Bio

If you’re active in online forums, you usually have a chance to write a bio and signature for yourself. That way, whenever you leave a reply, people can quickly see who you are and know why they should listen to you. If you can make it fit naturally, add a link to the lead magnet there. 

30. Go on a Podcast

Depending on what industry you work in, podcasts may or may not be prevalent. If you do happen to work in a space or cater to an audience that is big into podcasts, look for opportunities to get on one. 

Your focus should be on having a genuine conversation and keeping listeners engaged. Then, in the end, you’ll get a minute or so to promote why you’re there… and why you’re there is to talk about the awesome lead magnet you’re giving away. 

31. Share with Your Network

As your business grows, you’ll want a strong network of partners around you. You’ll provide referrals to one another, host joint events, support one another’s growth, and so on. In this give-and-take type of business partnership and network, you can help strengthen each other’s marketing efforts, too. 

In this case, if you believe their audience would find your lead magnet valuable, give them a nudge and ask them to promote it. When the time comes, you’ll be happy to do the same. 

While it would be great to develop a highly valuable piece of content, tool, or offer for users and then be able to sit back and watch as they snag it up, that’s not how it usually happens. Even the biggest brands and most popular influencers still have to heavily promote their lead magnets if they want to get a major return on their investment. 

That’s why it’s important to utilize a multi-channel approach, promoting your lead magnet everywhere your prospects may be.