Lead Magnet Websites – What should you give away for free on your website?

Selling is hard. It takes time. A first-time visitor to your website is unlikely to want to buy your product or service. And if they leave your website, they are unlikely to return.

So, what other options have you given them?

Like everybody else, you’ve given them the option to email or call you.

That’s still pretty direct!

You’re asking them to call your sales team.

Most websites offer nothing other than “buy now” or “contact me”. So a visitor leaves and a potential lead/prospect has been lost. They are unlikely to return.

What else can you do? Use a Lead Magnet!

Give something valuable away for free. Let me give you some examples.

Grammerly.com. They are giving away a free grammar and spell checker solution. That’s a big giveaway.

Why are these and many other businesses giving something away for free? To capture your contact data, which you have to give, to get the free give away and, put simply, that means they’ve entered you into their sales funnel process.

What could your business give away? The more valuable the thing you give away the better. It could be an information download such as an e-book or white paper document. In this case, it needs to provide some valuable information a visitor may want. Make sure the download is specifically useful for your target audience.

Don’t be worried about giving away too much. The more you give away, the more likely it is to work. It could be a free membership to your site where “premium content” is available. It could be a free meeting with someone in your business. The key is it has to be valuable to a visitor in your target audience.

Lead Magnet websites – the practicalities

It’s important to make the call to action to the free giveaway big, bold, obvious and attractive. Make sure you explain clearly what the user is getting. Specific, well-explained giveaways draw up to 85% more leads than general, vague ones.

If you are giving away a document make sure it is well written and well designed/presented. It’s worth spending time, money or both on ensuring it looks good. Ensure it’s well-branded so visitors are reminded of your business whenever they look at it.

When they get to the form on your website, don’t make the user enter their life story. Email and name should usually be enough. For every extra field, you add, you’ll lose more leads.

If your giveaway is a download, collect and use the emails from your free giveaway with a mail app connected to your website. MailChimp and other apps all do a good job. These apps will allow you to automatically send out an email to the visitor, that includes a link to download the free document (if that is the giveaway). The email app can then be used to send these leads newsletters, automated email campaigns, or just to store their details. Sending the free giveaway via email ensures they only get the goods if they give you a genuine email address.

If your giveaway is a free meeting, allow your visitor to book the meeting then and there. There are several apps you can connect to your website and your calendar (to ensure you are free) for this purpose. Calendly and Acuity scheduling both work well. They both have some free functionality and some paid, it’s best to see what offer works best for you.

Getting visitors to your free giveaway

There is no point in adding a form somewhere at the bottom of one page of your website and hoping that someone will find it. Chances are they won’t. Your website will need some re-design work to ensure that there are references to the free giveaway in lots of places on the website and there are clear calls to action directing visitors to the free giveaway. Visitors don’t read a website like a book. They jump around, so make sure there are references in plenty of different places to your free giveaway. Take a look at our article on website landing pages too.

You will then need a plan to get visitors to your website. The chances of someone doing a Google search and finding your giveaway are slim. Social media or pay-per-click ads are the best options here to market your free giveaway. Ensure any marketing directs visitors to the free giveaway within your website. Not just to the home page.

Following up on leads

What happens after they have their free meeting or get the free download? This needs to be carefully planned and the approach will vary from business to business. Either way, follow up on leads generated slowly and carefully. You don’t want to jump into your lead’s inbox the next day saying “Right, you’ve got the free stuff. Now make a purchase.”

A common approach is to add them to a drip-feed email campaign.

Using the email tools we discussed earlier send them a series of emails. Keep the free advice coming in the emails to build trust and show your expertise.

You don’t have to write an encyclopaedia, just a quick tip here and there … and then start to slowly add information about what you sell. With each email, the important thing is that the prospect sees your business, sees the little extra offering and is reminded of you. And always give them the option to get in touch.

The world is full of bedroom website experts … use a real expert in creating and hosting websites to ensure your business benefits from a marketing tool that works rather than a website that fails!

Thoughts on website lead magnets from Yorkshire Powerhouse

Have you any questions?

Here at Yorkshire Powerhouse, we’re happy to help as much as possible – is there anything else we can do to help you, do you have any further questions or can we help introduce you to an expert – please let us know: