If finding and then nurturing leads is important to your business, you can use your website to capture leads. In other words, getting visitors to your website to fill out a form with their contact details. This is known as marketing automation, and one of the most crucial parts of the process is to have a compelling lead magnet.

This means offering visitors something that is worthwhile enough that they are willing to hand over their personal information.

Why Are Lead Magnets Important?

Most businesses that try to use their website to capture leads have the same lead capture offer – and it’s not great. The offer is a quote. So, they ask the visitor to give their contact details and, in return, the business will send them a quote for their products or services.

This has the potential of generating some leads, but what about visitors to your website who are not ready for a quote? They could become a customer in the future, but because you offer nothing other than a quote, they don’t become a lead.

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Instead of only offering visitors to your website the option of getting a quote, you should also have a lead magnet.

How to Come Up with a Lead Magnet

Understanding your audience and what they want will help you develop a lead magnet that will work. Do your visitors want information or data, for example, or will they be hooked by the offer of something free?

In addition, you should make the lead magnet as unique as possible.

Examples of Lead Magnets

• Free consultation – a free consultation works well for many types of business. You probably do this anyway if a potential customer calls you rather than contacting you through your website, so it won’t cost you much.
• eBook, report, guide, or whitepaper – another popular option is to create a unique and high-value piece of content that visitors to your website can get for free in return for their contact details.
• Video series – a video series is a twist on the above.
• Free tool – this won’t work in all businesses, but it can be very effective when it does. Examples include giving visitors a free website analysis or a free valuation of, for example, a car or house. The more useful and relevant you can make the tool, the better it will do.
• Free analysis or advice – if a free tool is not an option, offering free analysis or advice might work. In other words, the lead magnet is the expertise of you or your team.
• Free access – a free online or real-world membership, often time-limited, works well in many situations.
• Free trial or sample – if you sell products, you can offer a free sample. If your business sells a service, you can offer a time-limited free trial. This is particularly popular with websites that sell memberships or software.
• Competition prize – finally, you can offer a prize where people must give you their contact details as part of entering the competition. The prize usually has to have a wow factor to be effective.

As you can see, you will need to spend time and, in some case, money creating an effective lead magnet. Your business will grow when you get it right, however, so you’ll get a return on investment.