Your lead magnet, also known as an ethical bribe or free taste, is the information that you give away on your website in exchange for a visitor’s name and email address. A lead magnet is a great way to help you build your list. Unfortunately, just like a product that you sell on your site, your lead magnet also has to be promoted so that you can get it into as many hands as possible.
What do you need to do to get prospects to discover and sign up for your lead magnet?
Here are the 20 most effective ways to promote your lead magnet to your target market:
1. Email signature file. Offer a link to your lead magnet in the signature file of every single email that you send out. Once you have your email signature file set up, it’s the easiest marketing you’ll ever undertake. Most email programs offer a way to customize your email signature to link to your lead magnet. In your signature file, ask people an enticing question, followed by the link to your giveaway.
2. Targeted domain name. Rather than having a long and convoluted domain name to which you send prospects for your client attraction device, buy a domain name that relates to the name of your client attraction device and forward that domain to the internal page on your site (the one with the long URL) that contains the landing page for your lead magnet.
3. Article resource box. If you do any guest blogging on post your articles to Medium or on your Linkedin Profile, you know that a well-written article resource box is vital to the success of this strategy. Offer you lead magnet in the resource box and link to your lead magnet in the body of the resource box, rather than sending people to your site’s home page.
4. Back of business card. For in-person networking, take advantage of the back of your business card to market for you. So many times the backs of business cards are blank. Create a 2-3 sentence description of your client attraction device and list that and the link to your giveaway on the back of your business card.
5. Call to action when you speak. Whether you speak in person to groups or on webinars or FB Lives or on podcasts, make sure that your primary call to action is telling the participants how they can pick up your free lead magnet. Give them the URL of your giveaway several times during your talk so that they write it down for later reference or sign up on the spot.
6. Testimonials. Having your testimonial placed on another’s website is an incredibly effective way to market your business. Rather than listing your domain name in your testimonial, give the URL of your lead magnet instead.
7. Directory listings. Many Chambers of Commerce or professional associations offer directory listings to their members. Instead of listing your domain name when asked for your website address, list the URL of your free lead magnet instead.
8. Forums, discussion lists, and Facebook groups. Many discussion lists and forums prohibit any type of promotional posts to their members. However, most permit you to set up a signature file that is appended to any posts that you make. Include the URL of your lead magnet in your signature file, and every time you post to the list, your free giveaway is featured in your post. With Facebook groups, many permit a certain day of the week or month to be a promotion day in the group. Link to your lead magnet on those special promotion days.
9. Blog comments. It’s generally considered poor blog etiquette to add a signature file to your blog comment you make on another’s blog. However, most blog comment programs permit you to list your name and a URL, which then becomes a clickable link on your name. Instead of your site URL, list the URL to your lead magnet.
10. Social networking profiles. One of the best ways to drive traffic to your free giveaway is to list your giveaway URL instead of your website address as part of your profile on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Now, when someone checks out your profile, they’ll be sent to your giveaway page to opt into your list.
11. Share it on social media. Share a link on social media with some teaser text and related images on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Pinterest, and other social networks. You can also create multiple tweets or pins that all point to your landing page, and use different images and text in your tweets and pins.
12. Videos and slideshows. Just like you might promote an event or a product launch, create a video and a slideshow about your client attraction device and post it to video and slide sharing sites. Be sure and note your lead magnet landing page URL in the description section for the video and slidecast.
13. Create an infographic. Turn some of the key aspects in your lead magnet into an infographic. Infographics are an amazing way to share content. Because people like to share useful infographics, make sure that your lead magnet URL is mentioned in the infographic.
14. Press release. The launch of a new lead magnet is as newsworthy as anything else. Write a press release celebrating this fact and submit it to the online press release sites.
15. Popups on your website. The best way to capture your visitor’s attention is to have something pop up in front of her when visiting your site. This might include a popup box that floats in after someone has been on your site for a short period of time, a slide-up ad that might emerge from the bottom of your site, or an exit popup that appears when someone tries to exit your site. All of these invite visitors to opt into your list to get your free lead magnet. I wouldn’t use all three concurrently but use at least one on your site.
16. Sidebar on your website. In addition, be sure that your lead magnet is placed prominently in the upper right-hand side sidebar of every page of your site, as that is where the visitor’s eye is drawn when looking at a site. Because most visitors won’t enter your site through your home page, it is essential that they get the message to opt into your list on whichever page they are taken to enter your site.
17. Content upgrade. If you publish a blog post that relates to the content or expands upon the content of your lead magnet, offer your lead magnet as a content upgrade. You can easily do this by using Post Gopher or Designrr.
18. Paid advertising or ad swaps. You can offer your lead magnet in a Facebook or Google ad, or find an ezine publisher willing to send out a solo ad for you in her ezine, swap ads in an ezine, or permit you to purchase an ad in her ezine.
19. Social media cover photos. You can easily create a Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin cover image that promotes your lead magnet. I use Canva to create all of my social media covers.
20. Search engine traffic. Research to determine what keywords people are using for your particular lead magnet topic and incorporate that information into the title and content of your giveaway, the landing page meta tags, and the descriptive content on the landing page so that your page is more easily found when conducting a search for those terms.
Bonus: Call to action at end of blog posts. If much of your website traffic comes from search engines or social media, visitors may never see your home page. Add an opt-in box at the end of your blog posts ensures that they see it.
Which of these will you use to get your lead magnet into the hands of your target market?
We recognize you might need help with this because you are wearing many hats. We would be delighted to provide a hand. If you need some help in creating a lead magnet for your website that can get you results for your business, we want to help you. Schedule a 1:1 Marketing Rescue Session to explore the best options for you.
