Marketing

Why Your Lead Magnet Isn’t Working — & How to Fix It!

lead magnet

Are you struggling to get people to download your email opt-in or lead magnet?

Getting your lead magnet to work well is quite a common barrier for new small business owners who haven’t had to market a business before. And it feels so frustrating, right?

You’re doing everything you think you should be doing to grow your email list. But no matter how hard you try, you can’t quite get the results you were hoping for. And building an email list of qualified leads feels like it’s virtually impossible!

What if we tell you it is possible to fix your lead magnets with a few tweaks and attract the clients you desire? In this article, we will go over the most common lead magnet mistakes and how to fix them to help you attract more leads and dream clients.

What is a lead magnet?

A lead magnet is a marketing term for a free item or service that is given away for the purpose of gathering contact details. For example, lead magnets can be trial subscriptions, samples, white papers, e-newsletters, and free consultations. 

So what is it used for? When your customers want to access the lead magnet, they need to provide the information to you. This information is what your company needs to be able to attract potential customers. However, your lead magnet should be useful enough for your potential customers to exchange their information. 

Lead magnet exists to generated leads for your business and increase your customer conversion rate. The trick here is that you have to use a lead magnet that hits their pain point, solving the problem they are having. With that being said, here is the first common mistake people make with lead magnets:

Your opt-in isn’t click-worthy enough

There’s so much content on the internet these days that your piece of content must capture your audience’s attention right away in order for them to pause and click. 

What is the first thing that draws them to an article or a post? Of course, it is its headline. A catchy opt-in title is essential if you want people to download your lead magnet. 

Check out Homepage Headline Makeovers: 3 Simple Formulas That Sell”

It is advisable to use sales words and triggers that will catch the eye of your target market as they are scrolling away through their online feed. 

There are a few standard techniques you can use to enhance your title and make it more click-worthy, including:

  • Using numbers
  • Adding more emotive words
  • Including words to describe your target market

Your offer is not what you potential consumers are looking for

If you want people to download your lead magnet, it needs to be relevant and valuable. 

The purpose of creating valuable content is to answer questions and satisfy the needs of customers looking for information about a certain area that they are interested in. The satisfaction of customers when they get the information they want through the content you provide will create the cohesion and trust that customers have for the brand. This is also a factor that helps retain customers, indirectly promoting conversion in their buyer’s journey, thereby boosting sales for businesses.

So one of the most effective types of lead magnets addresses a pain point or problem that your target market commonly has.It needs to be a specific pain point and one that can be solved relatively quickly and give your potential client a quick win.

When you help your potential client, it will assist you with building trust and credibility, which

It’s too promotional

16% of consumers are upset by promotional content about something they have purchased. Consider the types of content you serve to both customers and non-customers. From a content strategy perspective; consider it a best practice to avoid publishing too many explicit promotional content and ads to potential customers.

When people opt-in to download a lead magnet, they’re looking for quick wins and fixes.

They aren’t looking for information that will solve all the pain points in their entire life or business. Sometimes we feel like we must give lots and lots of information to make something feel more valuable and to convert customers. But the reality is that it’s making things more confusing, overwhelming, and complicated for our clients.

So, what should you do instead? Focus on creating a specific lead magnet or email opt-in.

If you have a pain point in mind that you are creating a lead magnet to help someone address, consider the first step in solving that pain point.

That’s where you’ll want to focus when it comes to your lead magnet content. If you give your potential client a quick win with something specific and easy, then you will stand out from your competition.

Lack of exposure and traffic

If you have done all of the things mentioned above but still generate minimal results from your lead magnet, it could most likely be because you are distributing them at all the wrong time and places.

To determine effective delivery strategy, you need to understand your customer journey in order to determine what content you need and where to distribute them. 

The customer journey simulates the process of a customer going from the stage of knowing nothing about your product/service to becoming a loyal customer supporting your business. What type of hearing will depend on their receiving stage, and where delivery will be based on the touch points on each stage.

For example, during the awareness stage, the target customer recognizes the problem and needs to find a solution. However, sometimes they are only vaguely aware, not knowing exactly what the real problem that needs to be solved.

For this file, you can produce hearing types to provide information, knowledge around their problem so that they clearly define the problem.

Based on the target customer’s journey in the awareness stage, you can distribute your hearing on search engines, social networks, media partners, etc. If the budget is large, you can invest in advertising reports and hiring KOLs to increase reach. 

Your opt-in is not connected to your offered services

The whole point of lead magnet is to attract the right types of customers and build a relationship from there, moving them from someone who doesn’t know who you are and doesn’t know they need your service to a perfect customer who is ready to work with you or buy from you.

Therefore your lead magnet should align with what it is you offer and charge for. In many cases, it is showing them how to DIY a really simple version of what you can offer them. For example, if you are a trucking delivery company, you can produce content to teach people how to handle and deliver different types of produce. When they have more problems that arise and struggle to handle them on their own, they will think of you and your services because they trust that you have the expertise and capability to help them. 

Attract your target customers with proper lead magnet

Don’t get frustrated if your lead magnets aren’t working! Whatever the issue, know that it can be fixed. The key is to figure out what is causing your lead magnet to fail and then addressing the issue at the root of the problem. Maybe you are not getting the kind of exposure that you need or are not creating the suitable content. It is important to write content that your target customers are interested in and create the customer experience that serves them.  

Take a close look at your lead magnet, your strategy, and see if you can identify where the issue is. Go through the items listed above to make sure that you have addressed each one and made the changes if needed. Make some adjustments and test your results to see if there is a change. Rest assured you will see improvement almost immediately.

Remember lead magnet is only a factor in your marketing plan. The next step is to check out “5 Marketing Strategies During Inflation and Imminent Recession

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