Lead Magnet Ideas & Examples (Full Guide)
Collecting quality leads that can convert into customers takes up a large chunk of the marketing budget. In fact, 53% of marketers spend at least half of their financial resources on lead generation. To ensure these resources are well-spent, businesses need to plan their strategy carefully.
A lead magnet is one of the most effective ways to collect quality leads. Set up an automated lead funnel correctly and keep it up to date, and you'll enjoy a constant flow of potential customers. 50% of marketers see higher conversion rates when they use lead magnets to boost signups.
The effectiveness of lead funnels can vary based on industry, type of lead magnet, promotion strategies, and more. To help you succeed, we've gathered top-notch ideas and analyzed the best lead magnet examples from various industries, showcasing how 8 companies successfully use them.
8 Lead Magnet Examples
Before you create a lead magnet, take the time to understand your audience's needs and preferences. This insight, combined with the nature of your business, will guide you in selecting the most effective lead magnet type for your goals.
If you're new to setting up a lead magnet funnel, we’ve got you covered. This article will walk you through the process with easy-to-follow steps and provide examples of efficient cases.
Let's move on to real-life lead magnet examples.
Ubuy: Discount as a Lead Magnet for Drop Shippers
This international online drop shipping store opted for a classic yet highly effective lead magnet for online stores: a discount on the first order.
While this lead magnet idea might seem overused, it remains a powerful tool. 43% of U.S. adults say that discounts are the top reason they subscribe to services.
Ubuy has cleverly integrated an inline lead form into its “Top searches” section on its homepage. This approach is subtle and user-friendly, allowing visitors to engage without interruption and revisit the form as needed.
The form includes three fields: name, email, and gender. The addition of the gender field enables the brand to personalize future communications, enhancing engagement and relevance.
Tip for your lead magnet: It is often recommended that you use as few fields as possible in your form. It makes sense: lead capture popups with only two fields achieve a conversion rate of 3.31%, but adding a third field drops the rate to 1.08%. That's why marketers often choose forms with one or two fields.
But this is not a universal rule. Sometimes, the quality of leads is more important than the quantity. In such cases, a multi-step form can be used. According to the Instapage data, a multi-step form can have a 21.4% higher conversion rate than regular sign up popup forms.
Don’t hesitate to ask your prospective clients if you need specific information. New Experian research shows that 70% of consumers are willing to share more personal data with organizations if they see clear benefits, such as improved security and greater convenience.
With Claspo simple pop-up builder, creating forms with your desired number of fields and custom designs is a breeze, thanks to its intuitive drag-and-drop interface. These forms are also easy to integrate with any data collection platform, allowing you to gather customer data and instantly transfer them to your system for further use in personalized communication with clients.
My Codeless Website: Free Services and Micro Products as a Lead Magnet for SaaS
This SaaS service allows for the creation and management of websites without the need to write code. In this example, they generate leads for the WIX platform. A popup with a lead magnet appears after a visitor explores the brand's website for some time. They offer a free trial and create a sense of urgency with a countdown timer, giving visitors just 6 minutes to seize the offer.
This is a perfect example of effectively combining a compelling CTA, an enticing offer, and FOMO-driven motivation. Sumo’s research reveals that countdown timers can boost popup conversions from an average of 3.7% to 8.07%.
When visitors click the CTA button, they’re taken to a WIX landing page, which clearly and concisely outlines the offer. The text is brief and well-structured, focusing entirely on the value to the customer rather than just promoting the brand. Here's what the first screen of the landing page looks like:
Tip for your lead magnet: Your CTA should inspire action. Incorporate dynamic words like "explore," "access," or "generate" to steer readers toward your desired outcome. Utilizing action-oriented language in CTAs can boost conversion rates by 121%.
Myntra: Promo Code as a Lead Magnet for Online Stores
Myntra is a fashion e-commerce company. In this example, the placement of the lead magnet is particularly clever. At first glance, it might be easy to miss, but as the visitor scrolls, the element on the right moves with them. This is where the lead magnet is located.
An arrow and text indicating the discount size draw attention to the coupon. Once clicked, the visitor sees a message about the coupon and its terms of use. Additionally, Myntra's online shop has included elements to alleviate any user doubts — an effective technique.
Tips for your lead magnet: Eliminate objections from potential leads. Companies that successfully do it can increase their close rates by as much as 20%.
With Claspo, you can create various lead forms, including inline widgets, popups, floating bars, and boxes, and you can add launchers to them. To publish them, you only need to install the Claspo script on your site once.
Creating the widget for a site described above is easy. To start, choose a launcher from the lead generation template library and customize it or create your own.
Then, select a floating window and customize it or create your own.
In our drag-and-drop builder, you can easily customize all the details to ensure the widget perfectly matches your website's design.
When you have created the widget and launcher, link them together with a few clicks, configure the website's display rules, and set up targeting.
Udemy Business: Report as a Lead Magnet for Course Marketplaces
Online learning and teaching marketplace Udemy Business gathers leads using a report. Since the company specializes in various professional development courses, it decided to attract website visitors with a valuable offer — a report highlighting the top trends in the future of work.
The lead magnet is seamlessly integrated into the content, accompanied by a button featuring a clear CTA. Upon clicking, the visitor is directed to a dedicated landing page with a lead form and details about the report. The form includes six fields, which might reduce the number of leads but will result in more targeted and qualified prospects.
Claspo offers a feature particularly useful for B2B companies: when creating a lead form, you can set the email field to collect only business addresses.
The landing page text emphasizes the value of the lead magnet and the brand's reputation. This is reinforced by client testimonials and high user ratings.
Tips for your lead magnet: To boost the credibility of your lead magnet, include customer testimonials and data that demonstrate your expertise. According to the Trust in Advertising Study, 88% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know.
For B2B, credibility can be enhanced by showcasing customer success stories and marketing and financial metrics of how your services or tools have contributed to their success. Nearly 36% of landing pages featuring testimonials or other forms of social proof demonstrated a significant increase in conversion rates.
Englishdom: Ebook as a Lead Magnet for Elearning
Online English school Englishdom effectively utilizes two lead magnets simultaneously. The first is a business-oriented ebook tailored for companies looking to integrate English into their teams. They mentioned that this recourse is specifically beneficial for HR professionals and CEOs. Colorful lead magnet design and prominent CTA make it stand out.
Additionally, the strategic placement of this lead magnet enhances its visibility. The company has launched a targeted advertising campaign on LinkedIn to reach its desired audience. According to the Web Marketing Insights report, LinkedIn surpasses all other social media platforms for B2B lead generation.
When someone clicks “Download,” a lead form opens with four fields, two of which LinkedIn automatically fills based on the user’s profile information. The only remaining fields to complete are the address and phone number:
Tips for your lead magnet: promote your lead magnet where your target audience is most active. To do this effectively, research the characteristics and preferences of the buyer persona.
Use Claspo templates to effectively promote your ebook on the website:
Englishdom: Free Test as a Lead Magnet for Elearning
Since the online school caters to both corporate clients and individual users, they created an additional lead magnet: a free English proficiency test.
When users click the CTA button, they're directed to a form with three fields for minimum information and a clear CTA.
To increase the number of people who take your test, publish an informer on different pages of your website. Here is an example of a Claspo template that can be customized for the example with testing. After clicking the button, you can direct the visitor to a landing page with the test offer.
Tips for your lead magnet: if you have multiple buyer personas, each lead magnet should be designed to target just one.
FuseBase: Webinar as a Lead Magnet for B2B and SaaS
FuseBase is a comprehensive data management and integration platform. Its popup appears when a person has been on a website for some time and has had time to familiarize himself with its content. “Save my seat” encourages potential attendees to register for the event.
When visitors arrive at the dedicated landing page, they will encounter not only the lead form but also comprehensive details about the webinar. This includes key takeaways and information on who will benefit from the meeting. This approach helps engage the right audience and improves the quality of the leads.
Web Marketing Insights report says that 53% of marketers agreed that webinars generate the highest quality leads among top-of-the-funnel formats. They not only help you collect interested leads by gathering emails but also provide opportunities for real-time interaction during the online meeting.
Take advantage of the numerous widget templates from Claspo for webinar invitations. Here is one of them:
Tips for your lead magnet: To further engage participants, you can offer supplementary lead magnets. For instance, provide a promo code, a free trial, or a consultation to keep the conversation going and encourage deeper interaction with your company.
Invideo: Free Templates as a Lead Magnet for Video Platforms
Invideo online editor used an appealing lead magnet to target newcomers looking to start and simplify their work. The platform focused on visuals, showcasing examples of the templates instead of writing about the lead magnet. There is also a clear and enticing CTA: "Explore them all!"
When a website visitor clicks on the CTA, they are taken to the video builder, which is temporarily obscured by a popup form. This form slightly blurs the content, giving a glimpse of what's behind it. The message to the visitor is clear: "You're about to start working; just fill in a few fields to proceed."
Tips for your lead magnet: Give potential leads the feeling that valuable materials or tools are within their grasp. This can be achieved through visual elements, as in this example, or other methods. For instance, if you have an ebook, offer access to the first section without requiring registration.
While this approach may reduce the number of leads, as some users might not be interested enough to complete the form for full access, it will likely increase the quality of your leads. Only those genuinely interested in your content will subscribe.
Lead Magnet FAQs
How to Identify the Right Lead Magnet for My Audience?
Research and define your target audience by developing detailed target personas. This helps tailor your lead magnet to meet specific needs and interests. Here are key steps to identify what your potential customers want:
- Leverage company resources: Consult with your sales, customer success, or support teams to gather insights on common problems and goals reported by clients.
- Analyze competitor testimonials: Review the testimonial pages of competitors to understand their customers' concerns and gaps, as well as your own feedback on platforms like G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot.
- Explore online communities: Research discussions in forums, social media groups, and other communities to discover the needs, problems, and challenges shared by industry specialists and consumers.
- Conduct surveys: Survey your existing customers through direct channels like email or using site traffic with a survey widget, customizing it to your site’s design and integrating the data into your CRM.
With Claspo, you can effortlessly create survey widgets to collect customer data and automatically feed the info into your chosen CRM platform.
Claspo seamlessly integrates with numerous CRMs, ESPs, and more.
Based on the data gathered, you will be able to choose the most suitable lead magnet for your audience.
To better understand what your potential customers like the most, conduct an experiment with lead magnets. Claspo offers A/B testing functionality. You can compare how two or more widgets generate leads, and the results will be automatically provided to your account.
What Types of Lead Magnets Work Best?
The effectiveness of a lead magnet can vary across different industries. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but you can use this data as a guide on some popular types of lead magnets:
- Ebooks: In 2023, guidebooks and ebooks had the highest conversion rate for text-based lead magnets at 83.60% (Web Marketing Insights report).
- Whitepapers: 91% of IT buyers considered whitepapers the second-most effective content type in the buying process (TechTarget report).
- Case studies: 61% of B2B marketers rated lead magnets offering case studies as "moderately successful" (Web Marketing Insights report).
- Free courses: 64% of marketers find lead magnets featuring courses to be effective (Web Marketing Insights report).
- Webinars: 45% of respondents consider webinars among the most effective lead magnets (Web Marketing Insights report).
- Exclusive discounts: Lead magnets with monetary value, like discounts, report the highest conversion rates (Web Marketing Insights report).
- Tripwires: The conversion rate for a tripwire page typically ranges from 1.5% to 3%, with the highest observed rates reaching up to 5% (Data-Driven Marketing).
How Can I Create a High-Converting Lead Magnet?
What makes a good lead magnet? Focus on these key qualities:
- Solve a problem: Offer tangible value, such as practical recommendations or reduced pricing.
- Relevance: Address an actual issue or interest of your target audience to encourage signups.
- Strong CTA: Guide readers to take the next step, whether downloading a resource, joining a webinar, or subscribing to a newsletter.
- Measurable outcomes: Ensure it yields measurable results like increased leads or sales, demonstrating its effectiveness.
- Specific audience segment: Customize content to make it more engaging and relevant for a particular audience.
- High-quality design and content: Build trust and enhance your brand’s perception with well-designed and high-quality materials.
- Accessibility: Allow immediate download or online access upon providing contact information.
- Clear benefits: Provide actionable advice and promise specific, easily achievable advantages.
What Tools and Resources Can I Use to Create Lead Magnets?
The resources required to create an awesome lead magnet depend on its type.
For visual lead magnets like templates, tools such as Canva or Figma are essential.
If you're offering promo codes, you might need to set up a widget on your lead magnet website and promote the offer through social media or PPC advertising.
If you're creating a guide or ebook, conducting thorough research is essential. For this, check out the testimonial pages of your competitors to gain insights into their customers' concerns, gaps, and excitements. Be sure to review feedback on your own business as well. Popular platforms for SaaS and martech products include G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, Software Advice, and Product Hunt.
Additionally, investigate discussions in forums, social media groups, and other communities where your target audience hangs out. Platforms like Reddit often feature conversations about industry-specific problems and challenges, providing valuable information about your audience's needs and pain points.
How Do I Promote My Lead Magnet Effectively?
To effectively promote your lead magnet, leverage multiple channels and strategies. Share it across your social media platforms with engaging posts, stories, and ads. Collaborate with influencers to expand your reach. Tailor your promotion efforts based on your niche.
Invest in paid advertising campaigns on Google Ads and Facebook Ads to target your audience precisely, as PPC traffic often converts 50% better than organic visitors.
Additionally, consider using email marketing, partnerships, and relevant online communities to boost visibility and attract more leads.
Utilize popups and inline forms not just on dedicated landing pages but throughout various pages on your website. To ensure they don't annoy site visitors, customize the display rules for your lead forms.
For example, with Claspo, you can adjust settings like display frequency, start and end times, device types, target countries, and more.
This allows you to work with different segments of potential customers. For example, geographic targeting enables you to display relevant offers to users based on their country, region, or city if you have different offers for each. The same applies to gender segmentation, which is especially important for e-commerce.
Additionally, UTM targeting allows you to show the widget to users who arrive from specific sources or pages. This helps you to customize widgets if, for example, you are driving traffic from other platforms, social media, or advertisements.
Silent interval and annoyance safeguard features ensure forms are displayed in a way that minimizes irritation. These settings prevent your widgets from appearing simultaneously or overlapping each other.
How Can I Measure the Success of My Lead Magnet?
First, analyze your lead form metrics. Key metrics to consider include the number of views and the conversion rate. These insights will help you understand how well your lead magnet attracts and converts potential leads.
According to a Business Review study, companies that effectively use KPIs are twice as likely to achieve their strategic goals as those that do not.
Second, compare the key metrics of the lead magnet funnel with those of other funnels, including CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), LTV (Lifetime Value), and Churn Rate. This comparison helps determine whether the lead magnet delivers more benefits than other customer acquisition strategies.
It's also important to assess whether the lead magnet funnel impacts your main conversion rates — specifically, whether it reduces the number of primary product purchases. To do this, measure the changes in key conversion metrics before and after implementing the lead magnet.
With Claspo, tracking the effectiveness of your lead magnet form is straightforward. The platform provides real-time data on views, clicks, and subscriptions, presented on intuitive graphs for desktop and mobile devices. You can also configure performance data to be sent to Google Analytics for deeper insights.
What are Common Mistakes to Avoid with Lead Magnets?
Not Implementing a Funnel Test
A common pitfall is pouring resources into perfecting a lead magnet without first testing the transition process between lead magnet funnel stages. Even if your lead magnet isn’t flawless yet, run a quick test to make sure everything operates smoothly and each stage works as it should.
Once you’ve nailed down the testing phase, you can focus your resources on fine-tuning and perfecting the lead magnet.
Neglecting Your Audience
When creating your lead magnet, failing to target a specific group of users and not customizing it for their particular needs and interests will result in low engagement and poor conversion rates. Make sure to thoroughly understand and address the unique preferences and pain points of your target audience.
Lack of Specific Purpose
A common mistake is not having a clear goal for your lead magnet. While lead magnets aren’t directly about sales, they shouldn’t just be about collecting email addresses either. They should serve a specific purpose, such as:
- Increasing the number of subscribers to your newsletters
- Gaining the trust of potential customers
- Demonstrating the usefulness of your brand
- Building affection for your product
Too Much or Not Enough Content
Striking the right balance with your lead magnet content is crucial. Avoid overwhelming or underwhelming your audience by ensuring your lead magnet is:
- Instantly actionable: Solve the problem quickly without bogging readers down with philosophy or theory. Provide a quick win.
- Scannable: Break up text with images or other visual elements to avoid huge blocks of text and ensure it's easy to skim through.
- Easy to consume: Use clear, concise language and short sentences. Avoid heavy language and complex jargon. Your target audience should easily understand the content without needing a dictionary.
Remember, your lead magnet should deliver on its promise without tackling every possible angle. Keep it focused and valuable.
Not Following Up
Creating a lead magnet is just the first step; a common mistake is not having a follow-up plan. When someone signs up and receives your lead magnet, you need to have a clear next step:
- Set up an email series: Automatically add new subscribers to a "getting to know you" email campaign. This series (typically several emails long) introduces your business and products/services. Focus on providing value rather than pushing for a sale. Share additional resources related to the lead magnet to continue building the relationship.
- Remarketing through social media: Plan to remarket to this group via social media. By adding a few lines of code to your website, you can track visitors who reached your lead magnet’s "thank you for downloading" page. Use Facebook ads to continue engaging these leads with offers, testimonials, and additional lead magnets, like case studies. This helps build trust and keeps your brand top-of-mind.
Overlooking Mobile Optimization of Lead Capturing Forms
Many users access content on mobile devices, so failing to optimize for mobile can result in losing a significant portion of your potential audience. According to Statcounter, in 2023, mobile devices accounted for 58.94% of global internet usage, while desktops represented 39.91%.
Take into account:
- Responsive design: Ensure your lead magnet and landing page are responsive, adjusting seamlessly to different screen sizes and orientations.
- Fast loading times: Optimize images and content to ensure quick loading times on mobile devices, as slow-loading pages can deter users.
- User-friendly interface: Simplify navigation and make sure buttons and forms are easy to interact with on smaller screens.
- Readable content: Use larger fonts and concise text to ensure readability on mobile devices without the need for zooming in or excessive scrolling.
If you create lead forms in Claspo, you need not worry about responsiveness. Claspo widgets are adaptive by default, and the editor lets you preview and edit the mobile version directly.
Complicated Access
Making it difficult for users to access your lead magnet through complex registration processes or delayed delivery can frustrate potential leads. To ensure a smooth and quick access process:
- Simplified forms: Keep your registration forms short and straightforward, asking only for essential information.
- Instant delivery: Ensure your lead magnet is delivered immediately after the user signs up, either through a direct download link or an automatic email.
- Clear instructions: Provide clear, step-by-step instructions on how to access the lead magnet, reducing any potential confusion.
- Minimal barriers: Avoid adding unnecessary steps or requirements that could deter users from completing the process.
Here’s a Claspo template featuring a sleek lead form. It only asks users to fill out one simple field and provides clear, easy-to-follow instructions on how to get their lead magnet.
How Do I Align Lead Magnets with My Sales Funnel?
Aligning lead magnets with your sales funnel means placing the right content or offers at each stage of the buyer's journey to guide prospects toward making a purchase.
This strategy ensures you're meeting potential customers' needs at every step, from first discovering your product to deciding to buy it.
This is how you can align a lead magnet with a sales funnel:
- Awareness Stage
Goal: Attract and inform potential leads.
Lead Magnets:
- Blog posts, infographics, and videos explaining key concepts.
- Ebooks and guides that offer valuable insights.
- Quizzes and surveys to engage users and highlight their needs. - Consideration Stage:
Goal: Nurture and build trust.
Lead Magnets:
- Case studies with success stories.
- Whitepapers and research reports on solutions.
- Webinars and live demos for interactive learning. - Decision Stage:
Goal: Convert leads into customers.
Lead Magnets:
- Free trials or product demos.
- Discount codes or special offers.
- Consultations and personalized assessments.
How Can I Use Lead Magnets to Build Trust and Authority?
Using lead magnets to build trust and authority involves offering valuable, relevant content that addresses your audience's needs and showcases your expertise.
Here's how to do it effectively:
- Offer in-depth information on topics relevant to your audience. Ensure the content is comprehensive and well-researched.
- Host sessions where you share valuable insights and interact with your audience, addressing their questions in real time.
- Provide detailed analyses and real-world examples of success stories that highlight your expertise and the effectiveness of your solutions.
- Allow potential customers to experience your product firsthand without commitment.
- Demonstrate how your product works and its benefits through live or recorded demos.
- Encourage users to share their experiences and feedback about your lead magnets and offerings.
- Highlight positive feedback and success stories to build credibility.
How Do I Keep My Lead Magnets Up-to-Date and Relevant?
Keep your lead magnets up-to-date and relevant to maintain engagement and trust with your audience. Here are effective strategies to ensure your lead magnets remain valuable and timely:
- Regularly review content: Establish a review cycle (e.g., quarterly or biannually) to evaluate the content of your lead magnets. Check whether the information is accurate and aligns with current industry trends and customer needs. Tip: Set up a recurring task or calendar reminder, and attach a handy checklist to keep track of your updates.
- Monitor industry trends: Follow industry news and updates to ensure your lead magnets reflect the latest developments. Revise your content to incorporate new data, strategies, and best practices.
- Gather feedback from users: Ask your audience for feedback on your lead magnets through surveys, feedback forms, and direct communication. Use the feedback to identify areas for improvement and topics that need updating. Tip 1: Add a CTA for feedback in the lead magnet itself. Tip 2: Share the lead magnet in professional communities and ask for advice on how to improve it.
- Track performance metrics: Evaluate analytics of your lead magnets, including download rates, time spent on content, and conversion rates. Look for patterns in the data that indicate when a lead magnet is becoming outdated or less effective.
- Incorporate user-generated content: Invite your audience to share their success stories, tips, and insights about your lead magnets. Refresh your content with these real-world examples to keep it relevant and relatable. Tip: Create a social media chat for lead magnet downloaders to share feedback.
- Repurpose content: Convert lead magnets into different formats, such as turning an ebook into a webinar or a blog post series.
- Engage with subject matter experts: Regularly consult industry experts to ensure your content remains authoritative and up-to-date. Tip: Include experts' social media links in your lead magnet. Mention their contributions in your posts, tag them, and ask them to share.
