Most people understand the concept of buying email marketing lists. We’ve all received those emails from companies that want to sell us a list of prospects. This was how businesses traditionally built their list of prospects. At some point buying lists was so popular it was the only form companies implemented for generating new leads. What that meant is that people’s inboxes became flooded with marketing emails from companies they never subscribed to hear from. Try it 😊 log into your email and click the spam button to see how many people are still trying to reach you that you’ve never heard of. Ofcourse this made email marketing less effective than it had been (and it still suffers the stigma to this day). Laws were introduced, it is against most email marketing platform policy to buy lists or send unsolicited email campaigns. Furthermore, it is illegal to send email campaigns that do not offer the recipient the option to opt-out or unsubscribe. This makes the decision to buy email lists a pretty challenging one. But read on… there are smart ways you can purchase lists.
Marketers had to think of another way to grow their marketing lists – one that ensured the recipients were opting in to receive information from the company. Lead Magnets were that answer and how they can be used effectively to build relationships has evolved over time.
What is a lead magnet in marketing?
A lead magnet is a marketing term used to describe a freebie (free item) that a company gives its target audience in return their contact details. The contact details are then used to create a database of potential customers that may be added to email marketing campaigns/ drip campaigns. Lead magnet examples include free trials, samples, eBook, whitepapers, cheat sheets or even consultations. The trick is – the lead magnet must be something that the lead will be drawn to and value more than sharing their contact details.
Lead Magnet vs Buying Email Marketing Lists
Buying lists is generally frowned upon and a violation of policy for most email marketing platforms. However, there are strategic ways you can buy a list. It is unlikely to be fruitful to just purchase a list based on general criteria. A smart way to buy a list could be sponsor an event or partner with another company on a project in return for the list of event attendees or subscribers. Purchasing a list this way does not violate policy and allows you to generate large lists of prospects in one go. The downfall to this strategy is that your ROI may be limited or will most likely take longer. Your success rest on the prospect remembering your brand from the event – otherwise you are just another marketer emailing to sell something and you’ll need to take time to build trust through thought leadership content. Think of it this way – are you likely to open an email and TAKE ACTION from a brand you’ve never heard of sending you unsolicited email? Probably not, truth is no one trusts links from people they’ve never heard of anymore.
We are strong advocates for building email lists organically and lead magnets allow you to do that. The results are just better. We have found that the most effective email campaigns we’ve run for our clients have been through lists generated by lead magnets. The best thing about lead magnets is that they pre-qualify your leads. For example, if you are a pet shop offering a coupon, sample dog treats or even a checklist to keeping your pet healthy and active; only people with pets would look twice at it. That means the email marketing list you generate from that lead magnet will be much stronger than what you would have ever bought. Additionally, you would have created brand awareness and some rapport with the lead before they receive any communication from you, making them more likely to look at your email at all. Additionally, you would have received express consent to contact the lead which is required by law and most policy. The only thing left would be for you keep sharing great content and offers – essentially building that trust until the lead is ready to buy.
Why your website needs a lead magnet
Lead magnets are essential for websites – think about it, people can visit and leave your website without you ever collecting their details. The fact that they landed on your website likely means they are a potential buyer, their reason for leaving could be any number of things; including running out of time, becoming distracted by something else, deciding your content was not valuable enough to warrant contact or any other reason. However, this does not discount that they meet your target profile. What is you could capture contact details of the people who visit your website? Well, you could send them more information, or you could call them to discuss their requirements or better yet add them to a strategic email marketing campaign that starts to build brand awareness and trust with that prospect. That is why your website needs a lead magnet – so that you can capture more of the right audience and stay in touch with them.
But remember lead magnet are most effective when they are distributed across multiple channels; including social media, guest website, ads and print.
How to create a winning lead magnet?
What makes a good free gift video for lead magnet?
This depends on your niche – we would love to offer a free consultation to help you answer this question. Click here to claim your free lead magnet consultation.
What is the most common lead magnets?
The most common type of lead magnet is a guide/ resource (a report or cheat sheet) wherethe company is providing information that is either difficult to find, unavailable or packaged in a way that easier to consume. This type of lead magnet is common because the exchange it provides is direct, obvious and the value is given immediately.
Another common lead magnet is the survey or quiz – if you play attention placement, you can really get results here. The idea is to create a fun quiz or useful survey that a prospect would be willing to exchange their contact details for the results.
To get started with automation, you need to segment your audience so that you can target them with personalized campaigns. Segmentation involves grouping customers based on things like age, location and interests – if you sell baby clothes then you would want to target mothers in different ways from fathers. Next comes designing the email series (campaigns) that will fulfill the goals of the campaign. Remember to include triggers and alerts about what happens if someone opens an email or clicks a link within it. We can help with designing all of this – click here to schedule a discussion!