Lead magnet offers should welcome prospects into your world, not make them regret they ever heard about you. Try something I call Cookie Jar Marketing.
What Are Lead Magnets?
Lead magnets are free products, information, or services you give away in order to generate leads and capture contact information from those leads. Ideally, lead magnets should offer something valuable in exchange for the thing none of us want to give away — our email address.
Examples include trial subscriptions, e-books, and white papers prospective clients can have and hold. They can also include free consultations. Here’s an example. Here’s another.
Why Webinars Make Bad Lead Magnet Offers
Some businesses use webinars as lead magnets. From a sales funnel perspective, webinar signups are mid-funnel (the prospective client is aware they have a problem and they’re weighing options that may help them solve it). A lead magnet offer, however, is higher in the funnel (the prospective client is struggling to figure out the problem they’re facing and how to handle it).
I myself never want to sign up for a webinar. I’m not a fan. However, if I’m keenly aware of, emotionally invested in, and driven to learn about the topic being covered, I may sign up for a webinar. My awareness, investment, and drive have to outweigh my dislike of webinars and the barrage of phone outreach I’m sure to receive afterwards.
Try Cookie Jar Marketing™
Webinars usually don’t make strong lead magnets. Prospective clients who know little about their problem and less about you often aren’t interested in your webinar. What they usually want at this early stage in the game is education. What they usually don’t want is to waste time or money.
Many prospective clients want to sneak a cookie out of a jar when no one’s looking. Sure, you have their email address, but, hey, that cookie’s fresh baked and filled with goodness. When the lead magnet offer’s a good one, the cookie-email exchange makes sense.
Put another way, many early-stage prospects don’t want to ask for the cookie. They don’t want to talk about the cookie. They don’t want to discuss what the cookie means to their business and their health, happiness, or success. And they sure don’t want to be pressured into buying a bunch of cookies. They simply want to quickly grab the offer from the jar and make a run for it.
The reality is that many people will grab the cookie and never come back. Others will grab the cookie and come back for more. Over time, they’ll start to see you as a trusted resource.
Man, if this is what she’s offering for free, I can only imagine what I’ll get when I’m a paying client. That’s what some prospective clients will think.
A closing note about me: I show businesses how to get out of their “random acts of marketing” rut. Sign up (all you need to share is your email address), and I’ll send you weekly marketing tips that will greatly improve your marketing aim. All fast-win informational goodness that you can put into action straightaway. No smoke, mirrors, BS, or fluff. Promise.
