If your company doesn’t have a lead magnet, you’re likely missing out on opportunities to generate leads online. Downloadable content that incentivizes potential customers to give you their email addresses makes the best B2B lead magnets—and as a marketer, you know that’s the golden ticket to nurturing relationships that convert to sales.
It’s easy to get started with lead magnets. Just keep in mind that no one wants another useless email in their inbox, so your lead magnet has to give people a preview of the value that the rest of your content delivers. The best B2B lead magnets provide insight into what your subscribers are signing up for, which can increase your opt-in rate by nearly 85%.
The case for lead magnets is strong, which leaves only one question.
Best B2B lead magnets – what do they have in common?
The best B2B lead magnets have 5 common elements:
- Specific focus. Say you’re creating a B2B lead magnet for your CRM product. Don’t make your audience guess what the content is really about. Instead of describing it as a CRM mastery toolkit, explain that it focuses on 3 actions that the reader can take to improve their service-level agreement by using a CRM.
- Address a challenge. You need to understand your prospects’ pain points in order to create B2B lead magnets that solve their problems. This will not only position you as a credible source but a helpful one.
- Digestible. Your B2B lead magnet shouldn’t put anyone to sleep. Keep the content engaging and a reasonable length, especially if it’s directed at an audience in the beginning stages of the buyer’s journey.
- Deliver a win. It is essential for your B2B lead magnets to help your audience quickly achieve a goal. This will put your company in their good books because you’ve delivered actionable value before they’ve even paid you a dollar.
- Don’t get lost in cyberspace. Your lead magnet for B2B audiences should either be automatically downloadable or set up to arrive in your prospect’s inbox shortly after they fill out an opt-in form. Don’t make people wait for the goods!
Best B2B lead magnets – what format should you create?
With dozens of lead magnet ideas out there, it can be hard to choose which format to create. The best B2B lead magnets range from ebooks and white papers to checklists and worksheets to tutorials and infographics. So, how do you know which to select?
We’ll say it again: you have to know your audience well to choose the best B2B lead magnet for their needs.
You can take the guesswork out of creating a B2B lead magnet by using software to inform your decisions. Netline Corporation is a lead generation solution for B2B marketers. Its Audience Explorer tool allows you to search for data on the content consumption behavior of your target audience in real-time.
At Uplift Content, our target audience is marketers in the software industry. A quick search shows the best B2B lead magnets for this particular audience:
This search clearly tells us that ebooks, guides, and white papers are where we, at Uplift, should focus our B2B lead magnet efforts. Try out the Audience Explorer tool for yourself to find out what content is most popular with your target audience.
Fine tune your B2B lead magnet strategy
If you’re in the B2B SaaS industry, you likely already have an inkling that ebooks, guides, and white papers make the best B2B lead magnets because they offer actionable value to readers. They also give you an opportunity to promote your company’s products or services.
Perhaps you’ve created ebooks, guides and white papers in the past, but they didn’t generate the kind of leads you were hoping for.
Here are 5 mistakes to avoid:
- A weak promotional strategy. You can develop a beautiful B2B lead magnet packed with actionable insights, but it won’t be effective if you don’t promote it consistently. Create blog posts that funnel readers to your lead magnet with strong calls to action.
- A boring cover. People are bombarded with information online, so if you want your B2B lead magnets to stand out, the title and cover design need to be compelling.
- A missing “impact” message. Offering a free download isn’t enough. You need to tell your audience how your lead magnet will deliver value if you want them to share their email address in exchange for the content.
- A labor-intensive opt-in form. You certainly don’t need the past 10 years of employer history from everyone who downloads your B2B lead magnet. Keep your opt-in form as simple as possible to generate more leads. See these opt-in page examples.
- A misaligned topic. Before you create the best B2B lead magnet, take the time to understand your target audience’s pain points and desires so that you can produce something they’ll actually want to get their hands on.
Call in reinforcements
It often helps to work with an expert content creation partner. Explore Uplift Content’s ebook writing services or our white paper writing services, which provide the strategic expertise needed to create compelling lead magnets that you can use across multiple marketing channels.
