In today’s digital age, capturing the attention of potential customers and converting them into loyal subscribers is critical for any successful marketing strategy. Enter the lead magnet—a powerful tool designed to attract and entice website visitors to join your email list in exchange for valuable content (sounds serious, but we promise it’s easy!).

And today, we wanted to talk about not just the importance of lead magnets but highlight the different types you can create and show you how to incorporate them effectively into your marketing funnel for (drum roll please) results. Let’s dive in!

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• What is a lead magnet?
• Types of lead magnets you can create for your small business
• How you can increase engagement with a quiz lead magnet
• Where your lead magnet fits in your marketing funnel

What is a lead magnet?

Lead magnets (sometimes called sign-up incentives or opt-ins) are tools for getting website traffic to subscribe to your email list. Typically, lead magnets are put behind an opt-in form where your visitor can enter their name and email address and join your email list and get the lead magnet you promised them. And this can be as simple as downloading a one-sheet guide or as helpful as an interactive quiz.

When it comes to creating a good lead magnet, the strategy is to provide value for the “low price” of an email address—which is valuable to you since it gives you a way into your audience’s inbox. But some important characteristics to note: your lead magnet should be informative, helpful, and relevant to your product or service. And you should definitely consider using a freebie that your audience cannot find elsewhere on your website or social channels—otherwise, why would they sign up?

Nail down your free lead magnet

Creating the lead magnet is the easy part of your marketing funnel—since it focuses heavily on what you are an expert on. So you just have to choose what helpful content you want to create. Your freebie can be a number of things, and here are some examples of good lead magnets:

• Tip sheets
• Interactive PDFs
• Brochures
• eBooks
• Videos
• Training guides
• Gated content
• Industry stats/insights/reports
• A discount or coupon
• Mini-courses or trainings
• Quizzes

Which brings us to the point where you’re probably asking yourself, “How do I come up with a topic for my lead magnet?” So here are 3 questions you can ask yourself to help you decide on what you’ll create:

1. Does my audience care about this topic?
2. What value am I really offering?
3. How am I helping my audience solve a problem or answer their common questions?

Remember, your lead magnet should be compelling and incentivize your audience to give you their email address when you ask for personal information—so put some though into this. And one of our favorite (read: compelling) ways to generate leads is with an interactive quiz since it focuses on the person’s needs and asks them to interact with your brand. So, let’s take a closer look at how you can increase engagement with a quiz lead magnet!

Increase engagement with your website visitors using a quiz lead magnet

Convincing people to give you their email address is all about earning the trust of your potential subscribers. And the best way to do that is with an interactive quiz! An Interact quiz allows you to engage your audience as soon as they land on your site. It is a personalized way to invite someone to have a conversation with you without having to hop on a call with anyone. And you can do this at scale (woot woot!).

Quizzes work incredibly well because they are insightful not only for you but also for your potential customers (which helps you earn their trust because you gave them something valuable—insight!). Customers who feel seen, heard, and supported will likely continue engaging with and purchasing from you. A quiz increases engagement because they:

1. Allow for self discovery
2. Offer customized solutions
3. Align with your existing content

Pro Tip: Your interactive quiz works even better with other free content you’ve already created. Remember our list of freebies? These can all be repurposed and used with your quiz.

How your lead magnet fits in your marketing funnel

The idea here is to use your lead magnet as the entry point to your marketing funnel, so it sits at the top of the funnel. To make it even more simple, it starts with the reader signing up for your email list (because they want your lead magnet) so you can nurture them towards a sale—and hopefully they become a customer for life!

Your lead magnet helps you convert all of your website traffic into people you can build relationships with. In short, it “puts a name to the face.”  And a quiz allows you to get personal and understand your audience at the top of your marketing funnel. This will allow you to make the most of your email list by making meaningful connections through your email nurture. Ideally, your funnel ends with a purchase!

Your next move to create a lead magnet for your small business

We said it before but we’ll say it again—lead magnets are tools for getting website traffic to subscribe to your email list. They’re an essential part of your marketing funnel because they put faces to names so you can build relationships with your customers.

And even though there are lots of ways you can create a lead magnet, our favorite way is with an interactive quiz. Why? Because now we have an AI powered quiz generator that lets you create one in minutes—seriously and you can try it for free! But whatever route you decide to take, just know it’s a good one because it helps you build your business through your email list and with customers who love hearing from you!

‍

This article was written by our friends at interact! Jessmyn Solana is the Digital Marketing Manager of Interact and Host of the Grow podcast. She has been launching Interact’s marketing initiatives since 2017. Interact is a place for creating beautiful and engaging quizzes that generate email leads. Outside of Interact, Jessmyn is a micro-foodie, dog mom, and self-care advocate who loves to explore new places.