Chances are you have a business to advertise to the online world and it will generally fall into one of two categories, it’s either an online store or it’s an information ‘about my business’ style of website.

Either way and by whatever means people in whatever numbers, visit your website and leave.
Now there are lots of tools and programs available that will tell you how many people have visited your site, how long they’ve stayed there even which pages they have visited. But they still leave and you have no idea why they came, what they wanted or why they left.

How much would it benefit your business if a percentage of these visitors gave you their contact information just before they left?

Now this isn’t new stuff, in fact I’ve been writing and giving talks on this for over 10 years but after all this time I still don’t see any improvement in the number of businesses that actually implement it.

But if you do implement and add just this one thing to your existing website I guarantee you’ll soon start to see your website delivering leads and contacts to your inbox.

This will work in any business regardless of business type.

Below is an overview of the system I will go into more detail about each of the steps in future newsletters.

Difficulty level: Easy

Technical Ability: Easy, will require a small change to website

Step 1 – Create your Lead Magnet

People visit your website usually looking for an answer to a specific problem they may have. If they don’t find it on your website within a few clicks they will generally leave and move to the next site.

This is where you need to offer your Lead Magnet to the visitor.

What is a Lead Magnet?

Basically a Lead Magnet is something of a perceived high value to the visitor in exchange for their contact details.

It should be relative to your business and you want to create a real desire to download it. Simply put, the better and more desirable you can make you Lead Magnet the more leads you will get.

Different types of Lead Magnets

Product catalogue

Ideal if you sell a wide range of products, the visitor may not have the time here and now to look through your entire product range, so give them the option to download your catalogue as a PDF and read through it later.

The “How to” guide

The how to guide is great if you don’t have a physical product to sell as it can be extremely versatile.

As the name suggests this type of magnet usually promises to tell visitors how to do something, how to solve a particular problem or how get the most from something, how to choose the right… you get the idea.

10 – ways/secrets/principles/top tips/things to do

It doesn’t have to be 10 ways, it could be 5 or 3 or 27 I hope you get the idea.  But few people can resist the headline.

“9 Insider secrets you should know before you hire your next building contractor”

Just think of some of the things you do in your business that others don’t and say a paragraph about each of them.

The mini course

The mini course allow you to break up your content and deliver it in bite sized chunks. This can work for loads of businesses and helps build a good relationship with your reader. Think about how someone would use your service or product – is there different stages to it? If so this is a perfect Lead Magnet to showcase your business and adds tons of value to the reader.

Paraphrasing-Tool uses intelligent, decision making software to figure out the most appropriate way to reword your text. The English language is full of nuance and different shades of meaning, so the software driving this tool must weigh a wide range of factors before deciding on which will be the best way to rephrase your writing. These decisions are made by looking at the context of each word, phrase and sentence, discover the benefits on SEO Tools Centre Paraphrase tool when you decide to use it. Depending on the context, the software behind this tool might make very different interpretations about what is the best way to rewrite your content.

Memberships/Instant access

This type of Lead Magnet will only work if there is enough up front benefit to persuade visitors to sign up to become a member and your business needs to fit this business model.

There are other types of Lead Magnets but I hope this gives you a good starting point and please don’t think you have to create a 100 page fancy document for people to download.

It could be anything from a one page bullet point list or even a link to series of short videos.
The most important thing is to deliver value, do that and you’ll have customers racing back for more.

Next edition: What to do now you’ve got your lead.

If you would like to know more about creating a Lead Magnet for your business call Richard on 01226 771000 or email richard@wilsondesignhouse.com