How to use a blog as a lead magnet for your business

In order for a blog to generate leads, it must be built specifically with that purpose in mind. There are different strategies and approaches when it comes to generating a lead magnet out of your blog, and we’re going to discuss them throughout this post.

Let’s first be clear about what a lead magnet is and does. As a simple explanation, a lead magnet is a system that collects personal data from your blog readers. They’re trading their e-mails, names, zip codes, or even credit card information for something valuable to them.

People are tempted to accept good offers. If what you’re giving away for free is relevant and qualitative, be sure that you’re going to obtain leads. Once you got the data, you can use it for so many things such as sending e-mails or targeting your clients on Facebook.

Before writing this post, I made sure to personally test every strategy here on my own local business. My niche is extremely specific, and it targets a relatively small target audience. The lack of strong competition allowed me to boost my traffic and leads big time.

If you need more information on setting up a logo to go with your company name, Logaster has put together a full guide on how to do this and gives you 50+ free company name logo ideas.

Enough talk, let’s get straight to business.

Offer Valuable Reports or Guides

It works like this: you’re creating a special report that covers an interesting topic that your target audience might be interested in. Once you’re done with it, make it your “special freebie” that builds your lead magnet.

Make sure that every user from your blog notices the opportunity to get a free quality material in exchange for their e-mail.

This is a commonly used tactic, but it never stopped delivering good results. You should add your own twist and make the offer more attractive.

Offer Exclusive Weekly/Monthly Tips & Tricks

Exclusive content is always appreciated. It makes you feel special, as you possess something that not everyone can get access to. Many blogs use this strategy as a lead generator tool, and they’re doing it for a long time, which means that it works.

Tips & tricks work best. You can decide your own speed pace and send your audience e-mails on a weekly/bi-weekly/monthly basis. See what works best, and build that strong relationship with your potential customers

Offer Value First, Expect the Prize Later

When people enter the web, they always have a reason to do so. They’re looking for solutions for their problems, they’re searching for information, they’re fulfilling social needs, and so on. Now – when people join your blog, they’re obviously looking for something helpful. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be spending their time there.

Here’s my approach when it comes to promoting my small business:

1. Make the readers aware of their problems, and follow up with the solutions that exist.
2. Win their attention and interest by emphasizing the dangers that come with their ignorance towards the problems.
3. Give them a chance to learn from you by signing up to your e-mail list.
4. Educate them well enough by providing practical tips and essential knowledge on the topic.
5. Give them expert recommendations on what products to buy (these should often be your own products)

If you offer value straight from the start, you’ll win your customer’s trust. He’s going to buy over and over again because unlike many, you’re actually helping.

Offer Webinar Sessions

Your blog can be a place where you can host your own webinars (online seminars). You need a camera, a little bit of training, and time to record yourself. Of course, you need to select your topic well and offer something valuable.

These webinars can also be live, and they can attract a lot of potential customers. The condition to join is of course…personal information. You’re generating a sure lead, and you can even ask for more things.

Webinars work well because they’re transmitting the fact that the one who does it truly knows what he or she is talking about.

Offer Free Trials (Service)/Free Shipping (Online Store)

If you’re running a membership-based service in which people must pay monthly in order to access your platform, you can offer a free trial in exchange for a lead. Give them one month free and allow them to test your service. Your blog is a very good spot to highlight your offering, and that’s because its role is to lead the user towards your paid solution.

If you’re running an online store, you can simply offer a free shipping feature for those who sign-up to your newsletter. Discounts and special prices represent a good way of capturing leads too.

Now, these are the general tips, but you can always improvise. The main idea is to give value in exchange for leads. If you manage to do that, you’re on the right path, and your business performance will improve as you capture leads while the time goes on.

Bonus: 5 Efficient Tools for Your Blog

Buzzsumo – Buzzsumo gives you powerful insights over what’s popular on social media. You can find influencers, new trends, and lots of metrics and analytics concerning what’s working and what’s not. If you’re using social media as a way to promote your blog (as you should) consider Buzzsumo ASAP.

Bestessays – If you’re running a small business like I am, sometimes it’s better to turn to professionals to get your articles polished. Bestessays puts together writers from different specialized niches that will help you with content editing and proofreading.

Word2Clean HTML– If you’re not the tech savvy type of person, Word2Clean will help you convert text directly into HTML language, saving you time and nerves.

CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer – This tool helps you write better headlines by offering you analytics features that speak everything about your headline. SEO-driven headlines, emotional headlines…these all lead to more leads and eventually more sales.

Answer The Public – A very interesting and innovative platform which gives you feedback and answers almost instantly. This is a great way to generate new blog post ideas for your local business, as you get the option to select the country that you’re targeting your content towards.

Conclusion

There’s no doubt that professional blogs are killing it when it comes to generating leads. If you take a close look on the first pages of Google, 3 out of 4 blogs are trying to generate leads the second you make contact with their platform.

Use the tips & tricks that you’ve learned here and start to collect valuable contact details that’ll help you in the longer run.