Lead generation is hard. With so many other businesses trying to get your target audience to listen to their offers, it's becoming increasingly difficult to attract the attention of prospective customers and convince them to buy.
That doesn't mean that you can't have a high conversion rate and build your email list quickly. In this article, we're going to talk about lead magnets and how they can help. Chances are you've encountered a lot of them already, maybe even some today. Below are 7 lead magnets to help you with lead generation on your e-Commerce store that you can easily put to use.
A Quick Definition
If you're wondering what the heck a lead magnet is, here's a simple definition for you:
A lead magnet is an incentive offered to potential customers in exchange for their contact information such as email. Like this one below: the seller encourages the visitor to provide their email address to receive information such as discounts and sales.
Obviously, lead magnets like this one increase the effectiveness of lead generation in e-Commerce because many customers like to receive exclusive and personalized offers and be in the know about the latest sales and collections.
Your e-Commerce business can profit from using lead magnets, too. Here's what you can choose from.
1. Discounts
Customers love when businesses treat them with coupons that give discounts. For example, in an effort to attract more leads, many e-Commerce businesses provide discounts on their first purchase. So, the customer gets a discount, and the business gets contact data. It's a win-win!
Here's how a popular clothing seller Fashion Nova does it. They greet the visitor with a wheel of discounts, thus adding a bit of gamification to the process (well done!) As you can see in the image, the visitor always gets a discount, so it's a pretty enticing offer. For example, here's what we ended up with winning.
20 percent off for an email address. Not bad, right? A lot of customers think so, too, that's why coupons are always a great lead magnet.
2. Latest Offers
Staying up to date with the latest offers from a favorite brand is something that many customers like. In fact, emails are the preferred choice for brand communication for 82 percent of customers, according to statistics.
That's why email marketing is alive and thriving in e-Commerce. And that's why many businesses use it to supply their potential customers with new offers, like Finnish Design Shop.
3. Free Tools
This one is a little bit tricky because it doesn't always require contact information. For example, an e-Commerce business builds a free tool that could be useful to their target audience to help them with achieving a certain professional goal.
A good example is Portent's Content Idea Generator. A target user of this free tool – a digital marketer or a blogger – inputs keywords to generate content ideas for their articles. The Idea Generators create user-friendly titles for blog articles, essays, and infographics.
In many cases, the creators of free tools limit certain functions or hide some results to encourage the users to provide their contact data to unlock them.
4. Gift Cards
These are also amazing lead magnets because they provide a specific discount for new customers, thus giving them immediate value. Besides, the customer gets to decide the product to be discounted, which is also great in terms of incentivizing them to buy.
Here's how a Danish retail chain Jysk uses gift cards to convince the visitors to provide their email and make the first purchase.
The brand offers a £5 voucher for purchases higher than £25, and a chance to win a £100 in-store gift card every month. That’s a good incentive because it provides prospective leads with something of value in a simple and easy way.
5. Reports
Reports fall into the group of educational lead magnets that offer potential leads valuable information for a small price. For example, a wine blog can offer guides to the world's wine regions, most popular grapes, tasting notes, and other knowledge needed to become a wine expert.
Wyzowl, which is an animated explainer video company, offers visitors free reports and other educational materials. For example, here's their offer of their latest State of Video Marketing 2021 report.
Giving an email address for this useful piece of information is certainly worth it. For example, digital marketers can discover useful insights and techniques for using video in their marketing campaigns.
6. Free Shipping
This one is huge for e-Commerce businesses because a lot of customers appreciate the free shipping. In fact, a study found that 9 out of 10 customers thought that it was the most important incentive to shop online.
Obviously, free shipping is a high-value lead magnet technique that can make a difference for your sales. Here's how Tessemae's, an organic salad dressing and condiment company, uses free shipping to encourage their visitors to buy.
Note that the brand requires the order to be over $50 for the free shipping option to apply. Many e-Commerce companies choose to put such restrictions to prevent abuse from customers; for example, it would be totally unreasonable for them to pay, say, $10 for an order worth $8.
7. Contest
Giving an email address is a good deal for getting a chance to win something great from a favorite brand, right? E-Commerce companies agree, and they often host contests where the winner gets something of high value for completing a simple action: providing their name and email address.
For example, here’s an example of a contest hosted by a coffee company Caravan Coffee Roasters.
In exchange for contact data, the brand offers to enter a contest and win a bag of coffee, a signed cookbook, and a tote bag. This is a good deal that definitely has value for coffee lovers.
Time to Attract some Leads
Chances are that your e-Commerce business can benefit from at least some of these lead magnets, so take a good look and consider including them in your business plan.