Getting and holding people’s attention can be tedious in today’s digital world. Therefore, as a B2B company, you need optimized marketing strategies that not only attract people to your business but turn them into quality leads. OneIMS offers effective B2B lead magnet ideas for every stage of the marketing funnel to attract quality leads that will convert easily.
We shall take a close look at the following:
● What is a B2B lead magnet?
● The importance of having B2B lead magnets
● What makes a good B2B lead magnet?
● The different stages of the marketing funnel
● B2B Lead magnets for each stage
● How to create a B2B lead magnet
A lead magnet is an incentive that you provide to collect a prospect’s contact information. So, you give them something of value, and they give you their valuable contact information in exchange. This helps you generate a lead that you can convert into a paying customer over time through lead nurturing strategies such as email marketing.
You are probably asking yourself why you need lead magnets in the first place. The answer to this question is two-fold:
● To attract the most suitable leads for your B2B business
● To increase engagement among your target audience
If you are primarily focusing on getting many leads, rather than the right ones, you might just be on the wrong road towards maximizing your Return on Investment (ROI).
Why? Because not all leads will become paying customers. What’s the point of attracting a large number of leads and nurturing them just to bid them adieu before the final stage of the funnel?
What you should do instead is focus on quality leads that are most suitable for your business. And, creating lead magnets is the best way to achieve that.
You can give your prospects incentives like free ebooks, a chance to attend a webinar, etc., and get them to join your mailing list. This way, you can screen the prospects who are actually interested in your business, and in turn, get high-quality leads. It goes without saying that getting high-quality leads would eventually result in a significant rise in your marketing ROI.
Lead magnets also help you increase engagement, which is vital considering not everyone will become a customer right away. These customers are in the middle of the marketing funnel, which means they are aware of your business and niche and are looking at multiple options. Offering free gated content that your prospects can benefit from is a lead magnet in this stage that makes for an excellent way to stand out among the crowd of competitors.
An excellent lead magnet has several components. Here are the main ones:
● It solves a problem. First and foremost, your lead magnet must solve a problem. Otherwise, you are not giving your prospect what they really want.
● It is specific. You must never be vague about the benefits one can get from the lead magnet.
● It is accessible. In this age of instant gratification, your lead magnet will perform well if it delivers something right away.
● It demonstrates your expertise. Your prospects need to know that you are an expert in your niche. Otherwise, your lack of credibility will affect your conversions.
● It’s easy to digest. The last thing you want to do is overwhelm your prospects with extensive reports. Instead, choose something that is easy to digest, like a PDF file or a checklist.
Before we get into lead generation ideas or lead magnets for each stage of a marketing funnel, it is vital to understand what a marketing funnel looks like. The marketing funnel is a visualization of the journey of creating awareness among prospects to converting them into paying customers.
The marketing funnel stages are:
● Top-Of-The-Funnel (TOFU)
● Middle-Of-The-Funnel (MOFU)
● Bottom-Of-The-Funnel (BOFU)
The top of the funnel involves awareness and discovery. In other words, your prospective customers are currently searching for solutions to a problem that you can solve. They are in the process of becoming aware of their problem as they do their research online.
For instance, if they are searching for ways to increase the profitability of their e-commerce business, they may eventually stumble onto your company offering route optimization software. However, for them to discover your brand, you will need to put out something they find useful.
In terms of marketing, we are talking about free content – blog posts, videos and tutorials on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. These will help them discover your brand and know that you can help solve their problem. That’s why we call this the awareness stage.
The middle of the funnel is all about research and solutions. At this point, your prospects are already aware of their problem and are looking into solutions. Unlike in the first stage, they are not looking for general answers. Instead, they are looking for specific products or services that they know can remedy their situation.
At this stage of the funnel, it is essential to put out very specific and insightful content that the prospect might be looking for. Be sure to note that your prospects may not be necessarily evaluating their options, so you shouldn’t go for the sale too strongly. Instead, you should nurture your leads with webinars, podcasts, and other in-depth, insightful content.
Leads at this stage are highly qualified and ready to purchase. They are well aware of their problem and the solution. So, their research is now all about finding the best option they can get. Instead of looking for solutions to their problems, they are now checking to see which vendor or business offers the features they want, which means they are comparing multiple vendors on a variety of metrics.
They know your business and what you bring to your table. However, it is still not the best idea to go for a hard sell, considering that they are evaluating multiple options. Instead, you can offer them a live demo, consultation, trial, case study, or anything else to show them why your business is the best.
Now that we’ve looked at the different stages of the marketing funnel and what kind of content works best in each stage, here are some lead magnet ideas for each stage of the marketing funnel:
You can be creative with your lead magnet ideas at this stage because you are looking to entice an audience that does not even know you exist. You can address a broad range of topics to increase your engagement.
Here are some lead magnet ideas for TOFU:
Blog posts serve as an excellent lead magnet because they offer in-depth information that is easy to digest at the same time. While individual videos do well to address specific topics, blogs are easily the best medium for broad, in-depth discussions.
Since prospects may only be aware of the symptoms of their problem and not the problem itself, blogs serve as a great tool to bring awareness to two things – their problem and how you can solve it.
Plus, blogs are generally free, ungated content, which means prospects are more likely to consume it, thus increasing your engagement.
Ebooks can serve as a follow-up to blog posts, primarily aimed at prospects who want a more in-depth understanding of their pain point. Unlike blogs that typically cover a broad range of topics, ebooks can be used to cover specific subjects and concepts.
Considering how different businesses tend to have different customer journeys and funnels, ebooks can be used at both stages – TOFU and MOFU. However, since you want to raise awareness and increase engagement, it is highly recommended that your ebook for this stage is not gated.
Audio is all the rage today, with a myriad of streaming platforms hosting millions of podcasts. According to Podcast Insights, 50% of all US homes are podcast fans. People use streaming platforms to listen to podcasts on their smartphones and other handheld devices regularly, which means you have a huge market to tap.
You can put out podcasts that go up to two hours long to discuss topics in great detail. In other words, you can give the listener an in-depth understanding, just like you would with blog posts.
When your prospects reach the middle of the funnel, you can be sure that they are aware of their problem and are now looking for solutions. At this stage, you will have to give them content specific to their needs, as opposed to blog posts that cover a vast range of topics.
The lead magnet ideas for the MOFU stage are as given below:
Since personalized content is key at this stage, you could consider sending your prospects personalized emails to take them through the fundamentals of their problem and its corresponding solutions.
For example, if your prospects are looking for a marketing automation solution, you can send them an email that lets them know about the fundamentals of marketing automation.
Webinars have become incredibly popular, allowing you to reach large numbers of people. Webinars are engaging and allow you to conduct polls, ask questions, and interact with the audience. All in all, conducting a webinar is an excellent way to address a topic in-depth and forge a relationship with your prospects, thus increasing your chances of converting them.
Checklists make for an excellent lead magnet in the MOFU stage. In their quest to get the best solution to their problem, prospects can find it difficult to understand what to expect from each of their options. You can make it easy for yourself to stand out by giving them a checklist that tells them precisely what to expect and how you can solve their problem. Checklists are simple to make as well as easy to consume.
At this stage of the marketing funnel, the prospect is ready to buy. However, they may not be ready to buy your product, which is why you need a lead magnet to convince them that your product is their best option. You will have to show that your product is the perfect solution to their needs and performs far better than that of your competitors.
At the #BOFU, the prospect is ready to buy. However, they may not be ready to buy YOUR product, which is why you need a lead magnet to convince them that your product is their best option. Share on XThe lead magnet options in this stage are as follows:
Most prospects will not reject a free trial because they have nothing to lose. Businesses typically offer a free 14-day trial after which the prospects can choose to buy it if it suits their needs. However, you must include a sense of urgency and exclusivity if you want your prospects to jump on the offer. Be sure to let them know it is free, but only for a limited period.
This is a vital lead magnet to have because many prospects are ready to buy, but they tend to have many questions. You can address their queries over the phone, or through a video conference, or better still if you can do it face-to-face.
Face-to-face consultations are most effective. They increase your chances of converting prospects because you will not only provide them with all the information they need, but you can convince them better by forging a relationship. After all, be it B2C or B2B, people don’t buy from businesses but from other people.
There are countless ways of crafting a good B2B lead magnet. Here are some tips you should keep in mind for creating good B2B lead magnets for every stage of the marketing funnel.
Firstly, the things you will need to create a good B2B lead magnet for any stage are:
Secondly, you must ensure the following things:
Thirdly, create pop-ups on your website to entice all kinds of visitors to sign up if they find your blogs informative. This is a great way to attract visitors who have found your website valuable into becoming leads.
Last but not least, invest in automation. With marketing automation, you can not only generate more high-quality leads but also keep track of where these leads are mostly originating from, as well as segment and nurture them better to help them move down the funnel faster.
So, you know by now why lead magnets are considered to be the bedrock of modern content marketing by most B2B marketers. To recap, the lead magnets you need to create will depend on what stage of the marketing funnel the prospect is at. That said, every business is different, and so is the customer journey, which means you should adapt these lead generation ideas as per the B2B industry you operate in. For help with B2B lead magnet ideas, contact us today!