Finding new potential customers is key to growing your company and diversifying your customer base.

“Lead generation is the process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into someone who has indicated an interest in your company’s product or service. Some examples of lead generators are job applications, blog posts, coupons, live events, and online content.” – HubSpot

Lead generation can be a tough nut to crack. The goal is to take this stranger and convert them into a paying customer by leading them through a nurturing process. Marketing circles often compare this process to dating. You don’t just walk up to a total stranger and propose marriage to them. Well, most of us don’t, anyway. You “nurture” the relationship over time. First, you might meet for a coffee. Then dinner. You let the relationship bloom organically.

Sales should be more of a commitment in your relationship. You’re eventually looking for loyalty, which is like marriage.

But of course, we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.

The first question is: how do we attract the right people that are most likely to buy from us? How do we find these perfect matches?

Go back and look over who your target customers are so you can “show up” where they hang out, speak to their biggest business problems, and offer a FREE solution.

Zoinks! Gee, Shaggy, did you say, FREE?! How am I going to run a business if I give it away?!

Well, they do pay. With the currency of their contact info.

Lead Magnet: Show Them What You Have

One way to convert a stranger into a lead is to offer a FREE piece of content. There is a value exchange here: their contact info, for your content. So whatever it is you’re delivering should be valuable to your prospects. It could be:

• A PDF download
• An exclusive video 
• A webinar
• An online course

This magical exchange should be beneficial for both parties. Your visitor gets to “test drive” your content, your likability, and communication style. You get the opportunity to serve them, provide value, possibly sell your product or service to them, and bring value to their lives.

What if they don’t like you? Great news! If they don’t find value in what you offer in your lead magnet, there are two opportunities:

• Get feedback to shift your content; or
• You both see that person isn’t your target customer and you can refine your outreach.

After that, the goal is to have a handful of high quality lead magnets you can advertise, either paid for or organically through social media, as well as to your current database. This will separate the wheat from the chaff, and you’ll be able to speak even more nichely down to this group of people.

A lead magnet is what will invite your web traffic to exchange their email for some valuable free information (that you do not have listed anywhere else otherwise this would defeat the purpose). It needs to be valuable and concise. Trust me, no one wants a 50-page eBook. They’d rather have 3-5 pages of to-the-point, high value information. This will also ensure they trust you up front because you are offering them something without asking for any compensation.

If you are unsure how to create your first lead magnet, use a tool like Canva. There are many free templates on the site that can be altered as you see fit to create a visually pleasing and easy to read PDF. Oh, and it’s free.

Lead Magnet Examples:

• Our top 10 recommendations for (something in your industry)
• Checklists for how to master (something in your industry)
• 3 reasons you need (product or service) in your life
• How I (do something that they can’t) and get massive results

Notice any similarities to these titles? They all tell the reader EXACTLY what they can expect to learn. That’s a title approach you can bring into email subject lines, blogs, and tutorial videos. Just make sure you deliver on your promise.

Lead magnet automation: focus on what is important

When it comes to your business, automate anything you can. Even better if that automation comes with personalization. The right software will do both of those things.

Your CRM software should have the ability to automatically send your lead magnet to your prospects as soon as they sign up for it. The CRM will have its “how to” and you’ll have to do a little bit of front work.

1. Write an automated email
2. Embed a bit of code into your website.

When someone fills out the form to access your freebies, your CRM will send an automated email with the download link or access information.

Having this automated is really helpful. First, because people are really used to receiving their lead magnets immediately. They want a solution NOW. Like yesterday. So if you take too long, they’re moving on…. to your competitors.

Second, you don’t want to receive an email every time someone signs up for your lead magnet and then have to send them a custom email. This is not a great use of your time.

Automation for drip email sequence

Another impactful automation is a drip email sequence. It is called a “drip” sequence because one email, containing information about a certain topic, gets sent (dripped) out on a schedule you decide upon.

The whole reason a reader signs up to receive your emails is because they want to learn more or make a purchase.

If your drip sequence is not relevant, they will no longer open your emails or unsubscribe altogether. According to Jupiter Research, they found that relevant emails drive 18x more revenue than broadcast emails, so staying relevant to your audience is key to your marketing success.

Beyond being relevant, according to Instapage, personalized email marketing messages tend to generate an average ROI of 122%.

This is where your CRM can provide incredible value as you can use your list segments to personalize emails to users based on their age/interest.

The number one reason people unsubscribe is that they are over-saturated with emails from a single sender and could even report you as a spammer, which can hurt your sending results over time.

According to Keap.com, you should send an email campaign from as little as once a month to up to once a day, if your offer changes enough to provide value.

Utilize this technique to roll out a “welcome sequence” to new subscribers or new customers.

When someone signs up for a free resource, an automated drip sequence might look like:

• “Welcome!” email
• One day later, company founder introduction
• One day later, introduction to main offering
• Three days later, invitation to download more free resources.
• Three days later, more in-depth information about product offerings.
• Three days later, speak directly to your customers and the problems they may be experiencing (emotional draw)

A few ways you can use drip sequences are:

• Welcome campaigns
• New customer onboarding
• Shopping cart abandonment
• Recommendations
• Renewals and confirmations
• Education

The goal of a drip sequence is not to overwhelm or smother the viewer with everything you want to tell them, but deliberately guide them through the process of learning from your brand.

Download a copy of our free team marketing worksheets here. Want to learn even more? Check out our book and video course, Unify Your Marketing.