Why Every Piece of Content Needs a Lead Magnet

Every piece of content you publish is different and has a different goal. A blog post explaining the very high-level view of your industry isn’t meant to convert a customer, it’s meant to educate them and build brand affinity. Similarly, a blog post that’s about the features people should be looking for in a software tool isn’t meant to give readers a broad understanding of your industry, but it is meant to lead to conversions. The different goals for every blog post means that you need to supply different content to achieve those goals.

That includes lead magnets.

These don’t need to be major investments, but at the very least you need to provide a content upgrade that entices them. This helps in a couple of ways. First, it gives you data about which lead magnet topics may convert in the future. Second, by tracking content upgrade downloads you’ll start to see which blog posts are worth paying to promote.

How to Plan for the Future by Looking to the Past

That brings us to our next point: using past data to inform future successes. Now that you’re ready to create a lead magnet for every blog post (whether that’s a full ebook, an email course, or a content upgrade), you need to figure out how to do it smartly. You’re not starting from scratch at this point, but are instead iterating on a process that drives conversion.

There are a few parts to this.

To start, you should keep track of how much time and money you put into creating each and every lead magnet. Then, you should look to see how many email addresses you collected after that lead magnet was published. What you’re looking for here is a positive ROI on your lead magnet efforts.

If you’re pushing your lead magnets via emails, you should be tracking and analyzing the data that comes back from your email marketing service. Are readers opening up every email? Are they clicking through for more information? Do they come back and reopen it later? Are they converting to paying customers? What your data tells you in response to those questions informs whether or not you need to adjust your past process for creating lead magnets.

Avoid Common Lead Magnet Mistakes

There are some very common mistakes that bloggers and marketers make when it comes to lead magnets. We want you to learn from their (and our!) mistakes and not repeat them, so here are the four that we’ve run into time-and-time again.

Mistake #1: Putting Everything in One Basket: Many content creators spend months creating one-off lead magnets that they hope will transform their business. Instead of going down this path and potentially failing, try creating multiple lead magnets with different approaches. That way, there’s a better chance of success.

Mistake #2: Avoiding Slicing-and-Dicing Over Time: It’s common to see people publish lead magnets and then never touch them. Don’t make the mistake of assuming you got it perfectly right on your first try. Rather, go back and rearrange the lead magnet, change the title, and make adjustments to see if you can improve your conversion rates.

Mistake #3: Not Investing in Design: Not everyone is skilled at design. While we at Beacon are big believers that with the right tools you can create something captivating, many companies try to go it alone with no design background and no help from tools. Prioritize design if you want to win.

Mistake #4: Waiting Too Long: The final common mistake is that lead magnet creators wait too long. This comes with claims that there’s not enough data to support the content creation, or they need to put finishing touches on it, or they’re waiting for it to coincide with a new product release. Whatever the excuse, the main thing that’s being forgotten is that you can always go back and make changes later.

While those mistakes may put a damper on your enthusiasm for creating lead magnets, we urge you not to give up. Creating a high converting lead magnet can be incredibly useful for your company and it can take next to no effort with the right tools in your hands.