Are you looking to increase your customer acquisition, but you are frustrated by the low percentage of leads you are able to convert from your lead magnet marketing?
You're not alone!
A Salesforce study found out that less than 0.5% of the leads generated from webinars are turned into customers, so should you settle for such low conversion rates? Should we even stop putting so much effort into this type of content? The answer is no, of course not :)
There are tools and techniques available today to increase the volume of leads generated by your lead magnets, especially the leads engaged via LinkedIn. Once integrated into relevant nurturing scenarios, your conversion rates are likely to soar!
Let's get started!
First of all, what is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet is a marketing technique that offers quality content and value to prospects "in exchange" for some data: professional email, first name, last name ... The lead magnet is generally used in an inbound marketing strategy.
The idea is to attract your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) thanks to natural referencing and/or quality content: exclusive blog articles, white paper..
This type of content has 3 main objectives:
- Interesting your leads in order to attract them to you,
- Getting their information in order to qualify and be able to contact them...
- "Warming-up" your leads by providing them with quality content and by positioning yourself as an expert
Choose your lead magnet well
Choosing a lead magnet must meet certain criteria in order to be effective:
- S - Simple
- A - Actionable
- G - Goal-oriented
- E - Easy to Consume
With the possible exception of case studies, which can be longer, mistakes, checklists, and calculators meet these criteria. They can be really useful, both for you and your prospects.
For example, mistake lists and checklists can help your prospects solve real-world problems in their business, by making them aware of the mistakes they're making, and providing them with concrete tactics or strategies in order to improve.
When done right, these tools can also help teach prospects how to buy or show them the value of buying. For example, in the case of a ROI calculator, you can create an effortless way to show your prospects the tangible monetary results that could stem from using your product - and based on each prospect's unique business metrics.
Define the right capturing process for your lead magnet
A good capturing process must include a frictionless integration of your lead magnet to your landing page.
To create landing pages integrated into your site, we recommend Webflow 💚
The important thing is to create a fluid and straightforward lead magnet and ask a minimum of questions while qualifying your lead to the maximum.
💡 The trick is to limit the form to a few essential pieces of information... 10 seconds should be enough for the interested parties to sign up.
Set up a lead scoring and enrichment process following your lead magnet
Now that you have set up a lead magnet that corresponds to prospects' expectations, you will now promote it via your newsletter, and on LinkedIn via LinkedIn Ads campaigns...
You are certainly used to it as a marketer: a large majority of the leads you will generate will only like or comment on your LinkedIn post! Fortunately, LinkedIn scraping tools allow you to collect these leads and get the leads interested in your posts.
The procedure is simple with Phantombuster to identify your leads and enrich them with all the necessary data for B2B prospecting.
#1 Collect the leads engaged on a LinkedIn post with Phantombuster
- Connect to LinkedIn using the Phantombuster browser extension.
- Specify the LinkedIn posts you are targeting. Create a spreadsheet on Google Sheets.
- Fill it with the URLs of the LinkedIn profiles and the URLs of the posts. One URL per row, all in column A.
- Make this spreadsheet public so Phantombuster can access it.
- Paste the spreadsheet URL into Phantombuster.
- Set Phantombuster to "repeat".
- At the end of this step, you'll get a list of leads associated with a LinkedIn URL that you can leverage via automated sequences on LinkedIn.
Beware, as of May 2021, LinkedIn is enforcing a restriction of 100 requests per week. Don't flood people😉
#2 Enrich your leads with Dropcontact
Having contacts is good, but having their verified and qualified professional email address is even better!
In Phantombuster, the data enrichment tools are from Dropcontact 😘
Pro tip: You can choose to enter your Dropcontact API key if you already have a Dropcontact account
This integration allows you to automatically enrich the data you scrape via your Phantoms, in order to collect the email addresses of your targets, and thus to integrate them into your multi-channel nurturing scenarios!
All the data is provided in real-time, allowing you to have up-to-date and verified data. In addition, Dropcontact is the only email finder platform guaranteed to be 100% RGPD compliant (0 databases are used in the process)
#3 Scoring your leads
Lead scoring is the process of ranking the potential customers that come to you using a numerical system (usually a 1-100 point system), in order to determine their customer value journey.
With this information, you will know if they are ready, i.e. if it is the right time to pass the prospect to your sales team
If set up correctly, lead scoring will help you identify the intent of your prospects and prioritize which ones you really need to follow up on to close more business.
In this sense, data quality and integrity are even more important.
There is a misconception that the more leads you have, the better.
This is where the concept of data quality comes in, and while the volume of leads generated may look good on your quarterly balance sheet slides, the truth is that if you can't qualify those leads automatically because the quality of the data collected is inconsistent (or the data is simply missing), then those leads are useless. In the end, these enrichment and lead scoring processes allow you to identify:
- 1 segment: "SQL" that you can already pass on to your sales team
- 1 segment: "newsletter" or "Marketing QualifiedLeads "
How do you offer the right content to the contacts in this second segment?
Engagement & nurturing following a lead magnet
Defining your objectives is the key element before jumping headlong into writing your prospecting messages or the content for your prospects.
In order to automate your cold email prospecting, your sequences can include several offers, such as webinar invitations, blog articles, case studies, etc.
But don't forget your objective: selling.
When launching your first nurturing sequences, one of the first questions is: how long should my sequence be?
To estimate the volume of nurturing messages you will need, consider the following elements:
- Friction: How easy is it for prospects to accept your request?
- Proximity to value: How quickly will prospects get value from your offer?
- Lack of awareness: What do prospects need to know before they sign up, talk to a sales rep or make a purchase?
Higher friction requires more nurturing
What seems easier to you?
- Starting a 7-day free trial (without a credit card).
- Participating in a 15-minute sales call
If you are like most B2B buyers, the perceived effort to get a call is much higher. Friction also comes from other sources:
- Prospects may need to switch from one competitor to another.
- Your product may be expensive.
- Your product may have a steep learning curve.
Proximity to value affects how long it takes to convert a lead
Another quick test. Which of these offers gets you closer to value?
- Starting your 14-day free trial.
- Scheduling a demo.
If I start a free trial now, there's a chance I can get value from the product today.
If I schedule a demo, any value will exist only in my mind. We all tend to prefer getting rewards sooner rather than later. If your offer only has slight proximity to value - like booking a demo - you may need to nurture your prospects a bit more.
The awareness gap: fill it
When a prospect downloads your lead magnet, they try to solve a problem or achieve the desired result. For example, if I download your ebook on "How to Generate More Leads", the result I want is obvious.
While some prospects may be ready to engage in a sales call right after downloading the book, many will not. Before prospects are ready to try your product or talk to salespeople, they need to reach a certain level of awareness.
That means they need to know what your product is, how it solves their problem, and why they should trust you. Eugene Schwartz's five stages of awareness can help you identify the beginning and end of your sequence.
Since most lead acquisition sequences fall somewhere between solution and product awareness, let's look at the three steps in between. See if you can identify where your prospects are most likely to be when they download your lead magnet:
- Problem Aware: Your prospect is aware of a problem but doesn't know there is a solution.
- Solution Aware: Your prospect is aware of the desired outcome but does not know your product provides it.
- Product Aware: Your prospect knows what you're selling but isn't sure it's right for them.
Emails to include in your nurturing sequence
The confirmation email
The content of your first email will vary depending on the three factors influencing the length of the sequence discussed above. That said, your confirmation email should include:
- A statement that reinforces your lead's progress toward solving their problem or getting what they want;
- A link to the content they requested (even if they received a direct download);
- A reminder of the value of your content (for those who may have forgotten to read it).
The offer and CTA you include in this first email will also vary depending on your strategy.
The other emails in the sequence
The rest of your emails focus on the following:
- Getting your prospects used to opening and reading your emails by providing relevant and valuable content;
- Building awareness, demonstrating value and proving your claims to prepare prospects for your offer;
- Offering prospects other ways to stay engaged with you after the sequence is over.
Ideally, you address points 1 and 2 (and possibly 3) at the same time.
The email that introduces your offer
You can aim for conversion several times during your sequence. Your subscribers will be ready at different times.
According to cxl.com, in a sequence of 12 emails, it is relevant to introduce your offer three times.
Some of these offers can be softer, added in the postscript rather than in the body of the message. But since the goal of your sequence is to get prospects to respond to the offer, you should dedicate at least one email to that goal.
Feed prospects for the future
Some prospects won't convert during your nurturing sequence, but that doesn't mean they won't be ready for your solution later.
To keep your audience connected, consider offering:
- Free, relevant content that teaches prospects to expect value by opening your emails;
- Invitations to future events, such as webinars or conferences;
- Other email lists they can sign up for, like your newsletter;
- Invitations to join your group or community.
In all cases, test, iterate, and retest. Your own experience is the best approach to converting your leads.
