There are 3 basic ways to grow your business. Increase the number of customers, increase the average transaction value per customer, or increase the number of transactions per customer.
Finding new customers or increasing the number of customers is a challenge that every business must face head on – and the most common and most successful method of attracting new customers is through the use of lead magnets.
Every business should have one, but not everyone does. We consume lead magnets every day. Tim Horton’s offers its Roll Up The Rim campaign, Amazon.com offers a free 30-day trial of their shipping service Amazon Prime. They offer these programs frequently because it brings in new customers and leads to customers spending more.
What’s your lead magnet? If you’re in the print industry, there are many things that you can be doing to attract leads into your business. Here are a few:
1. Whitepapers & Case Studies. You may be tracking the results that your customers are generating as a result of their relationship with you. Why not document this and create a case study, sharing how they generated a return on investment by using your product or service. By doing this you have created the business case for your prospect to choose you in the future.
2. Trial Offers. Do you offer a membership service? Any service that requires recurring invoicing are great candidates for the trial offer lead magnet. Software companies utilize this extensively in order to attract users; cable companies too! The intention is to have you use the service, discover how much you enjoy it and choose to extend this service beyond the trial period.
3. Toolkits and Resource Lists. Many of your potential customers are frequently challenged with using new technology. Using your expertise, you can share your knowledge on how to use the technology you sell to advance their business. This will establish your brand as a reliable source of information that can help their business to grow. It will also make your products more relevant to their strategy going forward.
4. Free Shipping. This is the most common lead magnet used by online businesses. The cost of shipping is a significant hurdle to many. Companies like Vistaprint have used Free Shipping extensively as a lead magnet to get their prospect to make that first initial purchase. Once you move from becoming a prospect to being a customer, they have the opportunity to promote all their other products and services to you.
5. Discounts. Black Friday is the biggest lead magnet that I know of. The deep discounts available on this day create the world’s biggest buying frenzy. On the surface, it appears these companies are giving everything away. But behind the scenes, they’re building a massive database of future prospects that they can market to. When you offer any sort of discount, ensure that your prospects see this as a great deal. This is the only way it will work.
One important point to note is that whatever you choose to offer as your lead magnet, it’s important that your prospect see the value in your offer clearly. Once they see it as truly valuable, they will take advantage of the opportunity that you’ve presented. Incorporating powerful lead magnets into your marketing efforts will guarantee that you will always have a consistent flow of new customers.
