Getsitecontrol Insider

5 Proven Lead Magnet Ideas for Ecommerce

October 06, 2022 Getsitecontrol Episode 40
Getsitecontrol Insider
5 Proven Lead Magnet Ideas for Ecommerce
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

You’ve heard it before: lead magnets are a great tactic to build an email list and entice shoppers to buy.

The pressing question isn’t why you should use lead magnets, but how do you use them for your ecommerce business. 

In this episode, we're going over 5 common lead magnets for ecommerce:

  • purchase discount
  • free shipping coupon
  • gifts or free samples
  • education content
  • contest or giveaway participation

We're also going to provide examples and tips for using each lead magnet type.

🎧 Tune in and remember to subscribe!

Useful resources:

  1. Popup template to promote a purchase discount in exchange for email signup
  2. Popup template to promote education content in exchange for email signup
  3. Popup template to offer free shipping in exchange for email signup
  4. Pop-up survey to ask abandoning customers why they're leaving


Prefer reading the text version of this episode? Head over to our blog.

Create beautiful email signup forms, coupon boxes, and pop-up surveys for your store with Getsitecontrol.

Hi, 

You’re listening to Getsitecontrol Insider – a monthly podcast where we share marketing tips for ecommerce brands.

In this episode, we’re talking about lead magnets designed to help you grow an email list for your store.

Tune in to hear 5 different lead magnets ideas, and find out how to implement them.

***

You’ve heard it before: lead magnets are a great tactic to build an email list, entice shoppers to buy, and reward existing customers.

The pressing question isn’t why you should use lead magnets, but how do you use them for your ecommerce business? With so many options available, it may be overwhelming to get started.

If that’s the case for you, here are 5 lead magnet ideas that have been proven to work.

#1. Purchase discount

No matter what your niche is, it’d be safe to say that if you offer a purchase discount, your potential customers will be more enticed to buy from you.

Since you are offering something so valuable to the visitor, you want to get something in return — for example, their email address. That’s why purchase discounts are among the most popular lead magnet ideas for ecommerce.

Effective as they may be, purchase discounts have one problem: they lower your profit margins. To minimize the impact of this issue, target them to new engaged buyers. That means:

  • People who haven’t bought from you – first-time visitors
  • And people who have already spent some time on your site, as well as those who have already visited many pages, or even added a product to the cart

Creating such a targeted lead magnet isn’t hard. With the help of popup tools like Getsitecontrol, you can do so easily in a matter of minutes – check the link in the description if you want to know how it’s done.

Before you create your first discount lead magnet, there are two points you need to consider:

  1. Look at your average net margin, average order value, and frequency of purchases (per customer) to measure how much money you can forfeit on the first purchase. You don’t want to offer a discount that’s too high and end up hurting your finances.
  2. Decide whether you want to work with a percentage-based discount or a dollar-value discount. Either of these options will work fine. But if you can’t decide, run a test to see which one converts better for you.


Lead magnet #2. Free shipping coupon

While a product’s price can cause people to abandon a purchase, sometimes it’s better to keep it intact to respect your brand’s positioning. Instead, you can provide free shipping. 

You may not know it, but unexpected shipping costs during the checkout are one of the main reasons why people abandon their shopping carts. By offering free shipping in exchange for an email address, you can prevent that.

What’s more, Amazon has raised the average consumer's expectations due to their popular Prime program that offers free two-day shipping. Consumers simply expect free and quick shipping; that’s why a free shipping lead magnet for ecommerce brands may work wonders.

Just as with purchase discounts, you should offer free shipping coupons in the following situations:

  • When a customer adds a product to the cart
  • When a customer goes to the checkout page and then intends to leave
  • When a customer leaves while having a product in the cart, without purchasing

In every case, you are assuming the visitor isn’t purchasing due to the shipping costs. However, if you truly want to know the reason why a buyer doesn’t finish their purchase, just survey them.

Lead magnet idea #3. Gifts and free samples

Have you ever found it strange when you visit a supermarket and see people giving away food samples? Or when you visit a duty-free shop and get free perfume samples? 

That happens because companies have found that giving away free samples is an effective method of acquiring new customers for cheap.

The idea of giving away gifts may seem almost identical to the last two tactics. In fact, positioning your lead magnet as a gift constitutes a type of price discount. 

However, we separate this tactic from the rest because we want you to consider a different aspect.

When you give away samples, it exposes people to experience your products firsthand. Not only does it increase customer satisfaction level, but it also makes them more likely to spend more buying from you, according to the research. 

Offering free samples in exchange for emails works best in the following circumstances:

  • During live sales and events
  • During checkout, when a customer is on the way to complete their purchase

You can also offer a code for a free sample to anyone browsing your store and explain that they can use it at checkout.

Lead magnet example #4. Educational content

Up until recently, free ebooks or guides were the most common lead magnets marketers used to build their email lists. 

The reason for it is simple: by educating people about their problems and their potential solutions, brands can generate the trust that leads the individual into becoming a loyal customer.

Although online retailers usually prefer to offer discounts due to their capacity to generate sales, don’t disqualify educational lead magnets too soon.

Sure, a discount incentivizes sales, but it also drains your profit margins. They can also harm your brand’s perception and set the wrong expectations.

On the other hand, an ebook -- or a guide, or checklist -- is relatively cheap and easy to create, and it teaches potential buyers how to solve their problems. Better yet, you can position your product as the best solution to their needs, and train them on how to use your product properly.

To develop this type of lead magnet idea, think about how you can coach the reader about the problems they face without talking about your product directly. 

For example:

  • If you’re in the food and supplements industry – you can offer recipes
  • If you’re in fitness and nutrition – consider offering exercise and diet plans
  • Electronics stores can promote tutorials and buying guides
  • Fashion, beauty, and decoration brands can offer inspiration and ideas

You can also use these lead magnets along with a discount or free shipping coupon. For example, you can offer a free ebook on your blog and a free shipping discount on your product pages.

The last lead magnet idea is contest or giveaway participation

People love contests and giveaways. I mean, why wouldn’t they? They are free, they usually take little effort to sign up for, and they can bring enormous benefits.

Contests have high conversion rates, and many users end up sharing them after they register. 

However, the key to any good contest or giveaway is the prize. You want to give away something valuable and desired by your audience. Usually, that’s a product, a set of products, or something like a year's worth of a given product.

The only difference between contests and giveaways lies in the participant’s effort. In the former, the participant has to take some action to qualify, whereas, in the latter, they don’t.

The benefit of contests is that you can ask participants to promote your products (or the contest itself), and that’s the equivalent of the word of mouth. However, if you want to get more email subscribers, giveaways are better.

Whatever the case, you will need to invest some money into the prize, but when promoted properly through opt-in forms, social media, and email marketing, your investment will be mostly negligible.

It’s time to try one of those lead magnet ideas and reap the rewards. Your next steps can be the following:

1. Pick one of the five lead magnet ideas. Any of them will require you to invest some money and effort, so instead of focusing on cost-effectiveness, think about your audience and your strengths. What does your audience need the most? What can you offer them that will make them want to sign up for your email list and, hopefully, purchase?

2. Create the lead magnet. Such a task can be as simple as defining the amount of money to give away (that’s for every lead magnet idea except the fourth one) and creating the offer. 

3. Promote your lead magnet. The best place to promote your lead magnets is your website. For the lead magnet ideas we’ve just covered, you can use email signup popups by Getsitecontrol. Besides your website, you can also promote your offer on social media and even through social paid ads. 

***

If you want more examples and templates designed to promote lead magnets, check the link in the description of the episode.

That’s all for today.

Thank you for listening,

Until next time!

Intro
Lead magnet idea #1 -- Purchase discount
Lead magnet idea #2 -- Free shipping coupon
Lead magnet idea #3 -- Gifts and free samples
Lead magnet idea #4 -- Educational content
Lead magnet idea #5 -- Contest or giveaway participation
Your next steps