No, I’m not talking space ships here. Unique free offer (UFO), valuable free offer (VFO), enticing free offer (EFO), lead magnet…whatever you call it, you should have one to offer your website visitors.  It’s something you can use to move mere visitors into subscribers, which then gives you opportunities to turn them into raving fans and clients.

So what should your “freebie” be?  It can be any of the following:

• Report
• Case study
• Short video
• Checklist
• Cheat sheet
• Toolkit
• Resource list
• Quiz
• Survey

Which type of freebie is best for you depends on your audience/target market.  It’s always a good idea to have a couple of ideas and then test.  Watch your visits and sign ups.  Tweak and then test some more.

How long should your freebie be?

Your lead magnet does not have to be lengthy and complex.  In fact, it should be short and quickly consumed by the reader.  Something that can be read or worked through in less than 5 minutes is best.  You want the reader to feel instant gratification, like they’ve found the silver bullet that will make it all better – whatever their “it” is.

Another important aspect of your freebie is specificity.  Since you’re creating something short, getting specific and talking about one topic should be a breeze, right?!  Remember, you want to offer the silver bullet answer to “it”.

I’ve just finished Ryan Deiss’ Invisible Selling Machine and in their testing they found that a lead magnet which promises the answer to “one big thing” outperformed lead magnets that were longer like books, long-form white papers or 50-page reports.  So the good news is you don’t need to create a complicated lead magnet!

The bad news is you want to make sure you’re providing something that your target market wants, something they are craving to know.  Do you know what that is?  If not, it may be time to talk to those people and find out what they want.  Reach out via social media, create a survey, ask your existing clients.  Remember it may not be what they need…but it needs to be what they want. They may need to eat healthy, but they want the ice cream cone.

The bonus for you is that since you’re being specific in what you’re offering, and you now know your target market has an interest in that topic, you can build on it. You can eventually create products, programs and all sorts of things you know they want and may buy.

You’ll also want your lead magnet to look professional.  Just because it’s free doesn’t mean it should look cheap.

Now that you have your professional-looking, high value lead magnet, you’ll want to be sure to include an opt-in box on your website above the fold. This means it shows on the screen without the visitor having to scroll down.  You also want to make sure you have an exciting headline so they know EXACTLY what they’re getting (think “silver bullet”)

Of course, the opt-in links to your email marketing program and autoresponders… but that’s a whole other topic.

Do you have a lead magnet you want to share with the readers?  Comment below and let us know!