How to Create a Lead Magnet Funnel in 3 Steps (+ Pro Tips)

It does not matter if you are selling an ebook, a video course or straight up your service. If you want to sell your product online, you need a lead magnet, or more specifically, a lead magnet funnel.

A lead magnet funnel is a strategic approach to attract potential customers, capture their interest and nurture them until they're ready to buy. But building a lead magnet funnel can feel overwhelming.

Here's the good news: In this guide, I'll show you how you can build an effective lead magnet funnel in 3 simple steps - so people will buy your products.

You will learn
→ How to build a lead magnet funnel that turns leads into customers
→ 3 pro tips that most people miss

Let’s start!

A lead magnet is a free piece of valuable content that you offer to website visitors in exchange for their email address. This could be an ebook, cheat sheet, video course, webinar, free trial or anything else that your target audience would find helpful. The goal of a lead magnet is to get people's email addresses in exchange for your offer.

A lead magnet funnel, on the other hand, is a series of emails that guide potential customers from the point they discover your lead magnet to becoming paying customers - basically taking them from lead to customer.  It's a systematic approach and one of the most important concepts in marketing - let me show you why.

Let me show you a super interesting statistic. Say you have a startup and you want people to buy your product through your website. 100 people visit your website.

Now, what do you think - how many of those 100 people are going to buy your service right now?

30%, 20%, 10%.

Allan Dib - a serial entrepreneur and bestselling author mentions in his book The One Page Marketing Plan that only 3% of people are ready to buy right now. Only 3% - what a bummer. Wait, what about the rest?

• 7% are very open to buying
• 30% - and this is interesting - are interested but not right now
• and the rest?

The rest are either not interested at all or would not take your offer even if it was free. Now I would like to mention that Allan is referring to ads - so he is referring to this statistic when you sell directly from your ad. But I think the concept applies here too.

And that's a valuable lesson. Because if you want to sell something to your customers, you can't just show it to them and expect them to buy it. It does not work that way. I mean, you could, but you would lose 97% of the market. So, you need a better way. You need to nurture them.

And that's why a lead magnet funnel is so important. A lead magnet is something valuable that you show people on your website that they can download for free - in exchange for their email address. This could be an ebook, a worksheet, a free webinar or even a free trial of your service, but the strategy remains the same:

Offer something of value in exchange for their email address.
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Here's why lead magnet funnels are so important:

97% of potential customers are not ready to buy. Either they don't trust you yet, they don't know anything about the product or, for whatever reason, they don't want to buy. So, you need to nurture them. You need to give them valuable content and show them how your solution can help them become successful.

A lead magnet funnel helps you stay in touch with these people, showing them additional value until they are ready to buy from you.

In marketing, there is a saying that you need 7 touch points with potential customers for them to trust you. A lead magnet funnel is a great way to do this. By providing valuable content up front, you start to build trust and rapport with your potential customers. Email is very personal.

Unlike social media, for example, you can build a relationship with your customers and reach them directly in their inbox, rather than in a short-lived and impersonal social media newsfeed. So, if you have a new product, you can easily promote it by sending people an email.

Once you have people's email addresses, you can segment your audience into different groups based on their interests and needs. This not only helps you understand customers better, but also allows you to send them more targeted emails - based on what they value most.

How many people download your lead magnet depends on one thing:

How well it resonates with your audience.

That's why it's always important to understand your Personas first. Understand your target audience, what they want to achieve and what success means to them. You can then use this information to build your lead magnet.

There are some types of lead magnets that work particularly well:

These are comprehensive guides that go in depth on a specific topic. Ebooks are valuable because they provide detailed information and insights that help your audience solve a problem or learn something new. They position you as an authority in your field and can add significant value to your potential customers.

Personally, I'm a big fan of cheat sheets, checklists and worksheets because they're something customers can use immediately - no long reads, no deep dives. Just quick, actionable tips. Cheat sheets and checklists are popular because they save time and provide actionable steps that your audience can use immediately.

Webinars are live or recorded sessions that are a great way to engage directly with your audience. You can provide in-depth knowledge, answer questions in real time and build a more personal connection with potential customers. The downside is that live webinars take up a lot of time.

So, if you want to offer a webinar as a lead magnet, I recommend recording some sessions and offering access to those VODs.

Free trials are particularly powerful in the B2B industry, where potential customers want to get hands-on experience or test the service for themselves. The benefit is that prospects get to experience your value first hand. In addition, free trials are effective because they reduce the perceived risk for the customer.

Let me show you the 3 steps to build a powerful lead magnet funnel:

The first thing you need to do is offer something valuable, the lead magnet. Remember - the best lead magnets are free e-books, checklists or cheat sheets. It can also be a free video course, a worksheet or anything else that your visitors will find valuable.

And this is important. It has to be something of value. Otherwise, no one will download it - even if it is free. So, do yourself a favor and understand your Personas, your target audience, before you build something that nobody wants.

To make this more concrete, here is how you can present your lead magnet on your website:

Show your visitors what they can expect - maybe a small preview image of the worksheet, and then use a Call To Action button so people can download it. For example, you could say "Download the free ebook" or "Download the free worksheet". Also, make sure you clearly highlight the benefit people will get from your lead magnet. This will encourage people to sign up for your newsletter. There is no magic formula. It really is that simple.

The tricky part is figuring out what your audience will find valuable. But if you know your Personas, what they struggle with and what they need to be successful, you will find something they will find valuable.

3 pro tips right away:

Testimonials or social proof greatly enhance the credibility of your offer, so add them if you have any.

Keep the opt-in form simple. Every extra field on the form reduces the conversion rate, so only ask for the information you really need. In most cases, this will be an email address and a first name (so you can address people directly later). Any other information is often unnecessary at this stage.

Don't forget double opt-in. This means that people have to actively click within an email that they want to be added to the newsletter list (to download your lead magnet). The mandatory double opt-in was a big change in email marketing, but it is now a requirement.

Once people have downloaded your offer, they are automatically subscribed to your newsletter (after the double opt-in).

Without traffic to your website, no one will download what you have to offer. Makes sense, right? So how do we get more traffic? The best way is through content marketing, such as blog posts, YouTube videos or organic social media marketing, to name a few.

The user journey is simple: People find your content through Google search, YouTube or social media. Then they visit your website, see your lead magnet and download it.

Here are the 3 types of marketing channels that I like to use and that work great:

Content marketing means creating quality content that is relevant to your target audience. This could include blog posts, articles, infographics, videos, etc. Content marketing works particularly well because each piece of content you create is a long-term asset. People can discover your content and visit your website years later.

SEO means optimizing your website and content for search engines so that people can find you when they search on Google, for example. SEO is a science (you can learn about Search Engine Optimization here), but in general your goal is to use the same keywords and phrases on your website that people use when they search online.

Social media marketing is a super powerful tool that I would recommend to anyone who wants to build a brand and get more traffic to their website. An excellent example of this is promoting your lead magnet on social media platforms by creating engaging posts that highlight the benefits of downloading it.

The important thing is this: Social media marketing should always be an addition to your main strategy (content marketing), but not something you rely on alone. This is because - and I am not saying this to paint a grim picture - if your favorite social media channel becomes outdated or disappears - for whatever reason - then your community and your audience is gone.

So never rely on social media alone to build your business.

So now that you've created a lead magnet and got traffic to your website and people are subscribing to your newsletter, what's next? How do you benefit from this?

This is where email nurturing campaigns come in - step 3.

Once someone has downloaded your lead magnet, you've got their email address! Now it's time to keep them engaged with valuable email content - with a nurturing campaign. So the goal of email nurturing campaigns is this - you regularly provide valuable content through your newsletter - like more free worksheets, ebooks or other valuable content.

And here are the 2 main benefits - your potential customers start to trust you. They see that you provide valuable content and that your products will help them become successful. And secondly, they have a mindset shift from "I like the cool free content" to "If all this content is free, I might wonder what paid or more advanced stuff is out there".

Here are 3 tips for creating a successful email nurturing campaign:

A welcome email series is a series of automated emails sent to new subscribers after they download your lead magnet. These emails should introduce you and your business, add value and gently promote your paid products or services.

For example, you could do it like this:

Send 5 emails to your customers within the first week (1 email per day). In the first 3 emails you add value with more ebooks, templates etc. Within the 3rd email you slowly transition to one of your paid products. Always try to make this transition smooth - it should not feel forced. In emails 4 and 5 you pitch the product.

Again, make sure it is valuable and feels natural. Your lead magnet should slowly lead to your main offer.

Once you have a larger email list, segment your list into different groups based on their interests and needs. This will allow you to send them more targeted emails that are more likely to get results.

Every email you send should have a clear call to action (CTA) button. This could be a link to your website, a button to download another free resource, or an invitation to sign up for a paid service. This is the best way to get leads become customers.

Email is a great tool for building trust and long-term relationships with customers. That's why I always recommend that you first create excellent content to drive traffic to your website, use a valuable lead magnet that people can download, and then send regular, valuable emails to your customers. This is an excellent way to get customers without spending a penny on ads.

Let me give you 3 pro tips before you start building your lead magnet funnel and start selling your products.

Now that you know the 3 steps to creating a lead magnet funnel, here are 3 pro tips to help you take your funnel to the next level.

If you try to do everything manually, good luck. But the better way to build a scalable business is to automate. Especially your email newsletter. So here is a great strategy for automating your email funnel. First, create 5 emails that people will receive within the first week of downloading your lead magnet. But make sure these emails are all valuable.

What I do, for example, is send 5 emails in the first week and provide immense value with additional free content like worksheets, guides and ebooks - in the first 3 emails. And in the last 2 emails I pitch my main offer.

And this is the key. Don't pitch your product too early. You are there to add value and help your potential customers become successful. And if your main offer is part of that - and it should be - then pitch it in the last 2 emails.

You can always expand your email funnel later, like this:

In the image above you can see that the first 5 emails are sent once a visitor has downloaded your lead magnet. Over the next few weeks, you send regular, valuable emails (remember, this is still part of the automation) - this continues for 2 months and then you can pitch your next product.

Again, 5 emails on a specific topic. For example, if you have a product launch or a new offer. This is how you automate your funnel. You could even automate the first year - I personally don't because markets and customer needs can change quickly, but if your content fits, you could go for this strategy.

Once people have subscribed to your newsletter, you need to show them that they have made the right choice. And you do this by providing even more valuable free content. But if you never promote your main offer, you will never make any money. And remember, if you're not making money, you can't support your customers in the long term - you can't provide more excellent content.

So your focus is on your customers, but making money is a part of that. But remember not to be spammy. Never just try to sell. If you just try to sell your products - that is the best way to lose all trust.

So, your email newsletter is there to lead naturally to your main offer.

The third pro tip is this - if your target audience is in the B2B industry, your lead magnets will change. We are no longer talking about worksheets or cheat sheets - we are talking about white papers, webinars or a free demo of your main offer. And also - if you have B2B customers, you will have fewer lead magnet downloads - because your offer will be more expensive.

But - and this is important - in B2B I always recommend that you contact the people who have downloaded your lead magnet directly - I mean as long as they are qualified leads. So, for example, if you see that a product manager at a large company who might be relevant to your service has downloaded your lead magnet, connect with them via email or social media, just make a connection and start a conversation.

This is one of the best ways to build a relationship, learn more about their goals and find out if and how you can help them be successful. The reason why this personal contact is more important than in B2C is that B2B sales cycles are long and customers often need hands-on guidance. So, I always recommend doing this.

Creating a lead magnet funnel means attracting visitors, capturing their email addresses and keeping them engaged until they're ready to buy. By following the three steps I have shown you - building your lead magnet, driving traffic and creating an email nurturing campaign - you can effectively convert leads into customers.

Remember to automate your email funnel, lead customers naturally to your offer and personalize your approach for B2B customers.

But there is so much more to your business. Like keeping your customers, or giving them so much value that they recommend your service to others. So - if you want to learn how to build an effective growth funnel that not only attracts customers, but also retains them and gets them to recommend your service - the AARRR Growth Bundle is for you.

Check it out!