Need some lead generation ideas?
You are in the right place!
Today we are going to take a look at seven lead generation examples that work like crazy.
No matter what industry you are in, you will surely learn something that you can apply to your own business…
#1: Ramit Sethi
Ramit Sethi is a popular blogger at I Will Teach You To Be Rich and a New York Times best-selling author of a book with the same title.
He started out as a financial blogger but later expanded into other niches such as career and business advice.
Ramit now aims to help his readers to live rich lives, whatever a “rich life” means to them.
The above screenshot is of his homepage (above the fold). This lead generation page may look simple, but make no mistake, there’s a lot going on there.
This type of headline, “Ramit’s best advice, straight to your inbox”, only works if you have already made a name for yourself, so you shouldn’t use it if you are just starting out.
But pay attention to the copy below:
“Get a $10,000 raise. Start a business & travel for 3 months every year. Spend on what you love, guilt free. Your Rich Life is yours. We can help you make it a reality”.
In just a few sentences, Ramit addresses what presumably are the three largest segments of his audience: career people, entrepreneurs, and personal finance enthusiasts.
This is a great approach if you are catering to several distinct groups of people as opposed to just one.
Note how he also differentiates himself from the other personal finance gurus by saying “spend on what you love, guilt-free”.
Presumably, Ramit’s target demographic is Millennials, so they are likely to find this take on personal finance refreshing after being endlessly shamed over Starbucks lattes and avocado toasts.
Also, see how the call-to-action button copy says “Start Now” instead of something generic like “Subscribe”?
“Start Now” feels much more inspiring because it evokes an image of a fresh start and implies taking action.
Is there a way you could achieve the same effect with your lead generation landing page?
#2: Brian Dean
Brian Dean is the founder of Backlinko, one of the most popular SEO blogs out there.
In the SEO community, he is widely recognized as one of the top SEO experts in the world.
He is known for his focus on quality over quantity when it comes to content, creating comprehensive resources on various subjects, and his flagship product, the “SEO That Works” online course.
When you look at Backlinko, it’s clear that Brian wants to grow his email list, but he does so in a manner that is much less “salesy” than what you might expect from a marketer of this caliber.
The screenshot that you see above is another deceptively simple yet surprisingly effective lead generation page (it’s not the entire page, though, only above the fold area).
Once again, there’s the type of headline that only works when you are already known as an expert, because if Brian was an Internet nobody then no one would care about his “exclusive SEO tips” that he “only shares with his subscribers”.
The word “exclusive” serves a purpose because it indicates that the newsletter provides additional value, something that you can’t get from the blog. This gives the potential customer an incentive to subscribe.
Too many “newsletters” are just notifications on new posts that don’t offer any additional value.
So if you want to grow your email list with a newsletter, make sure that it’s an actual newsletter where you publish content that is not available elsewhere.
Also, pay attention to how Brian uses social proof:
There’s an endorsement from the VP of Marketing at HubSpot. Everyone in the world of marketing knows HubSpot, so this boosts Brian’s credibility in the eyes of potential customers.
Meanwhile, “Try It” is an interesting choice for call-to-action button copy since it’s so non-committal, which presumably is the point.
Brian’s target audience is likely already overwhelmed by the number of emails flooding into their inboxes every day, so they might feel hesitant to subscribe to yet another marketing newsletter. The “Try It” phrasing might help to persuade them. No harm in just checking it out, right?
Keep in mind that if you are just starting out, you might need to be more aggressive in your approach to lead generation by offering a proper lead magnet (an ebook, a video course, a webinar, etc.).
Sure, in theory, a newsletter can be seen as a lead magnet, but in practice, it’s too vague of an offer unless people are already interested in what you have to say.
#3: James Clear
James Clear is a popular personal development blogger at jamesclear.com and a New York Times best-selling author of “Atomic Habits”.
On his homepage, he uses the first free chapter of his book as a lead magnet, meaning that you can download it for free in exchange for your email address.
The headline is straightforward and concise, yet conveys the value proposition of the book:
“An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones”.
The subheadline makes it clear what exactly James is offering:
“Download Chapter 1 of Atomic Habits, my #1 New York Times bestselling book”
(note how the #1 NYT bestseller status serves as social proof)
The call-to-action button copy is benefit-driven:
“Download the free chapter”.
Much better than just “Download”, right?
And below you see copy that expands on the value proposition:
“Packed with self-improvement strategies, Atomic Habits will teach you how to make the small changes that will transform your habits and deliver remarkable results”.
This is a great way to generate leads because someone who has found themselves on James’ homepage is likely to be interested in changing their habits.
And the first chapter of the book is free, so why not check it out, right?
Obviously, if you use this approach to promote your own book, you need to make sure that the free chapter really hooks the reader, otherwise, they won’t be interested in buying the whole thing.
#4: Mark Rosenfeld
Mark Rosenfeld from Make Him Yours is one of the most popular women’s dating coaches in the world and the author of a popular book on the subject with the same title.
He takes a different approach to promoting his book:
Mark asks you to buy the book first with the “Buy The Book Now!” call-to-action button which is accompanied by a less prominent “Or How About a Free Chapter?” call-to-action button.
That way, the free chapter serves not only as a lead magnet but also as a downsell from the book.
And when you click on the “Or How About a Free Chapter?” call-to-action button, you are taken to a lead magnet landing page that looks like this:
On this page, Mark:
- Reiterates the offer (“Get the First Chapter of My Best Selling Book…”).
- Expands on its benefits (“In it, you’ll learn…”).
- Provides social proof both in his bio (“My life-changing videos have received 50 MILLION views…”) and with customer testimonials and “As Seen On” media badges.
He could have gone with a simple pop-up instead of a full-blown landing page.
However, we know that landing pages are the highest-converting type of web page out there, so in all likelihood, this page converts way better than a pop-up would.
By the way, Mark’s lead magnet landing page is built with ClickFunnels, so if you want to use the same approach yourself, it’s super easy with our software. We have a 14-day free trial! 😉
#5: Zero to Users
The founder of Zero to Users has gone to great lengths to produce a super valuable lead magnet.
They have spent 200+ hours analyzing 487 founder interviews and compiling their takeaways on user acquisition into a report.
The report covers 30+ acquisition channels that these founders used to get paying users.
It’s important to note that the Zero to Users founder didn’t just list the obvious options that everyone talks about, they also covered the less known channels that don’t immediately come to mind.
Moreover, instead of focusing on just successes, they also paid attention to the failed user acquisition channels. This provides insight into which channels work for which industries.
Producing this lead magnet required an insane amount of work, but the result of it is original research that isn’t available elsewhere.
Sure, you could listen to all 487 founder interviews yourself and take notes on their user acquisition channels, but what startup founder has the time for that?
This is a great approach when your target audience consists of busy people who are unlikely to be interested in lead magnets that simply rehash information that anyone can find on Google.
In that case, you need to be willing to put in serious effort to create something original, because that’s your best bet on getting the attention of your ideal customers.
#6: Matthew I. Smith
Matthew I. Smith is a flexibility, mobility, and handstand coach who teaches people all over the world how to master skills such as splits, head-to-toe, one-arm handstand, etc.
Two years ago, his video on his handstand journey went viral, amassing over 2.6 million views on YouTube:
He used the video to drive traffic to his Handstand Toolkit sales page where you can sign up for free to get 10 free videos (full handstand toolkit costs $397).
This is an interesting approach to generating leads for a business that sells online courses.
By giving those 10 videos away for free, Matthew not only gets people to sign up for his platform but also gives them a sample of the actual course and signals confidence in his product.
You might want to consider doing the same if you are selling an online course yourself.
It’s also worth noting that demonstrating genuine mastery is an incredibly effective selling technique. YouTube is full of “how to do a handstand” videos. So why did Matthew’s video go viral?
Simple:
Because he has mastered the handstand. And that’s extremely rare.
So when people watch the video, they are excited to learn from him. There’s no need for a hard sell. They are already sold.
Nowadays, everyone is trying to devise ways to manufacture social proof so that they could “leapfrog” into expert status, but the truth is that there is nothing more effective than actually being an expert.
#7: ClickFunnels
Here at ClickFunnels, we have a bunch of lead magnets, one of which is our co-founder Russell Brunson’s best-selling book “DotCom Secrets”.
But get this:
We are giving away physical copies of the book.
All we ask for is that you cover the shipping costs ($9.95 within the US, $19.95 internationally).
This is an advanced lead generation technique because we are asking the potential customer for more commitment than they are used to.
However, it drastically increases lead quality because someone who’s willing to invest in Russell’s book is more likely to be serious about growing their business with sales funnels, which means that they are more likely to invest in our software.
Moreover, someone who has already decided to get the book is also likely to be open to our upsells which generate revenue.
Remember, the $9.95 or $19.95 only covers handling and shipping, so upsells are our opportunity to turn a profit with this offer.
We wouldn’t recommend this approach to authors who make their living from their books because you obviously wouldn’t want to be giving them away for free in that case.
However, authors who have other products in their sales funnels, such as consulting, online courses, memberships, software, etc., might benefit from it.
In fact, if you aren’t an author yet, but have all this other stuff in your sales funnel, you might want to consider writing a book just for this purpose (it has to be good, though, otherwise it won’t be effective as a lead magnet).
Want to Learn How to Convert Those Leads into Customers?
Generating leads is not enough.
You need to convert them into paying customers and then into repeat customers. And that’s what sales funnels are all about.
Our 5 Day Challenge will show you exactly how to implement them in your business.
You will learn how to:
- Generate unlimited leads
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- Create a simple 6-email follow-up sequence
- And launch your funnel!
…in just five days.
So don’t hesitate.