After I published a 3,000 word article on using a Lead Magnet to generate leads for your professional services business, responses ranged from “hey, this is exactly what I needed”, to “this would never work for me.” Within the “never work for me” category, here are the most common objections…
All my business comes from word-of-mouth
Having been in this situation myself, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Your first business comes from word-of-mouth, you get frustrated by efforts to expand beyond that, therefore those channels must not work, you neglect your website, and you have a vicious cycle.
So while I’ve learned the hard way that this doesn’t have to be true, let’s assume for a moment it is. Having a good Lead Magnet or two on your site reinforces word-of-mouth. It gives people another reason to think of you to generate a referral, and another reason for the person referred to think that you know what you’re talking about. You can even let partners embed Lead Capture Widgets on their sites, so you can tell just from the source who sent the lead. People who get referred are going to check out your website. Some of them take a look and never connect. Cut down on that by giving people a reason to convert or at least connect.
Even for people who have already connected, the Lead Magnet is a nice thing to give to people dealing with that specific problem. (Plus, if you use Mimiran for your Lead Magnets, you can see when they are reading it, so you can gauge interest and reach out at the right time.)
As you discuss your Lead Magnet(s) with these “word-of-mouth” prospects, you’ll get feedback that will help you refine your messaging and get more confident in using your Lead Magnet(s) to attract net-new leads.
People don’t buy this stuff online, they need a relationship first
Completely agree with this statement. However, the point of the Lead Magnet is not to close the sale but open the relationship.
I don’t know what content to use for my Lead Magnet
Consider what problems your best customers ask you to solve for them. If you need more ideas, see:
If in doubt, pair with a glass of wine to enhance creativity. 😉
I can’t write copy
Some people struggle with the written word. Here are some ideas for getting around this obstacle:
- Record yourself on video, then transcribe (or pay someone to transcribe) your content. Or, just use your video as a Lead Magnet (Mimiran lets you embed video).
- Interview your best clients about what you did for them and take good notes. This can generate great points and key words for Lead Magnets.
- Pay someone else to write your copy for you. I think this should be a last resort, at least at the beginning, because you want your voice to come through in your copy. (This is where transcribing your spoken words can be helpful– many people are great at talking about what they do but get writer’s block when they have to commit those words to paper or screen.)
I don’t have time to create and set up a Lead Magnet
Finding time is never easy. Finding time for an “extra” task is extra hard. I have about a million things on my to do list that I “should” do but I haven’t. But if lead generation is important to your business, think about the time you currently spend on it. Having effective Lead Magnets will improve the efficiency of your current efforts, and open up new opportunities. And it doesn’t have to take all that long. (See the video at the end of this article for how quickly you can set up the whole system, especially if you use the Mad Libs positioning generator or some other tool to generate the content.)
I don’t have any traffic anyway
This is a common problem, especially if you’re in the “all my business comes from word-of-mouth” vicious cycle. Driving lots of traffic is a whole other issue, but I know from my experience that I got annoyed with generating traffic because it wasn’t converting. You need a conversion mechanism to make traffic worthwhile. You can start by using your Lead Magnet as a bonus for existing prospects and partners, then add a landing page to share on social media, before you worry about trying to get lots of traffic.
As you get leads, ask how they found you, and use a tool like Google Analytics to measure traffic sources and create new content and/or new campaigns.
I don’t want to get unqualified leads
Sadly, I hear this one a lot.
“I tried something like this and got a lot of spammers just trying to sell me stuff.”
“How many?”
“Like 5 or 10.”
“Per day? Per hour?”
“No, last year.”
Deleting 10 spam leads takes about 10 seconds. Dealing with with 10 unqualified leads might take 10 minutes to 10 hours, depending on how hard it is to qualify. But what’s the cost of excluding 10 good leads because you were so worried about spam?
Make it easy for the people you want to work with, even if it means spending a few minutes disqualifying people. Don’t be like this:
Are there good reasons to not have Lead Magnets on your site?
Yes.
If you’re at a place in your career where you don’t want more leads, don’t use Lead Magnets. Congratulations!
Second, if you sell something that only a few people sell, and 100% of the market will contact you anyway, you don’t need lead magnets (for example, if you sell jumbo jets).
If you don’t fall into either of those categories, make sure you add a Lead Magnet to your site.