Combining Pinterest marketing with effective lead magnets can jumpstart conversions and sales for ecommerce stores.

Research shows a majority of ecommerce stores only experience a conversion rate around 3%. If this low rate of conversion reflects your situation, it probably means you may be getting a low return on your investment with the money and time you spend generating traffic to your website.

Building traffic through PPC, social media, SEO and paid advertising tactics can be beneficial but are only part of the puzzle when we’re talking about increasing conversions.

Pinterest + Your Lead Magnet Increase Conversions

Those of us who have discovered Pinterest know that it attracts people who are - or soon will be - shoppers once they come to some conclusions about what is best for them. 

Pinterest is so successful at helping people learn about products, research competitors and prices, and gain clarity about what they want. Money magic can happen when a motivated buyer finds a Pin that leads him or her to your product page on your ecommerce site.

It’s great to make money that easily, but it is unusual for someone to find what they want and purchase immediately.

What is more likely is they come to Pinterest and do some searching. They click and save a few Pins that are interesting to them and return the next day or two. It might even take a week or two depending on how important the need is and how busy their life is. We’ve all been there.

Now let’s say you really used Pinterest as the dynamic lead engine it can be. Imagine you were the only ecommerce business in the group of Pins they saved who offered them a lead magnet (aka “freebie”) to gain their email address.

Your Business Grows When You Engage Your Customers

By doing this, you have them in your funnel. Now you have the opportunity to send them emails sharing valuable and interesting information and warming them up to your business and your product.

It isn’t hard to see how this would give you an advantage over the other product Pins they saved. Do this enough times and the increase in cash flow and profits you see will be sizeable.

See how important having a sales funnel and providing a lead magnet can be?

Now If you are like many ecommerce stores, you may not even have a functioning sales funnel in place in order to capture leads for future marketing efforts. Let’s take a look at the role a lead magnet in a funnel can play in growing your store and getting repeat business from customers.  

What Is A Lead Magnet?

A lead magnet is a high-value incentive offer to website visitors at an ecommerce store and prospects get a free item in exchange for their contact information.

It’s important to create lead magnets that attract the right prospects and convince them to be part of your mailing list. So you can imagine how important it is to really get to know and understand your target audience so you can give them information they consider valuable.

Your ecommerce store is likely looking for their email address in order to stay in touch with them, but some types of businesses may also look to capture a phone number or a connection to their social media sites.

These are the key action steps in most cases:

1. You create your lead magnet.
2. You offer the lead magnet on your website.
3. Your visitors decide they want to see your free lead magnet offer and agree to provide their email address in exchange.
4. The lead magnet is downloaded or accessed by your potential customer.
5. They are now part of your mailing and can receive relevant and targeted emails from you based on their needs and wants.

Why Do You Need Lead Magnets?

In the world of ecommerce internet marketing, the use of automated email offers the most effective strategy to increase your sales.

But first, you need to build an email list.

And to build an email list, you need a funnel and great lead magnets to get your potential customers inside the funnel. Trust me on this, there is no better way to drive leads to your website than starting with the Pinterest visual search advantage and a compelling lead magnet.

The first step is showing you’re credible and actually promoting and selling products that are useful to them. Your lead magnet represents how you do business and how well you know them. If they think it will benefit their lives, they will share their email.

Once that happens, you have multiple opportunities to make the case they need your product or products.

Characteristics Of Lead Magnets That Convert

• Given the purpose of your lead magnet, you’ll need to ensure that it’s attractive and beneficial to your target audience. They will assume you don’t know or care about them if your free lead magnet offer isn’t interesting or doesn’t offer any value to their lives.
• Your lead magnet should solve a particular problem - or part of a problem in some cases - that your prospects have that is important to them.
• It should drive immediate action. Your lead magnet should provide a tool or information your prospects desire and can apply today.
• An effective lead magnet makes their lives better or easier.
• Ready for use immediately. People love instant gratification, and your prospects are no exception. Deliver your lead magnet as quickly as possible.
• Most great lead magnets are free or greatly reduced in price. You will gain more emails from a highly targeted and responsive list if your lead magnet fits into their lives.

10 Lead Magnets That Can Boost Conversions

Here is a list of lead magnets ideas and how you can use them in a funnel for your eCommerce site. It’s important to only use those you believe will provide a benefit for your target customer. When done well, they give them a reason to start trusting you and share their email address.

1. Coupon

Coupons are probably the most utilized lead magnet for an eCommerce site. Let’s be clear up front - you are still asking them to make a purchase.

So you may see fewer people taking advantage than a “freebie” offer would get. Coupon codes are usually used for a discount on a purchase, but can also offer a freebie or a buy one/take one offer.

Why does it work so well? It’s easy to use and offers value for your prospects. Plus, they’ll have to buy something from your store to take advantage of the coupon.

You do need to remember not all offers are compelling for your prospects. Sometimes, even if you see the discount or deal as a generous one, your prospect may not see it that way.

If the discounted product (or free gift) isn’t very popular or useful, your offer may actually backfire and not inspire many visitors to subscribe to your mailing list.

2. Shopping Guide

Shopping guides provide information on a specific type of product intended to help buyers make a decision based on their budget and their specific requirements.

This type of lead magnet will work well with high-ticket items that have plenty of different features and capabilities, such as computers and appliances. But you can make it work for lower-priced items as well.

Since this lead magnet will make your potential customer’s decision-making process easier, they’re likely to sign up for your email list to get this useful guide.

3. Comparison Tables

Too many choices can be confusing for shoppers. Buying guides can help, but they may end up confusing prospective buyers further if there are too many choices.

The best way to get them to focus on the top options is to create a comparison table.

A comparison table is much easier to digest than an entire product buying guide. It’s portable like a checklist and your potential customer can take it with them anywhere.

Make certain the information is accurate and the chart is organized so it’s easy to read.

4. Quiz/Survey

Quizzes are usually the most entertaining of the lead magnets available.

You simply have your visitor answer a series of questions and then ask for their email address so you can send them their results.

It’s best to officially ask for their email address after they’ve answered because by then they want to see the results.

It’s also best to tailor the quiz to your product niche and what you’re selling on your ecommerce site. For example, a sports apparel store could create a quiz like “What Type Of Baseball Player Are You?” or “Which Teams Will Make the March Madness Final Four?”

This type of quiz can also have a prize of some sort for the winner or winners.

5. Checklist

Checklists are actionable items compiled and summarized into a single list. They’re easy to make, easy to download, and easy to read. It is a favorite lead magnet for many thousands of bloggers for that reason.

You can also use checklists as lead magnets in your eCommerce site. For example, if you’re selling organic products, you can provide a checklist of allowed and prohibited substances under the USDA guidelines.

6. Tutorial

A tutorial is any type of content that teaches how to do a specific process. This can be an infographic, a PDF document, or even a video tutorial.

Even if you’re running an eCommerce site, your tutorial doesn’t need to be strictly a product tutorial. You can teach a process that uses one of the products you sell. If you want to feature a product (probably your most expensive or a best seller), a tutorial is a good way to do so.

As an example, if you sell photography equipment, you can offer a short video tutorial of how to correctly adjust settings and lenses when shooting into the sun. Of course the camera you use and the lenses you show will be from your product listings.  

You can even repurpose a previously written “how-to” blog post about an important process in your niche and turn it into a tutorial.

7. Offer daily deals

The beauty about an ecommerce shop is that you can offer deals every day and on any product you want.

The key to turning your sales deals into lead magnets is to make them too enticing to pass up. This way, visitors will want to give you their contact information so that they can receive updates of your amazing daily deals.

8. Offer free shipping

Free shipping can create a pool of loyal customers for your store, as shipping costs are one expense that online shoppers would rather not incur. It serves no value and is often a stumbling block and a major factor to cart exits.

Now you won’t be alone in offering this lead magnet, but unlike WalMart and Amazon, perhaps you send them a free 2-3 day shipping code for any purchase over $XX (you decide) for a year. No Amazon Prime-like membership required.

A minimum order amount will not be a surprise as many retailers go this route.

9. Email Course

An email course is a series of emails sent in a particular order that discusses an important topic to your audience over a few days or weeks.

If a tutorial might give too much information in a single delivery, you might want to consider structuring it as an email course instead. This way your prospects can get bite-sized information per email.

For example, if you’re in the wedding party niche, you can create an email course for teaching them the day-to-day big steps needed to occur the week before the big event.

10. Ongoing Drawing for a Valuable Giveaway

Unlike a free gift offer, giveaways are won only by a very few lucky prospects.

For this reason, a giveaway needs to be a product (or group of products) with higher value than what you would give as free gifts.

In order to convince the right people to participate, you need the right giveaway. It’s best if you can have one of your products as a giveaway. Or maybe a bundle of related items can be a giveaway.

Don’t go with something your target audience might want like an Apple laptop but doesn’t relate to your product line. If you do this, you increase the odds of getting people to sign up who could care less about your products.

Giveaways work best if they’re on a regular basis. It depends on your product area, but once per month usually works well. Your potential customers will be more inclined to stay on your list so they don’t miss out on the chance to win the next giveaway.

This also offers a great opportunity for some social media love as well. Encourage those who win your giveaways to post about it on social media. There is nothing better than social proof that verifies there really are winners in your monthly giveaway. This visibility will motivate other interested audiences to subscribe to your mailing list.

Lead Magnets and Pinterest Work Together to Jumpstart Sales

Lead magnets are key to building a mailing list and developing a customer base that trusts your knowledge and the quality of your products.

Using Pinterest marketing to drive potential customers to your lead magnet and follow-up funnel will increase conversions and help your eCommerce store to higher levels of profits.