12 Awesome Lead Magnets for Ecommerce to Grow Your Revenue

OptiMonk
5 min readAug 3, 2021

The average conversion rate for ecommerce stores is around 3%. Thousands of visitors arrive on your site and your product pages, but most of them will never convert and become customers.

Lead magnets are an awesome way to turn one-stop visitors into repeat customers.

Ready to see how to do it right? In this post, we’ll cover 12 of the best, high-converting lead magnet ideas for ecommerce.

Let’s jump in.

Table of contents

What is a lead magnet?

What’s a good lead magnet for ecommerce?

12 best ecommerce lead magnet ideas to capture more leads

How to offer a lead magnet on your ecommerce site?

What is a lead magnet?

A lead magnet refers to the free content, item, or service a person receives when they share their contact details.

To unlock the “gate” and get their freebie, visitors first need to trade in their contact info — such as their email address, phone number, or location.

Lead magnets are a killer way to build a list of email subscribers.

And once you have your visitors’ contact details, you can easily nurture these relationships with email or SMS campaigns — boosting your conversions and customer loyalty.

What’s a good lead magnet for ecommerce?

Nearly everyone knows about the value of using a great lead magnet to grow their email list. That means that you can no longer get away with boring or unexciting offers.

People need to immediately see your lead magnet as a high-value offer if you want to capture their attention.

It needs to provide instant gratification — giving people something they really want. Or showcase the potential to solve a problem that your prospects run into.

Read on to see 12 tempting lead magnet examples.

12 best ecommerce lead magnet ideas to capture more leads

1. Offer a coupon

Coupons are a great choice for high-value lead magnets because your visitors can connect them with a specific monetary value.

Here’s how clothing ecommerce store Lucky Brand uses a 20% off coupon to get more email addresses:

Replicate their success by:

  • Using bold, large text to highlight the discount so your visitors can’t miss it.
  • Keep detail requests simple to ensure high conversions.
  • Don’t forget to include a basic checkbox for email signups and make it GDPR compliant.

2. Offer free shipping

There’s nothing that will make people ditch their cart faster than unexpected shipping costs. Not to mention that 82% of shoppers say they want free shipping.

Be like Oka.com and offer free delivery to entice new email subscribers:

Use this type of lead magnet to boost your sales and average order value at the same time.

By offering free shipping when people spend more than a predefined amount, you can easily increase your revenue.

3. Create swipe files

A swipe file is a goldmine of tested and proven methods. Swipe files act as a go-to resource that your prospects can access quickly and get instant value.

For example, Digital Marketer’s Social Media Swipe File includes 72 headlines for social media posts:

Check out the results of this popup by reading our case study (spoiler: Digital Marketer generated 2,689 leads in just 14 days).

How do you create an amazing swipe file?

Focus on a problem that your prospects often run into so that you can provide bite-sized solutions.

Let’s say you sell luxury moleskin notebooks. You could help writers solve their writer’s block by creating a swipe file of “21 of the Best Fiction Openers.”

4. Provide shopping guides

When people have too many choices, it takes them too long to decide what to buy. It’s easier to choose from 2 sweaters than from 25.

Help your prospects beat analysis paralysis and make it easier for them to choose a product from your site with a shopping guide for each product category.

See how Sephora uses this lead magnet type. They have a “Help Me Choose” section on their website with lots of guides and quizzes to help customers find the right products.

To replicate this strategy:

  • Implement quizzes that help match visitors to their ideal product.
  • Include buyer guides that showcase the benefits or value of each product in your inventory.

5. Create ebooks

Ebooks are a favorite for many companies when it comes to lead generation:

  • They give in-depth value — diving deep into a customer’s problem.
  • An ebook can help showcase your authority and position while it also builds trust with potential customers.
  • Your new ebook will keep your brand at the front of their minds.

When considering what kind of ebook would be best for your audience:

  • Review your analytics to find your best-performing blog posts. It’ll help you to find your most promising topics.
  • Run a short survey to find out which topics your customers want to read about.
  • Do some background research using Google Trends and similar tools to find the trending topics that are capturing people’s interest.

6. Host a giveaway

Looking for a lead magnet for physical products? Give your visitors an adrenaline fix by offering a prize giveaway. Offer one of your best-selling products or a bestselling bundle.

Giveaways are very fun and shareable. They make it easier to go viral than other lead magnets! Here’s how Guiltysoles does it right:

  • An eye-catching image to draw the eye.
  • Simple text that is easy to read and directs the visitor to your desired action (to enter in their details).
  • A clear, concise call to action button.

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