How to use PDFs as lead magnets?
Most online marketing and sales activities are aimed at generating leads. This can be
quite a challenge for your company or organization, but it is so valuable and profitable
that it is worth investing heavily in. You can use a number of marketing activities
alongside well-prepared PDFs to generate leads. In this article, you will learn how to
generate leads easily using PDFs (showing HelpRange as a good platform example for doing it).
But before we start: first things first.
But before we start: first things first.
What Is Lead Generation?
The term lead generation means the process of obtaining contact data from potential
customers. The most common data are telephone numbers and email addresses. In order to
obtain leads, sellers and marketers have many techniques and online tools at their
disposal to support these activities. Another characteristic of lead generation is the
fact that this process should be semi-automatic, scalable, and subject to optimization.
Thanks to the classification of leads, it is easier for us to create and implement activities because they are focused on specific business goals.
When we think about leads, we have to think about people (personally), not contacts (subjectively). Then it is easier for us to understand what motivations our clients are guided by, so we can define a target group that has specific features and interests. Knowing our clients, we can also create personas that will allow us to “humanize” leads. In personal categories, we can distinguish the following types of leads:
Hot – those that require a quick response, generating the highest sales. Those are the leads that have heard of your product/services and expressed their serious interest in purchasing/converting.
Warm – those that determine whether a specific person belongs to our target group or is interested in the offer, but at the moment does not make any purchasing decisions. They may have heard of your services and products but they need more convincing when it comes to purchasing.
Cold – those that may be interested in a product or service but, in order for this to happen, additional communication channels must be used. Your brand is often unknown for them. These people need to be dealt with in the long term.
For each of those groups, you may want to test out a different set of lead generation practices. While some of them are rather dedicated to a particular group (e.g. cold calling may rather annoy warm and hot leads that have already been in touch with your brand), PDF lead generation is one idea that you can use throughout the full sales funnel.
Thanks to the classification of leads, it is easier for us to create and implement activities because they are focused on specific business goals.
When we think about leads, we have to think about people (personally), not contacts (subjectively). Then it is easier for us to understand what motivations our clients are guided by, so we can define a target group that has specific features and interests. Knowing our clients, we can also create personas that will allow us to “humanize” leads. In personal categories, we can distinguish the following types of leads:
Hot – those that require a quick response, generating the highest sales. Those are the leads that have heard of your product/services and expressed their serious interest in purchasing/converting.
Warm – those that determine whether a specific person belongs to our target group or is interested in the offer, but at the moment does not make any purchasing decisions. They may have heard of your services and products but they need more convincing when it comes to purchasing.
Cold – those that may be interested in a product or service but, in order for this to happen, additional communication channels must be used. Your brand is often unknown for them. These people need to be dealt with in the long term.
For each of those groups, you may want to test out a different set of lead generation practices. While some of them are rather dedicated to a particular group (e.g. cold calling may rather annoy warm and hot leads that have already been in touch with your brand), PDF lead generation is one idea that you can use throughout the full sales funnel.
Why Is It Worth Conducting Lead Generation?
Generating leads is a process that aims to bring profit to your organization. It offers
many opportunities for beneficial activities. By using lead generation, you have a
chance to:
Increase the effectiveness of marketing and sales activities by focusing on a specific target group. Build an extensive database with information about potential customers. These are valuable contacts who have provided their data because they are interested in your services or products. Form better customer relationships. Customers usually come to those who offer valuable content, which has an impact on growing trust and loyalty. Save money and time because your offer is addressed to people who are interested in your offer. While there are many interesting options for lead generation – blog posts, lead magnets, webinars just to name a few (and, to be frank, the list is expanding almost every single way), today we’re going to focus on PDF lead generation.
Firstly, because it’s easy and intuitive to do even if you’ve never been into lead generation before.
And secondly, because we can support it here at HelpRange.
Increase the effectiveness of marketing and sales activities by focusing on a specific target group. Build an extensive database with information about potential customers. These are valuable contacts who have provided their data because they are interested in your services or products. Form better customer relationships. Customers usually come to those who offer valuable content, which has an impact on growing trust and loyalty. Save money and time because your offer is addressed to people who are interested in your offer. While there are many interesting options for lead generation – blog posts, lead magnets, webinars just to name a few (and, to be frank, the list is expanding almost every single way), today we’re going to focus on PDF lead generation.
Firstly, because it’s easy and intuitive to do even if you’ve never been into lead generation before.
And secondly, because we can support it here at HelpRange.
PDF Lead Generation: The Nuts And Bolts
Why should you generate leads using PDFs?
There are a few advantages of using PDF files for lead generation:
To get some promising leads with PDFs, you do not need to set up websites or landing pages that have more extensive and complicated structures. All you need to do is create a PDF file and grant access upon provision of an email address or any other data of your choice (that’s also binding legally). Each PDF file can quickly become a lead magnet without any special additional measures. No matter if you have an e-book, infographic, specialized report, checklist, or a simple blog post to share – each of these forms may generate leads if you play it right. There’s no need for coding or spending long hours on creating your file: PDFs are easy to make, even using basic computer software with no requisite skill set. PDF is a virtual, yet trusted product. People have been downloading and uploading PDFs for ages now, so you aren’t introducing a brand new format – hence readers may be more persuaded to leave their email address and get your lead magnet in return. It’s a classic win-win – they get some value, and you get their data to process. For many, PDFs replace books and brochures – so make the most of them. The PDF format remains the same regardless of device, location, and the content of your file. Convenience at its finest!
To get some promising leads with PDFs, you do not need to set up websites or landing pages that have more extensive and complicated structures. All you need to do is create a PDF file and grant access upon provision of an email address or any other data of your choice (that’s also binding legally). Each PDF file can quickly become a lead magnet without any special additional measures. No matter if you have an e-book, infographic, specialized report, checklist, or a simple blog post to share – each of these forms may generate leads if you play it right. There’s no need for coding or spending long hours on creating your file: PDFs are easy to make, even using basic computer software with no requisite skill set. PDF is a virtual, yet trusted product. People have been downloading and uploading PDFs for ages now, so you aren’t introducing a brand new format – hence readers may be more persuaded to leave their email address and get your lead magnet in return. It’s a classic win-win – they get some value, and you get their data to process. For many, PDFs replace books and brochures – so make the most of them. The PDF format remains the same regardless of device, location, and the content of your file. Convenience at its finest!
Generate leads with PDFs using HelpRange
Do you know that HelpRange allows you to generate leads with your PDF files?
And it’s as easy as 1, 2, ....
HelpRange allows you to set the option of asking for an email address or other contact details (phone, company address, ...). To view your lead magnet – the PDF in this case – a potential lead needs to leave their details. They get access to the content while you get their data, and can start processing it for effective lead generation.
And it’s as easy as 1, 2, ....
HelpRange allows you to set the option of asking for an email address or other contact details (phone, company address, ...). To view your lead magnet – the PDF in this case – a potential lead needs to leave their details. They get access to the content while you get their data, and can start processing it for effective lead generation.
#3 Use Custom Landing Page
By using HelpRange you can prepare your custom landing page, where you can specify what
contact details user needs to provide to access your PDF. You can use your own domain
name, logo or colors to match your branding.
#4 Use PDF Viewer
As mentioned above, there are plenty of WordPress plugins. Such facilities allow you to
embed files directly into your site’s content. Thanks to this, you can allow your
subscribers to view a file in a convenient browser viewer on your website, instead of
downloading the file. PDF Embedder is one of the most popular plugins for WordPress that
supports embedding files on pages. Thanks to this plugin, you can allow users to take a
look at a document in a handy viewer, yet downloading it would not be a piece of cake.
If you have the premium version you can add a download button, but if you don’t want to
do so then there is no need. So you are in charge here!
In addition, HelpRange offers a full range of analytical possibilities, thanks to which
you can discover if and how your content affects the customer. It allows you to track
PDF files as well, so you can follow how the leads you generate interact with your
content. Thanks to this, we can know whether a document has been opened and on which
parts of the document the potential client was most focused. Importantly, it also allows
you to make corrections and updates to documents that have already been shared.
Good practices for creating PDF lead magnets
When creating PDF content that will attract audiences and generate leads, you must not
forget about a few good practices. They will make your actions more effective. Here they
are:
Simply create great content – take care of the appearance as well as its substantive value. Remember not only about the structure of your PDF, but also a catchy title that might persuade more people to download it (and therefore become your leads!). Shuffle free and paid content – for example, a checklist on 50 Great Social Media Post Ideas might be a great lead magnet to the opt-in of a paid social media course. Thanks to this, you will create a better sales funnel and have the chance of more conversions. Customize the language you use in your publications – it shouldn’t be too difficult or too simple. When in doubt, use the Hemingway App to evaluate the difficulty of your article. Use examples and links – PDFs allow you to link directly to examples on the web or to the products and services you offer via a hyperlink. However, remember to use them sparingly and at the right times, as well as attributing sources. Take care of the visibility and distribution of content – use your website to display an advertisement for the content via a pop-up, publication and advertising on social media, e.g. Facebook Ads. Use a tool such as HelpRange to prepare the file properly – as we mentioned before, this tool will help you conduct lead generation activities better. Analyze your PDFs and edit them quickly, without the need to share the content again. If you’ve created a great piece of content, use great tools for great reach and great lead generation. That’s it!
Simply create great content – take care of the appearance as well as its substantive value. Remember not only about the structure of your PDF, but also a catchy title that might persuade more people to download it (and therefore become your leads!). Shuffle free and paid content – for example, a checklist on 50 Great Social Media Post Ideas might be a great lead magnet to the opt-in of a paid social media course. Thanks to this, you will create a better sales funnel and have the chance of more conversions. Customize the language you use in your publications – it shouldn’t be too difficult or too simple. When in doubt, use the Hemingway App to evaluate the difficulty of your article. Use examples and links – PDFs allow you to link directly to examples on the web or to the products and services you offer via a hyperlink. However, remember to use them sparingly and at the right times, as well as attributing sources. Take care of the visibility and distribution of content – use your website to display an advertisement for the content via a pop-up, publication and advertising on social media, e.g. Facebook Ads. Use a tool such as HelpRange to prepare the file properly – as we mentioned before, this tool will help you conduct lead generation activities better. Analyze your PDFs and edit them quickly, without the need to share the content again. If you’ve created a great piece of content, use great tools for great reach and great lead generation. That’s it!
To Sum Up
Generating leads should play an important role in your organization’s marketing and
sales strategy. It gives you the chance to significantly increase your sales and
profits.
And although preparing and distributing some lead magnets can be troublesome, PDF lead generation is – by a mile – one of the quickest and most effective tactics for getting more leads for your brand.
Why wouldn’t you start testing this idea right away? Sign up for a free trial today and rock your lead generation strategy with PDF lead magnets.
And although preparing and distributing some lead magnets can be troublesome, PDF lead generation is – by a mile – one of the quickest and most effective tactics for getting more leads for your brand.
Why wouldn’t you start testing this idea right away? Sign up for a free trial today and rock your lead generation strategy with PDF lead magnets.
Check out HelpRange
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HelpRange represents the cutting-edge platform for document access controls and in-depth
analytics, ensuring superior management and usage insights for your documents.