As with any business, there is a right way and a wrong way to find customers. This is true with online marketing as well. If your end goal is to find customers to purchase your product or service, you must give in order to receive.

When you look at any successful marketing campaign, you’ll find that its foundation is based upon providing a valuable solution to the customer’s problem. But how do you find those customers in today’s highly saturated online environment?

A lead magnet is your free, valuable information packaged into an attractive and easy-to-digest format. But it should not have an immediate goal of generating a sale. Instead, it’s a tool you should use to earn the permission to directly contact those on your email list in the future. As you have first provided them with that valuable lead magnet in exchange for their email, you then must continue gaining their trust over a period of time and eventually invite them to purchase your product or service later.

The difficult part here is making that initial pitch in the form of your lead magnet as some types are much more effective than others, quickly converting visitors to your website into email subscribers.

But before you start creating, make sure you take the time to get to know and understand your target audience. If you don’t understand what your audience is looking for (what they want to learn or what they need help with), you’ll spend your time creating an amazing and high-quality lead magnet that just does not convert. Your content must help solve the problem and provide the desired outcome for your target audience.

If you understand them, your content will gain their trust—and this converts to sales.

Now down to business.