For example, here at OptinMonster, we understand that our ideal customers include entrepreneurs, small business owners and marketers, and marketing professionals at medium and large businesses. Our target audience wants to improve their website conversions with an affordable, easy-to-use tool. This knowledge helps us create buyer personas that inform all our marketing and sales efforts.

In this blog, I’ll share a step-by-step guide on how to create a buyer persona, along with free buyer persona templates and examples.

• What is a Buyer Persona?
• Why Are Buyer Personas Important?
• Types of Buyer Personas
• How to Create a Buyer Persona
• Buyer Persona Templates and Generators
• 188 Buyer Persona Questions
• Buyer Persona Examples

What Is a Buyer Persona?

A buyer persona is a detailed, fictional profile representing your ideal customer or a segment of your target audience.

Also known as a customer persona, audience persona, or marketing persona, this tool is crafted from research and data about real customers and helps you better understand and relate to your potential customers’ needs, behaviors, and preferences.

It includes information but is not limited to:

• Who your customer is
• What they do for a living
• Their basic demographic info
• What problem they need to solve
• Their buying habits

Here’s an example of what a typical buyer persona might look like:

You may have more than one buyer persona. In fact, you probably should. Most products and services are a good fit for several different “types” of people, so you’ll need to create a buyer persona for each.

That way, when you write any blog post, email, or sales pitch (or even create a new product), you’ll know precisely which buyer persona(s) you are targeting. And in turn, you’ll enjoy much higher conversion rates.

Why Are Buyer Personas Important?

Buyer personas are important for businesses as they enable personalized marketing, improve customer experiences, foster team alignment, and support data-driven decision-making.

1. Personalized marketing: A buyer persona allows a business to tailor their marketing efforts to its target audience’s specific needs and wants.

2. Improve customer experience: By better understanding their customer pain points and goals, a business can create products and services that better meet their needs and provide a better overall customer experience.

3. Align teams: A buyer persona helps teams across the organization have a common understanding of the target audience, which leads to more consistent marketing messaging and branding.

4. Make data-driven decisions: By using data and research to validate the buyer persona, businesses can make data-driven decisions about their marketing and product development strategies.

Okay, now that you know what a buyer persona is and why it’s so important for your business, let’s dive into how to create your own!

Types of Buyer Personas

Here are some common types of buyer personas:

1. The Bargain Hunter: This persona is primarily price-motivated and always seeks the best deal. They are likely to be influenced by discounts, coupons, and sales.

2. The Quality Seeker: Quality and durability of products are the main concerns for this persona. They are willing to pay a higher price for products that offer superior quality or unique features.

3. The Brand Loyalist: This persona strongly prefers certain brands and is less price-sensitive regarding their favorite brands. They often make repeat purchases and can become brand advocates.

4. The Researcher: This buyer persona spends much time researching products before purchasing. They are detail-oriented and seek out comprehensive information, reviews, and comparisons.

5. The Impulsive Buyer: Often driven by emotion, this persona makes quick purchase decisions without much prior research. They are more likely to be influenced by eye-catching marketing and time-sensitive offers.

6. The Ethical Consumer: This persona prioritizes products and brands that are environmentally friendly, socially responsible, or aligned with their values.

7. The Tech Enthusiast: Always on the lookout for the latest technological advancements, this persona values innovation and cutting-edge product features.

8. The Convenience Seeker: For this persona, ease of purchase, delivery, and use is key. They value straightforward, hassle-free shopping experiences and might prefer online shopping or products that save time.

How To Create a Buyer Persona in 4 Steps

• Step 1: Conduct Market Research
• Step 2: Identify Pain Points and Goals
• Step 3: Create a Profile
• Step 4: Validate, Refine, and Update Your Persona

Step 1: Conduct Market Research

Identify the Target Audience

The first step in creating a buyer persona is identifying your target audience. This may involve analyzing your current customer base, looking at demographic data, or conducting surveys and focus groups. The goal is to understand who your customers are and what they need from your product or service.

Gather Demographic Information

Once you have identified your target audience, gathering demographic information is next. This may include age, gender, income, education level, location, and interests. This information will help you better understand your customers and create a more accurate representation of your ideal customer.

Analyze Market Data

In addition to demographic data, iit’s important to analyze market data such as customer behavior and purchasing habits. This information will give you insights into how your customers make buying decisions and what factors influence them.

You can gather your audience’s data from your customer database, Google Analytics, and social media analytics.

Step 2: Identify Pain Points and Goals

Determine the Challenges Faced by Your Target Audience

It’s important to understand the challenges faced by your target audience, as this will help you identify their pain points. This may involve researching common problems in your industry or conducting surveys and focus groups to gather customer feedback.

Understand Their Goals and Aspirations

In addition to identifying pain points, it’s important to understand your customers’ goals and aspirations. This will give you insight into what motivates them and what they hope to achieve by using your product or service.

The sales team and customer support department are key to answering these questions. Still, another great way is to engage in some social listening and social media sentiment analysis.

Putting up search streams to track mentions of your brand, products, and competitors gives you real-time insight into what people are talking about you online. This way, you know what they love about your products or what needs to be improved.

Step 3: Create a Profile

Give Your Buyer Persona a Name

Once you have gathered all your data, the next step is creating a profile for your buyer persona.

Start by giving them a name. Giving your persona a name will help to humanize them and make it easier to refer to them when making decisions about your business.

Develop a Detailed Description of Your Persona

The next step is to develop a detailed description of your persona, including demographic information, pain points, goals, and motivations. You can also include a photo or illustration to help you visualize the persona.

The more detailed the profile, the better you’ll be able to understand your target audience and tailor your marketing efforts to their needs.

 Step 4: Validate, Refine, and Update Your Persona

Conduct Surveys and Interviews With Your Target Audience

To make sure that your buyer persona is accurate, it’s important to validate it through surveys and interviews with your target audience. This will give you additional insights and help refine your persona as needed.

Analyze Customer Feedback and Data

You can also analyze customer feedback and data to see how well your persona matches your customers’ actual behavior. You may need to revise and refine your persona based on this information.

Your buyer persona is not set in stone and should be updated as you gather more information. Continuously review and refine your persona as you collect new data and insights.

Buyer Persona Templates and Generator

There are tons of free buyer persona templates and buyer persona generators available on the internet, but here is a curated list of all the best ones.

1. Xtensio’s User Persona Creator

Xtensio’s User Persona Creator is a neat app that offers a buyer persona template that allows you to enter your persona’s demographics, goals, frustrations, bio, motivations, preferred channels, and brands. You can even add modules to the avatar as you see fit. Register for a free account to get started with the tool.

2. Digital Marketer’s Customer Avatar Worksheet

Digital Marketer’s Customer Avatar Worksheet is the buyer persona template we use here at OptinMonster. It includes all the important areas in a simple PDF format that you can fill on your computer.

3. Demand Metric’s Buyer Persona Template

Demand Metric’s Buyer Persona Template is an Excel spreadsheet that includes multiple tabs for multiple consumer personas. It’s a great way to view all of your target customers at a glance, with all relevant information. They’ve even included a video with helpful instructions for filling it out.

4. Marketo’s Marketing Persona Cheat Sheet

Marketo’s Marketing Persona Cheat Sheet is unique because it includes a fill-in-the-blank map for creating your consumer persona. It also contains instructions for how to create a customer journey, along with a buyer journey template.

5. Filestage’s Buyer Persona Template

Filestage’s Buyer Persona Template is simple and elegant. Some unique features of this template are sections for a tag cloud, archetype, and product adoption group. It also comes with a PowerPoint version as well as a PDF version.

6. “MakeMyPersona” Buyer Persona Generator

MakeMyPersona is a buyer persona generator by HubSpot. All you have to do is click on the “Start Making My Persona” button, and it will ask you a series of questions about your ideal customer. Once you’re done, they’ll send you a PDF with a headshot for your customer avatar.

188 Buyer Persona Questions

While the above buyer persona templates are excellent starting points, sometimes you’ll want to go more in-depth than the questions covered by any generic template.

Depending on your industry and your products, certain “niche” buyer persona questions are important for your business to answer.

To help you discover these questions, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of every possible question you want to ask about your target customer. The list is broken down into categories, so focus on your business’s relevant categories and questions.

Demographics

1. What is your name?
2. What is your age?
3. What is your gender?
4. Where do you live?
5. What is your racial/ethnic heritage?
6. What is your annual income?
7. What is your highest level of education?
8. What is your occupation?

Back Story

1. What is your birthplace?
2. Where did you grow up?
3. Was it a rural, suburban, or urban area?
4. What kind of house did you grow up in?
5. Who raised you?
6. What did your parents (or primary caregivers) do for a living?
7. Are your parents still married?
8. Did your parents have a permissive or authoritarian parenting style?
9. Do you have any siblings?
10. What is your birth order?
11. What are your favorite childhood memories?
12. What were your favorite childhood activities?
13. What was your favorite subject in school?
14. What was your least favorite subject?
15. What grades did you get in school?
16. Do you enjoy learning new things?
17. Did you have a lot of friends, a few close friends, or no friends?
18. Did you get in trouble at school?
19. Did you attend college?
20. If so, what did you major in?
21. What college did you attend?
22. Did you enjoy your college experience?
23. What did you do after high school if you didn’t attend college?
24. What stopped you from going to college?
25. What was your first job?

Personal Life

1. What is your marital status?
2. Are you happy about your current marital status?
3. Do you have any children?
4. If so, how many and how old are they?
5. Are they boys or girls?
6. Do your children live with you?
7. If you don’t have children, do you want to have children in the future?
8. Are you likely to have children in the future?
9. Do you have any pets?
10. If yes, how many and what are they?
11. What type of housing do you currently live in?
12. Who lives in the house with you?
13. Are you happy with your current situation or wish it was different?
14. How close are you to your extended family?
15. Do you currently have many friends, a few friends, or no friends at all?
16. Do you see your friends often?
17. Who are the most important people in your life?
18. Are you religious?
19. What is your political orientation?
20. Are you actively involved in politics?
21. Do you make an effort to stay fit and healthy?
22. What type of exercise do you do?
23. If you don’t exercise, why not?
24. Do you play any sports?
25. Do you care about your appearance?
26. What hobbies do you currently pursue?
27. What do you like to do in your free time?
28. What social groups/activities do you participate in?
29. Are you environmentally conscious?
30. What is your favorite TV show?
31. What is your favorite movie?
32. What type of music do you listen to?
33. Do you enjoy reading?
34. Are you a morning person or a night owl?
35. What do you do first thing in the morning?
36. Do you cook at home or eat out?
37. Are you a neat freak, or are you OK with messes?
38. How much time do you spend at work and at home?
39. How do you spend your weekends?
40. Where do you shop?
41. What do you read for fun?
42. Do you drink?
43. Do you smoke?
44. Do you experiment with recreational substances?
45. What do you wish was different about your weekly routine?
46. Are you tech-savvy?
47. What news sources do you read?
48. Do you enjoy traveling?
49. Do you regularly go on vacation?
50. If so, where do you go?
51. Have you ever been backpacking?
52. What is your current literacy level?
53. Do you prefer baths or showers?

Career

1. What is your industry?
2. What is your job title?
3. What are your responsibilities?
4. Who do you report to?
5. What is the size of your company?
6. What skills are required for your job?
7. What metrics are you responsible for/how is your job measured?
8. What does a typical workday look like?
9. What knowledge and tools do you use in your job?
10. What are your challenges at work?
11. How do you learn new information about your job?
12. How do you prefer to interact with vendors?
13. How did you arrive at your current position?
14. What is your salary?
15. Do you feel like you’re compensated fairly?
16. Do you like your boss?
17. Do you like your coworkers?
18. Do you like the work you’re assigned to?
19. What would you change about your job, if you could?
20. What does your career path look like?
21. Are you considering a career change?
22. What is your dream job?
23. Do you have plans to pursue your dream job?
24. What work-related associations do you participate in?
25. When do you plan to retire?

Personality

1. How would you describe your personality?
2. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
3. Are you optimistic or pessimistic?
4. Are you more right-brained or left-brained?
5. Are you quiet or boisterous?
6. Are you practical or prone to flights of fancy?
7. Do you prefer to follow the rules or challenge boundaries?
8. Do you like to take risks or play it safe?
9. Are you an innovator or someone who tends to go with the flow?
10. Are you flexible or rigid in your thought patterns?
11. Are you spontaneous, or do you prefer pre-determined plans?
12. Are you motivated by your achievements or by what others think of your efforts?
13. How affected are you emotionally by other people’s judgments?
14. What would it take for you to deem your life a success?
15. What would make you think your life was a failure?

Web/Purchase Behavior

1. What social media sites do you use?
2. How do you use the internet to search for products or vendors?
3. Could you describe a recent purchase?
4. How do you prefer to make online payments?
5. Are you concerned about online privacy?
6. How adept are you at using technology?
7. Do you tend to embrace new technologies or prefer to stick with systems you know?
8. Are you a fluent internet user?
9. What operating system do you use?
10. What internet browser do you use?
11. What mobile devices do you use?
12. What is your preferred search engine?
13. What is your preferred method of communication?
14. What sites do you usually shop on?
15. Do you use your cell phone to make purchases?
16. Where do you go to learn about a product or service?
17. How important is it for you to get a good deal?
18. What indulgent or luxurious purchases do you make?

Finances

1. What is your net worth?
2. Do you have debt?
3. If so, what type?
4. Do you make purchase decisions carefully, or are you loose with your money?
5. How do you feel about your current spending habits?
6. What factors drive you to make a purchase?
7. Are you the main breadwinner in your household?
8. Are you the financial/purchase decision-maker?

Goals, Challenges and Pain Points

1. What are your goals in life?
2. What are your career goals?
3. What do you hope to gain from using our product?
4. What accomplishments are you proudest of?
5. What are the top three things on your bucket list?
6. What is the most frustrating part of your day?
7. What regular activities do you find stressful?
8. What makes you nervous?
9. What do you worry about?
10. What makes you feel scared?
11. What is the fastest way for someone to make you angry?
12. What is the least favorite part of your job?
13. What is the worst job you can imagine?
14. What is the worst customer service experience you’ve ever had?
15. What purchase did you most regret?

Product Insight/Objections to the Sale

1. What objections do you have for our product?
2. What factors might make you choose a competitor’s product over ours?
3. How can we help you to solve your unique challenges?
4. How does our product help you become your ideal self?
5. How do you prefer to communicate?
6. How can we meet your needs through onboarding?
7. What questions would you ask yourself before buying a product?
8. What is your number one concern when deciding whether or not to make a purchase?
9. How do you prefer to make a purchase (online, over the phone, or in person)?
10. When making a purchase online, what is your preferred payment method?

Questions To Ask Your Sales and Marketing Teams

1. What technical and demographic information do you have about our website, and visitors?
2. How are you currently marketing to our target customers?
3. What marketing campaigns have been the most successful?
4. What marketing campaigns have been the least successful?
5. Which blog posts have received the most traffic/social shares/comments/etc.?
6. What are the most frequently asked questions on the blog or from customers?
7. Which pages on our website receive the most impressions?
8. What types of customers do you typically meet?
9. Why do different types of customers typically make a purchase?
10. What reasons do customers cite for selecting us over our competitors?
11. What are the most common objections you hear?

Buyer Persona Examples

Now, let’s take a look at some concrete buyer persona examples.

Shared by Indie Game Girl

Shared by Mallory Haack

Shared by Buyer Persona Institute

Shared by Buffer

Shared by Buffer

Shared by Single Grain

That’s it! In this detailed guide, we have walked you through the meaning of buyer persona, its importance, and how to create a buyer persona for your business.

We also shared some buyer persona templates, a comprehensive list of questions to ask about your target customer, and some examples of buyer personas.

Now it’s your turn. Follow the steps above to create your buyer persona and clearly understand the individuals you serve.

Buyer Persona FAQ

1. What are the 4 types of buyer personas?

The 4 types of buyer personas are:

1. The Economic Buyer: Focuses on cost-effectiveness and ROI.
2. The Technical Buyer: Seeks detailed, technical information about products or services.
3. The User Buyer: Emphasizes usability and how the product or service fits into their daily routine.
4. The Coach (Influencer): Not a direct buyer but influences others in decision-making.

2. What best describes a buyer persona?

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of an ideal customer based on market research and real data about existing customers.

3. What do you write in a buyer persona?

Content in a buyer persona is:

• Demographic information (age, occupation, location)
• Behavior patterns and lifestyle choices
• Pain points and challenges
• Goals and aspirations
• Preferred channels of communication

4. What are the key components of a buyer persona?

Key components of a buyer persona are:

• Background: Job, career path, family
• Demographics: Age, gender, income level
• Identifiers: Communication preferences, demeanor
• Goals: Primary and secondary goals
• Challenges: Main obstacles they face
• How We Help: How your product/service solves their challenges
• Real Quotes: From interviews or surveys
• Common Objections: Reasons they might not buy
• Marketing Message: How to describe your solution to them.

5. What is negative persona?

Negative personas or negative buyer personas represent those who you dont want to target as a customer

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Good marketing content has become a lot more engaging lately. Audiences don’t just want to look at content. They want to experience it. Mediafly’s recent study on content engagement found that interactive content gets 52.6% more engagement, meaning that gamification in marketing can have big results.

Games and marketing may sound strange, but they’re actually a match made in heaven. Visitors have fun interacting with their favorite brands. Companies increase customer engagement. Everybody wins.

Ready to learn more? Read on to learn about gamification marketing and how it can be used to convert.

• What Is Gamification in Marketing?
• Key Components of Gamification Marketing
• The Benefits of Gamification Marketing
• Why Gamification Marketing Is Effective?
• Gamification Marketing Examples
• Gamification Marketing With OptinMonster

What Is Gamification Marketing?

Gamification marketing is a strategy that uses game-like elements, such as points, badges, and rewards, to engage and motivate customers. Marketers use gamification to drive actions like purchases, sign-ups, or content sharing. This approach makes marketing campaigns more fun by tapping into people’s love for competition and achievement, ultimately increasing customer loyalty and engagement.

At its core, gamification marketing takes the elements that make games appealing and addictive. It applies those elements to non-game contexts like purchasing products, engaging with a brand on social media platforms, or participating in promotional activities.

By doing so, marketers can transform otherwise ordinary interactions into compelling, enjoyable user experiences that encourage the target audience to engage more deeply and frequently with a brand.

Even if you’ve never heard of it before, you’ve probably experienced gamification at some point.

Remember when McDonald’s and Hasbro came together to create a fast-food Monopoly game?

That’s gamification. Those concepts can be actual games, trophies, or even points. The idea is that marketing content that mirrors games is better at engaging visitors.

Key Components of Gamification Marketing

Key components of gamification in marketing include:

1. Points: These serve as a quantifiable measure of progress or achievement. Points can be used to track purchases, social media interactions, or any other form of engagement with a brand, rewarding users for their activities.
2. Levels: Levels indicate a user’s progression and are often tied to increasing rewards or status. As consumers accumulate points or complete specific tasks, they can “level up,” unlocking new benefits or exclusive offers.
3. Badges: Badges are visual symbols of accomplishments or milestones. They can be used to recognize and reward a wide range of actions, from simple tasks like signing up for a newsletter to more complex achievements such as completing a series of purchases or challenges.
4. Leaderboards: Leaderboards rank users based on their achievements or points, fostering a sense of competition and community. They can motivate users to increase their engagement in pursuit of recognition or rewards.
5. Challenges and Quizzes: These are specific actions or trivias that users are encouraged to complete or answer. Challenges and quests can add a narrative element to the engagement, making the interaction more intriguing and enjoyable.
6. Rewards: Rewards are incentives that motivate continued engagement. They can be tangible, like discounts or free products, or intangible, such as exclusive content or status recognition.

By integrating these game elements, gamification in marketing creates a more dynamic and interactive relationship between consumers and brands.

It not only incentivizes specific behaviors but also enhances the overall customer experience, making interactions with the brand more memorable and enjoyable.

Does gamification work, though? Let’s look at its benefits to find out.

The Benefits of Gamification in Marketing

Gamified content makes your marketing sales funnel better.

It’s engaging, so people remember it. This, in turn, creates greater brand awareness.

Customers start to think more about your brand, which gets them curious. They subscribe to newsletters, buy one or more of your products. All of a sudden, you converted a visitor into a customer and it’s all because of gamified marketing.

How effective is gamification strategy at helping brands meet their goals? Very effective, according to the gamification marketing results we’ve seen:

• After using points and badges to gamify their website, Verizon Wireless boosted browsing time by 30% among half their users.
• Gamification helped Volkswagen China’s crowdsourcing project go viral. As a result, they garnered over 33 million hits and nearly 120,000 ideas submitted.
• Ford Motors increased sales by more than $8 million and boosted Facebook likes by 600% with gamified content.

These statistics prove gamification and marketing go together like peanut butter and jelly. Or Vegemite and toast, if you’re Australian?

Now, back to our initial question. What are the benefits of gamification in marketing?

• It increases customer engagement. That reduces the likelihood that visitors will scroll past your content. We call that “banner blindness” and it’s a real problem.
• Conversion rates skyrocket as visitors become motivated to complete tasks for reward. That reward could be a cool badge or trophy, points, or a special feature.
• Brand awareness and brand loyalty increase as visitors interact more with your content.
• Games are a fun experience.

Want to exceed your sales and marketing goals? Gamify it. It’s actually one of the most effective ways to growth hack your eCommerce business.

Why Gamification Marketing Is Effective?

What makes gamification so appealing to the average person?

For starters, most examples of gamification in business are interactive. And who doesn’t love interactive content?

Think about all the times you’ve come across gamified content. If you’re like most people, you clicked it just to see what would happen.

It’s hard not to. Games make everything better. After all, how irresistible is the minigame in Google Chrome that pops up every time a website times out?

According to this report by Demand Gen, 93% of marketers love gamification. In contrast, only 70% believe static, or non-interactive, content engages visitors. But that’s not all, here are a few other key takeaways from the report:

• 81% of marketers believe interactive content is more attention-grabbing than its static counterpart.
• 88% of B2B marketers plan on converting 10 to 30% of their material to interactive content.
• Roughly 70% of marketers believe interactive content is successful at converting visitors.

In short, people enjoy interactive experiences and they enjoy playing games. Gamified marketing combines the two. It gives visitors a unique experience that doesn’t exist in traditional marketing.

Even something as simple as badges can motivate people to do more. Check out the picture below to see how Dropbox used cute badges to get their marketing team to reach target goals.

And guess what. It works! People want to feel a sense of accomplishment. When they complete each task, it feels like they’ve achieved something great.

Additionally, gamified marketing makes customers feel like they’re in control. They get to choose how they interact with your content. This adds a whole new layer of fun and excitement that isn’t often available elsewhere.

Sold on gamified marketing? Great! Let’s look at some examples of how you can bring it into your own marketing campaigns.

Gamification Marketing Examples

Gamification has been successfully implemented in various marketing strategies across different industries, turning routine interactions into engaging experiences. Here are some notable examples:

1. Starbucks Rewards

Starbucks Rewards is a prime example of gamification in the retail sector. By using a mobile app, customers earn stars for every purchase, which can be redeemed for free drinks, food items, or merchandise. The program features levels (Green and Gold), with customers advancing to the Gold level after earning a certain number of stars. This level-up mechanism, combined with limited-time challenges and the ability to earn bonus stars, keeps customers engaged and encourages frequent purchases.

2. Nike+ Run Club

Nike+ Run Club app gamifies the experience of running. Users can track their runs, set goals, and participate in challenges with runners worldwide. The app offers badges for achievements like running certain distances or completing a number of runs in a month. This gamification strategy not only motivates individuals to stay active but also fosters a sense of community and brand loyalty among users.

3. Duolingo

Duolingo, a language learning platform, uses gamification to make education fun and addictive. Learners earn points (XP) for completing lessons, advance through levels, and receive virtual coins that can be used to unlock bonus skills or buy streak freezes. The app also features a leaderboard where users can compete against friends or other learners worldwide, adding a competitive edge to the learning process.

4. M&M’s Eye-Spy Pretzel

M&M’s launched a successful gamified marketing campaign with the “Eye-Spy Pretzel” game. In this campaign, users were challenged to find a pretzel hidden among a sea of M&M’s candies in an image posted online. This simple yet engaging game not only went viral but also effectively promoted the new pretzel-flavored M&M’s, demonstrating how gamification can enhance brand awareness and engagement through social media.

5. Sephora Beauty Insider

Sephora’s Beauty Insider program incorporates gamification elements to enhance customer loyalty. Members earn points for every purchase, which can be redeemed for rewards like exclusive products, samples, and experiences. The program features tiers (Insider, VIB, and Rouge), with each level offering more exclusive benefits and rewards. Seasonal savings, birthday gifts, and access to special events are part of the gamified experience, encouraging customers to increase their spending to reach higher tiers.

6. Domino’s Pizza Hero

Domino’s Pizza introduced the “Pizza Hero” app, a game that allows users to design their virtual pizza by kneading dough, spreading sauce, and adding toppings. Players’ creations could be ordered from Domino’s in real life. The game also featured challenges and leaderboards, turning pizza ordering into a fun and interactive experience. This innovative approach not only engaged customers but also drove sales.

These examples illustrate the versatility of gamification in marketing, showing how it can be applied across different industries to engage customers, enhance brand loyalty, and drive specific consumer behaviors.

Gamification Marketing With OptinMonster

Gamification isn’t some secret that only top companies know about. You don’t have to be a game developer for Nintendo to use it. It’s actually very easy to weave into your current marketing strategy.

Below are our favorite gamification examples in sales and marketing anyone can use.

1. The “Spin-to-Win” Wheel

The spin-to-win discount wheel turns lead generation into a fun game that visitors love. That’s because it gives them a chance to earn rewards by giving contact information.

Moreover, the spin-to-win optin stands out. It’s fun and unique, so visitors are less likely to ignore your popups. And that’s great for reaching your conversion goals.

What’s more, you have complete control over the wheel’s setup. You choose what prizes you want to give and how many wheel slices to include. You can add anything from discounts to special offers and free shipping.

Related ContentCreate a “Spin to Win” Optin to Easily Boost Engagement

This converts visitors into leads and encourages them to finish their purchasing journey. Because, if they’ve earned 25% off a product, they might as well go ahead and buy it.

Use OptinMonster to integrate our ready-made wheel template into your marketing campaign. Feel free to use it as is, or customize your wheel any way you see fit. Then, watch your conversion rates skyrocket with a few clicks of a button.

By the way, we’re not joking when we say, “a few clicks of a button.”

Look at how easy it is to customize rewards on your discount wheel with OptinMonster.

2. The Completeness Meter

The completeness meter is another great gamified element that’s straightforward and effective. Google, Dropbox, and LinkedIn have all used completeness meters in their marketing campaign. The example shown above is LinkedIn’s meter, in the form of a progress bar.

The goal of this meter is to get the reader to complete all steps on a particular journey. In the case of LinkedIn, that journey is fleshing out your profile. When you add a picture, work history, your location, education, and so on, you complete the meter. And when you complete it, you get a trophy.

You can use a completeness meter for almost any action that involves two or more steps. Here are some examples:

• Getting visitors to complete questionnaires and service quotes.
• Sending customers down every step of the purchasing journey.
• Having visitors complete an optin for your mailing list or event.

The possibilities are endless.

Are you an eCommerce site on WordPress? Creating and implementing a progress bar only takes a couple of minutes with the help of WPForms. Gamifying progress has never been easier.

3. Digital Badges

Badges are one of the most popular types of gamification. They’re seen everywhere, from Ebay’s star rating system to Facebook’s trophies for top fans.

Badges are great for building brand loyalty. That’s because they recognize the work your customers put into using your product. It’s like saying “Thank you for your support. Here’s a cool trophy.”

Customers look at earning badges as an accomplishment. They’re fun to collect, so customers interact with your product even more to unlock new badges. For this reason, digital badges have been successfully used as motivation tools for:

• Employees in the workplace.
• Students taking online learning courses.
• Customers in eCommerce loyalty programs.

The Khan Academy created a wide range of digital badges for students. They can earn a new badge after completing a task or earning a set number of points.

Naturally, it worked like a charm. Students were motivated to do more than complete assignments. They actually wanted to collect badges to show to their peers.

Badges are very popular on education-related platforms. That’s something to consider if you’re promoting academic courses or training programs. Of course, you can use badges outside of education as well. They’re great for acknowledging:

• Supporters who share your content on social media.
• Brand ambassadors who onboard friends and family.
• Loyal customers who spend a lot of money on your services.

In other words, any task that goes above and beyond what’s expected is something you can reward with a badge.

Best of all, creating badges isn’t as hard as you think. The WordPress plugin BadgeOS lets you build an achievement program with badges in minutes. No need to burn the midnight oil coming up with a comprehensive set of badges like the Khan Academy’s.

Sign up for your 100% risk-free OptinMonster account today!

Ready to Level up Your Marketing Efforts?

If you want your brand to last the test of time, you have to keep up with customer expectations.

Many customers value enjoyable experiences, which is as important as the product itself. It’s up to you to deliver those experiences in your gamified campaign. Fortunately, you can do that with gamified content that makes your optins fun and engaging.

Want to know how?

Here’s the real ProTip.

You can give your marketing strategy a mega-power boost with OptinMonster’s smart lead generation tools. OptinMonster has everything you need to create gamified content that promotes growth and engages visitors.

Imagine being known as the brand with awesome optins. With OptinMonster, you can.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also want to check out the following resource: How to Create a Discount Wheel Popup (the Easy Way).

That will have everything you need to create your gamified popup in minutes.

Ready to get started? Sign up for your 100% risk-free OptinMonster account today!

Also check out:

• 8 Digital Marketing Best Practices
• 3 Easy Steps to Awesome User-Generated Content
• 8 Website Metrics to Track to Boost Conversions and Explode Your Growth

Whether you’re looking to grow your email list or boost sales, the right type of popup can be pivotal in reaching your goals.

If you’re new to popups and want a quick overview, check out our beginner’s guide to website popups. It covers everything you need to know to get started.

In this article, I’ll explore 11 types of popups that deliver real results. I’ll also cover how each popup format works and provide actionable tips for using them on your site. Along the way, you’ll see 15+ website popup examples, so you can get inspiration for your own strategy.

• What Are the Types of Popups?
• Types of Popups by Function
• Types of Popups by Goal

What Are the Types of Popups?

The types of popups can be categorized based on how they work or based on what they aim to achieve. Here’s how I’m breaking them down in this post:

• Types of Popups by Function: These popups are defined by their design and how they appear on your site, such as lightbox popups, slide-ins, or fullscreen overlays. They focus on the user’s experience and interaction with the popup itself.
• Types of Popups by Goal: These popups are categorized by the specific marketing objectives they help you achieve, like growing your email list, recovering abandoned carts, or promoting limited-time offers.

Understanding these categories will help you choose the perfect popup type for your website. Let’s start with popups by function.

Types of Popups by Function

In this section, I’ll explore the 5 most popular types of popups categorized by how they function on your site. These are tried-and-true formats that can work across industries and website types.

1. Lightbox Popups
2. Slide-In Popups
3. Fullscreen Popups
4. Gamified Popups
5. Exit Popups

1. Lightbox Popups

Lightbox popups are centered overlays that dim the background, drawing the visitor’s full attention to your message. These popups are excellent for capturing leads or promoting an offer.

Lightbox Popup Example

OptinMonster customer Nick Gray used this popup to build his email list and promote his book. This lightbox popup converted a fantastic 10.59% of visitors! Overall, OptinMonster helped Gray increase his monthly email subscribers by 600%. Read the full Nick Gray case study.

How to Use Lightbox Popups Effectively

• Keep It Simple: Highlight one message, such as a discount or a lead magnet, and include a clear CTA.
• Target Smartly: Use OptinMonster’s advanced targeting rules to show relevant offers to visitors. For example, Page-Level Targeting lets you show popups based on which webpage your visitor is viewing.
• A/B Test for Success: Experiment with different headlines, colors, and CTAs using OptinMonster’s built-in split testing. Find out what resonates with your audience and optimize every aspect of your popup.

2. Slide-In Scroll Box Popups

Slide-in Scroll Box popups enter from the side or bottom corner of the page, offering a subtler alternative to lightbox popups. They’re ideal for maintaining engagement without fully interrupting the visitor.

Slide-In Popup Example

Here’s an example of a slide-in popup we’ve used here on OptinMonster’s website. This campaign encourages blog readers to sign up for our weekly live webinar. As you can see, the popup remains on the side of the page and doesn’t prevent the visitor from reading the blog content.

How to Use Slide-In Popups Effectively

• Time It Right: Trigger the popup after the user scrolls a certain percentage of the page with OptinMonster’s Scroll Trigger feature.
• Add Context: Use these popups to suggest related blog posts or promote signups for a webinar based on the user’s behavior.
• Personalize Content: Combine slide-in popups with OptinMonster’s Page-Level Targeting to make them hyper-relevant to the visitor’s interests.

3. Fullscreen Popups

Fullscreen mat popups take over the entire screen, making them impossible to ignore. They’re a powerful option for promoting major campaigns or high-value offers.

Fullscreen Popup Example

Here’s an example of a fullscreen welcome message that I created using one of OptinMonster’s 700+ premade templates. I started with the fullscreen version of our Tech Discount template and customized it in our easy drag-and-drop builder. OptinMonster’s robust display rules let you target campains like this one specifically to first-time visitors. This fullscreen popup welcomes new visitors and catches their attention with an enticing offer.

How to Use Fullscreen Popups Effectively

• Focus on High-Value Offers: Reserve fullscreen popups for important messages like seasonal discounts, limited-time sales, or free resource downloads.
• Include a Clear Exit Option: Avoid frustrating users by making the close button highly visible.
• Optimize for Mobile: Use OptinMonster’s mobile-responsive and mobile-optimized templates to ensure fullscreen popups display beautifully on all devices.

4. Gamified Popups

Gamified popups, like spin-to-win wheels, add an interactive element to engage users and increase conversions. These popups combine fun with functionality.

Gamified Popup Example

This OptinMonster template asks visitors to enter an email address to spin a coupon wheel. OptinMonster offers dozens of gamified templates, and you can also add a coupon wheel to any campaign in our drap-and-drop builder.

How to Use Gamified Popups Effectively

• Offer Meaningful Rewards: Use prizes like discounts or free trials to entice users to spin the wheel.
• Leverage OptinMonster’s Gamified Templates: Quickly design an engaging campaign without needing a designer.
• Customize your prize odds: OptinMonster lets you decide the odds for landing on each prize.

5. Exit-Intent® Popups

The types of popups above are based on what they look like. This popup type is based on when and how it appears. Exit popups display when visitors are about to leave your website. They give you one final opportunity to engage the user before they go.

OptinMonster’s powerful Exit-Intent® technology uses mouse movements and mobile scroll to detect when visitors are trying to leave.

Exit Popup Example

This exit popup is from Shockbyte, a game server provider. This simple campaign converted 13.73% of abandoning visitors into email subscribers! Shockbyte used this and other OptinMonster popups to over double their sales. Read the full Shockbyte case study.

How to Use Exit Popups Effectively

• Offer Discounts: Encourage new visitors to make their first purchases with a coupon code.
• Promote Lead Magnets: Use exit popups to offer downloadable resources, and capture email addresses before users navigate away.
• Target cart and checkout pages: Reduce cart abandonment with exit popups promoting special offers. Convince shoppers to complete their purchases!

Types of Popups by Goal

Different popups can help you achieve specific marketing objectives. Below, I’ll explore key popup types categorized by their goals, and I’ll share actionable tips for using them effectively.

6. Lead Generation Popups
7. Cart Abandonment Popups
8. Sales Conversion Popups
9. Bounce Rate Reduction Popups
10. Customer Feedback Popups
11. Content-Gating Popups

6. Lead Generation Popups

Lead generation popups are designed to collect visitor information, such as email addresses. They often include a lead magnet, which is an offer something valuable like a free resource or exclusive content in exchange for an email address. They can also simply promote the value of the brand’s email newsletter.

Here are 2 examples of successful lead generation popups:

Lead Generation Popup Example 1: American Bird Conservancy‘s Pledge Popup

The American Bird Conservancy (ABC) used OptinMonster to improve their lead generation by 1,000%. The targeted Yes/No popup was a big part of that growth.

ABC has a section on their website dedicated to educating people about the importance of keeping their pet cats indoors. This popup only showed up for visitors who had been reading those pages. Visitors who clicked the “I Want to Protect Cats & Birds!” CTA button were redirected to a landing page. There, they could sign a pledge to keep their cats indoors.

To take the pledge, each user enters their name, physical address, email address, and phone number. By collecting this information, ABC creates a strong new lead. And they have all the data they need to add this lead to the proper segmented lists. Read the full American Bird Conservancy case study.

Lead Generation Popup Example 2: OptinMonster’s Lead Magnet Popup

Here’s one of OptinMonster’s own popups where we offer an in-depth PDF guide in exchange for an email optin. In fact, this popup is part of a strategy we use throughout our site, specifically our blog:

1. We create long-form cheatsheets, checklists, and ebooks related to important topics related to our product.
2. We offer these lead magnets in popups on our blog posts related to that topic.

Users reading any of our articles about email marketing have already shown that they want to learn more about the topic. By offering them a related lead magnet, we move those visitors further through our sales funnel.

Tips for Lead Generation Popups

• Offer Value: Provide an incentive, like a checklist or an ebook, that aligns with your audience’s interests.
• Target Specifically: Use OptinMonster’s Page-Level Targeting to match popups with the content visitors are engaging with.
• Make it Easy: Use a simple form that doesn’t overwhelm users with too many fields.

7. Cart Abandonment Popups

Did you know that over 70% of all online shopping carts are abandoned? Popups are one of the best ways to win back some of those shoppers. Cart abandonment popups appear when users attempt to leave a site after adding items to their cart. They aim to recover lost sales by addressing user hesitation. Usually, cart abandonment popups use Exit-Intent® technology to catch shoppers before they leave your site.

Cart Abandonment Popup Example 1: HelloFresh‘s “Plan in Your Cart” Popup

The meal delivery service HelloFresh uses exit popups to stop cart abandonment. This popup is triggered when these 2 actions happen:

1. A user has customized their own meal plan
2. That user attempts to leave the HelloFresh website without making a purchase

HelloFresh knows that exit popups are one of the best ways to recover abandoned carts. OptinMonster integrates with platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, so you can precisely target your eCommerce popups.

Cart Abandonment Popup Example 2: OptinMonster’s “Complete Your Checkout” Popup

OptinMonster specializes in helping businesses create effective popups, so we definitely put that expertise to good use on our own website. Let’s look at how this cart abandonment popup works:

A website visitor has browsed our pricing page and selected a plan they’re interested in. If they start to leave the page without finishing their purchase, they’ll see this popup, offering a 20% discount.

Exit-Intent® is included in OptinMonster’s Pro and Growth Plans, so sign up today!

Tips for Cart Abandonment Popups

• Highlight Benefits: Reinforce what makes your product or service valuable.
• Offer Incentives: Use discounts or free shipping to reduce purchase friction.
• Integrate with your eCommerce platform: OptinMonster integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce for precise targeting.

8. Sales Conversion Popups

Cart abandonment popups are extremely important, but that’s not the only scenario when you can use a popup to encourage website visitors to buy right now. Sales conversion popups are designed to drive purchases by offering discounts, highlighting urgency, or nudging users to go ahead and make a purchase today.

Sales Conversions Popup Example 1: ShotKit’s Coupon Code Popup

Many popups require users to enter an email address in order to receive a coupon code. However, if your primary goal is to drive immediate sales, you can offer the code right in the popup, without any optin requirement. You can create an OptinMonstre popup like this one from Shotkit. It not only provide the coupon code, but it also includes a button to apply the code. Read the full Shotkit case study.

Sales Conversion Popup Example 2: Countdown Timers from OptinMonster

Here’s an example of an OptinMonster template for a sales conversion popup. It includes a Countdown Timer to create urgency and encourage visitors to act now. Over 150 OptinMonster templates include countdown timers. Plus, you can use our drag-and-drop builder to easily add a countdown timer to any campaign:

Countdown timers can be a game-changer for your conversion rates. For example, Cracku used them to increase their conversions by 300%! Read the full Cracku case study.

Tips for Sales Conversion Popups

• Create Urgency: Use countdown timers or limited-time discounts to prompt immediate action.
• Use Exit-Intent®: Trigger popups when users are about to leave, ensuring you don’t interrupt their browsing.
• Personalize Offers: Tailor discounts or messages based on where users are in the sales funnel.

9. Bounce Rate Reduction Popups

This type of popup focuses on keeping visitors on your site for longer. These popups help you reduce your bounce rate, or the percentage of visitors who leave your site before engaging with any links or offers. They often include links to related content or products and are targeted based on what the visitor has shown interest in.

Bounce Rate Popup Example: Olyplant‘s Popup for Google Users

Olyplant is a Greek company that sells organic plants. They wanted to reduce their bounce rate for visitors who found their strawberry tutorial via Google search. This eye-catching popup from them reads:

Do you love strawberries?

Discover all the strawberry varieties that produce and cultivate your own now …

Yes, I want to try it!

No, I do not eat strawberries.

This popup linked to their archive of posts related to strawberries.

Olyplant used 3 OptinMonster Display Rules to determine who would see this popup and when:

• Page-Level Targeting: This popup only displayed on their tutorial on planting strawberries
• Referrer Detection: Only visitors who found the page through Google search saw this message
• Scroll Distance: The popup displayed when a visitor had scrolled through 50% of the page

Olyplant chose these targeting and triggering settings with 1 goal in mind: to keep their organic traffic on the site for longer.

Often, when a visitor finds one of your web pages via Google search, they scan that page only and leave your site without taking any action. Olyplant turned that around with this popup. A whopping 17% of readers clicked the YES button on this campaign, and they viewed an average of 5.08 pages per session. That gave Olyplant more opportunities to convert those visitors into customers.

Read the Olyplant case study.

Tips for Bounce Rate Reduction Popups

• Engage with Questions: Use attention-grabbing prompts like “Do you love [topic]?” to pique curiosity.
• Use Scroll or Timed Triggers: Display popups when users have shown a high level of engagement.
• Promote Related Content: Link to other pages, articles, or products to keep users engaged with your site.

10. Customer Feedback Popups

Customer feedback popups help your business gather insights from visitors and shoppers. You can then use that feedback to improve user experience, uncover issues, or understand why users abandon certain actions, such as completing checkout. To learn more about why this is so important, check out our guide: How to Collect Customer Feedback on Your Site (7 Tips).

Customer Feedback Popup Example 1: Kennedy Blue‘s Improvement Survey

Kennedy Blue is an online retailer of bridesmaid dresses. They used this OptinMonster exit popup to ask their website visitors to complete a feedback survey. The popup converted 7% of abandoning shoppers on their shopping cart page. With this survey, Kennedy Blue got vital feedback from these users, who could explain why they changed their minds about purchasing.

Learn how Kennedy Blue increased their sales by 50% with OptinMonster

Customer Feedback Popup Example 2: Feedback Template from OptinMonster

The Kennedy Blue popup includes a link to a survey webpage. However, you can also embed survey fields directly in your OptinMonster campaigns. For example, the template above asks visitors to type up a quick survey response. You can include a wide variety of field types, including checkboxes, radio buttons, and dropdown menus.

Tips for Customer Feedback Popups

• Keep it Brief: Limit feedback requests to a few easy-to-answer questions.
• Trigger Thoughtfully: Display feedback popups after users browse for a set amount of time or abandon a cart.
• Make it Worthwhile: Offer small rewards, like coupons, for completing surveys.

11. Content-Gating Popups

Content-gating popups require visitors to perform a specific action before they can access specific content. Usually, visitors have to enter an email address or create an account in order to view the material. This strategy is effective for generating leads and building a dedicated audience. Learn more about this process in our guide to gated content.

Content-Gating Popup Example: Storyly’s Gated Demo Video

Storyly uses this content-gating popup to lock access to their quick demo video. Visitors must enter their email address to watch the video, and they have the option of requesting a call with a sales rep. This popup has a phenomenal 14.57% conversion rate. Overall, Storyly has used OptinMonster to grow their email list by 45%. Read the full Storyly case study.

Create the Best Popups for YOUR Website!

At the end of the day, popups are one of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal. And as we’ve seen, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Each type of popup has its own uses, so experiment to see which ones work best for your audience.

We encourage you to mix and match the goals, targets, and triggers we covered here. You should also use A/B testing to help you perfectly hone your popup campaigns.

With OptinMonster, we give you the freedom to choose what works best for your business at a price you can afford.

Want to learn even more about website popups? Here are a few resources to check out:

• How to Create a Lightbox Popup to Grow Your List
• Email Popups That Convert: Creative Ideas to Grow Your Email List Fast
• Popups That Work: How to Increase Sales and Recover Abandoned Carts
• Mobile Popups Demystified: Best Practices for a Better User Experience

Want to get started? Sign up for OptinMonster today, risk-free with our 14-day money-back guarantee!

Scarcity marketing works because it increases the perceived value of a product. When something feels rare or exclusive, we tend to want it more. This can lead to higher sales and a competitive edge for businesses that use it effectively.

In this article, I’ll share 34 scarcity examples to help you boost conversions and increase revenue. These are real-life examples of businesses that have scarcity marketing strategies, so you can get ideas for your own marketing efforts.

• What Is Scarcity Marketing?
• 34 Scarcity Marketing Examples

What Is Scarcity Marketing?

Scarcity marketing is a strategy that leverages the fear of missing out (FOMO) by creating a sense of urgency through limited availability or time-sensitive offers. It’s a powerful technique for increasing perceived value and driving immediate action.

Here’s how it works:

• Limited Supply: This could involve limited quantities of a product, exclusive collections, or limited-time offers.
• Time Pressure: Countdown timers, flash sales, and “only a few left” notifications create a sense of urgency and encourage people to buy before it’s too late.
• Exclusivity: Making a product or service feel exclusive can make it more desirable. This could involve VIP access, limited edition releases, or high-end products.

By using these tactics, scarcity marketing aims to:

• Increase Demand: When something feels scarce, people are more likely to want it, leading to higher sales.
• Boost Perceived Value: Limited availability suggests a product is more valuable or desirable, making people more willing to pay a premium.
• Drive Action: The fear of missing out encourages people to make a purchase decision quickly before the opportunity disappears.

Scarcity marketing can be a powerful tool, but it’s important to use it ethically. If done wrong, it can come across as manipulative or inauthentic.

Let’s take a look at 34 examples of scarcity marketing.

Scarcity Marketing Examples

We have curated these scarcity examples from real-life brands that have used the scarcity principle in their online campaigns. The examples offer several ideas on how to apply the scarcity principle in your marketing.

1. Cracku: Urgency Through Countdown Timers
2. Wildist: 50% Discount for 2 Days
3. Tinder: Fear of Missing Out
4. Booking.com: Book Before It’s Too Late
5. Chemical Guys: Beat the Clock Sale
6. Bud Light: Limited Edition Pack
7. JACK1T: Only 2 Pieces in Stock
8. Clubhouse: Invite-Only Sign-Ups
9. Amazon Prime: Discount While Supplies Last
10. Bed Bath & Beyond: Top Deals Are Scarce
11. BookMyShow: Seats Filing Fast
12. Netflix: Only On Netflix
13. Tesla Apparrel: Notify When Available
14. MasterClass: BOGO Meets Limited-Time Offer
15. Coke: Share a Coke
16. Airbnb: Rare Find
17. Float: Request Access
18. Moto Z: Limited Time Offer
19. HappySales: Join the Waitlist
20. Nokia: Black Friday With a Twist
21. Amazon: Today’s Lightning Deals
22. Ninety9: Happy Hour Deals
23. Best Buy: Flash Sale
24. iHerb: 13 Sold in 24 Hours
25. Fleet Feet: Clearance Sale
26. Thread Up: End-of-Year Sale
27. Pulp & Press: Abandoned Cart Email
28. Asos: Black Friday Deal
29. Catalina Crunch: Early Access SMS Marketing
30. Jeffree Star: A Different Take on Scarcity
31. G Fuel: Giveaways Worth $10,000
32. Eightvape: Christmas Holiday Offer
33. Udemy: Sale Ends Today
34. Growth Marketing: Last Chance to Register

1. Cracku: Urgency Through Countdown Timers

Countdown timers are the best scarcity examples in marketing. Cracku, an online student coaching portal, used OptinMonster to create countdown timers on its website.

They combined it with a limited-time offer and increased conversions by 300%.

2. Wildist: 50% Discount for 2 Days

Wildist offers people to sign up for its workshops at half price, but only for 2 days.

Notice the testimonials from past customers on the top-right of the page. Social proof earns you trust and improves website conversions by 34%.

Pro-Tip: Check out this list of social proof notification apps you can use to add credibility to your site! We recommend TrustPulse. It’s the best social proof notification tool out there.

3. Tinder: Fear of Missing Out

Tinder uses a push notification for its mobile app users to improve product adoption. They notify inactive users that their profiles won’t be visible to possible matches if they don’t start using the app.

The clever use of scarcity triggers fear of missing out (FOMO) in buyers. Research suggests that about 69% of millennials experience FOMO, and 60% make impulsive purchases because of it.

In other words, FOMO works wonders in convincing people to take action.

Pro-tip: Want to create push notifications like Tinder’s? Take a look at PushEngage. It’s the world’s best push notification software that’s easy to install and set up.

4. Booking.com: Book Before It’s Too Late

Scarcity examples are more common in marketplaces with fluctuating supply and demand of goods and services. For instance, the travel and hospitality industry.

Booking.com is a master at scarcity marketing. Take a look at how they imply that this deal on a hotel won’t be available for very long.

5. Chemical Guys: Beat the Clock Sale

Car detailing company Chemical Guys creates urgency for website visitors with multiple limited-time offers.

The sooner buyers book a service, the more discounts they get.

6. Bud Light: Limited Edition Pack

Bud Light collaborated with the Philadelphia Eagles to launch a special edition commemorative beer pack to celebrate the team’s Super Bowl victory.

The beverage company produced 20,418 packs to honor the victory date: 02/04/2018. Special edition marketing also allows brands to sell products at higher prices. Fans don’t mind buying limited quantities of special merchandise at a premium.

7. JACK1T: Only 2 Pieces in Stock

JACK1T lets you know when they are running low on a particular item. This is a good scarcity example that highlights how creating urgency in marketing can improve conversions.

8. Clubhouse: Invite-Only Sign-Ups

Remember when Clubhouse was a rage? One of the reasons it became so popular in such a short time was because it created an illusion of exclusivity.

Only people who had an invite from existing Clubhouse members could join the social audio platform. This drove a huge demand for Clubhouse sign-ups.

Clubhouse had another level of scarcity baked into its platform. Initially, it was available only in iOS. A year later after its launch, it was launched on the Android platform.

Although the craze for the platform has died down, it remains a shining example of how to use a sense of scarcity and exclusivity to increase sign-ups.

9. Amazon Prime: Discount While Supplies Last

Amazon Prime Now has a weekly ad with a time-sensitive discount.

For more examples like these, read our post on how to use discount codes to increase conversions.

10. Bed Bath & Beyond: Top Deals Are Scarce

Bed Bath & Beyond uses a unique promo offer for each product category in its website’s Top Deals section. All deals have footer text to create urgency in buyers:

• Limited time
• Valid thru 2/2
• While supplies last

This is to let the buyers know they’ll get the most value for their money if they buy sooner.

11. BookMyShow: Seats Filing Fast

India’s largest online movie and events booking platform BookMyShow uses a popup to convert movie lovers to buy its most expensive tickets.

Let’s see how it works.

The most expensive seats have better reclining, extra leg room, and the best view of the screen. The booking page suggests that people might lose out on the premium experience if they don’t act fast.

They also use ember color text for the fast-selling seats. This is an example of demand-induced scarcity. What color you choose for CTA buttons can impact conversions.

12. Netflix: Only On Netflix

Netflix knows that movie lovers will go to any extent to watch their favorite movies and shows. It buys the copyright of high-demand content like Kill Boksoon and Money Heist.

It even has an entire genre called Only On Netflix for non-subscribers to browse. Netflix drives new subscriptions by making high-demand content available only on its platform.

13. Tesla Apparrel: Notify When Available

Tesla has an eCommerce shop that sells vehicle accessories, battery chargers, and apparel. The website has a functionality for buyers to receive an email notification for out-of-stock items.

This is a genius scarcity marketing example on many levels.

• First, it implies that out-of-stock products are scarce resources. People are more likely to opt in for notifications if they think it’s going to fly off the shelves.
• Second, it’s also a lead generation technique. Buyers who optin for a notification will also start getting marketing emails from Tesla for other products in the future.

Pro-tip: Want to target and convert website visitors based on their past interactions? Use OptinMonster’s Onsite Retargeting®. It lets you optimize campaigns for returning visitors and boost your eCommerce sales.

14. MasterClass: BOGO Meets Limited-Time Offer

Buy one get one (BOGO) is a great way to convert customers and increase your average order value.

In this scarcity example, MasterClass offers 2 memberships for the cost of 1. It combines the discount with a holiday offer that’s ending soon.

Product bundling like this gets buyers to convert faster because they get a 2x return on investment (ROI) on their purchase.

15. Coke: Share a Coke

The world-famous beverage company Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke campaign was a hit when it came out. The campaign allowed customers to buy Coke bottles with the names of their friends and family members.

The campaign sold 1.25 million drinks in the U.S. and improved sales by 11% in a year.

Coke ran the campaign at the expense of replacing its brand name from the bottles. It’s a classic example of scarcity advertising coupled with emotional intelligence.

Depending on where you live, you can still order personalized Coke bottles from their website. Notice not 1 but 2 website notification bars on the website.

The company sure knows how to create multiple sale opportunities on a website!

16. Airbnb: Rare Find

Airbnb makes its customers feel lucky to find properties that aren’t sold out. It’s the company’s way to highlight resource scarcity for their premium property listings.

17. Float: Request Access

Float asks new users to request access to the app instead of handing out free signups. This means their platform isn’t easy for everyone to sign up for.

The message is clear: you might not be allowed if you don’t fit the bill. The scarcity of access makes it immediately appealing.

18. Moto Z: Limited Time Offer

Moto Z offers its customers a scarce opportunity to buy its new smartphone for only $200.

Limited-time offers convert like crazy.

An online clothing company ran an experiment offering one of its products with and without a limited-time next-day shipping offer. The one with the relative scarcity offer increased sales by 226%.

19. HappySales: Join the Waitlist

HappySales is a business-to-business (B2B) sales technology software that’s yet to launch. Its website allows users to join the private beta. When you click the CTA button, it takes you to a sign-up form.

But instead of asking users to sign up for free, Happysales encourages joining privately. This implies that they don’t entertain everyone. It’s an exclusive circle of users.

20. Nokia: Black Friday With a Twist

Nokia sent this marketing email to its customers a few years back. Instead of offering instant discounts or pre-orders, Nokia made it easy for customers to create a personalized wishlist.

This is among the best Black Friday-related scarcity examples.

21. Amazon: Today’s Lightning Deals

Amazon’s “Lightning Deals” are offered daily for only a few hours.

22. Ninety9: Happy Hour Deals

Protea Hotel in Kampala uses happy hour discounts to drive traffic to its retro bar. You can get amazing discounts on a limited variety of drinks, but only between 5-7 pm.

23. Best Buy: Flash Sale

Best Buy’s flash sale offers multiple scarcity examples rolled into one.

The sale is live only for 48 hours. The website notification bar lets users know the exact time and date when the sale will start and end. This heightens the sense of scarcity.

Best Buy also reminds buyers of the limited availability of products. And that they won’t accept rainchecks.

24. iHerb: 13 Sold in 24 Hours

iHerb’s website has multiple cues to convert visitor traffic. It uses a notification bar to offer a 20% discount, While also reminding buyers that the offer ends on a specific date.

Further down, iHerb lets people see the number of products other buyers have bought in the last 24 hours. If you don’t act on time, the product might run out of stock.

The limited availability of resources is one of the causes of scarcity.

Pro-tip: Are your customers dropping off of your website due to out-of-stock products? Read our guide on how to win more sales with out-of-stock pages.

25. Fleet Feet: Clearance Sale

A lot of online retailers use clearance sales to sell surplus products at reduced prices. Online apparel stores especially have clearance sales because they are closing down or need to clear old stocks to make room for new product inventory.

In any case, a clearance sale implies that the discounted offering is going to run for a short time. Here, Fleet Feet has an entire product category called Clearance with discounted products.

26. Thread Up: End-of-Year Sale

End-of-year sales are similar to clearance sale campaigns. Thread Up, a second-hand apparel store, combines its year-end sale with multiple other promotions.

The copy on the website offers a discount code and free shipping. It also reminds customers about the sale ending date and time to trigger buyers’ scarcity mindset.

27. Pulp & Press: Abandoned Cart Email

Pulp & Press sends buyers a limited-time discount on their orders to reduce cart abandonment. This is a great way to create artificial scarcity and convert lost opportunities into sales.

28. Asos: Black Friday Deal

Asos offers a Black Friday discount code. It follows its promotion by reminding people to stay safe and be ahead of the surge.

This is among the best scarcity examples that explicitly communicate the limited resources and time.

29. Catalina Crunch: Early Access SMS Marketing

Catalina Crunch offers users early access to its Black Friday deals. When visitors click on the signup button, the website asks them to enter their phone number.

These kinds of optin campaigns are trade-offs between what buyers want and what sellers can offer.

30. Jeffree Star: A Different Take on Scarcity

Jeffree Star has a different take on creating scarcity.

Instead of creating scarcity with limited-time offers or discounts, they do it with delivery times.

Jeffree Star uses a website alert banner to let customers know that orders after 12/19 will be delivered after Christmas. This means the earlier people place their orders, the earlier they will receive them.

Nice way to evoke scarcity!

31. G Fuel: Giveaways Worth $10,000

G Fuel runs a giveaway contest on its website for visitors to enter a chance to win 1 grand prize. Or, they can enter to win 10 runner-up incentives.

Either way, G Fuel’s scarcity example is not based on time. It’s built on the probability of winning by participating in the sweepstakes and answering a simple question.

Pro-tip: Do you want an easy way to run giveaways in WordPress? Get RafflePress. RafflePress is the best plugin that lets you run successful giveaways in WooCommerce.

32. Eightvape: Christmas Holiday Offer

Eightvape displays a banner on its website hero section, offering customers tempting Christmas offers for a limited period.

The website also uses a Yes/No campaign to convert visitors into leads. Yes/No campaigns offer people a no-brainer choice: to choose an easy option or skip it for an opportunity cost.

33. Udemy: Sale Ends Today

Udemy has a one-day flash sale for visitors to enroll in one of its online courses. The website also offers a discount code and has a notification bar with a countdown timer.

34. Growth Marketing: Last Chance to Register

Growth Marketing’s email uses an image of a clock to suggest the need to act fast and create urgency. The CTA adds to the sense of scarcity further.

These CTAs work well both on your site and in your email marketing copy. Read our guide to creating the perfect call to action for more tips to improve conversions.

Time Is Running Out: Use These Scarcity Marketing Examples Now

See what we did there? Scarcity can be a great incentive for buyers to act sooner. Take inspiration from the examples in this post to apply in marketing your business.

If you want more tips to help you sell more fast, here are some helpful resources:

• What Is Upselling? 15 Upselling Tips & Examples to Boost Revenue
• How to Increase Sales With Social Media: 9 Expert Tips
• Average Order Value: Guide to AOV + 8 Proven Strategies

If you’re new to marketing, you may also want to check out our comprehensive lead generation guide. Lead generation is the starting point for most things in marketing.

If you’re already running lead generation campaigns on your website, get started with OptinMonster. OptinMonster is the #1 lead generation tool that helps you build marketing campaigns to capture leads through popups, floating bars, sidebar optins, and more.

Good lead magnets are one of the most effective strategies for businesses to attract potential customers and convert them into loyal clients.

But what exactly is a lead magnet, and how can you create one that resonates with your target audience?

Let’s dive in!

• What Is a Lead Magnet?
• Lead Magnet Ideas You Can Try Today
• How To Create a Lead Magnet
• 63 Irresistible Lead Magnet Examples
• 7 Key Takeaways To Create Irresistible Lead Magnets
• How To Distribute Your Lead Magnet

What Is a Lead Magnet?

A lead magnet is a marketing term for a free resource or incentive offered to potential customers in exchange for their contact information, typically an email address. Commonly used to generate leads and grow email lists, lead magnets can include ebooks, webinars, white papers, e-newsletters, or free consultations.

The primary goal of a lead magnet is to entice visitors to engage with your brand, thereby increasing the chances of converting them into paying customers.

Consider it a win-win situation: your audience gets something valuable, and you can nurture and communicate with them.

This makes lead magnets one of the most important parts of your content marketing strategy.

Here’s an example of an OptinMonster campaign offering a lead magnet:

Right away, users can see they can get 12 proven strategies for converting abandoning visitors. All they need to do is enter their email address.

Lead Magnet Ideas You Can Try Today

In this section, we’ll learn about several different types of lead magnet content you can create. You can deliver these lead magnets in a variety of formats: PDF download, video, Notion template or other digital file, or even as a gated content page on your website.

1. Checklist

Let’s start with our favorite lead magnet example: the checklist.

Checklists convert the best out of all the lead magnets because they’re so easily consumed. They condense the user’s knowledge into one actionable list.

They’re also super quick to create. For example, you can summarize your popular blog posts as a checklist and turn them into a content upgrade. Then combine that content upgrade with a 2-step optin form, and you’ll see a big conversion boost.

Here are two examples of checklists we’ve created for users like you:

Ultimate Optin Form Checklist: This checklist contains a list of all 63 elements that you need to create the ultimate optin form.

On-Page SEO Checklist: How to Fully Optimize Your Posts: You can print this out and consult it whenever you want to optimize a page for SEO.

2. eBook

For it to work, what you need is a solid benefit. Why should someone take the time to read your eBook?

Derek Halpern’s free eBook Get 5,000 Subscribers features an irresistible benefit to their target market.

Still, if someone can achieve the same result from a simple checklist, then, by all means, give them a checklist instead. It’s not worth spending weeks writing an entire eBook when you can get better conversions from a PDF that took you 20 minutes to create.

You may also want to check out this post on how to make an ebook popup to get even more leads from your ebook.

3. Webinar

Like video and audio lead magnets, webinars also have high perceived value. They’re even more irresistible because they have another component: urgency.

Since live webinars only occur at specific times and may have a limited run, they play on the “fear of missing out.”

Heck, webinars work so well for lead generation that Neil Patel turned their entire homepage into a webinar registration page!

If you use WordPress and are looking for an LMS plugin for WordPress to launch a webinar easily or an online course, check out our top picks!

4. Template

A template can provide an outline, or some starting point, so all the user has to do is fill in the blanks.

The Magic Email Template is a great lead magnet template example– it’s something entrepreneurs and small business owners can copy and paste, customize a few words, and then send off to connect with influencers and VIPs in your industry instantly.

To take your lead magnet game one step further, create a collection of lead magnet templates, like Digital Marketer’s Ultimate Facebook Ad Template Library.

5. Product Demos

If you’ve ever shopped for an app or a software tool, you’ve probably seen many of these lead magnet examples without realizing it.

Most software companies will have a big call to action to sign up for a free trial or demo on their homepage. Why? Because that’s how they get your email address.

But you don’t have to be a software company to benefit from a free trial lead magnet.

SnackNation offers a free sample box of their product. They ask for your work email address (no credit card required). Now that’s an irresistible offer!

6. Case Studies

Prospects at the bottom of the funnel love to read case studies. This lead magnet idea could give them the last push they need to buy your product.

Back when Upwork was still oDesk, they had a lead magnet called “Make It Work: Smart Advice From Real-Life Clients Who Found Success Using Online Work.” This was a compilation of case studies from people who used their service, packaged in PDF format.

7. Exclusive Discount Codes

It would be best to offer an early bird discount to sweeten the deal of getting on your waitlist. This is a great way to reward your most enthusiastic prospects at the bottom of your funnel.

8. Email Course

Email courses are easy to assemble because they don’t require creating anything fancy or downloadable. It’s a simple email autoresponder series that teaches users to accomplish something specific.

The best part about email courses is that they can be used to turn prospects into customers.

Rick Mulready uses their email course called 4 Facebook Ad Mistakes That Are Losing You Money to convert leads into customers for their FB Ads for Newbies course.

9. Podcasts

Podcasts have surged in popularity and can be an excellent lead magnet, especially for audiences who prefer auditory content.

By offering exclusive podcast episodes or a unique series as a lead magnet, businesses can attract subscribers keen on absorbing content on the go.

Whether it’s an interview with an industry expert, deep dives into specific topics, or behind-the-scenes content, a podcast can provide valuable insights and knowledge. Plus, with the added benefit of voice and tone, it can help in building a deeper connection with the audience.

Like other content forms, it’s crucial to ensure the podcast offers genuine value, is well-produced, and resonates with the target demographic.

How To Create a Lead Magnet

Step 1. Define the Buyer

Step 2. Identify the Problem You’re Solving

Step 3. Position Your Lead Magnet

Step 4. Create Your Lead Magnet

Creating a lead magnet that resonates with your audience requires a strategic approach. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Step 1. Define the Buyer

Thinking strategically about your lead magnet before pulling up your graphic design software or building a signup form would be best.

First, you need to decide what kind of buyer persona you hope to pull in with this lead magnet.

Ask yourself:

• What product or service are you hoping to sell?
• Who wants this offer?
• Why do they need it?
• What pain points are they experiencing?

It would help if you also considered the customer’s level of awareness. They may be:

• Unaware: They need to learn or describe what their problem is.
• Problem Aware: They know there’s a problem but need to know if there’s a solution.
• Solution Aware: They know of ways to solve their problem but need the specific tools or processes to do it.
• Product Aware: They know your company, product, or service exists but need to be made aware of everything you can do for them or aren’t convinced it will work for them.
• Most Aware: They know all about your offer and how it can help them but are yet to buy.

New leads typically come in unaware, problem-aware, or solution-aware. The next step will be defining the problem your lead magnet will solve for them and how much awareness it will build.

Step 2. Identify the Problem You’re Solving

As I mentioned earlier, effective lead magnets will solve specific problems. These may be incomplete solutions, but they will give the subscriber a quick win to build trust in your brand.

It may be easier to start by thinking about the problem your paid product solves. Then, work backward to define a problem your lead magnet can solve.

For example, a company may be selling an SEO plugin for WordPress. That paid product solves the problem of creating SEO-friendly content more easily. Before a customer is ready for that product, they need to know how well their site is performing on search in the first place.

Their lead magnet could be a quick SEO audit checklist, which would solve the problem of understanding their current SEO performance.

Your goal is to build awareness with your lead magnet and throughout your sales and marketing funnel. Most steps in the funnel will make just 1-2 awareness levels at a time.

Taking someone from unaware to most aware with a single download can be a stretch, but it would be relatively easy to take them from problem-aware to solution-aware.

Going back to our SEO plugin example, prospects may be completely unaware they have any SEO issues that need to be solved before using the lead magnet.

After completing the audit checklist, they become aware of the SEO problems on their site. They are then ready to receive more marketing material about the plugin.

Step 3. Position Your Lead Magnet

The last bit of strategic planning you should do is to position your lead magnet appropriately in your sales process. In other words, think through what should happen before and after new subscribers download the lead magnet.

First, consider how they’ll find your lead magnet. Will you send Facebook ad traffic to it? Will it be on a landing page or blog post that comes up in search results? Will you link to the lead magnet from other sites or your own email signature?

Check out our list of places to add signup forms for higher conversions to get some ideas.

Next, figure out where their contact information goes.

You might send those email addresses to an email service provider (ESP) like Constant Contact or a customer relationship management (CRM) software like HubSpot. There’s no point in offering a lead magnet if you leave those email addresses in the Internet void!

Finally, think about what happens after the new subscriber gets their lead magnet. Do you follow up with a welcome email sequence or SMS message? Do you reach out personally by email to schedule a 1:1 consultation? Do they start receiving your weekly email newsletter right away?

It can help your lead magnet to give a hint about what will happen next. You can include this in the lead magnet itself, on the signup form, in the email delivering the lead magnet, or all of the above.

Step 4. Create Your Lead Magnet

Now, it’s time actually to create your lead magnet.

First, pick a format. This can affect the type of content you write. For example, an interactive quiz differs significantly from a PDF report.

Also, consider your target audience when creating your lead magnet. Would they have time to watch a 10-minute video or prefer a PDF download they can look through at their leisure?

Next, write the content. Start by reviewing the benefits of the lead magnet. What will your checklist help them do? What will they know after reading your report? How will your template make their lives easier?

Then, lay out your process or insights step by step. Finish with a call to action (CTA) describing the next step they can take to work with you or purchase your products.

Once you have your content ready, pick a title. With the title, you can be as clever as you want as long as it clearly explains the lead magnet’s value proposition. One simple formula to use is [Solution] for [Buyer]:

• 12-Step Website Audit for Creative Business Owners
• Meal Planning Template for Busy Parents
• Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing: A Report for Agency Owners
• Beginner’s Guide to Website Design for Authors

Let’s also read about a lead magnet platform called Beacon.

Beacon.by

Beacon.by is a comprehensive platform designed to help users create and manage lead magnets. It offers a range of features that simplify the process of creating, capturing, and managing lead magnets.

Key features of Beacon.by include:

• Lead Magnet Creator: Allows users to create professional-looking lead magnets using a drag-and-drop builder. Users can start from scratch or use one of the many templates available, tailored to various industries.
• Lead Capture Forms: This tool helps users design engaging forms to gather customer information, enhancing the website’s lead generation capabilities.
• Resource Library Builder: Users can compile and manage a collection of valuable resources such as documents, videos, and links, making it easier for their audience to access and interact with content.

Beacon also provides a “Lead Magnet Academy” that offers lessons on creating effective lead magnets, promoting them, and nurturing leads once they have engaged with your content.

Pricing options cater to different needs, from a free plan suitable for new businesses and hobbyists, to more advanced plans that offer additional features like custom domains and increased lead management capabilities.

For more information and a deeper dive into what Beacon.by can offer, you can visit their official site: Beacon.by.

Now, you can design your lead magnet! A complete design or technical tutorial is too much to include in this article, but here are some helpful links you can use to get started:

• What Is Lead Quality? And How to Measure It (+8 Bonus Tips!)
• How to Create a Lead Magnet In Canva
• How to Create a Quiz Lead Magnet
• How to Create an Email Course Lead Magnet

63 Irresistible Lead Magnet Examples

Ready to create your lead magnet? Let’s dive into the 63 highly effective lead magnet examples to increase your subscribers.

1. Cheatsheet

Cheatsheets are essentially the same as checklists, but they give users a list of guidelines or processes they can repeatedly follow to achieve a specific benefit.

They’re irresistible to people because they remove the need to think.

Here’s an example of a cheat sheet created for bloggers: 52 Headline Hacks: A Cheat Sheet for Writing Blog Posts That Go Viral.

Bloggers want their blog posts to go viral, so this is a benefit-driven lead magnet for them.

It also removes the need to think: no more racking your brain about how to get your blog posts to go viral when you have this cheat sheet!

2. Template

A template can provide an outline, or some starting point, so all the user has to do is fill in the blanks.

The Magic Email Template is a great lead magnet template example– it’s something entrepreneurs and small business owners can copy and paste, customize a few words, and then send off to connect with influencers and VIPs in your industry instantly.

To take your lead magnet game one step further, create a collection of lead magnet templates, like Digital Marketer’s Ultimate Facebook Ad Template Library.

3. Swipe File

Swipe files are arguably even more irresistible than templates because all you have to do is copy them in their entirety.

For example, The Ultimate Social Media Swipe File includes 72 headlines for social media posts that you can simply, well, swipe!

4. Examples

Examples work well as lead magnets because people are searching for examples all the time in all different industries.

For instance, Bidsketch (a proposal software) uses a Sample Client Proposal as a lead magnet.

You could turn one of your popular posts into a lead-generating machine by optimizing it for “[your keyword] + examples” and then adding an example lead magnet as a content upgrade.

5. Script

Scripts are great lead magnet examples if your buyer persona needs something to help them speak or write.

For instance, if they need help prepping for a job interview, you could offer a script for pitching themselves to a potential employer.

Another great lead magnet example is this popular lead magnet created by Marcus Krieg: 3 Persuasive Video Scripts You Can Steal.

6. Toolkit

A trendy type of lead magnet idea is the toolkit. Why? Because everyone wants to know what tools the pros use!

Syed’s Toolkit for Growing Your Online Business is no exception. It’s a huge hit!

The best part about toolkits is that you can usually become an affiliate for those products. Not only does the toolkit provide a handy resource to your visitors, but it can also generate additional revenue for your business.

7. Web App

A web app is a free tool that lives on your site and requires a login. Of course, users have to sign up by email to get the login.

For example, Bryan Harris created a web app called ListGoal, which is free to use. However, Bryan gets your permission to email you when you sign up for it.

8. Resource List

Lists of free resources are valuable because they’re huge time savers. Whenever you pull all of the best stuff together, you save your users a lot of research time.

My Giant Guest Blogging Index has been a massive hit for that reason. All the research has been done for someone looking to write guest posts.

9. Calendar

Calendars can also be helpful in a variety of industries.

For example, if you’re in the fitness industry, like Blogilates, you could offer a workout calendar. That way, your users don’t have to think about what exercises to do daily because you’ve already mapped it out for them.

10. Plan/Planner

Similar to a calendar is a daily, weekly, or monthly plan you’ve mapped out for someone.

For example, 5 Free Meal Plans is a great lead magnet for a busy mom who is struggling to find the time to figure out what’s for dinner every night.

Your lead magnet could be a blank planner the user fills in with their plan. These blank planners are also useful because they make organizing easier for people.

Mayi Carles sells these attractive planners, but they could just as easily give away a digital sample as a lead magnet to whet your appetite for more.

11. Worksheet/Workbook

A worksheet (or workbook) is similar to a planner, except that it usually helps people to complete a specific exercise or figure something out.

A perfect medium for this is an editable workbook that someone can download and fill out on their computer. Teachable has a great, in-depth tutorial on using Adobe InDesign to create a workbook lead magnet.

12. Printable

A printable is especially great if you’re in a creative field and your users want something attractive that they can print out.

Or, your user needs to print something out to be handy when they need it, such as a shopping list or a grocery list, like this one from Rustic Redhead.

13. Inspiration File

Does your user need inspiration? People always search the internet for inspiration, so why not give it to them as a neatly packaged lead magnet?

This Logo Design Inspiration eBook, for example, is perfect for designers seeking inspiration for their next logo.

14. Prompts

While inspiration files generally offer visual inspiration, prompts help to inspire by giving you ideas to think about.

60 Journal Prompts is a self-help lead magnet that helps users with “self-love, self-discovery + a spot of self-coaching.”

15. Calculator

If your users need to deal with numbers, why not create a calculator and gate it as a lead magnet?

VWO has some great calculators on their site which could also be a great lead magnet idea. For example, this A/B Split Test Significance Calculator is handy for any marketer looking to see whether they have enough traffic to collect important data.

16. Generator

People often search for generators to create something quickly without thinking. If a generator is useful for your audience, consider gating it.

HubSpot has a useful blog topic generator on its site. They aren’t using it as a lead magnet, but they certainly could if they wanted to.

17. Spreadsheet

Spreadsheets can be used to create all kinds of valuable resources. They’re a programming tool right at your fingertips!

DebtHelper uses a free budget spreadsheet to collect email subscribers. They even include a bonus video guide on how to use the spreadsheet.

18. Recipes

Many recipes are freely available on the internet, so you might consider this a bad lead magnet idea. However, you’d be surprised how many people will optin for your curated recipes.

EatingWell knows this, and that’s why they use an exit-intent popup to offer their best healthy recipes and nutrition tips delivered straight to your inbox.

19. Gated Content

Gated content is simply a blog post or part of a blog post that is hidden behind your lightbox popup. This is one of the easiest lead magnets to create because it uses your existing content!

One thing you can do is to gate the second half of a long blog post. You can do this easily with OptinMonster by using one of our inline optin lead magnet templates + our Content Lock feature.

If you go with gated content, you may also want to learn how to create a paywall. That will reserve premium content for paying subscribers and generate more passive income for your site.

20. Tutorial

A tutorial is any content that teaches how to do one specific thing. It could be a video or a PDF download with a numbered list of steps.

David Siteman Garland’s 7 Proven Steps to Creating, Promoting & Profiting from Online Courses seems to work well for him– he’s been using it for quite some time now, although it was probably quick to create.

21. Guide

A guide is similar to an eBook because iit’s a lengthier lead magnet to create. However, guides can work well when you use them as the nurturing part of your sales funnel to educate prospects on why they should buy from you.

Here’s an example of a guide from HubSpot: The Definitive Blueprint for Lead Management.

This works because it educates their users on why they need a lead management product like HubSpot.

That said, I’d encourage you to create some un-gated guides on your site. At OptinMonster, we like to call these “mega guides.”

We’ve used mega guides on OptinMonster and our other web properties with great success because they generate a ton of organic search traffic. Check out our Definitive Guide to Email Marketing as an example; it’s freely available with no email optin required.

22. Whitepaper

Whitepaper or reports are perfect lead magnets for B2B businesses, but they can also work in any industry that relies on data, statistics, or research.

You can either research and collect the data yourself or pull together data from various sources into one comprehensive report.

Here are a couple of whitepaper lead magnet examples:

2016 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management: the great thing about this report is that it has been “updated for 2016”, so at the time of this writing, it’s fresh and new.

The YouTube Traffic Report: this report pulls together the statistics on YouTube traffic, so it didn’t require any in-house data collection to create.

23. Infographic

Infographics are the content you’d likely use to drive website visitors since they do so well on social media. However, they also work well as educational lead magnets.

Think about it: many people need to visualize a concept before fully understanding it. Instead of giving users a bunch of boring text to sift through, why not illustrate your point with an infographic? This extra detail will make your lead magnet stand out so much more.

Here’s an example of an infographic explaining successful and unsuccessful people’s habits.

Does this infographic make the concept more memorable and easy to digest than a plain text PDF?

24. Educational Video

Create a video to take your lead magnet further than an infographic!

Videos not only include a visual component, but they have an audio component as well. Plus, you can put real people in front of the camera (or come on camera yourself) to boost your brand.

But the best part is videos have a higher perceived value, making them more irresistible.

QuickSprout has a video course on Double Your Traffic in 30 Days. In their sidebar optin form, they’ve included a DVD mockup to drive home the high value of their lead magnet.

25. Educational Audio

Downloadable audio might make the perfect lead magnet example depending on your target audience.

For example, if your ideal customer rarely has time for reading or watching videos, they might prefer to have something to listen to in the car on their commute to and from work.

Remember: you can always repurpose a video by stripping out the audio and turning it into a lead magnet!

Here’s an example from Marie Forleo: a motivational, free audio training to learn “how to get anything you want.” I especially love the rose gold iPhone mockup with earbuds, which perfectly depicts how one of Marie’s users would listen to their audio (e.g., they may download it to their phone and take it to the gym).

26. Webinar

Like video and audio lead magnets, webinars also have high perceived value. They’re even more irresistible because they have another component: urgency.

Since live webinars only occur at specific times and may have only a limited run, they play on the “fear of missing out.”

Heck, webinars work so well for lead generation that Neil Patel turned their entire homepage into a webinar registration page!

If you use WordPress and are looking for an LMS plugin for WordPress to launch a webinar easily or an online course, check out our top picks!

27. Event Tickets

Like a webinar, you can offer free tickets to a live event in exchange for an email address.

The best way to do this is by using social media ads to push targeted traffic to your optin form. Your target audience would be people who are interested in your offer and live near your in-person event.

I highly recommend using Facebook ads for this because Facebook has the most powerful targeting features out of any other social media advertising channel. Make sure you follow these 7 steps to optimize your Facebook ads for conversions.

28. Free Book + Shipping

If you have a bunch of physical books you’ve written lying around, consider giving them away as a lead magnet. All you have to do is collect a small fee to cover your shipping costs.

Want to know why this offer works so well? Well, physical books generally have higher perceived value than eBooks do. When you offer a physical book for free, it’s an irresistible deal.

However, because the user has to pull out their credit card to pay for the shipping, this lead magnet idea pre-qualifies the best leads.

In other words, you’ve not only acquired a new lead, but you’ve also effectively acquired a new customer—and existing customers are so much easier to convert to a higher offer than people who’ve never bought anything from you.

Here’s an example of a free book plus shipping from Russell Brunson.

29. Sample Chapter

If you want to avoid going the free book route, you could pull out one chapter and offer it as a free sample.

Make sure the sample is digital and instantly downloadable so your users can get instant gratification.

30. Sample Video/Clip

If your product takes the form of a video or video, pull out a sample video or a sample clip and exchange that for an email address.

In the case of an information product called The Copy Cure, you can access their Copywriting Class Free Sample by entering your email address.

31. Sample Audio Clip

A sample audio clip works well as a lead magnet, too (even if your product is a video).

Erin Stutland’s product includes workout videos, and their lead magnet offer is a free audio workout.

32. Free Coaching Session

If you’re a coach or offer a service, you could provide a free coaching session in exchange for an email address.

The great thing about coaching sessions is that they get your prospects on the phone with you, and those people usually expect to hear your pitch at the end. This can be an effective way of acquiring high-end clients.

Chris Lema charges per minute for their coaching sessions, but he could offer them for free for a limited time if he wanted to push more signups.

33. PDF Version

This is one of those lead magnets that is so underutilized yet straightforward to create.

All you have to do is find your most popular blog posts, save a PDF version of the blog post, and then offer it as a content upgrade.

You’d be surprised how many people will optin to receive the same thing they just read in PDF form! The value-add here is that they get to own your blog post.

For example, our 12 Proven Ways to Convert Abandoning Visitors into Subscribers download could just as easily have been a blog post that we turned into a lead magnet.

34. Transcript

While we’re on the subject of repurposing content, why not repurpose a video by offering a transcript?

Although many people prefer video for learning, many others prefer reading. Making sure you have both learners covered is a great way to provide more value with the content you’ve already created.

35. Audio Version

Similarly, you could offer an audio version of a written piece of content.

UX designer Paul Boag regularly records an audio version of their blog posts. However, he could just as easily gate the audio version behind an optin form and generate more leads!

36. Summary/”Cliff Notes” Version

Do you have a long, in-depth guide that your users love? Package a summarized version of that into a lead magnet.

You can also share what you’re learning from other influencers in your industry by offering your “cliff notes” version of their presentation or book.

37. State of the Industry

This is another great lead magnet idea for B2B businesses. It’s the same as a report, except that it focuses on new industry trends.

Just keep in mind that you’ll need to come out with new or updated versions of your state of the industry report regularly (usually annual).

38. Predictions

To become a leader in your industry, make some predictions about your industry and publish them as a downloadable lead magnet.

People love to hear predictions about what to expect so they can jump on upcoming trends.

For example, if you’re in the fashion industry, you could come up with a list of fashion predictions for the following year. Or, if you’re a marketer, you could predict what the state of email marketing will look like next year.

39. Mind Map

Mind maps explain a complex subject in a digestible way. And because they are essentially an outline and don’t require too much detail, these lead magnet examples are really quick to put together.

When creating mind maps, we like using a free MindMeister tool. Their drag-and-drop builder makes mind maps super easy to create, and they always look clean and professional.

Delivering one of these lead magnets with OptinMonster is simple. You must paste the mind map URL into your optin form’s success theme.

40. Recording/Replay

Are you presenting any live webinars? You can repurpose those webinars by saving the recording and using that as a lead magnet.

Kissmetrics offers a library of recorded webinars you can choose from in exchange for your email address.

41. Audio Book

Have an eBook that your audience loves? Repurpose it by recording an audiobook and gating it behind an email optin form.

Remember how I said that un-gated mega guides are powerful assets you can create to drive traffic to your site?

Well, here’s an idea for you:

1. Turn your eBook into a traffic-generating mega guide by transferring it to one big long page on your site.
2. Generate leads by adding a call to action (CTA) to download your audiobook version.
3. Win and win!

42. SlideShare

Did you know that you can turn one of your SlideShare presentations into a lead magnet?

SlideShare has a built-in lead generation tool that allows you to convert your SlideShare audience into email subscribers. All you have to do is follow our step-by-step tutorial here (see #7).

43. Roundup

If you’ve ever written a roundup blog post, you’ll know that these are popular and easy to put together. Plus, you can create a lead magnet from it.

A roundup post is a list of tips or techniques from other experts in your industry. To write one, you need to interview people and pull all quotes into one big post.

For example, we wrote a popular roundup post asking eight seasoned SEO experts for their best advice. Now, we could have interviewed a lot more than eight people. It’s easier than you think to get influencers to respond to a request like this because you’re offering them exposure, which is what they want! So, we could have interviewed even more experts and then offered the complete roundup as a “freebie” download.

Or, we could have summarized all the expert responses into actionable takeaways and packaged that as a lead magnet.

Either way, it would make for a great content upgrade to an already high-performing post.

44. Newsletter

Sometimes your email newsletter is so irresistible that it’s the lead magnet.

A great example is a business called The Hustle. The Hustle sends you a funny, entertaining email each morning with all the day’s top tech and business news.

The best part about this lead magnet example is that the subscriber already expects the emails.

Although we need to find out how low their unsubscribe rates are, we would assume that The Hustle is doing pretty well in that department.

45. Vault/Library

Do you have lots of different educational lead magnets? Give your users the option to access them all at once by putting them together into a “vault” or a virtual library on your site.

All you need is one big page on your site with the links to download each of your lead magnets and put that page behind an optin form. It’s a simple way to give more value to your users with the lead magnets you’ve already created.

46. Quiz

A quiz is the most entertaining lead magnet idea on this list, and that’s why it converts so well!

A quiz has the user answer a series of questions and then spits a result. But to get the result, you’ll have to enter your email address.

Rachel Ray had a quiz on what type of clutterer you’re.

Hostel Bookers created a quiz about what type of traveler you’re.

Forbes had a quiz that helped prospective college students find the perfect college.

To create a quiz like this, you can use a tool like Qzzr. Qzzr also allows you to drive social traffic to your quiz and generate leads.

47. Survey

A survey is mainly for your benefit/market research. However, a survey can be used as a lead magnet with a compelling call to action.

For example, you could ask users browsing your site for a while to give you feedback on their experience and help you improve your website. You’d be surprised how many people enjoy taking the time to provide you with their feedback!

Make sure you use a tool like OptinMonster to present the survey only to users who have visited at least four pages on your site. It would be weird (and annoying) to ask a brand new visitor to rate their “experience” on the first pageview.

48. Giveaway

One of the most effective lead magnet idea is the giveaway. Who doesn’t love the opportunity to win free stuff?

If you want your giveaway to be effective, however, make sure it does two things:

1. Qualify your leads by offering a relevant prize (something that only your ideal customer would want– not something like an iPad or a laptop that anyone and their brother would want)
2. Incentivize participants to share (you can do this by offering additional entries for each social share)

49. Manifesto

A manifesto is a simple declaration of your values. Its a great lead magnet idea because your ideal audience will naturally be drawn to it.

Jeff Goins wrote The Writer’s Manifesto: Stop Writing to Be Read & Adored, resonating with their audience and becoming an effective lead magnet.

50. Comic Strip

Ever thought of using a comic strip as a lead magnet?

When CopyMonk released its first comic strip, it went viral in the copywriting community.

And when something is that popular, it’s easy to see how people would sign up to get more.

51. Quotes

People love quotes from influential people or quotes that inspire.

Mastin Kipp created an entire business by delivering inspirational quotes via their “daily love” email newsletter.

Their business has evolved a lot since then, but they still offers daily inspiration/tips as their lead magnet.

52. Desktop Wallpaper

Are you an artist, designer, or photographer? If you’re in a visual/creative field of business, consider giving away some of your work as a desktop wallpaper download.

The best thing about desktop wallpaper is that it constantly reminds you of your brand. This can be a great way to make sure a lead thinks of you when thinking about who to hire for their next photoshoot or design project.

53. Mobile App/Game

A free mobile app or game offers the perfect excuse to ask for an email address.

Ask users to create an account with you to use your app. Then, you can send them emails to help increase their engagement and encourage them to buy your premium product.

54. Challenge

One of my favorite lead magnet examples is this 30-Day Green Smoothie Challenge from Simple Green Smoothies.

There are several reasons why this lead magnet idea is so genius and you should consider doing a challenge as a lead magnet too.

• Anyone who takes them up on this offer will be a highly qualified lead. They raise their hands and say, “I want green smoothies!”.
• Challenges with a start and an end date have urgency. This makes the offer that much more compelling.
• Challenges build brand awareness by fostering a sense of community– everyone is doing the challenge together at the same time.
• Challenges make it much easier to elicit desired behavior through peer pressure. Most people wouldn’t have the discipline to drink one green smoothie a day for 30 days, but they’re much more likely to jump on the bandwagon when challenged to do so.

55. Membership Site

Are you thinking about creating your membership site? Consider offering free registration.

My Copyblogger Membership is an excellent example of using a membership site as a lead magnet.

I especially love their use of social proof and their fear of missing out. This community contains “over 334,000 smart online marketers”, and all those people “have a head start” on you. Better sign up now, so you can stay caught up!

Plugins can make it super easy if you’re a WordPress user interested in setting up your membership site. Check out our top picks for WordPress membership site plugins!

56. Facebook Group

I’ve personally used Facebook groups as lead magnets with great success. It just goes to show that people do value communities.

For example, we used to offer a private Facebook group + a free fitness challenge for pregnant women who wanted to stay healthy and fit throughout their pregnancy.

I tested a few offers instead, such as a checklist of exercises every pregnant woman should avoid. However, the Facebook group/challenge offer outperformed the other lead magnets, resulting in 43-cent leads on average!

57. Slack Group

Depending on your target market and where they hang out online, there may be other options than a Facebook group. However, you could offer a Slack group instead.

If you’ve never heard of it before, Slack is an app that allows you to send instant messages to groups of people. This can be a fun and powerful way to build a community around your brand.

58. Coupon

A coupon works well at the bottom of your funnel because most people who make online purchases like to shop around for deals. Your brand should be there to give those people what they’re looking for (in exchange for their email addresses, of course).

59. Waiting List

Do you have an upcoming product launch? You can use a waitlist to collect the emails of prospects at the bottom of your funnel.

For example, an online course called “B-School” is only available once per year. If you want to buy it right now, you can’t! Instead of a “buy” button on the product page, you’ll find a “tell me more” button next to an email optin form.

This way, they can collect the email addresses of bottom-of-funnel prospects throughout the year and build anticipation for the program.

60. Free Shipping

Free shipping is one of those things that everyone wants when it comes to shopping online. If someone is close to making a purchase, free shipping might be the offer that seals the deal.

61. Free Consultation

Many lawyers offer free consultations as lead magnets. This could also be a great bottom-of-funnel offer for you if you offer a service.

The best thing about a free consult is that it gives you a natural excuse to ask for the email address, phone number, and other relevant information. If you need to close someone over the phone, this is a natural opportunity.

62. Free Quote

Instead of a free consultation, you could offer a free quote. Here’s how Liberty Mutual does it.

First, you’ll be asked to enter your zip code and click on the “Get a Quote” button.

Then, you’ll be directed to another page where you’ll be asked to enter the rest of your information.

With most lead magnets examples, you would only be able to ask for a little information upfront. However, because a free quote is at the bottom of your funnel, these prospects are more willing to give out their detailed information.

63. Catalog

Finally, if you have a product catalog, remember to offer it as a lead magnet at the bottom of your funnel! Just remember to ask for their email address on the order form.

7 Key Takeaways To Create Irresistible Lead Magnets

There are seven things that your lead magnet should do if you want it to be irresistible.

The best lead magnets:

1. Solves a real problem – if your lead magnet doesn’t solve a real problem that your customer avatar has, or if it doesn’t give them something they want, it won’t work at all.
2. Promises one quick win – your lead magnet should promise (and deliver) one quick win for your avatar. In other words, it should help them to achieve something quickly.
3. Super specific – don’t create a lead magnet about something general. The clearer you’re about the benefit of your lead magnet, the better it will convert potential customers (and if you can personalize this lead magnet to a specific landing page, that’s even better!).
4. Quick to digest – PDF checklists tend to convert well because they’re so quick and easy to digest. eBooks or lengthy reports may make your prospects feel overwhelmed.
5. High value – your lead magnet should have both, high perceived value and high actual value.
6. Instantly accessible – your lead magnet will work best if it can be delivered immediately. People love instant gratification.
7. Demonstrates your expertise or UVP – when someone consumes your lead magnet, it should show your expertise or unique value proposition. This helps turn leads into customers down the road.

If you can nail these qualities, conversions will dramatically rise across your website.

How To Distribute Your Lead Magnet

Creating the right lead magnet template for your audience is only half the battle. The other half is getting it to the right people, in the right places, and at the right time in their customer journey.

That’s where a tool like OptinMonster comes in:

OptinMonster is the world’s #1 lead generation toolkit. It allows anyone to quickly and easily create “optin campaigns” to distribute their lead magnets in a highly targeted way.

“Optin campaigns” are things you’re already familiar with, like popups, floating bars, gamified wheels, and much more.

With these campaigns, you can narrow in on your target audience, improve their customer journey, and increase your conversion rates simultaneously.

Here’s how it works:

Everything starts with selecting one of OptinMonster’s 50+ pre-made lead magnet templates:

These designs are ready to use out of the box and will save you time, money, and headaches in the campaign creation process.

From there, you’ll likely want to make a few modifications to showcase your lead magnet.

OptinMonster has an inline text editor that allows you to customize your unique message, so you can better resonate with your target audience:

And if you want to add new features, you don’t need coding or tech skills.

Everything can be done with a drag and a drop:

This lets you add new features like:

• Images
• Video
• HTML
• Chatbots
• Icons
• Buttons

And much more

And since all the features are made up of “blocks,” everything falls neatly into place every time.

But once the campaign is ready and your lead magnet looks good, you still need to target these messages to the right people.

You’d use one of OptinMonster’s many targeting rules. Some examples include:

• Exit-Intent® Technology: Recover abandoning users as they’re actively leaving your site for good.
• OnSite Follow Ups®: Avoid ‘popup fatigue’ by showing new messages to returning users.
• Geolocation: Target people based on their physical location.

Though many others exist, these are just a few examples of OptinMonster’s targeting rules. And these are the same ways that companies like Crossrope exploded their list by 900%.

Or how Shotkit adds 40+ NEW leads to their site every single day.

From there, you can leverage the full power of automation! By that, I mean OptinMonster integrates with 50+ 3rd-party tools like email service providers, Zapier, webhooks, and more.

That means you can create a lead generation system that works on autopilot.

Ready to get your lead magnet in front of your audience? Click below to start your 100% risk-free OptinMonster account today:

Create High Converting Optin Campaigns Today!

If you’re curious about how many of your subscribers download your lead magnets, here’s how to track downloads in Google Analytics and WordPress.

And that’s all for today! Now it’s your turn.

Go ahead and pick one of these high-converting lead magnet ideas, and then tweak it to create your own. This will drastically improve your digital marketing efforts.

I hope you enjoyed this article. If you did, you’d want to check out the following resources:

• How to Track a Lead Source in WordPress
• How to Ask a Customer Why They Cancelled (to Win Them Back)
• Create and Track Popup Events in Google Analytics
• Content Marketing Examples

These posts will give you more information on tracking the success of your lead magnet campaigns and retaining customers once they’ve converted.

Running online contests and giveaways can be one of your company’s best marketing assets. If you select the right prize, an online giveaway is a great way of attracting qualified leads to your site.

The only problem? Hosting an online contest can be difficult to manage and become more trouble than it’s worth.

But if you have the right giveaway tool, app, or plugin, things become infinitely easier.

That’s why, today, we’re going to look at the best giveaway tools you can start using right now. First, though, let’s get clear on why you should use giveaway marketing tools to boost engagement.

Why Use a Giveaway Tool on Your Site?

There are tons of benefits to using a giveaway tool on your site. Here are just a few:

• Increase Website Traffic. Online giveaways and contests are easy ways to increase traffic to your website through referrals and social shares.
• Grow Your Email List. Require users to sign up for your email newsletter to get contest entries.
• Boost Your Social Media Followers. Online giveaways and contests can quickly boost your social media followers when you offer additional entries to your giveaway in exchange for follows.
• Generate Targeted Leads. Viral online giveaways will increase brand awareness and bring more people in contact with your business.

Still not sure that giveaways are effective? Check out this post on how KnivesShipFree.com increased revenue by more than $10,000 using giveaways.

Now, let’s turn our attention to finding the best online giveaway tool for your site.

Giveaway Tool: 11 of the Best

Here are the best online giveaway tools we’ve found to grow your traffic, followers, and sales!:

1. RafflePress
2. OptinMonster
3. ShortStack
4. Woorise
5. Agorapulse
6. Wishpond
7. Gleam
8. Woobox
9. KingSumo
10. Easypromos
11. Rafflecopter

1. RafflePress

RafflePress is a WordPress contest and giveaway plugin designed to simplify the process of creating and managing online giveaways and contests on your website. To do that, it includes gorgeous pre-built templates and a drag and drop builder so you can have your online giveaway up and running in minutes.

Just wait, it gets even better…

RafflePress offers a FREE version of its plugin that you can use to create a killer online giveaway without paying a dime!

Free RafflePress Features:

• Drag and drop builder with access to all the tools you need to create a successful online giveaway
• 100% responsive so your online giveaways and contests will look great everywhere
• Fraud protection to eliminate the cheaters and keep your giveaway honest
• Rule generator template to make it extremely easy to create contest entry rules
• Lightning-fast operation from highly-optimized giveaway widgets to help with site speed, SEO, and conversion rates
• Automated start and end times
• A free template to create simple giveaways
• Basic entry methods including Facebook page clicks, Twitter follows, visit a specific web page, and more

Pro RafflePress Key Features:

• Email marketing and CRM integrations to easily connect your email list and get more email subscribers
• Image submission entries (great for getting user-generated content)
• Polls and surveys tool
• Custom design options and backgrounds
• Landing pages for your online giveaway competition
• Goal-based giveaway templates
• Viral sharing features (refer-a-friend) to generate even more traffic by rewarding users with bonus entries for referring friends to your giveaway or sharing it on their social media
• Verified bonus actions let users earn more entries by following you on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, and more (plus, “verified” means that you can rest easy that these are real entries)

RafflePress is the best online giveaway plugin for WordPress, free or paid. Its advanced contest tools and marketing automation features are unmatched.

By getting website visitors to bring in more website visitors, they get more chances to win and you get more leads. Everyone’s a winner!

RafflePress Pricing:

RafflePress has an amazing FREE version. Paid plans start at $39.50/year.

For more information, check out this helpful review of RafflePress.

2. OptinMonster

You probably know OptinMonster as the best lead generation tool on the market. So what does that have to do with running an online contest?

OptinMonster is one of the best ways to share your contest with your site’s visitors and increase registration.

This is important because running a successful online contest has 2 components:

• Creating an organized system to allow people to join and win prizes
• Getting people to actually enter the contest

That second part is harder than you might think, and it’s often why so many giveaways don’t work.

But with OptinMonster, you can quickly and easily boost engagement with your contest. You can do this by showing targeted campaigns like popups, floating bars, slide-in scroll boxes, and more to let your users know about any contests you’re running:

Plus, building these campaigns is easy and doesn’t require any coding skills.

In fact, with over 50 pre-built templates and our drag and drop editor, you can build professional campaigns in minutes.

You can also use our inline text editor to personalize the messaging to your audience and target people who would be most interested in your contest’s prize:

Added to that, OptinMonster has lets you create gamified wheel campaigns where visitors can spin a wheel to win a prize. These instant wins keep visitors engaged and can boost conversions and sales exponentially.

Finally, you’ll be able to target your campaigns to the right people, in the right places, and at just the right time in their customer journey.

This ensures that you’ll only get the most quality leads joining your contest. Some popular ways targeting rules OptinMonster customers have used include:

• Exit-Intent® Technology: Target users as they’re actively leaving your website.
• Onsite Retargeting®: Retarget returning users with new campaigns based on how they’ve interacted with the ones they’ve seen.
• Page-Level Targeting: Display campaigns on specific URLs of your website.
• Geo-Targeting: Show campaigns to users who come from specific regions.

But you may be wondering, do these targeting rules really help boost conversions? Check out a few of these success stories that our customers have shared based on their results:

• Crossrope EXPLODES Its Mailing List by 900%
• Adam Enfroy Gains Over 11,000 Subscribers in One Year
• Shotkit Attracts 40+ New Leads Every Day

OptinMonster is perfect for any website including small businesses, eCommerce, and blog sites.

Ready to try it for yourself? Click below and use OptinMonster to boost engagement with your online giveaway today:

3. ShortStack

ShortStack is a popular online giveaway tool and WordPress giveaway plugin that makes it easy to create a giveaway campaign in minutes. Plus, no coding!

ShortStack Features:

• Drag and drop builder including 20+ widgets like form, poll, newsletter, social media, gallery and voting
• Customize colors, fonts, boxes, size, text and every other element in your campaign
• Email notifications let you contact your campaign participants as soon as they enter a competition, after a number of days, or at a scheduled date and time
• Leads are saved in a searchable, exportable database
• Limit entries and verify entry authenticity to reduce cheating
• Random Entry Selector lets you choose a contest winner on social networks
• Get user-generated content from photo contests, including hashtag contests
• Built-in analytics data lets you see how your campaigns are performing, in real-time

ShortStack Pricing:

Free plan available; premium plans start at $79/month.

4. Woorise

Woorise lets you create an online giveaway for free, and has a WordPress giveaway plugin. However, if you want all the best features of Woorise you’ll need to signup for one of the paid plans.

Woorise Features:

• Campaigns and Woorise App interface are fully mobile-friendly
• Drag and drop builder includes social widgets for your Facebook page, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, and more
• Customize your online contest colors from a variety of options, show or hide elements, and use your own images
• Multi-language support
• Geotargeting lets you create campaigns targeted to users based on their location
• Conditional logic so you can show or hide form fields, entire sections, social actions, or send email notifications
• Tracking data is easy to understand
• Choose random winners with a single click
• Fraud detection tools keep your contest fair

Woorise Pricing:

Free plan available with Woorise branding. You can find a free version of the Woorise WordPress giveaway plugin in the free repository. Paid Grow plan starts at $23/month.

5. Agorapulse

If you’re in the market for a complete social media management tool, Agorapulse may be exactly what you need. We included it here for the free Facebook Timeline Contest app that they have available for the software.

Facebook contests are a great way for marketers and site owners to grow their social media following and boost engagement.

Agorapulse Features:

• Randomly pick sweepstakes winners from the people who’ve liked or commented on a post
• Pick winners from people who commented with the correct answer for a quiz question
• Get great user-generated content by asking people to comment with photo submissions, then pick winners from the submissions with the most likes

Agorapulse Pricing:

Pricing starts at $54/month when billed annually.

6. Wishpond

Wishpond is a marketing platform that includes options for social media contests and competitions. However, if you already have your marketing needs covered (by an awesome tool like OptinMonster, perhaps?) this option is going to have tools that you don’t need.

Wishpond Features:

• Simple interface
• 10 social media contests including Instagram hashtag contests, photo caption contests, video contests, and more
• 300+ integrations so you can connect email, analytics, sales, and payments

Wishpond Pricing:

Wishpond’s giveaway app starts at $49/month when billed annually.

7. Gleam

Gleam is the most expensive of the online giveaway tools we’re covering, but its Competitions app makes it really easy to create and manage contests. However, it does not have a WordPress giveaway plugin.

Gleam Features:

• Verified Actions reduce the number of steps it takes to enter contests and checks the entries to make sure they’ve gone through
• Reach more potential entrants by letting users refer their friends
• Responsive down to 320px to support a mobile-friendly experience
• Google Analytics integration
• Pick winners randomly or award manual entries
• Multi-language support

Gleam Pricing:

Free plan available; paid plans start at $10/month (billed annually) for a pretty limited Hobby plan; business plans start at $149/month.

8. Woobox

Woobox is a free online giveaway tool and WordPress giveaway plugin that you can use to set up a contest on your WordPress site quickly and easily. It uses shortcodes that make embedding on WordPress a breeze.

Woobox Features:

• Customizable templates to get you started
• Choose winners randomly, easily approve submissions for your photo contests, and push media submissions to your galleries
• Integrate your campaigns with Zapier, Mailchimp, and more than 500 other tools
• Collect entries from hashtags, likes, or comments on social media platforms
• Use landing pages to drive traffic from emails, social media posts, and ads to a dedicated contest page

Woobox Pricing:

Free plan available; paid plans start at $37/month when billed annually.

9. KingSumo

KingSumo is a WordPress giveaway plugin created by AppSumo. You can use it to grow your email list through online contests.

KingSumo Features:

• Set up your giveaway on your WordPress site in just a few clicks
• Schedule start and end dates
• Easy image uploads to show off pictures of the prize next to its description

KingSumo Pricing:

Free option available; paid plan is for $49 (one-time).

10. Easypromos

If you’re looking for a way to easily create and manage online giveaways across all social networks, Easypromos might be for you.

Easypromos Features:

• Create complex giveaways combining Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube
• Create giveaways with collaborators like influencers, sponsors, and brands
• 100% responsive and mobile-friendly
• Can be added to WordPress with a widget

Easypromos Pricing:

Create 1 free online giveaway; paid plans start around $29/month.

11. Rafflecopter

Rafflecopter makes it easy to create and run giveaways on your site. The giveaway app is designed to work with any website without any coding skills needed.

The downside is that adding giveaway entry options is a bit more complicated than it needs to be. So it can be hard to customize what actions you want the user to take in order to be eligible to participate.

Plus, when you create a giveaway, Rafflecopter will generate an embed code that you need to paste on your site. So this isn’t the most beginner-friendly option to start with.

Rafflecopter Features:

• Readymade themes and custom entry form design
• 1-click email integrations
• Prize image gallery to get more contestants
• Real-time analytics

Rafflecopter Pricing:

Sign up for free with a limited features plan. Paid plans for this giveaway app start at $13 per month.

What Is the Best Online Giveaway Tool and WordPress Giveaway Plugin?

Our pick for the best online giveaway tool and WordPress giveaway plugin is RafflePress. Not only is RafflePress super easy to use, but it’s dedicated entirely to giveaways, so the pricing and features are exactly where you need them to be.

The free version has everything you need to create a successful giveaway, but the paid versions start at only $49 for an entire year.

Get started with the premium version of RafflePress now! Or, you can always grab the free version.

And that’s it! These have been the best online giveaway apps, tools, and plugins that you can start using to get more engagement with your contest today.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also want to check out the following:

• RafflePress Review: Is This Plugin Any Good?
• How to Run an Online Contest or Giveaway
• 22 Stunning Sales Promotion Examples to Win More Customers

These articles will have everything you need to run more effective contests that bring you tons of new qualified leads.

At OptinMonster, we’re experts in lead generation, helping small businesses like yours engage potential clients and turn them into loyal customers. In fact, OptinMonster helped real estate company Woodside Communities increase their leads by 476% and revenue by $294,435 in just 2 months!

In this guide, I’ll show you how to get real estate leads with 9 powerful, easy-to-implement strategies. These tips will help you build a pipeline of qualified leads, so you can focus on what you do best: closing deals.

• What Is Real Estate Lead Generation?
• Why Online Lead Generation Is Essential for Real Estate
• 9 Best Online Lead Generation Tips for Real Estate

What Is Real Estate Lead Generation?

Real estate lead generation is the process of attracting and nurturing potential clients, whether they’re buyers, sellers, landlords, tenants, or investors. Lead generation is the first step in the real estate marketing process. Before you can sell a property, you need to connect with homeowners interested in selling. To earn commissions as a buyer’s agent, you must first identify and engage buyers looking for a new home. Essentially, lead generation is the foundation of a successful real estate business.

Because real estate transactions can take time, lead generation is an ongoing process. Some clients may take months to make a decision, and others may decide not to proceed at all. That’s why real estate professionals must maintain a steady pipeline of potential clients and always work to attract and nurture new leads.

Why Online Lead Generation is Essential for Real Estate

Real estate is a competitive industry, even when market conditions are favorable. To get more clients and sales, you need to think about ways to get more leads online.

While traditional methods like cold calling, direct mail, and open houses still play a role, they’re often limited in reach and cost-effectiveness. Online lead generation, on the other hand, allows real estate professionals to attract leads 24/7, tap into broader audiences, and build lasting relationships with potential clients.

For example, open houses allow you to meet potential buyers. However, they have limitations, as you can only be in one place at a time. Other traditional methods, like postcards, may leave an impression, but they’re costly and often overlooked.

With online lead generation, you can reach a virtually unlimited audience, many of whom are already actively searching for real estate solutions. Unlike direct mail or local events, online strategies let you connect with high-intent leads anytime, without the need for constant, hands-on effort.

By optimizing for organic search, you can attract leads at little to no cost. With the right strategies, online lead generation becomes a scalable and cost-effective way to build a steady stream of new clients.

9 Best Online Lead Generation Tips for Real Estate

Next, I’ll share my top tips for generating more leads for your real estate business. Feel free to use these links to jump to the tip you’re most interested in:

1. Optimize Your Website for SEO
2. Start an Email Marketing List
3. Add Lead-Capturing Popups and Forms to Your Real Estate Site
4. Offer a Lead Magnet
5. Target Your Lead-Generation Campaigns Based on Geolocation
6. Run Targeted Google and Social Media Ads
7. Create Dedicated Landing Pages for Ad Campaigns
8. Feature Client Testimonials for Social Proof
9. Add a Vendor Directory to Your Site

1. Optimize Your Website for SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a powerful way to attract high-quality real estate leads without the ongoing cost of ads. You can target SEO keywords like “homes for sale in [your area]” and “real estate agent in [your city].” These keywords can drive traffic from people actively looking for real estate services in your area.

Create dedicated webpages for neighborhoods or property types to showcase local expertise and improve rankings for location-specific searches. For instance, a page titled “Homes for Sale in Downtown Chicago” can attract buyers interested in that area.

Additionally, high-quality content like blog posts, neighborhood guides, and market updates can engage visitors and boost search rankings. With a well-optimized website, you’ll build a steady stream of organic traffic and attract more leads over time.

2. Start an Email Marketing List

Before you start turning your website traffic into leads, you’ll need to set up an email list. Email marketing is the marketing channel with the highest ROI, and getting started is incredibly easy.

You’ll need to sign up for an email service provider, such as Constant Contact or Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). These services let you send mass emails, segment your email list for targeted campaigns, and automate your email marketing.

You’ll also need a way for people to subscribe to your list through your website, which I’ll cover in the next step.

3. Add Lead-Capturing Popups and Forms to Your Real Estate Site

You’re driving traffic to your website, and you’re set up to start emailing your leads. Next, you need a tool to convert your website visitors into subscribers and buyers.

OptinMonster is the #1 lead generation software for growing your list of real estate leads. You can use our 700+ pre-made templates to add a variety of lead-capture campaigns to your site, such as:

• Lightbox Popups
• Floating Bars
• Fullscreen Welcome Mats
• Slide-In Scroll Boxes
• Inline Forms
• and more!

For example, you can create a popup like this one for your real estate newsletter:

With OptinMonster’s easy drag-and-drop builder, you can customize any template in minutes.

If you have a decent designer on your team, you can even create campaigns from scratch. Either way, OptinMonster makes it easy to create eye-catching popups and other lead-generation campaigns that are optimized to convert.

OptinMonster integrates with all major email marketing platforms, so your new leads will automatically be added to your email list.

You can do more than just collect email addresses for your list, however. For example, you may want to follow up with your real estate leads individually. Your OptinMonster campaign can include any kind of contact form or survey questions that you need.

Woodside Communities added this OptinMonster popup to their website:

This friendly, personal popup helped them increase their monthly new leads from 46 to 116 in just 2 months. And because they reached out to each lead individually, they increased their revenue by $294,435 in that same time span.

You might be wondering what to send to your new leads once they subscribe to your email list. Your email marketing doesn’t have to be complicated! Just share what potential buyers and sellers are most curious about:

• New listings in the area
• Recent sales in their neighborhood (including final sales prices!)
• General market conditions
• Tips for preparing their home for sale
• Checklists for moving out of or into a house
• First-time home buyer guide

4. Offer a Lead Magnet

One way to build your email list quickly is to offer a lead magnet. A lead magnet is something you give subscribers in return for their contact information. So rather than simply asking them to subscribe, you make a compelling and valuable free offer.

Some lead magnet ideas for real estate include:

• Home sale checklist
• Buyer documents checklist
• Preferred vendor directory
• An email course on staging a home for sale
• Personalized home valuation or market report by phone, email, or even in person

OptinMonster has multiple templates available for offering lead magnets, such as this one:

Lead magnet campaigns let you offer value in exchange for your visitor’s contact information, which incentivizes them to sign up. Once they’re on your email list, follow up with helpful content and clear opportunities to work with you.

5. Target Your Lead-Generation Campaigns Based on Geolocation

Like they always say in real estate: location, location, location! Geolocation marketing is a key part of any real estate lead generation strategy. After all, you need to specifically reach people who are looking to buy or sell in the areas you serve.

Thankfully, OptinMonster lets you target and personalize your onsite campaigns based on your website visitor’s location.

OptinMonster’s Geolocation Targeting rules let you show different campaigns and forms based on the visitor’s location. Even better? You can set up your Geolocation rules in just a few clicks.

You can also use OptinMonster’s Smart Tags to reference the location your lead lives in:

Personalized campaigns like this catch your visitors’ attention and encourage engagement. In fact, Expat.com grew its membership by 30,000 people a month using OptinMonster’s personalized campaigns.

Your onsite campaigns are only one way to use geotargeting. You can also use geolocation to target your online ads, which I’ll cover next.

6. Run Targeted Google and Social Media Ads

No matter how good your SEO strategy is, there’s a limit to how much organic traffic you can bring to your site. But you can also boost your real estate leads with pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google and social media. By focusing your ads on specific demographics, locations, interests, and behaviors, you can connect with potential clients actively seeking real estate services.

Google Ads: With Google’s audience targeting options, you can reach users based on their search behavior and online activity. Just like OptinMonster, Google lets you choose which locations you want to target or exclude from your ads. You can also create remarketing campaigns to re-engage visitors who previously explored your website. This is a great way to remind people of your services as they continue their property search. Check out our guide to retargeting your Google Ads campaigns.

Social Media Ads: Platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer advanced targeting features, allowing you to define your audience by location, age, interests, and more. Retargeting ads can remind users of properties they’ve viewed or encourage them to complete a contact form. Check out this guide on optimizing Facebook ads for conversions.

Targeted ad campaigns, especially when combined with tools like OptinMonster, can skyrocket your real estate leads and help you guide those leads through your sales funnel.

7. Create Dedicated Landing Pages for Ad Campaigns

If you’re running ads to drive traffic to your site, make sure to send that traffic to dedicated landing pages instead of your homepage. A landing page is a standalone webpage on your site, created for a specific ad or campaign and focused on a singular goal.

A targeted landing page can dramatically boost your conversion rate by matching the ad’s message and focusing on a single, clear call-to-action (CTA).

For example, if you’re running an ad targeting first-time homebuyers, create a landing page specifically for them. Include a headline like “Start Your Homeownership Journey” and a call-to-action encouraging visitors to schedule a consultation or download a first-time buyer’s guide. This approach keeps the experience relevant and increases the chances of turning visitors into leads.

Need an easy way to create landing pages fast? SeedProd is the best landing page builder for WordPress, giving you everything you need to create high-converting, professional landing pages.

Its drag-and-drop editor is easy to use, and it comes with pre-made templates optimized for conversions. You can quickly add elements like testimonials and contact forms, which are ideal for capturing leads on real estate pages.

With SeedProd, you get a streamlined way to create dedicated landing pages that align perfectly with each ad campaign, helping you capture and convert more real estate leads. Get started with SeedProd.

8. Feature Client Testimonials for Social Proof

Client testimonials are essential for generating real estate leads. By sharing real stories of satisfied clients, you build trust with potential buyers and sellers and show them exactly why you’re the right choice for their real estate needs.

Testimonials are powerful examples of social proof, the psychological concept that people are influenced by the actions and opinions of others. Social proof statistics consistently show that customers are more likely to sign up or buy when they see recommendations from real people.

You can add testimonials to OptinMonster campaigns, landing pages, and throughout your website. We do exactly that on our own website:

In real estate, a positive testimonial from a homebuyer or a seller who had a smooth transaction can make a huge impact. These real stories show prospects that you’re trustworthy and capable, increasing the likelihood that they’ll reach out to you.

9. Add a Vendor Directory to Your Site

Our final real estate lead generation strategy is a variation on traditional networking: publishing a vendor directory on your website.

While some real estate companies jealously guard their favorite plumbers or interior designers, we think that sharing some of your professional network is a better idea. When you publicly recommend a vendor, they’re more likely to return the favor and refer business to you.

Plus, you may be able to capture some of their search volume. Someone searching for a local electrician could end up on your vendor directory page and find other helpful information. This makes them more likely to remember and reach out to you when they’re ready to work with a realtor.

To make the directory a better list-building strategy, you could use gated content. This means that parts of the directory are hidden until someone enters their email address. You then have the perfect opportunity to send a complete vendor list to their email along with other lead nurturing content.

OptinMonster makes it easy to create gated content with a simple content-locking campaign:

Start Generating Real Estate Leads Today

With the right online lead generation strategies, growing your real estate business can be both efficient and cost-effective. By implementing these tips, you’ll attract high-quality leads who are already interested in buying, selling, or investing in real estate. Your website and ads will do lead-generation work for you, and you can focus on closing deals.

OptinMonster is here to make lead generation easy. With our powerful tools, you can create targeted campaigns, capture leads, and nurture them through automated follow-ups, all designed to help you grow your real estate business.

What are you waiting for? Start building your list of real estate leads today with OptinMonster!

Related Resources

• 32 Best Lead Generation Software and Tools
• 11 Proven Ways to Generate Organic Leads and Increase Traffic
• 14 Lead Generation Form Examples (Convert Visitors Into Customers)

By including social proof in your digital marketing, you can convince more of your leads to make a purchase. How? By showing them how much their peers love your products.

That’s why all the big brands use social proof on their sites, on their social media, and in their email marketing.

Whether you’re a beginner or an old pro at social proof marketing, we’re here to help with this ultimate guide.

Our team at OptinMonster has spent over a decade helping businesses convert their website traffic into revenue. We know all the best ways to optimize your site to land more sales. That’s why we use social proof throughout our own website:

And is our social proof strategy successful? With over 1.2 million websites using our lead generation software, the answer is definitely yes.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about using social proof in your marketing strategy. We’ll also share social proof examples and tips to help you improve your conversion rates and grow your business.

• What Is Social Proof?
• 6 Types of Social Proof
• 4 Data-Backed Benefits of Social Proof in Marketing
• 16 Social Proof Examples (With Tips)
  • 1. Show Real-Time Purchases With TrustPulse
  • 2. Add Testimonials and Numbers to Your Homepage Like FreshBooks
  • 3. Create a Testimonial Page Like OptinMonster
  • 4. Encourage On-Site Reviews Like Etsy
  • 5. Create an Official Facebook Group Like ROKR
  • 6. Pair Large Numbers With a Discount Like WPForms
  • 7. Highlight Subscriber Count Like OptinMonster
  • 8. Show Fast-Selling Products Like Maurices
  • 9. Get Celebrity Endorsements Like Betty Crocker
  • 10. Host Social Media Takeovers Like the City of Calgary
  • 11. Host Industry Experts Like Chalene Johnson
  • 12. Invest in Case Studies Like OptinMonster
  • 13. Display Awards Badges & 3rd-Party Reviews Like MemberPress
  • 14. Showcase Customer Photos Like ModCloth
  • 15. Create a Referral Program Like Instacart
  • 16. Add Social Proof to Popups with OptinMonster

What is Social Proof?

Social proof is a psychological concept where people are influenced by the actions of others. It’s the idea that if many people are doing something, it must be correct or desirable.

The term was first used by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book ‘Influence: Science and Practice.’ Social proof is why we listen to recommendations, and trust what others say in reviews.

If that definition sounds like peer pressure, you’re not too off-base. However, social proof isn’t a type of bullying like peer pressure can be. In fact, it isn’t a bad thing at all. Instead, social proof simply states that humans, and thereby consumers, actively look to others when gathering evidence for a decision.

For marketers, that means it’s not enough to tell shoppers why you think your product is great. You must show shoppers that your existing customers think your product is great.

Consumers want proof from their peers and from unbiased 3rd parties, not from the brands selling the products.

What is an example of social proof?

Let’s say you’re planning a special dinner with a friend, and you’ve narrowed your choices down to 3 restaurants in a nearby city. You scan through the menus for each restaurant, but to make your final decision, you’ll probably depend on one thing: online reviews.

You check out comments on each restaurant’s social media pages, as well as 3rd party review sites like Yelp and Google.  As you do so, you’ll examine several factors:

• The overall star rating: Does one restaurant have a 4.7 rating, while the others are closer to 3.5?
• The number of star ratings: A high rating average may not mean much if there are only 8 reviews. Fewer reviews may also indicate that the restaurant isn’t very popular.
• The specifics of the reviews: Do the reviews consistently say that the service is terrible? Do multiple reviewers say it’s the best Italian food they’ve ever had?

Every time you look to others to make a purchasing decision, you demonstrate the power of social proof.

Similarly, your own website visitors want to feel confident that they won’t regret spending money on your product. Marketers use social proof as a tactic for conversion rate optimization by easing the minds of worried customers.

6 Types of Social Proof

Now that we’ve covered the meaning of social proof, let’s look at the categories that are useful in digital marketing. These are the 6 different types of social proof:

1. Customers: Social proof from your existing customers or users. These include customer reviews, testimonials, and case studies.
2. Experts: Social proof from credible and esteemed experts in your industry, especially experts your target audience sees as aspirational.
3. Celebrities: Social proof from celebrities or other influencers who have used your product.
4. Crowds: Social proof from citing a large number of people. This includes highlighting your number of customers or how many 5-star reviews you’ve received.
5. Friends: Social proof from friends of your potential customers, such as users seeing that 50 of their Facebook friends follow your business page.
6. Certifications & Awards: Social proof from credible, 3rd party entities that certify that you are knowledgeable, high-quality, or trustworthy. A “USDA Certified Organic” badge is one example.

Data-Backed Benefits of Social Proof in Marketing

Next, we’ll tackle the question of why social proof is vital to your marketing strategy. To explain some of the benefits of social proof, we’ll look at some statistics from recent studies on social proof and customer behavior. This data will illustrate just how well social proof works.

1. Social Proof Improves Shopper Confidence

In Bazaarvoice’s 2023 report on Shopper Experience, they take a close look at the impact of user-generated content (UGC), such as reviews, ratings, photos, Q&As, and social media posts. In other words, they look at how social proof affects consumers.

Their finding? 78% of shoppers report feeling more confident in a purchasing decision when they see UGC.

2. Shoppers Care More About Social Proof than Branded Content

Bazaarvoice’s study also shows an imbalance between the priorities of shoppers and the priorities of brands. 75% of brands spend most of their content marketing budget on branded content. However, 67% of shoppers rely more on UGC when making purchasing decisions.

You can see all of Bazaarvoice’s findings by signing up for the Bazaarvoice Shopper Experience Index Vol. 17.

3. Local Businesses Need Social Proof, Too

According to BrightLocal’s 2023 Local Consumer Review Survey, 98% of people read online reviews for local businesses.

Plus, 76% reported reading online reviews regularly, and 21% said they read them daily.

4. Social Proof Directly Leads to More Sales

And finally, the most important benefit of social proof is that it helps you win more sales and make more revenue. Here are some stats:

• Websites with customer reviews see a 67% higher eCommerce conversion rate than websites where customers don’t see reviews. – Trustmary’s customer review tests
• 83% of Americans say a recommendation from a friend or family member makes them more likely to purchase a product or service. – Convince & Convert’s Word of Mouth Report
• 77% of people who watch a testimonial video say it helped convince them to buy the product or service – Wyzowl’s Testimonial Statistics Report

These are just a few of the social proof statistics that show how important it is to make social proof a priority in your marketing strategy.

16 Social Proof Examples to Increase Conversions

The question isn’t whether or not social proof will help you increase conversions, but rather which social proof strategies should you use. Here are some real-life examples of social proof. Each example is paired with a tip for how you can use social proof in your own marketing efforts.

1. Show Real-Time Purchases With TrustPulse

Type of Social Proof: Customers

When you display real-time stats, you can show website visitors that other people are choosing your product right now. Not only is this a great example of social proof, but it adds the fear of missing out (FOMO) into the mix as well.

A great tool to easily implement this is TrustPulse. This software lets you display your most recent site activity in a small but attention-grabbing popup.

You can show purchases, registrations, signups, or anything you want. You can even set up “on fire” notifications if something in your store is blowing up in popularity. These are great for leveraging FOMO on landing pages and checkouts.

Plus, TrustPulse takes less than 5 minutes to set up, from initial signup to running live on your site.

Just click here to get started with TrustPulse.

2. Add Testimonials and Numbers to Your Homepage Like FreshBooks

Type of Social Proof: Customers and Crowds

One of the most commonly used forms of social proof is the customer testimonial. Testimonials are a lot like positive reviews, but they are used a bit differently.

Testimonials are quotes that explain the benefits of your product, and they’re usually displayed along with a name and photo. For B2B companies, the person’s title and company are also listed.

FreshBooks is a popular invoicing and accounting software for small businesses. They use testimonials right on their homepage to highlight why business owners love their product. By doing this, they make sure their testimonials connect wth their target audience: business owners who want to simplify their accounting. They also use the power of large crowds, by stating that 30+ million people have used FreshBooks.

3. Create a Testimonial Page Like OptinMonster

Type of Social Proof: Customers

In addition to displaying testimonials throughout our own website, we also have a dedicated OptinMonster testimonials page where we list quotes from some of our best reviews.

Customer reviews and testimonials can be displayed in a number of different formats as long as they highlight the value of your product through the voices of satisfied customers. In fact, according to one case study, WikiJobs used testimonials to increase sales page conversion by 34%.

4. Encourage On-Site Reviews Like Etsy

Type of Social Proof: Customers and Crowds

If you’ve ever purchased from the online marketplace Etsy, you’ve probably gotten an email that looks like this:

If you want to get more reviews and ratings on your site, just ask! Below the “Review this item” button, Etsy’s email says, “Leaving a review helps Jo with their shop, and also others shopping on Etsy.” 

This is a clever tactic on Etsy’s part. Etsy benefits from getting more reviews, but they focus on the benefits to the seller and other shoppers.

As the reviews pile up, shoppers will be swayed both by the quality and number of customer reviews.

Pro-tip: Don’t be afraid to offer incentives in exchange for a review, especially if you’re a local business. This is becoming a more common tactic, with 26% of local consumers reporting that they were offered a discount in exchange for a review in 2022.

5. Create an Official Facebook Group Like ROKR

Type of Social Proof: Customers and Crowds

ROKR is an online retailer that sells detailed wooden 3D puzzles. Their Facebook page runs a private group called ROKR® Official Fans Group.

I joined this group because I had purchased one of their puzzles and wanted to find advice on how to complete a few tricky parts. It was clear that many other new members joined for the same reason, and established members were happy to help.

However, something else happens when you join this group:

You see thousands of fans posting their own puzzle projects and displays.

These posts show up in your Facebook newsfeed, so you regularly see how much others are enjoying the puzzles they’ve bought and assembled. This results in massive free marketing for ROKR, as people who join because of a single purchase see a thriving community of over 22,000 members. And those members advertise ROKR’s products every time they post a finished puzzle. This strategy can easily turn new customers into brand loyalists.

ROKR occasionally posts in the group with special announcements, but the group’s primary focus is community building and social proof.

6. Pair Large Numbers With a Discount Like WPForms

Type of Social Proof: Crowds

WPForms, a form-building plugin for WordPress, uses a floating bar from OptinMonster to promote a special Valentine’s Day sale.

But in addition to the coupon button and countdown timer, WPForm also includes some compelling social proof:

• “Trusted by 6M+ websites”
• “12,500+ 5-star reviews”

By including these numbers, WPForms makes a strong case for the value of their special offer.

7. Highlight Subscriber Count Like OptinMonster

Type of Social Proof: Crowds

Here at OptinMonster, we have an email newsletter that provides tips on optimizing your website to get more conversions.

We have optin campaigns sprinkled throughout our site, asking visitors to sign up for that newsletter:

Notice that the main heading for this signup form isn’t “Join our list” or “Sign up today.” Instead, it’s “Join Over 235,335.” We lead with the social proof of the size of our subscriber list.

8. Show Fast-Selling Products Like Maurices

Type of Social Proof: Crowds

The clothing store Maurices adds a “Going Fast” notification on pages for products that are selling quickly.

This strategy is usually thought of as a scarcity tactic. And it does indeed create a sense of urgency for shoppers, who realize they need to buy before the product is sold out.

However, phrases like “Going Fast” and “Almost Sold Out” also leverage social proof.

In this case, it sends the message, “You’re right to like this blouse because other people like it, too. Go ahead and buy it while you can!”

9. Get Celebrity Endorsements Like Betty Crocker

Type of Social Proof: Celebrities

In the age of social media, influencer marketing is more important than ever. In this social proof example, Betty Crocker partnered with actress Alyson Hannigan to promote their products at Walmart.

Hannigan’s 2 million+ Instagram followers don’t just follow her for updates on her acting career. She also posts about her family and her home life as a mom. So this partnership is both a celebrity endorsement and an example of influencer marketing. Hannigan’s followers will see this photo and be tempted to buy the ingredients for this tasty dessert themselves.

10. Host Social Media Takeovers Like the City of Calgary

Type of Social Proof: Experts

Social media takeovers are a great way to expand your influence to an audience that may be interested in what you have to offer but aren’t necessarily familiar with your brand. In a social media takeover, an influencer or expert will literally take over the posting on your social networks for a certain amount of time.

The city of Calgary had a social media takeover of their Instagram platform. Residents and city ambassadors would take over the city’s Instagram for a week to show off all the cool things the city has to offer.

This strategy was a clever way to use social proof. People who research the city for a potential visit or move will see these takeover posts from experts. In this case, the experts are people who already live in the city and can show just how great it is.

Takeovers are usually an easy sell because they also benefit the influencer or expert, since they get to reach a new audience, too.

11. Host Industry Experts Like Chalene Johnson

Type of Social Proof: Experts

Inviting expert guests to contribute to your social media platforms or blog is a great way to use social proof. If experts believe in your brand enough to contribute, then customers are more likely to trust you, too. Wellness coach Chalene Johnson is always doing this in Instagram Stories and on Snapchat:

Your followers, and others who stumble upon these guest posts, tend to attribute the expert’s authority to your brand. After all, it’s your platform that’s being used to share the message. Plus, followers will look to you as a source of this knowledge in the future, even though you’re acting just as a distributor. Over time, expert social proof helps you build trust with your followers and potential customers.

12. Invest in Case Studies Like OptinMonster

Type of Social Proof: Customers

In a case study, you present the success story of one of your customers or clients. A good case study should include the following:

• Specific data on how your product or service helped your customer succeed
• A compelling cause-and-effect narrative
• Customer quotes that explain why your product was a game-changer

At OptinMonster, we have a dedicated Case Studies section on our blog, where you can easily browse our customer success stories.

For instance, we did a case study with the American Bird Conservancy. At the top of the case study page, we highlight the most important statistics from the study:

Throughout the article, we introduce the nonprofit’s mission and goals and show examples of the OptinMonster popups they used to generate more leads.

The case study concludes with a summary of the results and a testimonial quote from the American Bird Conservancy’s Director of Digital Communications.

13. Display Awards Badges & 3rd-Party Reviews Like MemberPress

Type of Social Proof: Certifications & Awards

Does your business have industry certifications or accreditations? Have you won awards? If so, you want customers to know about them! Most certifying organizations have badges or logos that can be freely displayed on your website.

MemberPress, a WordPress membership plugin, displays badges for their G2 awards in the footer of their site.

But the award badges aren’t the only social proof in this footer. MemberPress also shows their plugin’s average rating on several 3rd party review sites.

14. Showcase Customer Photos Like ModCloth

Type of Social Proof: Customers and Friends

People love to be featured, so why not feature your happy customers as social proof? With a customer photo showcase, you can show off your customers’ styles or creations that have resulted from your products.

For example, Modcloth has a style gallery where they allow customers to post photos of themselves wearing the products. They encourage customers to use a specific Instagram hashtag to be included in their gallery. Not only does this give ModCloth social proof for their site, but their customers’ friends will also see these posts on Instagram.

This is even more powerful than hiring professional models because shoppers can see how their clothes look on real customers. And the customers are advertising your products to their friends with every post they make.

To show off your customers’ photos on your website, you can use a Smash Balloon

With Smash Balloon’s Instagram Feed Pro, you can easily create an Instagram hashtag feed and embed it anywhere on your WordPress site.

Here’s an example of an Instagram hashtag feed:

Smash Balloon also offers feed plugins for X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and customer reviews. Now you can keep your site automatically updated with user-generated content as well as your own social feeds and latest customer reviews.

Get started with Smash Balloon today!

15. Create a Referral Program Like Instacart

Recommendations from friends and family are some of the most powerful forms of social proof. That’s why it’s a great idea to incentivize those recommendations by creating a referral program.

Instacart uses a popular referral strategy by offering 2 incentives:

1. The customer’s friend gets a discount on their first order.
2. The existing customer gets an account credit when the friend makes their first order.

This type of referral program uses social proof to attract new customers, and it also encourages brand loyalty within your existing customer base.

16. Add Social Proof to Popups with OptinMonster

So far, we’ve covered a wide variety of social proof examples: everything from encouraging product reviews to getting celebrity endorsements to creating case studies.

But once you have all this great social proof ready, how do you make sure your target audience sees it?

One excellent way is to put that social proof in a popup on your website!

That’s where OptinMonster comes in!

With our 100+ pre-made templates and easy drag-and-drop builder, you can have a social proof campaign up and running on your site in mere minutes.

Here’s an example of an OptinMonster popup we use on our own site:

Notice that below the call-to-action button, we highlight one of our customer testimonials. This quote, along with many others, is presented throughout our site. But by including it in this popup, we’re able to draw more attention to it, right as we’re asking our website visitors to get started with our software.

With OptinMonster, you can create lightbox popups, fullscreen mats, floating bars, inline forms, and more. 

Practically any of the social proof examples in this list can be added to these on-site marketing campaigns to make them more compelling for your users.

Plus, OptinMonster’s robust targeting and triggering display rules let you show your campaigns to the right people at the right time. Here are just a few examples:

• Exit-intent® Technology: Show your message to visitors as they’re about to leave your site. Add your best social proof and an enticing offer, so you can get their email address or land a sale before they go.
• Page-Level Targeting: Tailor your popups and social proof for specific product pages or blog posts.
• Referrer Detection: Create campaigns based on how the visitor got to your site, such as by clicking a Facebook ad.
• Time on Site: Show your social proof to your most engaged users, by setting them to display after visitors have spent a certain amount of time on your site.

Are you ready to convert more website visitors with social proof? Give OptinMonster a try!

More Social Proof Resources:

• Social Proof Statistics: Powerful Facts That Will Help You Boost Your Brand
• 18 Best Social Proof Software Tools to Boost Sales
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If you’re an online business owner who wants more traffic, conversions, and sales…

If you have a great service or product to offer but aren’t a professional developer or designer…

And if you want a reliable, easy-to-use solution that just works every time…

You can benefit from using OptinMonster.

But we know you probably have more specific questions. That’s why we wrote this extensive OptinMonster review to help you decide for yourself. Feel free to jump to what you’d like to learn about first:

• What Is OptinMonster?
• Do I Need OptinMonster?
• What Are The Top 5 Benefits of Using OptinMonster?
• OptinMonster Pricing
• Is OptinMonster Worth the Price?

By the end of this post, we’ll help you figure out if it lives up to the hype and is worth the price.

What Is OptinMonster?

OptinMonster is the world’s best lead generation software and WordPress plugin on the market. It enhances every part of your marketing strategy from getting more subscribers, growing leads, and increasing your revenue.

And with regards to the amount of targeting and triggers our campaigns offer, there’s simply no other platform that compares.

OptinMonster launched back in 2013 with a simple goal: to level the playing field by giving small and medium-sized companies resources that can compete with the big guys.

As a result, we’ve served over 1 million websites ranging from solo entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies.

Some of our most well-known clients have included:

• Capterra
• Pinterest
• ClickBank
• American Express
• TripAdvisor

Among others.

But due to our low costs, we make sure that small businesses and eCommerce stores can have access to all the features they need to thrive in their niche.

We do that by making sure our setup is accessible to everyone. Our clients build and customize their campaigns with no coding skills required. That includes adding lead magnets like discounts, coupons, eBooks, and more.

Then they set display rules and triggers to make sure these campaigns are seen by the right people and at the right time.

Our detailed analytics allow users to monitor their campaigns’ success and make adjustments as needed.

Finally, we integrate seamlessly with email service providers to automate your entire email marketing system. These would be ESPs you’re familiar with, like Constant Contact, Brevo, Mailchimp, and many others.

That way, when you get a new signup, that lead will go directly to the mailing list and automated sequences in your ESP.

And if you don’t see the email marketing services you use, you can integrate them using OptinMonster’s webhooks.

Plus, it comes as a convenient WordPress plugin. That means you’ll get access to all of OptinMonster’s features, tools, and campaigns directly from your WordPress dashboard.

As you’ll see, OptinMonster is hands down your best bet if you want to grow your email list, drive more conversions, and make more sales.

Before we can really answer the question, “Is OptinMonster worth it?” we have to ask another even more important question: “Do I need OptinMonster?”

Do I Need OptinMonster?

You definitely need a lead generation tool like OptinMonster if at least 2 of the following statements are true:

• Getting more pageviews and subscribers would grow your affiliate, product, or ad income. (Bloggers and publishers, we’re looking at you!)
• Converting more abandoned carts would increase your revenue. (This is you, eCommerce folks!)
• Email marketing is a main source of leads and revenue for your business.
• Your marketing and sales funnels work fine but could be better.
• You want to create a great user experience for your site visitors.
• You need to save time and energy in your marketing and stop guessing about what’s working and what to do next.

If this sounds like you, then you need to try OptinMonster!

Still on the fence? Let’s take a look at a few benefits of OptinMonster that make it stand out from the competition.

OptinMonster Review: The Top 5 Benefits

Since there are so many awesome features of OptinMonster, it’s easiest to break things down into the top 5 benefits of using our software.

OptinMonster gives you:

1. Multiple campaign options
2. Easy campaign customization
3. Precise targeting and trigger settings
4. Detailed analytic reports
5. Proven results

We’ll start by going over our campaign types.

1. OptinMonster Offers the Most Campaign Types

OptinMonster lets you build 9 types of campaigns:

• Lightbox Popup
• Fullscreen Welcome Mat
• Slide-in Scroll Box
• Floating Bar
• Countdown Timers
• Sidebar Forms
• Inline Forms
• Content Lockers
• Coupon Wheel Optins

Each of these campaign types is designed to increase your conversion rates. In a few moments, we’ll talk about the effectiveness of these campaigns in more detail.

For now, it’s important to understand the variety of campaigns we offer. Many of our competitors are limited to 5 or 6 campaigns, which means you need supplemental software to create the others.

For example, a lot of software that gives you a general popup campaign won’t include a Content Locker or Inline Form.

That’s problematic for many small businesses who need all the help they can get converting general traffic into email subscribers.

Like how Whole Whale was able to use a Content Locker campaign to double their email sign-ups and increase conversions by 62%. Here’s a glimpse of how they obfuscated their locked content to increase email subscribers:

The point is that when it comes to the variety of campaigns you can build, OptinMonster provides the most options.

But none of that matters unless it’s easy to create and customize the campaigns themselves. Fortunately, with OptinMonster, this couldn’t be more simple.

2. OptinMonster Makes Campaigns Easy to Customize

As we said earlier, it’s been our goal at OptinMonster to make our tools accessible to marketers or business owners in small and medium-sized companies.

Reaching that goal meant creating a campaign editor that didn’t require our clients to have a team of developers.

What we ended up with went a step further regarding ease of use.

Because with our drag and drop builder, you don’t need a team of developers. In fact, you don’t need any coding skills or knowledge at all!

We made sure that our campaigns could be tailored to fit with any brand and any voice in a matter of minutes.

We did that by creating over 700+ pre-built templates that our users can pull from to match different marketing goals:

These templates can be filtered in a variety of ways including by Device:

By Goals:

Or by Category:

But if you do want a campaign that’s 100% original to your business, we give you that option too. With our Canvas template, you can build any kind of campaign from scratch, so it’s fine-tuned to your needs:

From there, you can change every aspect of your campaign by dragging and dropping new elements into place:

The elements you can add to your campaigns include:

• Columns
• Text
• Chatbot
• Custom HTML
• Images
• Buttons
• Video
• Countdown timers
• Icons
• Optin fields
• Yes/No options

And more.

Plus, you can click on any part of your campaign to pull up the editing tools on the left-hand side:

You can edit a campaign’s:

• Text
• Font
• Background colors
• Images
• Buttons

And any other aspect of your design that you want to be personalized to your brand.

In other words, if you have an idea for an optin campaign, OptinMonster lets you build it quickly, easily, and exactly aligned with your vision.

And if you DO have more technical skills, OptinMonster allows you to use custom HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This gives you 100% control over the look and functionality of your campaigns at all times.

It also lets you sync your campaigns to other marketing tools for better tracking, such as integrating a campaign with Google Analytics to track unique conversion goals.

Check out this helpful resource to learn how to create a campaign with OptinMonster.

Now let’s turn our attention to OptinMonster’s targeting options.

3. OptinMonster Offers Precise Targeting Settings

The only way to get the most out of your new campaigns is if you show them to the right people at the right time. So if you want to know “is OptinMonster worth it,” then targeting is definitely a factor.

More than any other software on the market, OptinMonster allows you to target and segment your audience.

This is the key to getting more conversions.

We accomplish this in 2 ways:

• Targeting conditions
• Triggers

Let’s start by looking at our targeting settings.

OptinMonster Campaign Targeting

When traffic comes to your website, they’re likely to land on different pages and at different times of the year. Plus, each visitor on your site is unique and will respond differently to certain messages.

To get the best conversion rates, you need to adapt your optimization strategy to personalize the user experience. And you do that through creating targeted campaigns.

At OptinMonster, we give you the ability to use the following targeting rules:

• Page-Level Targeting
• Referrer Detection
• OnSite Follow-up Campaigns®
• OnSite Retargeting®
• Geo-Location Targeting
• Cookie Retargeting
• Device-Based Targeting
• AdBlock Detection
• And many more!

Each of these targeting rules lets you display your campaigns at just the right moment in your customers’ journey.

As a result, you’ll see conversion rates soar.

You can show campaigns to match content on specific pages of your site. Or show regional campaigns to attract local customers for in-store products.

You can target traffic based on whether they’re browsing your site via desktop, tablet, or mobile. Or you can customize your campaigns while taking into account which 3rd party site your user is coming from.

But one of the most powerful targeting rules that we have is AdBlock Detection. That’s because over 616 million devices use AdBlock or similar software to prevent your campaigns from appearing.

So we created, tested, and perfected a solution.

By creating a campaign that politely asks users to turn off their adblock software, around 77% of people disabled it and allowed optin campaigns to appear.

This targeting feature alone can do wonders for your conversion rates by showing campaigns that would have otherwise been blocked.

Plus, we’re one of the only companies on the market that offer this level of targeting service.

And even though we’ve only scratched the surface of how you can target campaigns to specific users, let’s switch gears and look at a few of our campaign triggers.

OptinMonster Campaign Triggers

At OptinMonster, we help our clients trigger their campaigns based on user behavior. This allows you to personalize your customers’ experience and show them your optin forms when (and where) they’ll be most persuasive.

Our triggers include:

• Exit-Intent® Technology (for both desktop and mobile)
• Scroll Triggers
• Shareable MonsterLinks
• Inactivity Sensor
• Time Display Control
• Campaign Scheduling
• and many more!

These triggers take into account your users’ behavior. They show certain campaigns based on your traffic’s interaction with your site.

Our exit-intent popups, for example, appear as users are actively leaving your website. This is crucial technology for your site conversions because over 70% of people who have chosen to leave your site never come back.

But you can engage potential leads at this moment in their customer journey. In other words, exit-intent campaigns let you turn exiting users into lifelong customers.

All of our triggers let your users’ behavior determine when they’ll see a campaign. If they show particular interest in a page by scrolling down a certain percentage, you can give them a special offer related to the content.

Or if they click one of our MonsterLinks in your emails or site content, they’ll be taken directly to one of your enticing campaigns.

Finally, there are custom targeting rules for eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce, Shopify, and BigCommerce.

These targets and triggers let you INSTANTLY boost sales from your online store.

After you define the display rules for your campaign, you can also apply MonsterEffects to it. These are animation effects that are applied to the popup, slide-in, or other campaign types when they are displayed.

When you use OptinMonster, you have an endless combination of targeting and trigger options to choose from. This can help you:

• Grow your mailing list
• Reduce cart abandonment
• Boost engagement on social media
• Increase webinar registrations
• Redirect traffic to boost SEO
• And much more…

Plus, the best part is that we give you the ability to track it all. Which leads us to the next benefit of working with OptinMonster.

4. OptinMonster Gives You Detailed Analytics Reports

There’s only one way to make sure you’re getting the highest conversion rates: tracking the results.

OptinMonster makes this easy. In your dashboard, you immediately see 4 metrics for each of your campaigns:

• Visitors: how many people have seen that campaign
• Conversions: how many people have converted that campaign (such as subscribing or clicking)
• Conversion rate percentage
• Revenue attribution: how much revenue that campaign brought in directly or as part of a group of campaigns the customer converted before buying

You can also click on a campaign’s analytics icon to get even more information about its performance.

This pulls up a detailed account of how visitors are interacting within the period of time you want to know about.

But what do you do if a campaign isn’t performing as well as you’d hoped? With OptinMonster, we help you A/B split test your campaigns so you can make better, data-driven decisions moving forward.

With just a click, you can create an A/B test of any campaign you think could be doing better:

Then you can change any element of the campaign like a header or image, and let the test run for as long as you like.

When the results are in, you’ll know which campaign is getting you more leads. With that knowledge, you can optimize your conversion rates.

And this is just one of the many reasons OptinMonster has gotten massive results for our clients.

5. OptinMonster Is Proven to Get Results

So far, we’ve covered many of the great features OptinMonster has to offer. But the real question that users want to know is, “Do they get results?”

We already mentioned that OptinMonster is used on over 1,000,000 websites, but here are a few specific examples of the kinds of success our customers have found with us:

• MedStar increased conversion by over 500%
• American Bird Conservancy increased lead collection by over 1000%
• Blogger Adam Enfroy added over 11,000 subscribers in 2019 (and currently uses that list to generate over $30,000 a month in sales)
• Cosmetic Packaging Now grew their email list by over 750% with 2-step optins
• Singularity University generated 967 new leads from just 1 optin campaign

Read more about these and similar success stories on our case studies page.

But these represent our best clients, right? What do every day, regular users think about OptinMonster?

We checked some online review sites around the web and thought we’d share what people are saying about us.

Here’s a response found in the comments section of a blog that reviewed our software:

Here’s a user review from Capterra:

And another customer from Capterra had this to say about OptinMonster:

Finally, here are a couple of short headlines from G2 Reviews:

And the list goes on.

The fact is that our clients love us not only because our email optin campaigns are easy to design and have precise trigger settings.

They also love us because our software gets real results that help their business grow.

So we know that it’s effective but, again, the question “is OptinMonster worth it” really translates to “is OptinMonster worth the cost?”

To answer that question, we need to look at OptinMonster’s pricing.

OptinMonster Pricing

You can always visit our pricing page to find the latest OptinMonster pricing.

You’ll see that we offer monthly and annual subscriptions. And you might be wondering why we don’t offer a one-time, lifetime fee like many of our competitors, especially those in the WordPress ecosystem.

The answer is simple: Because we want to be around for a LONG time, and to be able to continue to improve our product for you!

When companies choose a lifetime model, it puts them in a position to have to focus on getting more and more NEW customers, rather than improving the experience for existing users. That’s because once a new user has purchased, they’ll never make that company any more money… they’re not contributing anymore to that company’s ability to continue to grow. So, rather than focus on making a great experience for existing users, the company is forced to spend their time and attention on finding more NEW customers to fund their growth. 

Our mission is to help small businesses grow and compete with the big guys. The way we do that is by continuing to build (and improve!) the absolute best lead generation tool on the market. We know that if you’re happy with it and seeing results, you’ll share us with your friends and their friends and their friend’s friends… and well, you get the picture.

OptinMonster FAQs

Is there an OptinMonster WordPress plugin?

Yes! The OptinMonster plugin lets you manage and create your campaigns from within your WordPress dashboard. It extends the functionality of the OptinMonster app specific to WordPress, including the ability to target taxonomies like categories and tags, or Custom Post Types even when your permalink structure wouldn’t allow you to target them with our Display Rules alone… It lets you use WordPress shortcodes in campaigns, has deep integrations with many of the most popular plugins, and integrates with the Block Editor, too.

What are pageviews?

Unlike our competitors, we don’t charge by your WEBSITE pageviews or penalize you for growing your website traffic.  Instead, we only charge for your usage of OptinMonster. At OptinMonster, a pageview is registered anytime your visitor sees an OptinMonster campaign.

Does OptinMonster have a free plan?

You can try OptinMonster risk-free for 14 days and get a full refund, no questions asked, if you aren’t satisfied.

Are there OptinMonster coupons?

There are promotions frequently throughout the year, from Valentine’s Day to Black Friday deals. Check the pricing page for current deals.

With that in mind, let’s get to the heart of why you’re reading this post.

Is OptinMonster Worth It?

So the question remains: Is OptinMonster worth the price?

In short, yes.

Just for a minute, let’s put aside the fact that OptinMonster has more campaign types than our competitors, easier campaign customization, more precise targeting rules, and detailed analytics reports for our customers.

For roughly the same price as your Netflix subscription, you can get started getting more email subscribers, building higher-quality leads, and increasing your sales immediately.

In fact, we’re so confident about this that we offer all of our users a 14-day unconditional money-back guarantee. Sign up with OptinMonster to get started today!

We hope you enjoyed this post. If you did, you might also be interested in the following resources or tutorials:

• Email Marketing for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide
• How to Run a Successful Email Marketing Campaign 
• 17 Tips for Writing Email Copy That Converts
• 9 Best Lead Generation Plugins for WordPress (Compared)

These articles will have everything you need to refine your email marketing strategy and drive more conversions/sales for your online store.

That’s a lot of videos to compete with. How can you get your brand’s videos to rank in YouTube searches? You’ll need to master SEO for YouTube, so you can boost your visibility, engagement, and subscriber base.

We’ve accomplished all of those goals and more on OptinMonster’s YouTube channel. Using the tactics I’m sharing in this post, we’ve reached a subscriber base of nearly 10,000. That’s a big accomplishment for a niche channel, and it’s exponentially higher than the channels for our competitors.

In this guide, I’ll cover everything you need to improve your YouTube video ranking. I’ll share YouTube SEO tips ranging from keyword research to advanced optimization techniques, and I’ll give actionable steps to rank higher and get more views on your videos.

Throughout the article, you’ll also see examples of how we implement these tactics at OptinMonster. That way, you can understand exactly how each tip works for a real brand.

• What Is YouTube SEO?
• Keyword Research: The Foundation of SEO for YouTube
• How to Optimize YouTube Videos for SEO: 10 Steps & Best Practices
• How to Generate More Leads With Your YouTube Videos

What Is YouTube SEO?

YouTube SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of optimizing your videos to rank higher in YouTube search results. It can also include improving ranking in Google search results. Like traditional SEO, YouTube SEO involves keyword research, but there are also several platform-specific optimization strategies.

YouTube’s algorithm considers several key factors when ranking videos. Some of the most important factors are:

• Relevance: How well your content matches the user’s search query
• Watch Time: How long viewers watch your videos
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Percentage of people who click on your video after seeing it in search results
• Engagement: The number of likes, comments, and shares on the video and on the channel overall

Throughout this article, I’ll discuss tactics to improve these factors and increase your YouTube video rankings.

Keyword Research: The Foundation of SEO for YouTube

Before you can start optimizing your YouTube videos, you have to find the right keywords to target.

Keywords and search queries are the terms and phrases that users type into the YouTube search bar when looking for content.

By identifying and using the right keywords, you help YouTube understand the content of your videos. That makes it more likely that your video will appear in search results. Smart keyword research not only drives more views. It also attracts the right audience: people who have a genuine interest in your content, brand, and products.

Here are some of the best ways to conduct keyword research to help your YouTube video ranking.

1. Use YouTube’s Autosuggest Feature

YouTube’s search bar is an excellent starting point for keyword research. As you type a word or phrase, YouTube automatically suggests popular searches. These autosuggestions reflect what users are actively searching for, making them valuable keywords to consider.

This process helps you both:

1. Identify keywords for videos you’ve already made
2. Find keywords to make new video content for

Example: If your video is about “yoga for beginners,” start typing “yoga for” into YouTube’s search bar. You might see autosuggestions like:

• “yoga for beginners”
• “yoga for flexibility”
• “yoga for stress relief”

These suggestions show what people are actively searching for. This information provides specific angles or subtopics to focus on in your video. For example, a specific phrase like “yoga for stress relief” could help you reach a new segment of your target audience.

Tip: Try typing a few variations of your main topic into the search bar, and take note of the autosuggested phrases. These can often reveal niche keywords you might not have considered.

2. Use Google Trends for YouTube Search

Google Trends is a free SEO tool that helps you discover trending keywords and topics. It offers a dedicated section for YouTube search data, allowing you to explore the popularity of specific keywords over time. You can also find trending topics within your brand niche, along with seasonal search trends.

Google Trends also offers a comparison feature. You can enter 2 search terms and see how their popularity compares over time. This free YouTube tool can help you determine the best main keyword for your video.

Example: Let’s say you want to make videos for healthy smoothie recipes. You can enter that main keyword into Google Trends and select YouTube Search. You’ll see a line graph of the term’s interest over time. If you scroll down, you’ll find a list of related keywords. You can see both:

1. Top Related Queries: Similar keywords with the highest level of interest. For “healthy smoothie recipes,” I got results like “weight loss smoothie recipes,” “healthy breakfast recipes,” and “healthy breakfast smoothie recipes.”
2. Rising Related Queries: These are search terms that are rapidly growing in popularity. They help you take advantage of keywords that are on an upswing. For “healthy smoothie recipes,” the rising related queries were “healthy snacks recipes” and “healthy green smoothie recipes.”

Tip: Use Google Trends to compare the search volume of different keywords. Opt for keywords that show consistent or rising interest over time, rather than those that spike and drop quickly.

3. Use Advanced YouTube SEO Tools

The YouTube search bar and Google Trends give you a great starting point for YouTube SEO research. But if you want to dig deeper, you’ll need a more advanced tool. Here are my top suggestions.

Semrush & Rank Tracker for YouTube

Semrush is the most thorough and effective tool for SEO keyword research. In fact, we list it as #1 in our list of best keyword research tools. Semrush focuses on traditional web search SEO, so it can help you get your YouTube videos ranking higher in Google searches.

Semrush also offers the Rank Tracker for YouTube app, which includes these features:

• Keyword tracking for up to 200 YouTube keywords
• Competitor video analysis
• YouTube rank change monitoring

Both Semrush and Rank Tracker for YouTube offer free trials.

TubeBuddy:

TubeBuddy is a browser extension and app for YouTube. It helps you optimize your YouTube videos to improve search rankings and engagement.

Here are some of TubeBuddy’s top features for SEO:

• Keyword Explorer: See detailed insights on keyword search volume, competition, and overall score, specifically for YouTube.
• Tag Management: Quickly discover and copy your competitors’ best-performing video tags.
• SEO Studio: This suite of SEO tools walks you through the process of optimizing all aspects of your YouTube video.

You can try out basic features, including the Keyword Explorer, with TubeBuddy’s free version. For full access, you’ll need to sign up for one of TubeBuddy’s paid plans.

Tip: Use these tools to identify long-tail keywords, which are more specific and less competitive. A long-tail keyword can be something like “what are the best ingredients for a protein smoothie.” This phrase probably has a lower search volume. However, if you’re selling protein powder, you want to target videos to people using that search term.

How to Optimize YouTube Videos for SEO: 10 Steps & Best Practices

1. Optimize Your Video Title
2. Write Engaging Video Descriptions
3. Tag Videos for Better Visibility
4. Categorize Your Video Appropriately
5. Add a Custom Thumbnail
6. Include Timestamps to Create Chapters
7. Add Subtitles or Closed Captions
8. Include Cards and End Screens
9. Group Videos Into Playlists
10. Track & Analyze Your Video’s Performance

1. Optimize Your Video Title

Your video title should include your video’s main keyword. That lets the YouTube algorithm understand your content’s topic. Additionally, your title needs to entice users to choose your video over others in the search results.

When users are searching YouTube, your video title is one of the first things they see. That makes titles extremely important for click-through rates (CTR). Giving your video a catchy title is essential for getting more people to click on it, just like having a good email subject line increases open rates.

Here’s an example of a title we’ve used for a video on OptinMonster’s YouTube channel:

The title starts with our keyword phrase: “Upselling Vs. Cross Selling.” It continues with a question that shows exactly what information searchers will learn if they watch the video.

YouTube Title Best Practices:

• Use keywords early: Use your main keyword early in the title. For example, if your keyword is “YouTube SEO,” a good title might be “YouTube SEO: 10 Tips to Rank Your Videos Higher.”
• Incorporate keywords naturally: Your keyword phrase should make grammatical sense in your title. Don’t force it in a way that sounds awkward.
• Keep Titles Concise: Aim for titles around 60 characters to avoid truncation in search results.
• Consider Using Numbers, Parentheses, or Brackets: Variations from regular text can draw a searcher’s eye. For instance, you can say “Top 5 Tips” instead of simply “Tips.” Or you can add “(2025 Update)” to a new video guide.

A well-written, keyword-focused title won’t magically rank your video content at #1, but it’s an important first step.

2. Write Engaging Video Descriptions

Video descriptions help the YouTube algorithm understand the content of your video and provide context to viewers. You can also include important links in your descriptions.

Here is the description we use for our “Upselling vs. Cross Selling” video:

The description starts with a long-tail search term: “What’s the difference between an upsell and a cross-sell?” After the brief summary of the video’s content, the rest of the description consists of links to related content and OptinMonster’s social channels.

YouTube Description Best Practices:

• Include Keywords: Include your main keyword, or an important variation, within the first few lines of the description. Avoid keyword stuffing.
• Include CTAs and Links: Guide viewers with clear calls-to-action (CTAs), such as “Subscribe for more tips!” Include links to relevant content. YouTube descriptions are also the perfect place to add affiliate links.
• Focus on the First Few Lines: The first 100-150 characters should be catchy and informative. This portion is what appears in search results and above the fold in the description box.

Remember, YouTube’s search algorithm prioritizes user engagement. So if viewers regularly click links in your descriptions, YouTube will see that you’re providing helpful content.

3. Tag Videos for Better Visibility

Tags are a type metadata. They help YouTube understand the context of your video and improve its discoverability. Essentially, you’re providing a list of topics that your video falls unders. While not as powerful as titles or descriptions, tags still play a role in ensuring your content appears in relevant searches.

For our “Upselling Vs. Cross Selling” video, here are some of the tags we used:

• upselling vs cross selling (always include your main keyword as a tag)
• upselling and cross selling
• upselling tips
• how to upsell
• email marketing
• email marketing strategy

As you can see, we included several keyword variations that relate to the content of the video.

YouTube Tagging Best Practices:

• Start with your main keyword: Make your primary keyword the first tag.
• Include Related Terms: Use tags that are semantically related to your main keyword.
• Add spelling variations: If your topic or product is regularly misspelled, include common misspellings as tags.
• Use a YouTube Tag Generator: If you use TubeBuddy, you’ll get tag suggestions as you fill out your YouTube video’s details. You can also try TubeRanker’s YouTube Tag Generator Tool, which is free for limited use.

4. Categorize Your Video Appropriately

During the publishing process, YouTube will ask you to select a category for your video. While that sounds simple, it can be tricky to choose the best one. YouTube only offers 15 categories, and not every video will fall neatly into just one of them.

For example, it can be difficult to decide between 2 similar categories, such as “Comedy” or “Entertainment.” Or, you might have a video that demonstrates how to use a piece of software. Should you select “Science & Technology” or “Howto & Style”?

These best practices can help guide your decision.

YouTube Category Best Practices:

• Consider your audience: Think about who your target audience is and which category they’re likely to browse or search within. For instance, you might have an educational video about eco-friendly beauty products, and you’ll feature affiliate links in your description. While the video could fall under “Education,” your target audience is more likely to search for “Howto & Style” videeos.
• Stay consistent across your channel: If you regularly post content on a similar topic, keep your videos in the same category. Consistency helps build a clear brand identity and makes it easier for viewers to find related content on your channel.
• Reassess over time: As your channel grows and evolves, it may be worth reassessing your category choices. Your audience may shift over time, or your content focus may change. Don’t hesitate to update the category of older videos when needed.

5. Add a Custom Thumbnail

It’s easy to just let YouTube select a screenshot from your video to use as a thumbnail. However, these images are rarely eye-catching or effective. Your thumbnail is your visual hook to get searchers to click on your video, and a well-designed custom thumbnail can significantly boost your CTR.

For OptinMonster’s YouTube videos, we always create thumbnails that are fun, attractive, and intriguing:

YouTube Thumbnail Best Practices:

• Stay on-brand: Use consistent colors, fonts, and design elements to make your thumbnails easily recognizable.
• Use faces and text: Thumbnails with faces tend to perform better because they create an emotional connection. Adding text can also clarify the video’s content at a glance.
• Choose high-contrast colors: Use bright colors and high-contrast images to make your thumbnail stand out. You want your thumbnail to be easy to see, even on small screens.
• A/B Test your thumbnails: YouTube has recently rolled out A/B testing for thumbnails. This feature lets you try out up to 3 thumbnails to see which performs the best.

6. Include Timestamps to Create Chapters

Timestamps are specific time markers added to a YouTube video’s description. They allow viewers to jump directly to a particular moment or section of the video. They’re perfect for longer videos or tutorials, where viewers might be interested in specific segments.

For example, we uploaded our webinar about A/B testing to YouTube and added timestamps in the description:

When timestamps are added to a video, YouTube automatically generates chapters, which are clickable segments on the video progress bar. Here’s what that looks like on our webinar video:

Timestamps help your YouTube SEO strategy in 3 ways:

1. Increased watch time and engagement: Timestamps and chapters make it easier for viewers to find the information they want, which leads to better audience retention and more clicks. In turn, that helps your videos’ search rankings.
2. More context for search algorithms: The titles of your timestamps give YouTube and Google more information about your video’s content. That can help your video rank for more search terms.
3. “Key moments” in Google search: Google uses your chapters to create “key moments” that show up in Google video search results. Here’s an example of key moments that display on an OptinMonster video in Google search:

Best Practices for Adding Timestamps:

• Identify key sections: Before adding timestamps, identify the main sections or topics covered in your video. These sections should be natural breaks in the content that a viewer might want to jump to.
• Use descriptive labels: When labeling your timestamps, use clear and descriptive text. For example, instead of just writing “1:23 – Tip 1,” give more information by writing “1:23 – Tip 1: Optimize your video title.”
• Start with a 0:00 timestamp: Always start your list of timestamps with “0:00” and use a label like “Introduction.” This sets the stage for the viewer and lets them know they can jump to other sections if needed.
• Be consistent: If you’re creating multiple videos with timestamps, try to maintain a consistent format. Consistency helps regular viewers know what to expect and makes your videos more user-friendly.

7. Add Subtitles or Closed Captions

Accessibility is the #1 reason you should add subtitles or closed captions to all your videos. It’s also helpful for your YouTube SEO strategy and can help your videos get higher rankings.

Subtitles increase audience retention by catering to viewers who prefer watching without sound. More importantly, they help non-native speakers and users with hearing impairments. Your subtitles also give YouTube and Google more text to index and rank your video for, which directly impacts SEO.

YouTube Subtitle Best Practices:

• Create Accurate Subtitles: If you followed a script for your video, you can always upload your script using these transcript formatting guidelines. Otherwise, start with YouTube’s automatic captioning feature, or use a third-party service to generate subtitles. Make sure you always review and edit the transcript for accuracy.
• Decide between subtitles and closed captions: Subtitles only include the words that are spoken during your video. Closed captions also include descriptions of any noises, such as sound effects, music, or even sighs and laughs. Use closed captions if your video includes non-verbal sounds that are important to the video’s meaning.

8. Include Cards and End Screens

Cards and end screens are interactive, clickable elements that you can add to your YouTube videos. They help keep viewers engaged, promote additional content, and guide them towards specific actions. Cards and end screens can encourage viewers to subscribe to your channel, watch another video, or visit an external website.

These in-video links let you encourage viewers to take a desired action. For example, the end screens for many of our videos include a link to sign up for OptinMonster:

Clicks on your cards count as engagement, which helps your YouTube SEO.

Best Practices for Cards:

• Focus on timing: Place cards during moments when viewers are highly engaged or when they might be interested in exploring more content. For instance, if you mention a topic that you cover in another video, that’s the perfect moment to suggest it through a card.
• Keep it relevant: Make sure your card is highly relevant to the current video. You might link to a related video, a playlist, or a poll to engage your audience further.
• Limit the number of cards: Too many cards can be distracting. Stick to a few that provide real value and are well-timed.

Best Practices for End Screens:

• Keep it simple: Use a clear call-to-action (CTA) that encourages viewers to take the next step, such as subscribing or watching another video.
• Make it look great: Design end screens that are visually appealing and consistent with your brand. Use contrasting colors to make buttons and CTAs stand out.

9. Group Videos Into Playlists

YouTube playlists are collections of videos on a particular topic or related to a specific interest. They help you organize your content and keep viewers engaged for longer periods. Playlists create a seamless viewing experience that encourages binge-watching. That will increase overall watch time and improve the ranking of your YouTube videos.

OptinMonster’s YouTube channel is organized into a number of playlists, including this one called “How to Grow Your Email List”:

YouTube Playlist Best Practices:

• Group related content: Organize your videos into thematic playlists, so viewers can easily find the content they’re interested in. For example, a fitness channel might have separate playlists for beginner workouts, advanced routines, and nutritional advice.
• Optimize playlist titles and descriptions: Just like with individual videos, use keywords in your playlist titles and descriptions to help them show up in search results.
• Use a logical order: Arrange videos in a logical order within the playlist. For tutorial or educational content, this might be chronological or step-by-step. For entertainment, it might be by popularity or release date.

10. Track & Analyze Your Video’s Performance

SEO for a YouTube video isn’t a one-and-done process. You need to monitor each video’s performance so you can continually optimize your YouTube search rankings. Analyze metrics such as watch time, click-through rate (CTR), audience retention, likes, comments, and shares. This data lets you know which strategies are working and which ones you need to adjust.

Best Practices for Analyzing Performance:

• Use YouTube Analytics: YouTube’s built-in analytics let you easily track key metrics. Pay specific attention to any spikes and drop-offs in your videos. That helps you understand what keeps your target audience engaged and where they’re losing interest.
• Experiment and test: Use your data to test different strategies. For instance, if your CTR is low, experiment with different thumbnails and titles. If your watch time is low, consider adjusting your video’s length or structure.
• Monitor Engagement: Keep an eye on likes, comments, and shares. These interactions play a significant role in video performance. Respond to comments to encourage more interaction.

Generate More Leads From Your YouTube Videos

When you apply these YouTube SEO tips and best practices, you’ll start getting more views and engagement on your videos. But if your YouTube channel is part of a larger brand, then getting viewers is just the first step. You also want to encourage those viewers to take another action, such as purchasing a product or joining your email marketing list.

In other words, YouTube videos are a powerful way to generate more leads for your business. You just need the right tools and strategy to make that happen.

OptinMonster is the best lead-generation tool on the market. You can use our popups, floating bars, and other onsite campaigns to grow your email list and offer enticing coupons and lead magnets.

If you want to convert more of your YouTube viewers into leads, I suggest using these 2 strategies:

1. Add OptinMonster campaigns to any web pages you link to in your videos or descriptions. You can use OptinMonster’s Referrer Detection to create special offers just for visitors coming from your YouTube channel!
2. OptinMonster lets you create MonsterLinks, which are links that directly open an OptinMonster campaign. In your video description, you can include text such as “Get more tips in our email newsletter,” “Download our free ebook,” or “Enjoy a 20% off coupon.” Use a MonsterLink to link that text to your OptinMonster campaign, which will ask for their email address to receive that perk.

That’s just a tiny glimpse at what you can accomplish with OptinMonster. Here’s a quick overview of our features:

Give it a try today with our 14-day money-back guarantee!

Related Resources:

• How to Create a Video Marketing Strategy to Grow Your Business
• 27 Video Marketing Statistics You Need to Know
• Visual Storytelling: How to Build Powerful Connections With Leads
• How to Create a Popup Video: Step-by-Step Tutorial
• The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing