There is no doubt that you have seen in many website an offer for a free ebook in exchange for the name and email of the visitor. This free ebook is called a “Special Report.” The idea behind it, is that businesses want prospects to know, like, and trust them.

It is important for you lead magnet to have value. You have to provide worthwhile information to your prospects. This special report is used in your website to make an offer, to advertise or even used in networking situation. You can see why such document must offer value. It must be of high interest to your prospects.

Finding clients is the life blood of any business. You can find them by paying advertisements, through the search engine, or being referred to by someone. Nonetheless, you want to create a list of clients, leads, and prospects that you can stay in touch with.

A special report is by far the best tool you can have in your marketing arsenal to accomplish this. You have your website. It’s a great accomplishment. Just for that, you should congratulate yourself. In fact, a site is an asset. It has financial, marketing, and branding value. It is something you can sell as a real-estate. In fact, even the URL has financial value, based on good will.

Once you have your website, you want to include a squeeze page in it. Its purpose is to collect the name and email address of your visitors, so that you keep in touch with them. This kind of information has tremendous value for your business. Therefore, people need a reason why they’ll give you their very valuable name and email addresses. That is why you need a special report.

Start by giving away a special report to your visitors

The special report is a free downloadable E-book that would have value to your visitor. You’ll give it to him in exchange for his or her information. You cannot give to your prospect just any kind of electronic book. It has to be within the niche you’re serving. For instance, if you are into the oil energy industry, don’t give to your visitor a special report about dog obedience.

For instance, if you offer a special report on the oil energy industry. Something like, “World Economic Forecast of brent crude pricing for the next five years”. That is what would be of interest to those in the industry you’re catering. Think about the kind of information your clients would find most valuable. Based on their dialogues in conventions, symposiums, trade organizations, what kind of questions do they ask the most?

The special report should answer some of those burning questions. Unless you are addressing yourself to a very small, extremely specialized group of readers, keep in mind that the special report is not a research paper. It is not an academic thesis written after exhaustive research. There is a balance that needs to be achieved. It’s an e-book that must have value to your reader, but yet light enough not to be too brainy.

Most often, a special report is about 5 to 12 pages. It should be designed in such a way that it can be read in basically one sitting. This marketing strategy has the tremendous power to position you as an authority in your field. And in this case, your prospects will not only purchase your products or services, but will also be looking to hear from you in your emails.