To initiate interactions with prospects, digital agencies often use lead magnets to connect with high-quality leads. Whether you are creating your own lead magnets – or are lucky enough to have access to some done-for-you content – you need to know how to customize your PDF with your offer, logo, and links. You could buy some PDF software, but if you’re working smarter and not harder, you’ll take advantage of these free PDF editors to customize and create lead magnets.
Why Marketers Use Lead Magnets
If you could get just one piece of information from a prospect, it would have to be an email address. With this simple way to contact a business, you can begin the lead nurturing process and email them the content that converts prospects into clients.
But how can you convince highly qualified prospects to give you their email address?
The answer is with a lead magnet like a content download or free trial. Specifically, a useful and relevant lead magnet is an incentive for people to give you their contact information so you can follow up later.
Content such as reports, case studies, guides, short ebooks, and checklists are the most commonly used types of lead magnets because they are easy to brand and distribute. As a digital product, once the lead magnet is created as a PDF file, it costs nothing to store, copy, and give away as many copies as you like. And you have a marketing asset that you can use again and again.
Should You Create? Buy? Or Get DFY Lead Magnets?
It can be time-consuming to research, write, and format a lead magnet that is attractive to the right prospects. Even when you can outsource your content creation, because lead magnets are so labor-intensive, they can get expensive to procure. This chart shows just one company’s pricing for creating a lead magnet:
That’s right. Businesses are paying from $350 to $1k and more for lead magnets. The best solution to these time and money obstacles is to find a source for highly relevant and attractive done-for-you lead magnets that you can customize with your branding, message, and links. It’s easy to get fast results when all you have to do is add your business information to a PDF. You just need a basic PDF editor that supports text insertion, image insertion, and hyperlinking.
Best Free PDF Editors to Customize and Create Lead Magnets
With today's technology you don't need to buy and download PDF software to do simple edits. The best part of the free PDF editors listed below is they are accessible through your favorite browser, which means no installation, no account, or payment necessary to customize your lead magnet PDF. Simply access these editors using any operating system connected to the internet.
SmallPDF
Operating system: Linux (FREE in browser), Windows, macOS
Pros
-
- Cloud-based
- PDF to Word converter and a wide range of tools available online for free
Cons
-
- The editor does not allow you to add a hyperlink
- Can only edit and download two modified documents an hour
The best thing about Smallpdf is that it’s a cloud-based platform that allows you to add text and image content to your PDF files. It also offers simple e-signing, and the ability to add comments and highlights to information already stored in your PDFs.
Besides the editor function, SmallPDF has a variety of options to convert PDFs into easier-to-edit formats such as Word and Powerpoint files, and you can save space by merging individual PDF documents into a single file.
You’ll get prompted to begin a ‘free trial,' but you only have to do that if you want to install the software on your computer.
PDFescape
Operating system: Linux (FREE in browser), Windows, macOS
Pros
-
- No account necessary
- Easy to use with direct download of the modified PDF
Cons
-
- 10MB file size limit (but a lead magnet that size is way too large anyway)
- Paid version missing some of the features of top PDF editors
Only the online version of PDFescape is free to use. Still, you get plenty of useful PDF editing options with PDFescape online such as the ability to add text and images, as well as a tool for adding clickable URL links to your documents.
Do you see the screenshot above? Don’t try to get rid of the orange box created when inserting a link – that is for your visual reference and does not show when you save and download the document with the green download button in the left sidebar.
Operating system: Linux (FREE in browser) Windows, macOS
Pros
-
- Integrates with cloud storage services for uploads and downloads
- Super easy to use with direct download of the modified PDF
- Works on all platforms – limited capabilities on phones and tablets
Cons
-
- Limited to three PDF files per hour
Sejda covers the essential range of PDF editor functions, and really emphasizes ease of access and usability. You can add text, add images, add new links, and even edit existing hyperlinks in any PDF document you upload. Two other cool features let you find and replace words in the PDF and whiteout parts of a page by adding a shape.
This free online PDF editor is user-friendly with a single menu bar for adding text, links, images, and signatures to PDF documents. Make sure to click the ‘Apply Changes' button and proceed to save the finished product in your Google Drive, Dropbox, or computer.
Best Paid PDF Editors for Lead Magnet Creation and Customization
Those are the quick and easy ways to customize done-for-you lead magnets. If you need to change the content of a PDF substantially, you’ll require a more powerful PDF editor that can make modifications to text or images already stored in the file.
If you’re interested in creating your own lead magnets, it can be as easy as writing and formatting your document in Word and “saving as” a PDF or Google Docs and “download” as a PDF. But if you want to get all the benefits of using PDFs to distribute information, then finding a robust PDF software suite is a good investment.
Here is a quick overview of the top paid PDF Editors available, including pricing, pros, and cons:
Price: $159.99 a year for basic (look for a 20% off coupon)
Pros
-
- Unlimited esigning
- Includes OCR technology for editing scanned PDFs
- Create PDFs from any printable format to transform virtually any file type into a PDF
Cons
-
- No support, just self-help support resources
- Works only with Windows
Price:Home version costs $48, and Premium cost $84 (and a 25% coupon might pop up if the browser thinks you are about the leave the page :-))
Pros
-
- Has a Chrome extension you can use
- Low, low price for Home version (only get Premium if you want to password-protect PDFs)
- Access features on any device through a web browser
- Read PDFs in 3D with unique page-flipping technology
Cons
-
- Have to add features like e-sign or Optical Character Recognition separately
Price: Adobe Pro $15 month or $180 year, Adobe Standard S13 month or $156 year with year payment
Pros
-
- PDFs are Adobe’s baby, so this is the best PDF editor
- It is easy to use with a decent and friendly user interface
- OCR technology is available to edit scanned PDFs
Cons
-
- The most expensive PDF editor when compared to other alternatives
- Subscription-only – not flat purchase rate
- Adobe Standard DC works only with Windows, Adobe Pro DC Windows, and Mac
Use the free trials of these applications to find a paid PDF platform that does everything you need at a price you can afford.
Get Started With Lead Magnets
Lead magnets are lucrative assets for any digital agency or freelancer because they build your email lists, help you nurture client relationships, and increase sales. If you haven’t been using these powerful tools, it’s time to start. These free PDF editor tools to customize your lead magnets will get you going faster.
Join us and be part of the Offline Shark Community!
While focused on Local Marketing, in our global community (with 6k+ members in over 13 countries) you’ll feel at home surrounded by fellow marketing consultants and digital agency owners who are facing the same challenges, ready to help solve each other’s problems, and eager to celebrate your wins.
Offline Sharks is committed to practicing and teaching ethical marketing, so while financial goals are important, you’ll instantly see that maintaining our stellar reputation and supporting our community of beginners and veterans is more important. Come see for yourself!
Join Our Facebook Group