5 Lead Magnets Which Work Every Time

Boril Bogoev

24 May 2024 — 5 min read

To build a quality email list (database) that yields good results, one of the most important things is the source from which we secure our subscribers and the way we do it.

A fundamental requirement (both from a business and legal standpoint) is that people themselves must want (give us permission) to join our database. They grant us permission to send them messages.

This permission/consent is valuable to them - they are letting us into their personal space. To obtain it, we need to offer something in return. What we offer in exchange for the consent to send messages is commonly known as a lead magnet.

I have gathered quite a few resources on the topic. First, I want to share those that have worked best for me so far. Then you will see the rest.

My List of Lead Magnets

Checklist

This is a list of things useful for our audience. For example, steps in a procedure or things to do before starting an endeavor. The variety can be great.

The advantage of a checklist is that it is short (saves people's time), provides practical information (applicable in practice), and can be easily consumed (read, printed).

Survey

The survey brings us several benefits - it engages the audience (activates them), gives us valuable information, and helps us build our database.

It is advisable that the survey contains no more than 5 questions, and most of them should be multiple-choice, so people don't have to write long answers. This way, we make it easier for participants, increase the completion rate, and obtain easily analyzable information.

E-book

The oldest and still well-functioning lead magnet. It does not need to be a huge book. It is important that it is well-structured, on-topic, has a practical element, and is convenient for printing and reading on a screen.

Books that are landscape-oriented (horizontal) are ideal in this case - they can be printed on A4 paper or read on the screen in their full size.

Mini Video Course

This lead magnet has been one of the least effective for me. I had one years ago and stopped it. Such a resource provides a huge amount of valuable information but requires people to devote a lot of time to watching the course videos. It is best to break it into a series of videos as part of a launch sequence.

Webinar

A super-effective tool for building a database. Whether it's a classic webinar, a LIVE session in a closed group, or streaming only for registered users (members), the recipe is the same: to see the valuable content of the webinar and participate, you must register.

I notice that most webinars focus on little content (mostly general talk) and then put serious effort and pressure on participants to buy the corresponding product.

I would suggest a reverse approach: provide a lot of valuable content, concise, well-structured, and inspiring. Move smoothly to the sale and approach carefully, according to the audience's mindset, not according to direct sales textbooks from the 1980s.

Selected Resources

Below are several comprehensive articles with a huge number of lead magnet ideas. Some of them overlap, but this is even better because you will be able to identify the leading ones.