16 Lead magnet ideas to grow your email list

The lead magnet is a free offer to get something useful in return for your email and phone number. The presence of good lead magnets will significantly increase the conversion from visit to registration and significantly reduce the price of lead. A lead magnet is vital for you if you run paid ads on Google and Facebook.

Why do you need a lead magnet?

In the 2000s there were websites where you could find out some information and subscribe to the so-called "news" of the company. And now a new secretary has come to you and you want to tell this to the whole world. Here is one example of a disgusting form on a site.

The user can fall asleep while filling in this form. Using lead magnets makes it easier for you to build a subscriber base.

The task of the lead magnet is to simplify the process of collecting contact information and make it simple, and what is more important, a pleasant process.

Today, the hype about user data is gaining momentum and if 20 years ago everyone easily left their contacts, now the user will think 10 times before leaving their contacts on an unfamiliar site. Our task is to offer him such a lead magnet that he cannot refuse.

It's important to understand that a lead magnet must be a digital product and it must be scaled easily. Suppose you received 1000 registrations in one day and you need to send 1000 lead magnets. If it is digital information, this is easy to do.

And if it's a paper catalog, it will be labor-intensive. Therefore, our task is to come up with a useful and at the same time free digital products.

Perhaps you are asking yourself "How the lead magnet can look like in my business?". The answer to this question can only be given by you since no one knows your business better than you. You can see some examples for inspiration.

We have collected for you many types of lead magnets.

Free software or tool

This is my favorite type of lead magnet because it's difficult to repeat and it can be only yours. The amount of information is getting bigger and bigger, and we are getting into the digital noise. It is very difficult to please a person and provide him unique information. PDF guides also work, but every year they're working worse and worse.

No one is interested in downloading "Another article with 10 useful tools for digital marketing" since such a list can be found on every blog. A guide is easy to make, and software is difficult. Therefore, the value of software is much higher, and in my opinion, this is the most effective lead magnet of the future. I'll give a few examples.

Email Signature Generator by Hubspot

When you start a business, you most likely create an email on your domain like [email protected] and you need to create a beautiful email signature.

You type in the keyword "email signature" in the Google search and you see several free software including Hubspot. It's silly not to use it, as it will greatly speed up the process of creating an email signature. 3 minutes and you've solved your problem, and just left your email and phone number.

Also, Hubspot found out in which company you work, your position, your website, and a link to social networks. Now they have all the information about you in order to sell software more efficiently.

Data enrichment for Gmail by ClearBit

You can use the free plugin for Chrome, which finds additional data about those who write to you the email. It also finds other employees and their emails. Of course, then they will try to sell you the premium version, but you must admit that "paying" with an email address for such software is very beneficial.

Trial

It's the opportunity to provide access for a certain amount of time to your software. It works well, but it can be applied in IT companies that make money by selling software. But in the first version with free mini-software, you can sell anything.

Imagine that you made a calculator on the website for calculating construction estimates and anyone can get it by leaving an email. Think of how such mini automation can solve some problem of your client.

Step by step guide / How to ...

This is one of the most common types of lead magnets. You need to understand the pains of your target audience. In step-by-step guides, you can cure these pains and get user contact information. People love the step by step instructions. You need to create an article or a PDF file where you can tell how the problem can be solved.

Let's take an example from the Techradar website. They have an entire "How to" section. By writing such content, you immediately solve two problems: write an article on a blog, and create a lead magnet. Because you can make a "Collection of the best articles" on a specific topic from several articles.

Template

It's hard for everyone to come up with something from scratch. They want ready-made templates, instructions. According to the instructions, they still need to do something from scratch, but the template is a completely different thing.

A good example can be found on the Snappa website. Creating pictures for Facebook advertising is quite a difficult task, especially if you're not a designer. Coming to this site you see a lot of ready-made templates, but you can use them only after registration.

Checklist

Checklists are similar to step-by-step guides. You make a list of actions that need to be done in order to get some kind of result.

Imagine that you are teaching people how to do business. A beginner doesn't know where to start his campaign. You can create a checklist, with the help of which, he will have no problems with the state and tax, he will open a bank account, etc.

Or maybe you teach website development.

Provide the user with a checklist of what should be on the site. A heading with an offer, a subtitle with an explanation of the product, a detailed explanation of the product, contacts, etc.

After passing through your checklist, the user should come to the understanding of whether he did everything right or not. You can also do such checklists for the manager. He downloads it and tells employees that here is the instruction, checklist - just do it.

A discount

The easiest and most common lead magnet. Of course, I don't recommend you use it, but if you don't have any content, you can start collecting contacts in this way. You just provide a discount coupon and people leave you their contacts.

I was always skeptical about giving discounts right away, but one story really surprised me.

We had a client who had an offline parquet store. He made a lead magnet and said that people who come to an offline store in swimsuits could get a discount. I started to laugh, and then he showed me a photo of the line in his store.

After that, I realized that everything can come true.

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Podcasts

You can invite different people from your industry and discuss some important problems and solutions. The cooler the guests, the better your podcast. Offer people to subscribe to your podcast and receive new release notifications.

If you are in business, then here is a good Reed Hoffman's podcast. Among the guests, there are Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and other guys who built billionaire companies.

Video courses

Every business should become a mini media platform. Creating your own mini video courses is a very good idea, although many are skeptical about it. It works in any niche, especially if you make a digital product.

If you sell services, you can create a mini-course about solving a problem for a client. For example, "How to build a house." In this video course, tell how you have built your client's house and what future clients need to pay attention to.

Buffer provides a service for SMM marketing. They talk about the best marketing strategies and train marketers to use their software. For each niche, you can come up with a mini-series with some kind of the story of your client.

Video tutorials / how to

This type of lead magnet is similar to the Step-by-step guide but differs slightly in format. It all depends on the type of business, product, and your ability to create content.

Of course, today, video works better than articles, but creating videos is more difficult.

You can make a "map" of client problems and record mini video tutorials on how to solve a problem. Below you will see a video lesson about making a video for Instagram. Share useful features and people will gladly leave you an email.

Compilation

People really like different compilations. Top 10 best songs, top 50 best software, top 5 films of all time, top 5 best hockey players, etc. You can make a useful list of some things that are important for your audience.

Also, you can make a selection of ways to solve a problem, as the guys from Optinmonster did. They created a lead magnet where they will tell 12 ways to convert abandoning users into your subscribers.

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Most of all I like software compilations. If you have a B2B project, then for each niche you can come up with a selection of special software that is best suited for any niche. Top 5 software for marketers, top 10 software for a construction company, top 10 yoga applications, etc.

Create a list of useful software for your industry and provide access to it after the user left the email.

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Test / survey / quiz

This type of lead magnet always has the best conversion.

People always want to know some kind of secret.

Who are they? What suits them best?

They always want detailed instructions for themselves. You can create surveys on the type of person, what kind of work is best suited, what level of knowledge a user has in a particular area. Here is an example of a quiz on the topic of archetype selection.

After passing the test, polls will come to your email. Also, tests are a good way to qualify for a client. Technically, such a survey can be implemented through special services for surveys.

Reports

If you have some data that other companies don't have, it's a very effective way to collect a subscription base. For example, PromoRepuplic company provides software for SMM and they understand where the industry is moving. A simple marketer has no such information.

They made a detailed report about the industry of Social media marketing. Gather a report about your industry and present it to your clients.

Webinars

In many niches, people need to be explained why they need your product and how to use it. This works especially well in B2B business, where products are often incomprehensible and it takes time to figure it out.

A webinar / auto-webinar is a great way to explain to people why they need your product. MailerLite provides an email marketing service. They hold webinars, and if users didn't attend a live webinar, after providing the email they can get a record.

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Contacts for presentation

If you make presentations at conferences always there are people who want to receive a presentation. You can say on stage that if a user sends you his email, he can receive a presentation on it.

This can be easily done using the QR code and the email newsletter service. The conferences gather the right audience. It's a great way to get warm leads 5 minutes after the presentation.

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Combined with multiple offers

The first rule is no rules. Who told you that there can be only one lead magnet? You can combine lead magnets and enhance your offer. Provide the user with several PDF reports, guides, and video courses at once. Offer him a lead magnet that he cannot refuse.

Case study

Everyone loves live examples. People need inspiration, they need to know that someone has succeeded, which means they can do it too. Everyone wants to know, "How did they do it." Case studies are the most powerful and easiest way to create content. Just describe the process, what problems you encountered, and how you solved them.

Here is an example of a case study of how guys promoted a site from 0 to 3millions visitors. Are there 3millions visitors on your site? Do you want to know? Then download the case faster :)

How to make a lead magnet Offline?

Making the lead magnet online is very easy. But what about companies whose interaction with subscribers is offline? Don't be upset. There is a way out of the situation.

Alcohol or something tasty. At exhibitions, people come up to your stand, ask something, and leave. Your task is to take business cards from them.

Man is arranged in such a way, that an exchange must take place. It exists on a subconscious level. Give something valuable. Once I was at an exhibition of Italian furniture.

The main process of lead generation for companies that sell VIP furniture is to drink with architects and designers. And so you come closer to the table where there are beautiful and tasty cocktails, and they say to you "Leave a business card and take a cocktail".

It works flawlessly.

Raffle prizes. There are a lot of people in your store, but you don't know how to get contacts? Make a raffle of valuable prizes, and the user can receive a notification by phone or email. The more valuable the prize, the greater the conversion to registration.

Catalogs / books. At first glance, this is a fairly old way and nobody needs magazines today. But if you've made a beautiful, printed booklet with some useful information, then it can be easily exchanged for contacts. In addition,n beautiful books are very difficult to throw out.

Have you ever thrown beautiful books? You always put them on the shelf and say "someday I'll read it". A book is a sacred subject to which a person has an emotional dependence. Give me a business card - get a book.

How to make a lead magnet technically

We learned how to create a lead magnet itself and what it is. Now let's learn how to implement it technically. We need that website visitors automatically convert to subscribers. To do this, we need special services.

Landing page builder - services that help you quickly create landing pages. Such services already have ready-made landing templates. You can create them in 5 minutes, change the picture, the title, and start the traffic.

You can integrate the email marketing service with the Landing Designer and automatically send emails with information after filling in the form.

Pop-up services - they help you increase the conversion of your landing page. Surely you saw them on the Internet when you tried to leave the website, but a window popped up and offered to leave you an email in return for useful information. It annoys everyone, but it works.

The conversion of pop-ups is 2-7%. This is a good result that can be added to the conversion of the landing page itself.

Here are the stats. We caught 289 leads who wanted to leave.

Messenger pop up - it's exactly the same pop-ups, but now the client has the opportunity to subscribe to the messenger. After subscribing, the chatbot starts interacting with the user and sends him the lead magnet that you promised. You need to use both pop-ups for emails and pop-ups for messengers.