There are many things that a good lead magnet contains.
Your lead magnet doesn’t need to hit all or any of the requirements if you don’t want. It really just depends what works with your Squeeze Page Funnel and your business.
Before we get into what makes a good lead magnet for your business, let’s first define what a lead magnet actually is.
What is a Lead Magnet?
A lead magnet is the nugget of value that you offer to potential buyers in exchange for them giving you their email address. You can ask for more contact information, but it’s usually better to ask for as little as possible to reduce friction and increase conversion.
Lead magnets need to be aligned with your target audience. The point of a lead magnet is to qualify and gather a list of people who would be interested in products that you are selling, so you can market these products further in the funnel or even at a later date.
It is common practice to get people’s emails on a squeeze page, but this has evolved into offering a full offer stacked funnel after someone opts-in to get the lead magnet to try and recoup your ad costs or even make a profit.
Some Common Things That Make a Good Lead Magnet
- It’s short and consumable (you want people to consume your lead magnet and go on to next steps)
- It doesn’t take too long to create (you want something valuable to your audience, but you don’t want to waste too much time if it’s not quite what they are looking for)
- It adds value in the right direction (you want people to be able to solve a minor, but irritating problem with your lead magnet, and then want to take the next step in the right direction to solving bigger problems)
Types of Lead Magnets
There are many different types of lead magnets you can use for your Squeeze Page.
There really isn’t a right or wrong answer as to what you use to build your lead list, it’s just a matter of what fits your business and your audience.
Make something valuable to your audience that they are willing to give their email address for, and you are on the right track.
Let’s check out some of the different types out there, so you can decide for yourself which makes the most sense for you to create.
Guides
Guides are a great way to teach someone how to do something. It can be as simple as a PDF that walks someone through how to train their dog to sit, or as complicated as a video series that teaches someone the process of building a sales funnel.
People like step-by-step instructions on how to replicate a certain result, and a guide will get you just that.
Cheat Sheet
If you can a guide and condense it down to one page, that’s a cheat sheet.
Take the meat out of the guide and give it to people in a quick and consumable form. People like shortcuts. It’s not that they want to cheat, but any shortcut in life saves them time and money.
Create these quick guides to show people the shortest path to their desired result.
Checklist
If you’ve gone over a process in your blog article or your YouTube video, make a quick checklist for your viewers.
Checklists will not only help people understand the process and what they need to do to get the result you were talking about, but it also helps comfort them because they know they won’t forget anything, and can check items off the list as they go.
One of my successful checklists.
Resource List
You’ve invested a lot of time learning what you know and getting to where you are.
You use tools that you’ve had to research, test, and implement in your business.
By putting all of these tools and resources into an lead magnet, you are saving people a ton of time in research and searching.
You can compile the list of software you use in your business, or you can list out resources from other experts in the field that will help give your reader more information.
Just make sure the list contains quality resources, and you have read or vetted all of them before making your recommendation.
Video Lesson/Webinar
Videos are much more personal, and also peg you as the guru as you will likely be the one on camera speaking.
On your squeeze page, offer someone a free lesson in exchange for their email address. This can be a webinar going deep on a topic, or even the first module of a longer course.
Free Trial
If you sell software, it is a good lead magnet to offer people a free trial to the software.
Even if you aren’t collecting payment info up front, getting the leads email address will be benefit enough. You will be able to market your software to them over time that way, even if they don’t continue after their free trial.
Discount
If you offer a product, a good lead magnet can be to simply give out a discount for anyone who signs up on your squeeze page.
This is extremely popular in retail stores, and can be done with email, or even text message offers in exchange for a phone number.
Whatever form it makes sense to have your list in, email or phone numbers, make sure you are building it that way.
Survey or Quiz
People like to know more about themselves, and a survey or a quiz can be a great way to show them.
Surveys will ask a series of questions that will qualify them to a certain result. You can then have different funnels for each result group that sells them something relevant to them.
You can also use surveys to ask people what they want from you. It’s a great way to do market research.
As for a quiz, sometimes people just want to test their knowledge on a subject, and if they are testing their knowledge in the market you are providing for, you likely have a good, quality lead who is interested in what you have to offer.
Templates
People like to have done-for-you materials.
A template is something that you create that others will be able to plug in their own information and use the product as their own. These can be anything from a sharefunnel to a resumé template.
One thing that I like to do is create funnel map templates to help people start with a solid funnel plan in various types of businesses.
Swipe File
A swipe file is a list of resources you have created that have been successful for you in your business.
These can be headlines, ad copy, sales copy, pickup lines, you name it.
Swipe files work great as a tripwire offer, meaning that you can charge a nominal fee (usually around $7) for the item, and then offer even higher-priced items after that to give your visitors even more value.
There is an offer for a swipe file at the end of this article for you to learn more about lead funnels. It is a fantastic example of a swipe file.
Case Study
Have you helped people solve their problems before?
People like to know that you have been successful in the past with helping others. Document the story and the process of how you helped someone else, where they started, and what results you were able to get for them.
Put it altogether into a case study PDF and give it away through your squeeze page.
Planner
Help people get organized by setting up a day-by-day plan for them to reach their goals.
Popular planners are meal planners, workout plans, planners for growing your blog, etc.
If you can help people make new habits and condense your successful processes into a plan that can be replicated, people will love your free planner.
Workbook
If there is a longer process the people have to go through in order to get inside your head and replicate your template for success, then a workbook may be a good fit.
Take people on a journey to success.
Start with the level they are at, and as they fill out the prompts and do the exercises in your workbook, slowly progress them to the goal they want to reach.
Actionable steps are key, and people will feel the success snowball as they complete more and more of the workbook.
Printables
Especially if you are in the teaching field, printables are a great way to get leads.
You can print coloring sheets, games, activities, you name it.
If you aren’t in education, you can also make diagrams that will be helpful for people to reference such as infographics or hard to understand processes.
Utility
Make something that will help your audience. Make it free and host it online for easy access.
These can be anything from headline generators to full-blown SEO research tools.
One that I’ve created to help people take their big goals and break them down into actionable steps is my Goal Breakdown Wizard.
eBook
Whereas a free + shipping book funnel charges people for shipping to help you cover your costs of fulfillment, there is no cost in giving out an eBook.
The eBook doesn’t have to be especially long either, but you can make it as long as a normal book if you have the time and want to provide more value.
Write your ebook, give it away on the squeeze page, and watch your email list grow.
Email Training
Don’t have the time or capacity to make a video class or write a book?
Why not try an email training series?
Take your buyer’s on a journey that starts where they are at with their problem, and walks them through the steps to their goals.
Email trainings are great for longer, more complex solutions that are better ingested over a series of days. Send out one email lesson per day and people can slowly digest the content you are giving them instead of feeling overwhelmed.
Free Coaching Call
You time is THE MOST valuable asset you have.
Everybody has the same amount of time, so when you give yours to someone, they really know the value of it.
Offer a free coaching call as an opt-in, and teach people on a one-to-one level how to solve their specific problems.
PDF Version of Article
This may seem weird, but you can offer people a PDF version of the exact article they are reading.
Believe it or not, this is a pretty popular lead magnet. People don’t have a lot of time blocked out to read a large article all in one sitting, and they may be afraid they will lose the article, or want it for future reference.
Take what you’ve written and put it behind and email gate. People will opt-in if the content is really valuable.
Industry Report
If you have the means to pull stats about your specific industry, then you have a major asset that other people will easily trade an email address for.
Industry reports will help others understand important findings about how things current are within their market, which is great market research for businesses.
If you can give this away for free, people will see amazing value in return.
Mindmaps
If you have a complex topic you need to try to convey, breaking it down in a mindmap may be the best way to convey the information.
Mindmaps take a main topic and break it down into parts. Often those parts are also broken down into parts, and so on until the subject makes sense.
Presentation
This type of presentation can be a PowerPoint presentation, but most likely people will respond better to getting a live presentation that you had recorded.
Everytime you teach something in front of an audience, be sure to record it. You can then give it away as an opt-in at a later time, or if the information is more high level, even sell it as a course.
Content Roundup Resource
Looking up different resources to learn a concept can take a lot of time.
Even if you haven’t taught a full course on a subject, you can still utilize the information of others by putting together a content roundup.
Find a series of different blogs and YouTube videos that teach people a concept from front to back and package it into a lead magnet.
Readers will love the time you saved them, and the people whose content you ‘rounded up’ will appreciate the extra traffic to their sites and videos.
You get emails. It’s a win all around.
Newsletter
Do you make a lot of content yourself?
People may not always make it back to your blog, even if they like your content. People are busy.
As such, make a weekly or monthly update or newsletter that catches them up on the content you’ve been creating, and any other news in your industry they may have missed.
Being the bearer of news in your industry automatically makes you a trusted authority if you do it right.
Vault Access
Got some great content your readers will likely give an email address for?
Lock it behind a ‘vault’ or email gate.
This can be high-level blog posts, templates, or swipe files.
I’ve created a Funnel Template Vault that holds template plans for various types of sales funnel all notated and laid out for you to swipe and use to plan your own sales funnels.
Giveaway
People love free stuff.
Find something of value that is related to your industry and give people a chance to win it.
Better yet, give away lifetime access to your software, free products, or whatever you are offering.
You can then either upsell people to a discounted offer of what you sell on the next page, or just be happy with your growing email list.
If you decide to have an upsell, it’s called a Fishbowl Funnel.
Challenge
Why are people more likely to complete a class in person than they are online?
Dependability.
People depend on deadlines and structure to drive them to complete a course in person. Getting a grade is also a good motivation to perform well.
The online equivalent of this is a challenge.
You get a structured lesson set along with workbooks and accountability from coaches and other members of the challenge. It’s a driving force that makes you work towards a set result.
A great example of a challenge is the One Funnel Away Challenge.
Facebook Group
Got a great community on Facebook that provides a lot of value to your customers?
Do members post a lot and help each other out?
Lock the group down and offer an invite to your private Facebook Group as a lead magnet.
People love being a part of a community, and a private community makes it all the more exclusive.
You can check out the Master Sales Funnels Facebook Group here.
Launch Waiting List
Working towards the launch of a big product?
Build your email list ahead of time by having people opt-in to product development updates, behind-the-scenes content, and extra perks.
People love being on the inside, so make it worth their while to join your launch waiting list.
Free Catalog/Issue
If you have an online store, or even a local shop, give people a free product catalog for joining your email list.
People love physical items, so mailing them one would be great, but you can also send them an online version as well.
Learn More About Lead Funnels
Lead magnets are the key to a good lead funnel. If nobody likes your lead magnet, they won’t opt-in and make it through to the rest of the pages in your funnel.
Offer amazing value and you will build your list and get more people to see your funnel offers.
Want a bigger insight into how this all works?
Check out the Lead Funnels Swipe File for a more in-depth overview of the different elements of lead funnels, as well as 106 world-class lead funnel examples.
Model what works for your business.
