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The key to explosive growth for your email list? A lead magnet.
Take YouTuber Nick True, for example, who used dedicated lead magnets paired with his YouTube channel to grow his email list to an impressive 10,000+ eager email subscribers.
That kind of growth might seem out of reach, but it’s not.
And with the right lead magnet, you can also grow your email list at a pedal-to-the-floor pace.
Lead magnets: everything you need to know before getting started
What is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet is any free incentive you give your audience in exchange for joining your email list.
Typically, lead magnets are something your audience can access instantly, like an ebook or a printable.
What is a lead magnet used for?
Lead magnets are used to attract your target audience to grow your email list.
They’re also useful for showcasing your expertise so your audience can get a taste of what you have to offer before buying your paid products.
How do you make an irresistible lead magnet?
Step #1 – Find out what your target audience needs
Before making your lead magnet, uncover what will help your audience reach a goal of theirs. For example, if you’re a food blogger who targets busy parents, a meal-planning printable that saves them time could be an irresistible lead magnet.
The fastest way to find out what your audience wants is to ask them. Chris Tweten polled his audience via X/Twitter to understand which lead magnet they’d find most useful.
Step #2 – Create your lead magnet
After nailing down what you’ll create, seek tools and software to help you build your lead magnet. (Further along, we’ll list plenty of tools to help you create different types of lead magnets.)
Step #3 – Set up a landing page or opt-in form
After creating your lead magnet, you need a way to collect emails and send it to those who subscribe.
To do that, you need a landing page or opt-in form.
With Kit, you can create stunning opt-in forms and landing pages even without a website, like this one from Feel Good Social:
Step #4 – Drive traffic to it
Time to share the URL to your lead magnet and grow your list. Here are a few simple suggestions:
- Add your lead magnet’s URL to your bio on social media
- Add a popup on your website that promotes your lead magnet
- Write blog posts that promote your lead magnet
- Partner with other creators in adjacent niches and promote one another’s lead magnets
Step #5 -Set it to autopilot with your email marketing tool
Finally, scale your list growth by connecting it with your email marketing tool. With Kit, you can automatically send an incentive email that delivers your lead magnet.
This way, only the people who receive your incentive email and click on the link to download your lead magnet will be added to your email list. Doing so helps you keep your list clean by weeding out fake and incorrect emails so your deliverability remains high.
11+ lead magnet ideas and examples to grow your email list
#1 – Ebooks
One of the benefits of writing an ebook is that you’re able to use content you’ve already written and repurpose it to fit what you’re teaching.
Think about a niche topic you’ve talked about on your blog, through a podcast episode, or during a video interview. Those conversations and that content can easily be turned into ebook content. All you need to do is to structure it in a way that makes sense for the reader.
Free tools to create an ebook
- Sigil (free)
- Google Docs (free)
- Canva (free/paid)
Creator types that should consider ebooks
Do you want to teach everything you know to an audience that can’t wait to learn from you? Do you find yourself giving the same advice to your audience members and wish there was an easy way to compile your thoughts into a downloadable lead magnet?
If you answered yes to these two questions, an ebook might be your lead magnet of choice.
Ebook lead magnet example by Piper De Young
Brand designer Piper De Young gives her audience a free ebook that teaches them how to develop a brand style guide for their business.
Example of an ebook lead magnet. Image via Piper De Young
#2 – Worksheets
It’s one thing to learn about a new topic in an ebook. It’s another when you can take action with exercises you’ve already prepared for your audience.
Worksheets are more activity-based, so you most likely won’t spend as much time writing as you would with an ebook. Instead, you’ll spend more time in the outline and design phase.
Depending on your audience’s needs, these worksheets can be digitally fillable PDFs or printables.
Free tools to create worksheets
- My Worksheet Maker (free)
- Google Docs (free)
- Canva (free/paid)
- DocFly (free/paid)
Creator types that should consider worksheets
If you’d rather spend your time creating prompts and activities to help your audience learn more about your topic of choice, offering worksheets as your lead magnet could be a great move.
Worksheets lead magnet example by Teaching and Tapas
Teaching and Tapas created worksheets for teachers to download and give to their students.
#3 – Checklists
Checklists highlight a list of tasks your audience can complete to reach their intended goal.
You need to know what goal your audience wants to achieve before you can create a checklist. Does their goal relate to what you teach or talk about? If so, it’ll be a great fit for a checklist.
Checklists are even easier to create than worksheets because they can be one simple page with an organized list of tasks. You can create categories for each task and organize them in a way that makes sense to your audience.
Free tools to create checklists
- Google Keep (free)
- Trello (free/paid)
- Asana (free/paid)
- Evernote (free/paid)
Creator types that should consider checklists
If your audience already knows about your niche topic, but you want to help them find what next steps to take, then you might want to create an easy-to-follow checklist.
Checklists lead magnet example by Grace and Vine Studios
Grace and Vine Studios created a checklist to help their audience audit their food blogs.
#4 – Templates
Templates allow you to skip multiple steps in the creation phase of a project because you don’t have to start from scratch.
As a content creator, you can save your audience from having to start from the ground up. Get creative with the kinds of templates you want to offer!
If you’re a copywriter, you could offer social media caption templates or fill-in-the-blank headline formulas. If you’re a designer, you could offer graphic design templates for people launching new products or their new website.
Free tools to create templates
- Google Keep (free)
- Canva (free/paid)
Creator types that should consider templates
Templates are perfect for creators who make content for other creators like artists, writers, or entrepreneurs. Your audience will love having a template that helps them complete a task faster.
Templates lead magnet example by Sistasense
Sistasense’s ebook template helps her audience create stunning ebooks without designing them from scratch.
#5 – Printables
Printables are something your audience prints so they have a physical copy of your lead magnet, like a piece of art of a physical planner. If you are savvy with design, printables could be a great way to grow your email list.
Free tools to create printables
- Google Slides (free)
- Canva (free/paid)
- VistaCreate (free/paid)
Creator types that should consider printables
Printables are ideal for artists and designers who want to give their audience a taste of their work to encourage them to buy paid artwork down the road.
Printable lead magnet example by Art of Krystal
Artist Krystal gives her audience a beautiful printable they can print and frame at home.
#6 – Digital planners
If you want to create a free resource library for your subscribers, another good freebie to include would be a collection of planners.
Free tools to create planners
- Canva (free/paid)
- Trello (free/paid)
- Microsoft OneNote (free/paid)
- Notion (free/paid)
Creator types that should consider planners
If you work with clients on goal setting or strategy building, offering downloadable planners could be a simple way to guide audience members through your exact process.
Planner lead magnet example by Sarah Jane Burt
Content coach Sarah Jane Burt gives her audience a free planner to help them organize content for their blogs.
#7 – Workbooks
Much like planners and worksheets, creating a workbook allows you to add multiple activities all in one place.
Workbooks allow your audience to work through various exercises they need to complete to put their knowledge into action.
Workbooks can include worksheets, prompts, scripts, checklists, and other lessons your audience can learn from.
The main difference between workbooks and other downloadable lead magnet types is that it compiles all of these types in one multiple-page document.
Free tools to create workbooks
- Google Slides (free)
- FlipHTML5 (free/paid)
- Canva (free/paid)
Creator types that should consider workbooks
Workbooks are best for coaches who want to help their audience accomplish something that requires multiple items (like prompts, checklists, and more).
For example, if you are a fitness coach, you could create a 30-day fitness challenge workbook. Inside the workbook, you could include several weightlifting and cardio exercises to complete each week, a few healthy recipes to make at home, and prompts to help people track their goals and reflections throughout the challenge.
Workbook lead magnet example by Creative VA Academy
Creative VA Academy’s workbook helps virtual assistants learn how to book their dream clients. The workbook is packed with information, checklists, and worksheets.
Image via Creative VA Academy
#8 – Prompts
We recently mentioned how you can add prompts to your workbook, but they can also stand alone.
Prompts can come in the form of a question or a fill-in-the-blank statement. Here are a few prompt examples to show the variety of formats you can use:
- If you could trade places with anyone in the world, who would it be?
- I really want to improve my [blank] because it would allow me to…
- What am I most well-known for? What do I want to be well-known for?
- If I only had [blank], I’d be able to…
Free tools to create prompts
- Google Docs (free)
- Canva (free/paid)
- Typeform (free/paid)
Creator types that should consider prompts
If you’re a coach who wants to contribute to your audience’s self-reflection or self-discovery process, offering prompts as a lead magnet could be a great way to grow your email list.
Prompts lead magnet example by The Fun Sized Life
Blogger The Fun Sized Life gives her audience 75 journal prompts to help them with self-reflection.
Image via The Fun Sized Life
#9 – Cheatsheets
Much like a checklist, which we’ve already talked about, a cheatsheet puts all of the most important information your audience needs to know in a central place.
While a checklist gives people a list of tasks to complete, a cheatsheet usually takes a bigger or more complex topic and breaks it into an easily digestible format. This can be in the form of a recipe, formula, infographic, and beyond.
Free tools to create cheatsheets
- Google Docs (free)
- Canva (free/paid)
Creator types that should consider cheatsheets
If you’re a creator who teaches complex topics to your audience, a cheatsheet is perfect for helping them learn about the topics you teach.
Cheatsheet lead magnet example by Miss Jamie OT
Occupational Therapist Jaime’s cheatsheet doubles as a printable and helps her audience understand different terms regarding Sensory Processing Disorder.
#10 – Tools
You can offer tools like calculators, generators, assessments, apps, and much more. Typically, these tools will help your audience complete a task.
Free software to create tools
- Google Sheets (free)
- involve.me (free/paid)
- Bubble (free/paid)
- Adalo (free/paid)
Creator types that should consider tools
Any type of creator can benefit from using tools, but just make sure your audience is savvy enough to use the tool or app you’re promoting.
Tool lead magnet example by Maria Rachel
Home baker Maria Rachel created a calculator to help her audience calculate costing and pricing for their home baking business.
#11 – Audios
With an audio series, you can teach or inspire your audience to take action with short audio lessons.
The great benefit of creating an audio course is that listeners can listen to it while doing other things, like working, washing the dishes, or driving in their car.
Writing and video content demands someone’s full attention, but audio content can be consumed at any moment.
Free tools to create audios
Creator types that should consider audios
Audio is ideal for creators who don’t need video to explain a complex process or for creators who have audiences that prefer digesting content auditorily (think podcasters!).
Audio lead magnet example by Our Sight Your Light
Our Sight Your Light gives their audience a free meditation they can listen to whenever they want.
A few more lead magnet ideas
If you’re still unsure which lead magnet is right for you, here are nine more unique ideas:
- Quizzes: use a personality-style quiz to help your audience learn more about themselves
- Webinars: teach your audience something through a video webinar
- Email courses: teach your audience something through a series of written emails
- Email challenges: help your subscribers achieve a specific goal or improve a certain aspect of their lives
- Resource libraries: compile various resources into one centralized spot
- Case studies: prepare a report that highlights how someone similar to your audience achieved their goal
- Access to a private group: host your own private community through places like Slack, Discord, or Facebook so your audience can network and learn together
- Free trials: give your audience a chance to trial your offer for free—perfect for those who sell software
- Infographics: help your audience digest complex information by presenting it in an easy-to-digest format like an infographic
- Databases: collect and organize something your audience would find useful and package it up for them in one centralized location
Use your lead magnet to grow your list
After creating the perfect lead magnet, it’s time to get it into your audiences’ hands.
At Kit, we have a full library of lead magnet landing page design templates you can customize to fit your visual branding and content. Simply create your own inside our Kit landing page builder and share it with your audience!
Ready to give it a try? Sign up with Kit—for free—and start growing your email list faster with your new lead magnet.
