By Kelly Forst December 30, 2020
Need ideas for your lead magnet? Read this post to get 22 of them.
If you want to maximize your email list growth, you need a lead magnet.
A lead magnet is something you give people when they subscribe to your email list. And really, it can be anything – as long as it’s something your subscribers want.
The only problem?
Sometimes, it can be really difficult to come up with an idea for your lead magnet.
You may struggle to figure out what your audience would want. You may worry that it’ll be too time consuming to create a lead magnet. You might doubt that your ideas are any good. Or, you may just be out of ideas.
So what can you do about it?
Check out these 22 brilliant lead magnets. Not only will you get proven ideas from 22 different businesses across multiple industries, you’ll also be inspired by how fun and simple creating your own lead magnet can be.
Let’s dive in.
Food blogger lead magnet ideas
Do you have a blog with recipes, cooking, or baking tips or anything culinary? These lead magnet examples are for you:
Minimalist Baker: Recipe E-book
Minimalist Baker gives their subscribers a free e-book with their fan favorite recipes for joining their email list.
This lead magnet pops up when someone visits their website. This is a great way to provide instant value, since visitors are coming to them in search of delicious, healthy recipes. And since lead magnets should be aligned with an audience’s needs and interests, this makes it a great lead magnet.
Skinnytaste: exclusive content and recipes
You don’t always need to create something big to give your audience a valuable lead magnet.
Skinnytaste, a site filled with beautiful food images and healthy recipes, offers exclusive content as their lead magnet. This works because of FOMO (fear of missing out). If blog followers don’t subscribe, they’ll miss out on exclusive content and recipes.
High Carb Hannah: A free weight-loss cheat sheet
Who wouldn’t give up their email address for a 76-page ebook that teaches them something they’ve been dying to learn?
That’s exactly what Hannah of High Carb Hannah delivers to subscribers for free once they subscribe to her email list. And it’s an awesome lead magnet because it’s incredibly comprehensive and packaged in one, easy-to-follow cheat sheet.
The Full Helping: Plant-Based Starter Kit
If you’ve decided to start eating vegan, you probably want some expert advice on where to begin. That’s why The Full Helping’s free Plant-Based Starter Kit is something site visitors would gladly exchange their email address for.
The image on the form helps people visualize what they’ll receive when they join, which makes this lead magnet even more effective.
Plus, this form content explains additional reasons to subscribe, like getting accessible recipes and links to helpful articles.
Lead magnets for fitness experts
Are you a personal trainer, coach, or fitness expert? Try a lead magnet similar to one of these four examples:
Athlean-X: “24 Second Fix” video
Have you ever done serious weight lifting? If so, you know that good form is crucial, especially when you’re just getting started.
Fitness Expert Jeff Cavaliere of ATHLEAN-X created a lead magnet video to help his audience correct and avoid a common weight lifting mistake.
By not directly stating what the mistake is, Jeff builds curiosity, making people wonder what it might be. He also emphasizes that subscribers can easily fix the mistake with his “24-Second Fix.” By building curiosity and assuring people they can easily fix this mistake, Jeff makes his lead magnet video even more appealing to his audience.
Nerd Fitness: NF Rebellion Starter Kit and free tools!
Geared towards nerds who want to get fit, Nerd Fitness is one of the coolest and most unique fitness sites I’ve ever seen.
In their email sign up form, they promise a free NF Rebellion Starter Kit as well as free tools, downloadable guides and tactical articles for anyone who signs up. Wow! That’s a lot of stuff.
By offering so much to their new subscribers, they make joining their email list a simple decision.
Tony Gentilcore: deadlift quick-tip guide
Beyond promising weekly fresh content, Personal Trainer Tony Gentilcore gives subscribers a deadlift quick-tip guide.
Properly executing a deadlift is tough, and very technical, so this guide is a great resource for resolving a common lifting problem. And lead magnets that help solve your audience’s common problems are the most successful.
Tony’s site has a unique writing tone, which he incorporates in his sign up form and lead magnet. This helps display his personality, and may increase email sign ups, because people love personality.
Betty Rocker: 30-Day Challenge video workout series
High value lead magnets get the most subscribers. And Betty Rocker’s 30-day workout video series is definitely very valuable.
Anyone who fills out this form, receives 30 emails containing 30 video workouts over 30 days. For those fighting to get fit, this is valuable. And she’s giving it away for free!
Plus, she’s able to demonstrate her expertise and teaching abilities throughout the 30 videos, which will make people more likely to purchase one of her paid video courses in the future.
Lead magnet ideas for consultants
Do you offer advice on growing or marketing a business? Check out these examples from other people just like you:
Enchanting Marketing: writing course
If you don’t want to create a guide or ebook, there’s another simple way to deliver written content to your subscribers: an email course.
Copywriter and Marketing Consultant Henneke Duistermaat of Enchanting Marketing offers a 16-part copywriting email course as her lead magnet. She delivers each lesson in a short, snackable email, and subscribers get all of the lessons in under a month.
An email course is a great way to deliver a valuable lead magnet to your subscribers while establishing a relationship with them in the inbox.
Smart Business Revolution: 72-word email template
Everybody loves something that saves them time and gets big results. And that’s what John Corcoran of Smart Business Revolution promises people who subscribe to his list.
His lead magnet is a “magic email template” that helps people connect with influencers and VIPs. Templates are great lead magnets, because they’re easy for your audience to quickly use and get value from.
Your lead magnet could be an email, blog post or video script template – or even something as simple as a Facebook ad template!
Melyssa Griffin: Quizzes and free workshops
If you have a collection of exclusive, educational resources, they could be the perfect incentive to convince people to subscribe to your email list. Plus, you can use more than one — different lead magnets could appeal to different people.
Melyssa Griffin, a business consultant and online course creator, promotes a quiz to website visitors — just sign up to get access to a customized path based on your quiz results.
She also promotes free trainings on a range of topics. In order to access the free training, all you have to do is enter your email address.
This works well because her audience of entrepreneurs are often business newbies looking for advice on a wide range of business topics. And that’s exactly what she offers – for free!
Jeff Bullas: The Ultimate Guide to Website Traffic for Small Business
Great lead magnets seek to help your audience solve a problem. Jeff Bullas delivers an ultimate guide to help his audience get more website traffic.
Ultimate guides are valuable lead magnets because they promise a ton of value to readers. The words “ultimate guide” alone it’s the only information you need to accomplish whatever your goal is. In this case, Bullas wants to help small businesses get more website traffic.
Bonus tip: On the sign up form for your own lead magnet, mention the good results that people can get from your lead magnet. This will increase your sign up form conversion rates.
Amy Porterfield: choose between 3 different cheat sheets
So this is cool.
Business Consultant and Marketing Expert Amy Porterfield has options on her website. Visitors can choose between three different lead magnets with three different topics (or download them all!).
With three options, people will be more likely to find a lead magnet that aligns with their interests, which means they’ll be more likely to subscribe to her email list.
And because cheat sheets are short and easy to create, you could easily write three of your own cheatsheets and give people options on your site as well.
Authors
Have you written a book and you’re wondering how to promote it? Try email marketing. You just need to grow your email audience first. Here are a few lead magnets that help other authors grow their lists:
Candace Payne: wookie coloring sheet
This one’s unique.
Ever seen the viral Chewbacca mom video? After the crazy success of this video, Candace Payne continues to delight her audience with great content. She even wrote a book called Laugh It Up.
To grow her email audience and promote her book, she uses a creative lead magnet: a wookie coloring sheet. Her subscribers can join her list and color in her wookie lead magnet. This fun lead magnet aligns well with the tone and purpose of her website, to bring joy to people’s lives.
Your lead magnet doesn’t need to be an ebook, guide or video. It can be something as creative and simple as a coloring sheet!
Self-Publishing School: 20+ free resources
Chandler Bolt, a best-selling author and online course creator, presents a free, online workshop to anyone who subscribes to his list.
During the workshop, he shows people how to become successful authors themselves. This helps him build an email audience for Self-Publishing School, where he sells access to his online courses and his books.
If you’re a good public speaker, workshops might be the perfect lead magnet.
The Art of Non-Conformity: top blog posts
Here’s a simple, yet effective, lead magnet example:
Send your subscribers a curated list of your best blog posts in your welcome email. You won’t need to create any new content for this lead magnet, and you’ll introduce your subscribers to your blog.
Chris Guillebeau, author and founder of The Art of Non-Conformity, does this on his website sign up form. Notice the bottom of his form where he writes, “Subscribe now and you’ll get the best posts of all time.”
eCommerce businesses
Honestly, eCommerce lead magnets are probably the easiest to set up and create, because they’re often product discounts. Check out these real-life examples to get ideas for your own eCommerce lead magnet:
Magnolia Market: 15% off
Chip and Joanna Gaines’ online store Magnolia Market sells home goods. They offer 15% off one purchase to anyone who visits their site and subscribes to their email list.
On top of that, their email subscribers will also receive exclusive updates, flash sale emails and inspiration.
Levi: 20% off and free shipping on first order
Beyond a product discount, you can also offer free shipping to people who subscribe to your email list.
Levi offers both to their site visitors. Check out their simple form and lead magnet below:
Sierra Trading Post: free shipping and a chance to win a $1,000 gift card
You don’t need to limit your eCommerce lead magnets to free shipping and discounts. You can also offer things like gift cards or free products.
Sierra Trading Post gives their subscribers free shipping on their first order, plus a chance to win $1,000.
Travel bloggers
Love to travel and blog about your trips? Here are some lead magnet ideas you could use to grow your list, too!
Nomadic Matt: your best content
Believe it or not, emails can be your lead magnet. For example, you could send a weekly educational newsletter or educational automated email series.
Nomadic Matt sends his subscribers his best blog content through email automation and one-time emails. This serves as his lead magnet.
Be creative! As long as it’s something free and valuable to your audience, it’s a lead magnet.
The Blonde Abroad: Exclusive tips and giveaways
Similar to Nomadic Matt, The Blonde Abroad gives subscribers exclusive travel content, plus access to top blog posts, when they subscribe.
Pro tip: Notice how this sign up form mentions that 200,000 other people read The Blonde Abroad’s content? This is called social proof, and it’s a great way to increase sign up form conversions.
Go and create your own lead magnet!
I hope these 22 examples from other businesses inspired you to create your own lead magnet!
Don’t forget to check out our 16 proven sign up form ideas to grow your email list.
Ready to grow your email list with your own lead magnet? Get started with AWeber Free and have all the tools you need to build a loyal audience.