8 Lead Magnets to Grow Your Email List

One of the easiest ways to grow your email list is creating various lead magnets that your target market can download and get access to. As Search Engine Journal explains, “A lead magnet compels your site visitors to exchange information, such as their email address, for access … It’s content that drives awareness but also provides information that helps a potential customer engage and find interest in your product or service.”

Although the first type of lead magnet that may come to mind for you is some type of PDF, there are an endless amount of lead magnets you can create. However, before you create them, it’s best to know what makes a good lead magnet, as your site visitors will only download it if they deem it to be worthy enough.

What Are the Characteristics of a Good Lead Magnet?

It Solves a Problem

More often than not, people download lead magnets because they have a problem they’re looking to solve or a need they’re looking to fulfill, and the lead magnet achieves that. When planning this resource, think to yourself, “How will this benefit anyone who downloads it? What will they gain from using it?”

If the answer is clear to you, you’ll know that it’s a resource your audience will be looking for.

It’s Easy to Digest

Although you may be tempted to share as much information as possible with anyone who downloads the resource, you want to make sure that it’s something they’ll actually be able to implement. If they receive a 100-page PDF or hours of videos, they may not be able to commit to working through the whole thing. The shorter you can make it, the better — just make sure that you don’t cut value in the process!

It’s Different

Do you want to create something that people will really download? Make it different from what your competitors or others in the industry are offering. If you’re an accountant and want to create a tax preparation checklist, but many other accounting firms already have a checklist just like that, think about another resource you can create or brainstorm how you can make that checklist different from everyone else’s. When someone sees a free resource that they know they won’t be able to get elsewhere, they’re more likely to download it.

Now that you know the components of a good lead magnet, you can start to think about the various formats of a lead magnet that you can create!

Types of Lead Magnets

Webinar

Are you thinking about hosting a webinar? Anyone who signs up for it can, and should, get added to your email list! Be sure to record the webinar and offer it as a replay as well, as anyone who wants to watch it afterwards can then sign up to receive a link to the replay in their inbox, therefore adding them to your email list, too.

Quiz

We’ve all seen plenty of silly quizzes before:

“Find Out Who Your Celebrity Crush Is”
“Determine Your Personality”
“Plan Your Future”

And more. As silly as those may seem, they intrigue people and make them want to take the quiz to find out what the answer is — and you can do the same for your business. Perhaps you’re an interior designer who wants to create a quiz that helps people plan the perfect color scheme for their home, or you’re a real estate agent who wants to put together a quiz that helps buyers find the right town to buy a home in. Whatever it is, quizzes can be a fun way to draw people in and get them on your email list in the process!

Template

Our very first lead magnet that we offered was a template, specifically a social media content calendar. People love receiving worksheets or templates that help them to organize a certain part of their life or business, and they’re easy for you to create. Bonus: create a bundle of templates to offer, instead of just one, to increase the likelihood of people wanting to download them!

Video Course

Are you planning on creating a short video course to teach your audience on a specific topic? Make that your lead magnet! You can either release the videos all at once or send them to your audience throughout a series of emails.

Product or Service Trial

Do you want to allow your audience to try your product or service before they buy it? Many software companies offer this through a 7-day, 2-week, or 30-day free trial. When someone signs up to try your company through a test run, they can get added to your email list. People love the idea of the “try before you buy” approach!

Whitepaper

A whitepaper is a thought leadership piece, usually consisting of several pages, that shares your thoughts, data, and information on a specific topic. This resource helps your audience to learn more about and understand a more complex issue. If you’re creating a whitepaper around research you’re conducting, be sure to offer it as a lead magnet!

Case Study

Did you work with a client or customer who had great success using your product or service? Write a case study about it! If you share more in-depth information in the case study or strategies that you may not want to share publicly, you can make it gated content and require people to sign up with their email address to receive the case study.

Coupon Code

Do you sell products? Offering a coupon code is one of the best ways to grow your email list, as people love jumping on the opportunity to save money! You can offer a coupon code to anyone who joins your email list and makes a purchase from your company for the first time.

Ready to get started with creating lead magnets for your business? We recommend Mailchimp* as our platform of choice. Request a consultation with us if you need additional support with your email marketing!

*This blog post contains an affiliate link. We only recommend companies that we personally use and love.