10 Best Lead Magnet Ideas with Examples That Work

If you’re not attracting leads to your business, sooner or later you’re going to have a serious problem.

Quality leads are the lifeblood of every business, whether online or offline.

According to the B2B Technology Marketing Community, the number one challenge B2B marketers face is generating high-quality leads.

For many professional internet marketers, the solution to this is creating and designing high converting lead magnets, gated offers or opt-in bribes, as some marketers, fancifully call them.

Magnets, in marketing, are an effective technique for gaining a prospect’s contact information. The problem is these magnets can take a lot of time and energy to produce.

With tens of thousands of businesses diverting their lead generation budgets towards areas like content marketing and marketing automation, there’s more competition over capturing email addresses than ever before.

As such, marketers have to step up their game and create increasingly compelling lead magnets to persuade users to hand over their email addresses for contextual marketing.

Lead magnets come in many shapes and sizes. From free online tools to free shipping coupons, their scope covers anything designed to attract and capture the contact details of a potential lead.

There’s a but, however…

Generating good lead magnet ideas can be a long and tiring process.

High-converting lead magnet ideas are supposed to offer so much value that your target audience can’t say no to.

The more you refine your lead magnet, the more qualified your leads become because you’re offering exactly what those leads need at the exact right time.

So, how can you do it differently?

Well, you’re lucky. Because in this article, I’ll reveal the ten (10) best lead magnet examples you can create from scratch today or by simply repurposing content you already have.

We’re going to cover a lot of information, so feel free to stick around:

• What Is a Lead Magnet?
• Why Does Your Website Need a Lead Magnet?
• What Constitutes the Perfect Lead Magnet?

But before we dive into the lead magnet ideas, let’s cover the basics first…

What Is a Lead Magnet?

A lead magnet is a resource (or any other item of value) that businesses use to collect leads. The business asks the visitor to provide contact information, such as an email address, in exchange for the lead magnet.

The process typically looks a bit like this:

Lead magnets are like landing pages or an offer (usually free) dedicated to giving your website visitor some relevant value in exchange for their contact information (at the very least, an email address).”

Think of a lead magnet as an incentive that marketers offer to potential buyers in exchange for their email address, or other contact information.

Do you now see why lead magnets are also called opt-in bribes?

How about adopting this strategy of ‘bribing your visitors into leads’?

Why Your Business Needs to ‘Bribe Visitors’ (Sorry, Design Lead Magnets)

If you want to generate leads online, then your business needs a lead magnet. Period!

Why? Because email is a very personal thing. People aren’t simply going to give you their email address without a good incentive, even if they like your brand.

As a marketer, it is your job to give them a compelling reason to do so.

(Note: if you aren’t sure why email is the best way to market to anyone online, check out our complete beginner’s guide to email marketing here.)

For example, let’s say you have a blog post on the top 10 ways you can improve your customer service.

At the end of the post, you ask readers to join your email list for “updates”.

Or instead, you could ask readers to join your email list and get a free, downloadable PDF case study, detailing a real-life example of one business who used these 10 strategies to improve their customer service.

Which offer do you think will get the most email signups?

Precisely, the second one!

Lead magnets are important because they provide incentive.

Your prospect might not hand over contact information for free, but he or she might have a change of heart if you’re offering a valuable resource.

So, now that you understand the importance of lead magnets, you may be wondering what makes a good lead magnet.

What Makes a Good Lead Magnet?

Unfortunately, I don’t have a wash-and-dry answer for you. The best lead magnet ideas are inspired by your audience.

What do they need? The problems can you help them solve? What would lessen their stress, save them time, or help them reach a goal?

Answering those questions will help you build the perfect lead magnet.

There are lots of ways to collect information about what your audience might want in a lead magnet, such as the following.

• Polls
• Surveys
• Blog comments
• Feedback forms
• Reviews on your site and third-party sites
• Message board conversations
• Questions and answers on Quora and Yahoo! Answers

Start harvesting information from these sources to figure out what might entice a qualified lead to part with his or her contact information.

Still, on a general scale, what constitutes a major characteristic of a good lead magnet is the specificity and relevance.

Lead magnets don’t have to be lengthy. Or complex. Or time-intensive to create. In fact, a long and complex lead magnet will likely convert poorly.”

You simply need to solve a specific problem with a specific solution for a specific segment of your market. There you have the specificity and relevance recipe for designing high converting lead magnets for your inbound marketing strategy.

Basically, there are 7 things that your lead magnet should do if you want it to be absolutely irresistible:

1. Solves a real problem – if your lead magnet doesn’t solve a real problem that your customer avatar has, or if it doesn’t give them something they want, it won’t work at all.
2. Promises one quick win – your lead magnet should promise (and deliver) one quick and specific win for your avatar. In other words, it should help them to easily achieve something.
3. Super specific – don’t create a lead magnet about something general. The more specific you are about the benefit of your lead magnet, the better it will convert leads.
4. Quick to digest – PDF checklists tend to convert well because they are so quick and easy to digest. Ebooks or lengthy reports may make your prospects feel overwhelmed.
5. High value – your lead magnet should have both high perceived value and high actual value.
6. Instantly accessible – your lead magnet will work best if it is something that can be delivered right away. People love instant gratification.
7. Demonstrates your expertise or UVP – when someone consumes your lead magnet, it should demonstrate your expertise or your unique value proposition. This helps turn leads into customers down the road.

Here at Digital Marketing Skill Institute, one of our lead magnets is “our FREE Digital Marketing Training”.

This lead magnet converts well for us because it:

1. Solves a real problem our customer avatars have
2. Promises one quick win
3. It’s specific
4. It’s high value
5. It demonstrates our expertise

Okay, now that you know how to create a good lead magnet, let’s dive into the lead magnet ideas and examples…

10 Best High Converting Lead Magnet Ideas

Here are 10 lead magnet ideas, broken down into 5 major types as follows:

• Useful Lead Magnets
• Educational Lead Magnets
• Entertaining Lead Magnets
• Community-Building Lead Magnets
• Bottom of Funnel Lead Magnets

Ready to create your lead magnet? Let’s dive into the 10 best and highly effective lead magnet ideas to increase your subscribers and opt-ins.

1. Useful Lead Magnets

#1: Checklists

Let’s start with our favorite lead magnet of all: the checklist.

Checklists convert the best out of all the lead magnets, probably because they are so easily consumed. They condense everything that the user needs to know into one, actionable list.

They’re also super quick to create. For example, you can summarize your popular blog posts as a checklist, and turn it into a content upgrade.

Then combine that content upgrade with a 2-step opt-in form, and you’ll see a big boost in your conversions.

#2: Templates

A template can be anything that provides an outline, or some sort of starting point, so all the user has to do is fill in the blanks.

I personally love templates because they help me get tasks done easily.

Yes, they make you lazy and all, but think of templates as your easy resource to anything and everything.

To take your lead magnet one step further, create an entire collection of templates, covering different subject areas in your business niche.

2. Educational Lead Magnets

#3: Ebooks

This is the classic tried-and-true lead magnet idea. It’s easy to understand because most people have read an e-book at least once or twice, and it’s easy to put together.

You don’t even have to create an e-book from scratch. Consider compiling your most popular blog posts into e-book format. Add a fresh introduction and conclusion, and you have a lead magnet.

However, I don’t generally recommend using ebooks as a lead magnet because they don’t convert as well as checklists or cheatsheets since they tend to be lengthy and difficult to consume.

Still, sometimes an eBook can work. For it to work, what you need is a really strong benefit.

Why should someone take the time to read your eBook?

#4: Tutorials

A tutorial is any piece of content that teaches how to do one specific thing. It could be a video, or simply a PDF download with a numbered list of steps.

Did you know that online education, also sometimes called knowledge commerce, is a $275 billion industry? You don’t need teaching credentials to host a mini-course as a lead magnet.

Your mini-course could consist of several elements, such as weekly emails with homework and articles, videos, audio recordings, quizzes, and more.

Quick tip: whether your tutorial takes the form of a video, a PDF download, or a piece of content on your site, use a list-style headline (“X Steps to XYZ”). People like to know exactly how many steps your tutorial is going to take, so this headline style helps it to convert much better.

3. Entertaining Lead Magnets

#5: Surveys

A survey is mainly for your benefit in terms of market research. However, even a survey can be used as a lead magnet with a compelling call to action.

For example, you could ask users who’ve been browsing around your site for a while to give you feedback on their experience and help you improve your website.

You’d be surprised how many people enjoy taking the time to give you their feedback!

You can use a tool like OptinMonster to present the survey only to users who have visited at least 4 pages on your site. It would be weird (and annoying) to ask a brand new visitor to rate their “experience” on the first-page view.

#6: Giveaway

One of the most effective lead magnets is the giveaway.

I mean, who doesn’t love the opportunity to win free stuff?

If you really want your giveaway to be effective, however, make sure it does two things:

1. Qualify your leads by offering a relevant prize (something that only your ideal customer would want– not something like an iPad or a laptop that anyone and their brother would want)
2. Incentivize participants to share (you can do this by offering additional entries for each social share)

4. Community-Building Lead Magnets

#7: Membership site

Thinking about creating your own membership site? You might want to consider offering free registration (or at a subsidized rate) to collect data for a larger package.

Our Digital Marketing Authority Membership site is a great example of using a membership site as a lead magnet.

In the membership group, once you gain access, you have access to some of our premium digital marketing resources like:

• Webinars
• Resource Library
• Templates
• Mentorship and coaching
• And many more…

#8: Facebook Group

Facebook is today, the largest social media network, with over 3 billion users. Apart from being a social media network, Facebook can also serve as a great platform to host and manage large business and social communities that.

I’ve personally used Facebook groups as lead generation channels and lead magnets with great success.

It just goes to show that people do value communities.

For example, we have a very active and large Digital Marketing Skill Institute Facebook Group open to our digital marketing students. We utilize the platform to provide extra support, coaching, and mentorship for our students.

You don’t want to be left out. You can join the Facebook community by registering for our digital marketing course. 

5. Bottom of Funnel Lead Magnets

#9: Free trials

If you’ve ever shopped around for an app or a software tool, you’ve probably seen a ton of these lead magnets without even realizing it.

Most software as a service (SaaS) companies will have a large call to action to sign up for a free trial or demo right on their homepage.

Why?

Simple! Because that’s how they get your email address and other contact details.

Dropbox is one of the earliest examples of SaaS companies to adopt this strategy as shown below:

Another common technique, particularly in SaaS, is to offer a product demo. In the financial industry, most trading platforms offer demos that allow you to test drive their platform by investing with fake money.

This is a great way to kill two birds with one stone, as it shows off your product while also capturing a potential lead’s email address.

But you don’t have to be a software company to benefit from a free trial lead magnet.

Digital Marketing Skill Institute, for instance, offers a FREE version of its very very comprehensive and premium digital marketing training, where students are supported with useful, up-to-date and effective digital marketing strategies and techniques.

You can start learning for free here

#10: Coupons

Increasingly, I’ve noticed more and more e-commerce websites offering free shipping or discount coupons as lead magnets to capture their visitor’s email addresses.

While promo codes and free shipping have been used as a basic component of e-commerce marketing for over a decade, the idea of making a visitor ‘work’ for the discount by entering their email address is interesting and provides a powerful hook for e-commerce sites to build up a mailing list of potential customers.

A discount code or coupon works really well at the bottom of your funnel because most people who make online purchases like to shop around for deals.

Your brand should be there to give those people what they are looking for (in exchange for their email address, of course).

How to Create a Great Lead Magnet

Creating an effective lead magnet is crucial for attracting and capturing potential customers’ attention and converting them into leads for your business.

Here are some steps to help you create a great lead magnet:

Identify your target audience’s pain points

Understand the specific challenges, problems, or questions your ideal customers are facing. This can allow you to provide a solution or valuable information that addresses these pain points and get their attention towards your brand.

Offer something valuable and relevant

Your lead magnet should offer genuine value to your audience. It could be an ebook, a how-to guide, a checklist, a video tutorial, a webinar, or any other type of content that provides helpful information or solves a problem. Use your lead magnet as an incentive for potential customers to provide their contact information, such as their name and email address. This allows you to nurture them further and move them through your sales funnel.

Create an attention-grabbing title

Craft a compelling and benefit-driven title that clearly communicates the value your lead magnet offers. The title should grab your audience’s attention and make them want to download or access your content.

Use a professional design

Invest in a visually appealing and professional design for your lead magnet. This can include a well-designed cover, formatting, and layout. A polished design adds credibility and makes your content more engaging and easy to navigate.

Promote it effectively

Once you’ve created your lead magnet, promote it through various channels such as your website, social media, email marketing, and even paid advertising. Use compelling calls-to-action and highlight the benefits to encourage your audience to download or access your content.

Follow up and nurture leads

After capturing leads through your lead magnet, follow up with them promptly. Provide additional valuable content, offers, or information to continue building a relationship and guiding them towards becoming customers.

FAQs

Do lead magnets still work in 2024?

Yes, lead magnets are still effective in 2024. They provide real value to the target audience, empower them to overcome obstacles, and offer quick wins, making them a powerful tool for gathering audience insight and generating leads.

How do you make an irresistible lead magnet?

To create an irresistible lead magnet, it’s essential to know your audience, solve a specific problem, make it valuable, keep it simple, and give them an easy win. Examples of lead magnets include ebooks, checklists, worksheets, coupon codes, and short courses.

Why lead magnets don’t work?

Lead magnets may not work if they lack real value, are overly complex, or fail to provide a quick win for the audience. Additionally, poor design and presentation can detract from the overall experience, leading to decreased effectiveness

Turn Your Lead Into Conversion – Conclusion

Generating lead magnet ideas isn’t difficult. I’ve given you 10  best ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

The trick is to find the best lead magnet ideas. Which ideas will lead to exponentially increased conversions?

You already have the blog content, all you have to do is implement lead magnets and an email campaign that gets them into your contact database.

That’s it. Now it’s your turn.

Go ahead and pick one of these high-converting lead magnet ideas, and then tweak it to create your own. We’d be glad to create some with you in our digital marketing course and also show you how to drive quality traffic to your lead magnets and also nurture the leads that you have designed.

Click here to get started on learning how to generate quality leads for your business through lead magnets.