If you think a lead magnet is against the laws of physics… you’re right.
However, the world of business has its own rights and it so happens that lead magnets are among the most effective ways of attracting new customers.
In this article, we’ll show you:
- What a lead magnet is
- How to create your first lead magnet
- How to use it to collect a bunch of emails
Collect leads on autopilot with smart chatbots
If you already have lead magnet ideas of your own, you may want to check out our selection of the best lead generation tools. They might come in handy!
What is a Lead Magnet?
A lead magnet is free content that businesses offer to potential customers in exchange for contact information, like email for example. Most often, a lead magnet is a downloadable or online resource like a PDF file or video.
A lead magnet must have immediate value for customers to attract downloads. Whether it’s tips, resources, or templates—the more useful they are, the more email addresses you can get.
Why You Need a Lead Magnet
Lead magnets help online businesses to:
- Get high-quality leads
- Build trust and authority
- Find out what customers consider useful
All this for a much lower cost than other lead generation strategies.
That’s why delivering content via lead magnets is an affordable way to build an email list for lead nurturing. Ultimately, this can become a strategy for getting contact information quickly and easily.
How do you promote a lead magnet?
You can share lead magnets on your website, social media, blog, and mention them in marketing emails.
Some businesses even create dedicated landing pages to make lead magnet campaigns look more professional.
Do lead magnets actually work?
Yes. Otherwise, we wouldn’t even be discussing them.
But—like with other marketing tools—success depends on the value they offer to your customers.
If you create content that helps your customers solve their problems, you can get hundreds of emails!
That’s why lead magnets are a major lead generation strategy for small businesses looking to build a decent lead base. They often use it in combination with content marketing and ad campaigns.
10+ Lead Magnet Ideas and Examples
Obviously, it’s never enough to just know the theory. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of some of the best examples of lead magnets from all over the Internet.
- Case Study
- Webinar
- Free Trial
- eBook
- Checklist
- Ultimate Guide
- Cheat Sheet
- Whitepaper
- Free Consultation
- PDF Version of Content
- Idea Generator
1. Case Study
Would you like to know how someone managed to turn a side hustle of selling cat travel bags into a $100k/year business?
Many people would! That’s why case studies are a great idea for a lead magnet.
A case study is a real-life story of how something you offer helped a customer of yours achieve their goal. It’s a special type of thought leadership content that shows off your expertise.
Here’s an example.
This case study from Upfluence shows how a brand managed to up customer engagement thanks to influencers.
To download the case study report, you need to provide your:
- Name
- Work email
- Company name
- Country
Upfluence is an influencer marketing platform. So this data will be useful to research marketing needs of the leads who downloaded the case study.
Promote case studies with a free chatbot. This is done by setting up the chatbot to show a message like this on your website. One click and the visitor gets directly to the lead magnet’s landing page or signup form.
Chatbots can generate leads themselves, too. In fact, there’s not one, but 12 super easy tricks for lead generation with chatbots you can try today!
2. Webinar
A webinar is an online workshop, lecture, presentation, or a training session hosted by companies for a group of people.
Webinar is one of the best lead magnet ideas because it:
- Offers a real learning opportunity for customers
- Happens at a predetermined time, thus creating a sense of urgency
That’s why, on average, up to 55 percent of webinar registrants convert into attendees, says Live Webinar Benchmarks report.
To collect contact information with a webinar, you need a dedicated registration page.
Here’s one from ChannelSight.
To register for the webinar on selling during the holiday season, business owners need to fill out a few fields.
Once they submit the data, ChannelSight sends a confirmation email. Later, the registrants get one more reminder to attend.
But lead generation doesn’t stop even after the webinar ends!
You can also create a landing page for it. There, people can replay it on demand (in exchange for an email, of course).
ChannelSight, for example, has an entire website section with those.
This way, they’re generating leads while doing something else. That’s what we call a great long-term investment!
3. Free Trial
A free trial is a way to get more people acquainted with a product or service.
Giving potential customers a chance to use something for free helps them verify if the investment is worth it.
BambooHR, for example, offers businesses a free trial of process automation services for onboarding, applicant tracking, and feedback.
Using a free trial as a lead generation magnet makes a lot of sense.
Say, if you were an entrepreneur looking for the best Shopify apps to improve sales, wouldn’t you want to test them out before paying?
Exactly.
Want to know how to have a constant supply of leads for a B2B business? Here’s a roundup with 26+ B2B lead generation strategies from experts.
4. eBook
An eBook is a good lead magnet idea because it gives people detailed explanations and tips.
Look at this eBook lead magnet from the Minimalist Baker blog.
The value it offers is 20 most popular recipes from the blog’s readers.
Inside, there are simple recipes and notes from fans along with amazing close-up photos of dishes.
One look and you instantly feel hungry!
eBooks are a great idea for businesses with blogs.
You can combine a few related blog posts and make them into one eBook.
Remember: To convince more people to download your eBook, it needs to have practical value for your target audience. In the case of Minimalist Baker, it’s the recipes.
5. Checklist
A checklist gives a list of tasks or things to do to achieve a goal.
It’s one of those types of lead magnets you can use in every industry.
Here’s an example.
MagnetStreet, a manufacturer of wedding invitations, offers a wedding planning checklist for couples.
Indeed, a useful resource to make the wedding day go right.
Companies selling camping gear often share camping gear checklists to generate leads. Simple, useful, and get them quality leads.
This one from GearJunkie, for example, is printable.
So campers can even use it to prepare for their upcoming trip.
6. Ultimate Guide
An ultimate guide is a lead magnet that offers in-depth tips and resources on topics a business has expertise in.
This ultimate guide from Placester, for example, offers advice on buying a home.
Since Placester is a real estate business, this lead generation magnet helps to find people interested in their services.
The next ultimate guide comes from Packhelp, a custom packaging brand.
It’s useful for businesses looking for tips to sell more during the holiday season.
Each ultimate guide should mention your products or services or have links to your website to raise awareness of them.
7. Cheat Sheet
A cheat sheet is a one- or two-page piece of content that helps to reach a goal or solve a problem faster.
Why make cheat sheets? Well, they are:
- Short
- Convenient
- Easy to create
This cheat sheet from Sumo, for example, shares content marketing tips for businesses.
8. Whitepaper
A whitepaper is an in-depth, authoritative report that helps to understand a certain topic.
Whitepapers take longer to create than cheat sheets and ebooks and usually target a very narrow B2B audience.
In this example, Upfluence targets eCommerce marketers.
By offering tips on influencer marketing, the company hopes to get emails from people interested in this marketing strategy.
9. Free Consultation
One of the best examples of lead magnets for coaches, consultants, lawyers, real estate agents, and other service providers.
Giving a “preview” of service helps leads to decide whether to buy it.
Brauns Law captures leads with this form. If someone’s interested in a free consultation related to a personal injury case, they can fill it out and get assistance.
10. PDF Version of Content
Have a lot of top notch content on your blog? Offering a PDF version of articles is a good way to get more leads.
Here’s how BigCommerce does it.
If you visit their blog, you’ll see this message at the top of the page.
Click on the button prompts the email sign up form and download.
This way, they can save an article to read later.
11. Idea Generator
From blog topic to recipe idea generators, these lead magnets are useful and entertaining.
What makes them one of the best lead magnet ideas is the interactive nature. To generate something, leads have to give their input.
In Flavor Generator by HelloFresh, for example, users specify their cuisine (Italian, British, Middle Eastern, etc.) and taste (spicy, sweet, herby, etc.) preferences.
The generator makes recipe ideas based on the input.
How to Create a Lead Magnet?
So, you’ve seen some good lead magnet examples. Now, we’ll show you how to create your own.
Determine the Target Customer
Lead magnets need to be specific.
This means they have to be useful for a group of your target customers. How to define who they are? Try to target a specific buyer persona.
Chances are you have a few of those, so choose one.
Plan the lead magnet based on their needs or problems they’re facing. This way, your lead magnet will be specific, focused, and relevant to your customers.
Make it Valuable for Your Customers
Value has been a theme throughout this article. And for a good reason.
No value = no leads.
Each lead magnet should address a specific need or problem.
Here are examples of values from lead magnets used in this article.
- The Flavor Generator—easy-to-make, personalized ideas for dinner
- PDF version of content—access to content later, no need to go online
- Free consultation—evaluate service quality before buying
- Whitepaper—understand a complex trending topic from your industry
- Cheat sheet—reach a goal faster thanks to simple instructions
- Ultimate guide—get tips and resources on a specific topic that’ll help to reach a goal
- Checklist—get an easy-to-follow list of tasks to achieve a specific goal
- eBook—get detailed tips and explanations on a specific topic
- Free trial—try a product a service before buying
- Webinar—learn special skills from experts
- Case study—see a real-life example of a company using a strategy to achieve its goals.
Choose the Lead Magnet Type
By now, you should have a good idea about what can work for you. Thanks to this article, you have 11 best lead magnet ideas to choose from.
Key Takeaways
A lead magnet is an effective tactic to generate leads. With it, you can get emails and nurture leads with relevant content. A lead magnet is the first—and critical—communication touchpoint of many.
To create an effective lead magnet:
- Make it valuable for your customers
- Choose a magnet type from among 11 common options
- Promote it via your website, social media, and marketing emails.
With the right lead magnet in place, your business can start generating quality leads from the first day.
