The whole point of building an email list is so that you can communicate with your audience whenever you want.
The problem is getting them not only to sign up but to also pay attention to you. This is where a great lead magnet comes into play so in this post let’s talk about the best lead magnets that we and our students have created over time.
Why You Need to Use Lead Magnets
Lead magnets play an important role in helping you to build a mailing list. The obvious reason is to give people an incentive which is always good, but there is a better reason that people often miss.
They help to filter out the people that don’t belong.
You always want to maintain a high-quality mailing list so that you have great open rates and conversions. If you have a generic lead magnet (sign up to win an iPad) then you’ll get a ton of people who do not care about you.
They don’t want to hear from you at all unless you tell them that they won the iPad.
This is why a great lead magnet not only gets the right people to sign up for your mailing list but also keeps out those who aren’t a great fit.
This is important to remember with your lead magnets so that you aren’t creating the ones that you think will get the most people, but the ones that will get you the best people.
The 5 Best Types of Lead Magnets That We’ve Found
So how do we judge if a lead magnet is great or not?
Does it all come down to the amount of sign-ups? Maybe it’s the number of people that convert from it.
The truth is that it’s a combination of both. You need people to sign up but you also need those people to convert into customers. A great lead magnet can’t be great if it only gets people to sign up for your mailing list.
This is why over the years we’ve experimented with a ton of different lead magnets to see which ones are the most effective for what we do.
1. Email Courses
While we had no intention of ranking these lead magnets in any particular order we must admit that email courses are our favorite lead magnet due to their great conversion rate.
Why do email courses convert so well?
Because they do a great job of walking people through a problem and finding a solution. Because it helps them find a solution it allows people to get ready for the next part of the journey which usually involves some type of paid offer.
An email course allows you time to get your audience used to your worldview and build authority with them. If you can’t show what you’re all about in an email course then it won’t work.
If you want to dive deeper into email courses then check out our guide on how to create an email course.
2. Checklists
Checklists are interesting because they don’t seem like they would be that much to them. Who wants a checklist?
Well, it depends on what the checklist is about. For example, if we created a blog writing checklist that helped you ensure you knock out all of the right things whenever you write a blog post then that would be helpful.
The challenge with a checklist is what’s the next step to convert someone to a customer?
Do they take the checklist and that’s all they need or do they want to take the next step?
This isn’t meant to push you away from checklists because checklists are awesome. They allow people to know they are getting something right away that will help them.
3. eBooks
Hang around here long enough and you’ll know that we LOVE ebooks. In fact, we base our signature program around the concept of creating an ebook in 12 hours or less.
eBooks can be amazing opt-ins because they feel like they can give a lot of value.
Another perk is that you have more time to share your knowledge and expertise with the idea that the person is giving you their full attention.
The problem with eBooks is that you have no guarantee that a person is reading them. First, you have to get them to download it and after that, you have to get them to read it.
There is no guarantee of this happening so you need to have a nice welcome sequence that reminds them about the book and goes over different concepts within the book.
If you think you can simply leave your reader alone and they’ll do all of the work by reading the book and then looking forward to your emails then you might be in trouble.
But that doesn’t stop us from using an ebook as an opt-in. The Odd Noodle Playbook is an eBook that we created in Google Slides that goes over the main points of building a 6 & 7-figure online business.
Want to learn more about creating ebooks? Then check out our guide on how to create an ebook.
4. Workshops
This is one that you don’t see as often but is highly effective. In fact, when talking about conversions it might be the most effective opt-in that you can offer.
The reason why is due to how video has an impact on customer psychology. When you give a video presentation there is a feeling of professionalism around the topic.
Plus, when someone sits down to actively watch and listen to you for 30+ minutes they begin to build a connection.
You usually see workshops in the how-to-make-money space, but they can be just as effective in other niches as well.
5. Swipe File or Resource Library
Do you like collecting valuable resources as you continue to learn more about your niche?
Well, guess what? You can bundle those resources together and use them as a lead magnet.
These work great because they are easy to put together and to your reader, it feels like you are saving them a lot of time.
The Best Lead Magnets Are Always Simple
A common misconception with lead magnets is that they need to be just as good as your paid offers.
This isn’t true at all.
The best lead magnets that we’ve found are the simple ones. The ones that help a person with a specific problem so they can solve it as quickly as possible.
The more intricate and complex you make your lead magnet, the less valuable it is to the reader.
For example, on our worldbuilding site, we could easily do an opt-in around how to build an immersive fantasy world.
The problem with that is it would cover too much and people would get lost. You have to be in the right mindset for something like this to work. So instead, it makes sense to offer an email course or some type of checklist to help people move on quickly.