Before I niched down into website copywriting land, I spent a few years slinging words while helping brands build one of the most trendy lead magnets out there right now: the quiz. 

(Don’t worry: this post isn’t going to be all about quizzes. In a sec, I’m going to break down 9 lead magnet types you can introduce into your biz, and how to do it. Quizzes will just set the stage…)

It wasn’t really a surprise when Big Time Influencers in the small business scene (like Jenna Kutcher and Amy Porterfield, just to name a few) started popping a brightly colored “Take the Quiz!” banner on their website home page. 

With just a few questions, these Big Time Influencers were able to do a few things that are marketing gold for any small business: 

Separately, any of these outcomes are ideal for small businesses looking to grow. But together? 

Forgettaboutit. The world was hooked on quizzes. 

But while quizzes might be trendy, they’re not the only lead magnet out there. 

And depending on your niche, audience, brand style, and plenty of other factors that I can’t even begin to guess at unless I did a deep-dive into your biz, they might not even be the most effective. 

So instead of raising up one lead magnet type as the one to win them all, let’s get deep with your options when it comes to lead magnets. By moving from the “what” to the “why,” and then finally landing on that all-important “how.” 

Let’s Start with the Basics: What Are Lead Magnets? 

To sell, you need someone to sell to. 

And while we’d all prefer to wish upon a star and have leads sailing into our website every five seconds to say “yes!” to our offer without having to lift a finger, that’s just not how things work. 

Leads are the people who enter your sales funnel at the top. They may have a vague interest of you, your product, or your brand. But they might not be qualified to buy. Or have much interest in doing so (at least not yet!). 

Some brands choose to generate leads by going hard on an SEO strategy, or spending extra energy posting talking to the camera and posting reels on social media. 

But for brands who want to get a steady stream of email addresses added to their list (or simply attack the lead generation game from multiple angles, which is one of those you should definitely do this business tips that sometimes gets overlooked)…

Lead magnets make it easy to attract new eyes and get more email addresses on autopilot. By providing super-value and super-sharable content. And asking for nothing but an email address in return. 

Types of Lead Magnets: The What’s-What of How They Work 

There are plenty of time-tested and marketer-approved lead magnets out there.

In almost all cases, leads will be prompted to enter an email address as they engage with the free content. 

And once that email address is entered, they’ll often be nurtured on the back-end with an email sequence that takes them from “only vaguely aware of who you are” to “totally in love with your brand.” (But more on that back-end email sequence in a sec…)

Some long-loved and tried-and-tested types of lead magnets include: 

How to Know Which Lead Magnet Type to Choose

When it comes to deciding which type of lead magnet will best serve your business, there are two main questions to consider: 

1. What do you want to put time, effort and money into developing? 
2. What will your audience like? (Aka: what’s relevant to them and where they are in life?)

Let’s break these down separately (because yep, they both matter equally!)…

What do you want to put time, effort and money into developing? 

Ebooks are often labors of love for the people who create them. Unless you have a copywriter in your corner, you’re likely to spend tens of hours developing and designing one. 

And if you want it to be the kind of super-valuable tool that gets shared on social media and sent to friends-of-friends with “you have to read this!!” texts? 

You might be looking at dozens of hours and thousands of words of content. 

Which might sound like total bliss for an introvert who ate lunch with their English teacher all throughout high school. 

But for someone a little less word-inclined who just wants to get the dang thing out to the world in the most streamlined method possible? Yeah, maybe not. 

When choosing a lead magnet type, play to your strengths as a creator. (Or your budget, in terms of who you can hire to get the job done.)

If standing in front of the camera is more your style, leave the ebook developing for another day (or…errr…never) and set up a microphone to do what you do best. 

And if words are your bestie, carve out a few hours to channel all your knowledge into a downloadable freebie that your audience will love. 

What will your audience like? (Aka: what’s relevant to them and where they are in life?)

Your niche and audience play a part in deciding your lead magnet choices. 

In certain industries (like SaaS or e-commerce) your audience might be a little miffed if they don’t get access to the same type of lead magnet that comes standard with your competitors. 

(Can you blame them? Who wants to go all-in to a yearly subscription of a software without even trying it??)

But if your audience and niche give you a little more freedom, then it helps by starting by asking:

By focusing on what your audience needs, you’re not just putting something out there that miiigghhhttt get views. You’re fulfilling a knowledge gap, playing to an interest, or answering a question that your audience is already asking. 

In other words: you’re putting something out there that is endlessly clickable, shareable, and has the potential to go viral among your audience.

And while it’s important to consider what your audience likes in terms of the subject of the content you produce, it can also help you mark smart decisions about the types of lead magnets you choose to create. 

If you know you have a crowd who gobbles up the free download and templates, then by golly: send them their way. 

But if you know that your reel content on Instagram is *reeling in* (excuse the pun) thousands of views while your written content is remaining stagnant, consider how a webinar or email challenge featuring a series of videos might be exactly what your audience needs to take the next step with you. 

A Quick But Important Note on Personas As You Generate Lead Magnet Ideas

I once had a client who was pulling in hundreds of email addresses by offering a few super-valuable lead magnet PDF downloads.

But when it came time to pitch her new course to her email list…we realized a majority of her subscribers fell into one very particular persona type. One that was nowhere near ready skill level-wise for the course she was selling.

Essentially, it’s like if a chef serves three unique segments of a cooking audience: 

This hypothetical chef has an email list with 5,000+ subscribers. And 5+ lead magnet freebie PDFs that are bringing in hundreds more on autopilot each month…

The only problem?

All her super-loved, endlessly-downloadable lead magnets have names like these: 

And while those lead magnets are adding plenty of beginner cooks to her email list, they’re not appealing to intermediate or advanced groups (two important audience segments for her). 

So when it’s time to pitch her newest advanced-level offering to her subscribers (one that teaches you the best-kept secrets for making pasta from scratch using ancient Italian rolling methods)…

Interest flatlines. Not because it’s not a super-valuable course for an advanced cook to have under their apron…

But because it’s over the skill level of her current subscribers.

(The quick flip to make this a non-issue for you? Develop types of lead magnets that will appeal to all the different personas and/or segments of your audience you plan to serve. Or put more effort into lead magnet ideas that appeal to different segments of your audience equally.)

Anatomy of a Lead Magnet: What They Look Like In Action

It’s too easy to think that you can just post a lead magnet on your site and call it a day with 1,000s of email addresses coming in on autopilot. 

In reality, that’s not really how lead magnets work. 

To get the full, list-building and service/product/course-selling benefits of lead magnets, there are [4] elements that need to be in play:

(*Note: The type of lead magnet you choose will determine whether all these elements make sense and how they play out. For instance, certain lead magnet ideas like offering a discount code or a software free trial won’t have all of these elements apply.)

The Lead Magnet Itself: 

This one is pretty obvious, no? Whether you’re building a lead magnet PDF, conducting a webinar, offering an ebook, or doing a free email challenge, you’ll need to start by building the darn thing. 

And doing it with enough design finesse to make it a no-duh download for your audience. 

The Landing Page:

On average, landing pages convert art about 10%. That means that 1 in 10 people who land on your landing page will offer up their email address in exchange for whatever you’re offering. 

If landing page is a new one for you, it’s where a visitor “lands” (get it?) after they click to “Discover More” after seeing info about your lead magnet on Instagram, Pinterest, Google, through a text from a friend, email, or other [insert point of entrance here].

(Looking for some landing page examples? Check some out here.)

The whole goal of your landing page is to help those visitors take that next step from seeing info about your lead magnet and being interested to filling out the “Download Now!” button to get it for themselves. 

A landing page will often tease more details about what will happen after a visitor fills that email address in, including the benefits they can expect to enjoy (or the transformation they can expect to accomplish) with that lead magnet in hand. 

The Magnetic Force: 

As super-packed, undeniably-amazing, can’t-live-without-it-cool your lead magnet is, it can only help change your business (and change your audience’s lives for the better) if it has some way of getting into their hands. 

Whether you reach a wider audience through Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest ads or drum up interest in your lead magnet by sending it out to your existing email list and hoping they’ll share it on repeat, you need some way of getting it in front of new eyes. 

So don’t walk into building a lead magnet unprepared: you should have a plan in place of how you’ll market it to your audience. Whether that involves marketing it to the existing eyeballs you have access to (in the form of an email list or social media accounts) or amplifying your impact by heading toward advertising. 

The Back-End Email Sequence:

This is the most powerful part of the picture. But also the most often ignored. 

After your audience has said “yes!” to taking the next step with your lead magnet, don’t leave them hanging…

A back-end email sequence balances value and pitch to build a relationship of trust between you and your new leads that keeps your brand top of their mind. (So you’re the first person they come to when they need a lil help with what you do best.)

Aim for a sequence of between 3-9 emails, one that:

Once this email sequence has come to a close, you’ll be able to further nurture your list by getting them “back to business as normal” as part of your regular email newsletter (if that’s something you already have set up). 

What’s the Biggest Mistake People Make When It Comes to Lead Magnets? 

Selling too soon. 

Just like having someone coming up to your door hawking a vacuum cleaner without even so much as a “Hi, how are you?” introduction is a bit of a turn off in this day and age, swinging in too soon for the sale is the quickest way to get your leads to fast-click the “Unsubscribe” button. 

Front the value of what you’re offering over the sale, and hold off on pitching your real offer/product/course/service until the last page of your lead magnet PDF (as a little “Meet Me” page with a CTA to engage further). The last few minutes of your webinar. Or toward the end of your email challenge. 

By fronting your value, you don’t just make your audience happy and ready to hear more. You showcase yourself as an expert and authority in your niche. While proving that you have plenty more value where that came from.

Filling your email list with thousands of leads through the power of a lead magnet, all while showcasing how you’re 100% add further value to your audience’s life? 

That’s what we like to call a win-win.