What is a Lead Magnet and Why Do You Need One?
Lead magnets… a girl’s best friend (when it comes to growing your email list, that is.)
Let me ask you… how important is your email list to you?
89% of marketers use email as their primary source for generating new leads and 72% of customers prefer email as their primary source of communication with businesses.
So, not only is email trusted by an overwhelming majority of professionals, but your audience actually prefers to hear from you via email too.
So, it’s no secret that email marketing is an essential part of a successful digital marketing strategy.
And if you’ve done even a little bit of research on email marketing, you’ve certainly come across the term “lead magnet”.
And you might be wondering…
• What exactly is a lead magnet?
• Why is it so essential to your email marketing funnel?
• How to create a lead magnet that converts?
• How can you get started creating one for your business?
Keep reading, because I’m answering all of your lead magnet need-to-know-questions in this post.
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Before we dive straight into lead magnets, there are a few essential things you must know about email marketing in order to use it successfully in your business.
Your emails are read by a much higher percentage of your audience than your social media posts are.
In general, Instagram posts are seen by 6-10% of your audience. But the average email open rate is over 20%! This means the content you are meticulously creating and sharing with your audience is getting seen by 2x as many people through your emails!
Many entrepreneurs struggle with feeling like a slave to social media’s algorithms, but when it comes to email marketing, you are the one in charge.
Instagram, and other social media platforms, are demanding. They’re constantly changing the algorithm and best practices. Every time you think you’re starting to understand it, it comes out with a big update and you have to completely pivot your strategy. Or it goes down for a day and ruins all of the great content you were planning to share.
The point here is that you don’t own your Instagram profile, or Facebook, Twitter, or Tiki Tok either. But do you know what is 100% yours? Your email list.
Your email list is your tried-and-true, always there for you, rock steady digital marketing tool that will never fail you. And that is the kind of marketing-secret-weapon I want to prioritize in my business.
Email marketing could be the most profitable part of your marketing strategy.
Have you ever heard the phrase “The money is in the list?”
That list is your email list. Because experts say that for every 1 subscriber on your email list, you can expect an extra $1 in your bank account each month.
100 subscribers on your list = $100 extra in monthly revenue.
1000 subscribers = $1000 extra in monthly revenue.
And love, it won’t take you long to get to $1000 subscribers. Especially once you develop a lead magnet that works for you.
That’s because businesses that use lead magnets capture more leads at a 30-40% conversion rate.
This means that 30-40% more people are subscribing to your email list when you use a lead magnet! That’s huge!
This is where you’ll see exponential growth in your email marketing efforts.
In this post you’ll learn everything you need to know about how to use a lead magnet as a pivotal part of your email marketing strategy.You’ll walk away with clarity about how to use lead magnets correctly in your email funnel. You’ll also get my quick-and-easy roadmap to getting started creating one for your business.
What is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet, or “freebie”, is something of value that you offer your audience in exchange for their email address.
You know those fun quizzes you take to find out your entrepreneurial archetype? Or the 7 day plant based challenge you signed up for? Did you enter your email to receive your results or instructions? Yup! They’re lead magnets.
Types of Lead Magnets
As an entrepreneur, there are countless types of lead magnets you can offer your audience. Here’s a list of a few different kinds to help you get your creative juices flowing for when you’re ready to create your own:
Quizzes
Workbook
Mini course or training
E-book
Recipes
Checklist
Tutorial
Challenge
Planner
How to guide
Bonus/exclusive blog post or podcast
Why is a lead magnet essential to your email marketing funnel?
A lead magnet is the first step in your email marketing funnel. It’s the thing that catches your audience’s attention and makes them want to hand over their email address.
A lead magnet is so much more successful (by 30-40%) at converting your viewers into subscribers than just a simple email sign up. Let’s be honest, who just gives away their email these days!? I don’t know about you, but I have enough spam coming to my inbox, and I’m pretty selective about when I hand over my email address.
By increasing your conversion right off the bat with a lead magnet, you’re setting up your email funnel for success from the very first step.
How to create a lead magnet that converts
Improving your lead magnet conversion means that you’re growing your email list quickly. To get the best conversion from your lead magnet, you must create an offer than is valuable to your ideal client. This is when it is essential to understand who your dream clients are. To create a lead magnet that converts, you need to understand what your ideal client desperately desires (+ how you can fulfill that desire in a unique way!)
Once you know your target audience and have a really clear idea of who your dream clients are, there are a few things you’ll want to consider to make sure your lead magnet is going to be of value to them:
Help your audience solve a problem
Your lead magnet should be proving your expertise right away by helping your audience solve a problem. Maybe they need to get more organized with a planner, understand how to do something with a tutorial, or learn more about what you do with an e-book.
Your lead magnet should be meeting them at the beginning stage of their buyer journey.
This means that you’ll want to give them something that helps them before they are ready to start working with you. For example: If you are a wellness coach, you might consider creating a self care checklist, your three favorite plant-based recipes, or a 15 minute guided meditation.
All of these lead magnets give your audience a taste of what it’s like to work with you and help them in a small way in the beginning phase of their wellness journey. This gives them a sense of gratification, starts to build a relationship with you, and takes them one step closer toward working with you.
Design matters when it comes to your lead magnet.
This is important. No one wants to read content written in Times New Roman on a white word doc. Your lead magnet needs to stand out. And design will make this happen.
A beautifully designed lead magnet will:
Be easy to read and understand
Look professional and on-brand (therefore increasing it’s value)
Stand out from others in your industry
How to get started creating your lead magnet
Creating a lead magnet doesn’t have to be hard, especially when you have a step-by-step process showing you how to complete it!
Understand what will help your dream clients on their buyers journey
Remember how we talked about creating a lead magnet of value to improve conversion? This is the first step. Decide what your ideal client needs help with, or must know, which will help them on their journey toward working with you.
Decide what type of lead magnet you want to use
Refer back to the types of lead magnets I mentioned earlier in the post to decide how you want to showcase this valuable information for your ideal clients.
Create it!
Now you need to turn this vision for your lead magnet into a digital reality.
I always start by creating an outline for the content I want to include in my lead magnet. This way, when I’m ready to design the offer I can simply copy and paste the copy from my outline into the design.
A few ways you can create a beautifully designed lead magnet is to:
• Create your own using a design tool like Canva
• Purchase a lead magnet template created by a designer
• Work with a designer to help you create a customized, professional, and on brand lead magnet
Attach your lead magnet to a workflow on your email marketing platform
Once you’ve created a lead magnet, you’ll need to set it up with your email marketing platform.
A few things you’ll need to do to integrate your email marketing platform are:
• Create an opt-in form for your lead magnet that captures your new subscribers email address and saves it to your email list
• Create a method of delivery for your lead magnet. Usually this is through an automated email.
• Attach a workflow (or welcome sequence) to automate a sequence of emails welcoming your new subscriber to your list, telling them what they can expect from you, and how you can continue to help them
Next Steps
Now that your lead magnet has been created, it’s time to share! The best practice for sharing your lead magnet is to share it everywhere, and keep sharing it.
A few places you should be sharing your lead magnet is:
On your website - pop ups, announcement bars, your homepage, and relevant blog posts are a few places you could promote your lead magnet
In your social media profile, posts, and stories
On Pinterest
A lead magnet is essential to growing your email list quickly. It gives your ideal clients a really good reason to give you their email address. It shows them a small piece of the value that you could provide for them, while positioning you as an expert in what you do. It will greatly improve conversion and help you grow an highly engaged email list.
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Hey I'm Jamie
-web designer, brand strategist, and former certified health coach turned creative studio founder. I specialize in building strategic, elevated Squarespace websites for wellness professionals who are ready to grow their business with more clarity, confidence, and ease.
After designing over 90 websites and supporting dozens of service-based entrepreneurs, I’ve seen firsthand how intentional design and smart strategy can completely shift the way you show up, and how you sell. This blog is where I share the real stuff: design tips, marketing strategies, and behind-the-scenes insights to help you build a brand that actually works for you.
Disclaimer: My policy is to only share products and resources that have brought value to me and/or I believe will bring value to my audience. Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, and I will earn a commission if you make a purchase using them.
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