“Lead magnet” is a term we use in online marketing.

It basically means something attractive (like a magnet!) that brings in leads for our business.

An eBook we give away in exchange for an email? That’s a lead magnet.

A free consultation in exchange for a telephone number? That’s a lead magnet.

A free Notion guide to AI in exchange for a Twitter follow, like and comment? That’s a lead magnet.

In this case the lead we are collecting is the email address that gets added to our newsletter subscriber list.

Lead magnets themselves take a huge amount of forms. But there are similarities.

Lead magnets need to be:

• Valuable to the audience member

• Short and easily consumable

What the exact form and content of the lead magnet will be will depend entirely on your topic and expertise.

Let’s use ChatGPT to help us brainstorm some possibilities:

Act as a marketing strategist

Help me create a list of lead magnet ideas for my newsletter

My topic is [topic]

The lead magnet must be highly valuable, unique not generic and easily consumable (ie. less than 5 minutes to read, watch, listen to)

Give me a list of 10 possible lead magnets including title, format and brief description.

Prompt Output

Choose the ones that you like and ask for ChatGPT to expand.

For example I like the first one here.

I simply write “Create Option 1” into ChatGPT and get given a checklist to use as my lead magnet.

From there adapt using your own expertise and style.

Don’t just copy/paste ChatGPT’s output as your lead magnet.

Why? Well: it’s lazy.

But also remember this is the first big interaction people will have with you. You need this first interaction to leave them stunned - “wow! they gave away a lot of valuable information here!” Leave a first good impression.

Ideally use Canva or a similar graphical tool to make your lead magnet look great. Or hire a designer on fiverr.com. You can literally search for “checklist lead magnet” on Fiverr to find designers who specialise in this format:

Whilst you need your lead magnet to be high value and look professional do not spend weeks creating it. It should take you a few hours tops. You are going to need to test a few lead magnets to find one that resonates with your audience so keep the process rapid.

This means not writing eBooks as your lead magnet. Instead go for short punchy forms of value like checklists, cheatsheets, resource sheets and swipe files.

Stick your favourite ideas for leads magnets here in the comments and the community will tell you if you are on the right path.