In short
- A lead magnet is something valuable you give away for free in exchange for an email address. The goal isn't the download, but the next step towards your offer.
- The higher the price of your programme, the more your lead magnet needs to feel like a tasting of your work. A scan, a masterclass or a mini-training then works better than a PDF.
- Start with your offer, pick the problem that sits right before it, and make sure the result points to a conversation or your next event. Without follow-up it stays a guest book.
In this article (6)
Your lead magnet, the e-book “7 steps to more balance”, has been downloaded hundreds of times. Your mailing list is growing. And your intake diary? Looks exactly like it did last year.
That’s not a fault of your e-book. It did what it was supposed to do: collect email addresses. Nobody asked it to collect clients.
In this article you’ll read how, as a coach or trainer, you make a lead magnet that doesn’t end in a download, but in a conversation or a place in your training. Which format fits, how to build it, and what needs to happen afterwards.
What is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet is something valuable you give away for free in exchange for someone’s email address. A checklist, a scan, a webinar, a mini-training. The goal isn’t the download, but that someone tastes your expertise and then takes a step towards your offer.
We call it a tasting. Just like at the bakery: you get a piece to try, so you get hungry for the whole loaf. A tasting so filling that you lose your appetite sells nothing. A tasting that tastes of nothing doesn’t either.
Lead magnet, freebie or giveaway: what’s the difference?
None. They’re three names for the same thing. But the words do say something about how you look at it.
Freebie and giveaway
The emphasis is on the gift. Something nice, something free. The danger: you make something to give away, not something to deliver results with.
Lead magnet
The emphasis is on the goal: attracting the right people and getting them to take a next step. That's where a freebie that sells begins.
Call it what you like. But build it as a lead magnet: with your offer as the end point.
Why most freebies don’t bring in clients
- It attracts the wrong people. A generic title like “10 tips for more calm” attracts everyone who likes free tips. Not necessarily someone considering a programme costing a few thousand euros.
- Nobody uses it. A thirty-page PDF disappears into a downloads folder. You’re forgotten before it’s opened.
- There’s no bridge. The freebie is about something other than your offer. Anyone who goes through it doesn’t automatically end up at your programme.
- There’s no follow-up. After the download comes one welcome email, and then a monthly newsletter. Interest cools quickly.
My position: a list of a thousand people who downloaded your e-book is worth less than ten people who filled in your scan and booked a conversation. Growth of your list is an interim score, not a result.
Which lead magnet fits coaches and trainers?
The rule of thumb: the higher the price of your programme, the more your lead magnet needs to feel like a tasting of your work. With a programme costing a few thousand euros, people don’t buy after one PDF. They want to taste and talk first.
Factory bread
An e-book or long PDF with general tips.
Gets downloaded and not read. And it doesn't show what it's like to work with you.
Fresh from the baker
A short scan, test or quiz with a personal result.
Someone discovers something about themselves, and the result naturally points to the next step.
Factory bread
A recording of an old presentation, behind a form.
No interaction, no moment to make an offer.
Fresh from the baker
A live webinar, masterclass or free workshop.
Your audience sees you at work, and you make an offer in the same session.
Factory bread
A checklist for something unrelated to your programme.
Anyone who ticks it off is done. There's no reason to go further.
Fresh from the baker
A worksheet or mini-training that gives a taste of the first part of your programme.
Anyone who takes the first step wants to know how the rest goes.
For coaches, a lead magnet in which someone discovers something about themselves works best. You sell a programme that runs on trust, and you don’t build that with a document.
For training providers, a tasting of how you teach works: a mini-training, a free workshop or a webinar. If you sell an open course or a programme, the best thing to show is what it feels like to be in it.
How to make a lead magnet that leads to your offer
Start with your offer
What do you ultimately want someone to buy? Your lead magnet is the start of that road, so you need to know where it ends.
Pick the problem right before your offer
Not your audience's biggest problem, but the problem someone runs into just before they need you. That's where the bridge is.
Give a quick, real win
Something that delivers within a quarter of an hour: an insight, a result, a first outcome. Not everything, but enough to taste.
Let the result point to the next step
The result, the worksheet or the session ends with one question: do you want to tackle this further? With a link to a conversation or your next event.
Build the follow-up before you go live
What does someone get after the download, and when? A short sequence that carries on where the lead magnet stopped, with the same next step.
An example, made up but recognisable. A career coach sells a programme for professionals who feel stuck in their job. Her old freebie: “10 tips for your CV”. Her new lead magnet: a short scan that shows whether you’re stuck because of your work, your role or yourself, with the result in your inbox. Every result ends with the same question: want to know what to do about it? Book a conversation. The CV tips attracted everyone who was job-hunting. The scan attracts people who doubt their career. Exactly her client.
We do the same ourselves. Our lead magnet is the leak test: thirteen questions, three minutes, and you get a report in your inbox that shows, step by step, where your room is leaking. The report points to one next step: a free one-hour baker’s chat. No e-book. A tasting of how we look at your funnel.
And then the building. A scan, quiz or calculator sounds technical, but it’s about what it delivers in conversations, not about the tool. More on that in soft conversions: more leads from your website.
What needs to happen after the download
The download is the start, not the finish. After your lead magnet comes the next rung: a conversation, such as a strategy session that sells, or a webinar or workshop in which you make your offer. If that rung is missing, someone has to jump from free to your core product in one go. Very few do.
What that whole ladder looks like, from tasting to client, is in how to build a sales funnel.
Curious what it feels like from the other side? Take the free leak test yourself and see how a lead magnet leads you to a next step. Want your own tasting and the offer behind it crystal clear in one half-day? We do that in the Sold-Out Session, for €3,000 one-off.
A good tasting doesn’t fill you up. It makes you hungry.
Terms in this article
- Lead magnet
- A lead magnet is something valuable you give away for free in exchange for someone's contact details, such as a checklist, test, calculator, ebook or masterclass. The goal is a first step towards your paid offer.
- Sales funnel
- A sales funnel is the route a potential client travels from their first encounter with you to the purchase. At every step some drop out, which is why it has the shape of a funnel.
- Webinar
- A webinar is an online presentation, training session or conversation you deliver over the internet to an audience that has signed up in advance. Viewers see and hear you live or via a recording, and can usually respond through chat, questions or polls.
- Masterclass
- A masterclass is a session in which an expert shares in-depth knowledge on one topic with a group, live or online. Where a training course teaches skills, a masterclass mainly shows how a master thinks and works.
- Workshop
- A workshop is a meeting, live or online, in which participants get hands-on with a topic themselves under the guidance of an expert. Where a lecture mainly broadcasts, a workshop lets people practise and experience.
- Strategy session
- A strategy session is a conversation in which you go through a potential client's situation, goals and possible approach with them. Coaches and consultants often offer it for free as a first introduction, as a stepping stone to a paid programme.
Rubin is the founder of Online Marketing Bakery in Roermond. You take the stage, we fill the room. And we make sure it buys.
[email protected] · More about the bakers
Further reading: A strategy session that sells · How to build a sales funnel · Soft conversions: more leads from your website · How to organise a webinar: the step-by-step plan · Take the free leak test · Marketing for coaches · Marketing for training providers · Outsource your event marketing
How we work: first the offer, then the room. Want to get going with a brief like this? We do that in the Sold-Out Session: your offer and your event structure in one half-day.