Checklist · Lead Magnet
Most lead magnets aren’t worth the email they cost.
The checks that make a lead magnet genuinely worth an email address — specific, immediately useful, and honest about what happens next.
A lead magnet is a trade: your best small thing for someone’s attention and trust. Most break the trade — thin content, vague promise, a deluge of email afterwards. This checklist keeps it fair, which is also what makes it work.
Specific over comprehensive
‘The one-page pricing script’ beats ‘the ultimate guide to sales.’ A narrow thing solved completely is worth more than a broad thing covered thinly.
Immediately useful
Can they get value in the first two minutes, without you? A lead magnet that requires a call to be useful isn’t a magnet; it’s a gate.
Honest about what follows
Say what emails they’re signing up for. The trust you build with a good magnet is destroyed by a surprise sequence. Deliver, then earn the next permission.
Proof of your thinking
The best lead magnets are a genuine sample of how you think, so the right people self-select toward you. It should feel like the free version of the paid relationship.
Ask whether you’d gladly pay a small amount for it. If not, it’s not good enough to charge an email address — which is often the more expensive currency.
Common questions
What makes a good lead magnet?
Something specific and immediately useful, honest about the emails that follow, and a genuine sample of your thinking — good enough that someone would pay a little for it.
Why don’t my lead magnets convert?
Usually they’re too broad and too thin, or the promise doesn’t match the payoff. A narrow problem solved completely converts far better than an ‘ultimate guide’.
Related: publish the argument · templates.