Lead magnets can be an extremely powerful tool to drive readers onto your list.
They can also lead you to having an extremely disengaged list of freebie seekers that never buy anything (or never even end up opening future emails).
In this deep dive we're going to be discussing the best lead magnets for a Creator Newsletter.
That means our top priority is building a list of engaged readers and potential [future] buyers.
The goal isn't to just boost our overall newsletter subscriber numbers, it's to build an engaged audience that functions like a community so we can build trust, expertise and authority over time.
For this one we're going to be working backwards and starting with the WORST types of lead magnets and then make our way through to discuss a handful of the best - breaking down top creator examples like:
- Matt Barker
- Dickie Bush
- Ramit Sethi
- Justin Welsh
- Codie Sanchez
- Mike Romaine (Me)
We'll take a look at how some of these creators have adapted their lead magnets over time, and end with a clear overview of the types of lead magnets that are winning for the top newsletter creators (and which to avoid).
Let's start with the worst kind of lead magnets and work from there:
📬Part One: The WORST Types of Lead Magnets
It's a known issue that a large percentage of online courses don't get finished.
It's also known that people value things more when they cost money.
This happens for a few different reasons, part of which stems from them actually taking the action to spend money and now in turn wanting to receive the value; but it goes even deeper from the standpoint of YOU (the creator) putting a specific value (dollar amount) on it FOR THEM.
When we tell our audience that something is free, the majority of them will automatically think $0 = less (or no) value.
We can do things to change that with our copywriting and positioning, but we're fighting an uphill battle - especially when discussing lead magnets.
So the WORST types of lead magnets are going to be those that are:
- Long and Time Consuming
- Not Actionable
Our newsletter is the place we are going to build the trust, relationship, expertise and authority with our audience, so we don't need to directly rely on our lead magnet to do that.
Instead, we want our lead magnet to deliver a quick win that tells our audience they want to continue consuming more of our emails.
Here are a list of lead magnets that DON'T do that:
- eBooks
- Courses
- In-Depth PDFs
- 10-20+ Minute "Workshops"
Do these things bring value to your audience?
Of course.
But the goal of your lead magnet isn't directly related to value; it's directly related to how much value you're bringing your audience as they join your newsletter that keeps them wanting to come back and read your emails.
And if they're not consuming it, they're not getting any value...
People want quick and actionable.
My Own Lead Magnet Experiment
To put this to the test I ran own experiment.
I tested giving away all the information in my $297-$997 course (depending on the pricing tier)...FOR FREE as a lead magnet.
(Note: I didn't tell them it was the $297 course.)
If you joined my list I sent you the entire course broken down in PDF documents, so it was quickly accessible and easily downloadable.
My course had a VERY high completion rate when purchased at $297+, so I knew this was the perfect thing to test.
Guess what happened...
People barely consumed it.
When I'd reach out to ask them how they liked it or get feedback on it, the large majority had never finished it.
And even worse...the percentage of people who never even responded or continued opening my emails was also higher because they had opted in for something other than the newsletter itself, and then proceeded to not get value from it [because it was far too long].
📬 Part Two: The BEST Types of Lead Magnets
You can kind of see where we're going here, right?
The BEST Types of Lead Magnets give people a quick win because they are:
- Quick
- Actionable
- Easily Consumed
We're going to go through a handful of lead magnets that fall into these categories, and one lead magnet type that defies all the rules and is one of the BEST lead magnets to use without being these three things.
To do this I'm going to be sharing specific examples with you, being the visual learner that I am, from other top creators that have tested and proved different styles.
Let's start with something that might seem a bit counterproductive among this list: NO Lead Magnet.
📬#1 - No Lead Magnet
I know what you're thinking:
"Mike, how can NO lead magnet be on the list of the top lead magnets!?"
Well, hold tight...
When you start to look at your newsletter as the driving force of your online business you can actually turn the newsletter into the lead magnet that continues being a new magnet each and every week.
This is done in a few different ways, but the most popular are:
- Teaser CTAs - The day before each newsletter you put out a teaser post about the topic you're going to be covering the next day in the newsletter.
- Post Newsletter CTAs - The day AFTER the newsletter goes out you can share some information from it, or even link directly to it, and use FOMO to have people subscribe to your list to make sure they're the first to get the content each week.
Justin Welsh has used both of these to grow his list to over 215,000 subscribers without pushing lead magnets.
Could that be one of the reasons he has such an engaged list and is one of the top Newsletter Creators?
I definitely think it could have something to do with it....
In the image above you can see how both me and Chennel Basilio (Growth In Reverse) use newsletter teasers to drive more subscribers on LinkedIn and Twitter without a lead magnet.
If you want to see more specific examples you can go to my LinkedIn page and look at any of my Friday posts.
The newsletter itself IS the lead magnet, and in turn the readers are their specifically for the newsletter and you're 100X more likely to have a more engaged audience.
Note: This is also a double whammy because it's an extra post each week, which we discussed inside my Newsletter Repurposing Guide.
📬#2 - Email Based Courses
Considering we're going against the grind right off the bat I figure it's good to just keep it going with the next best type of newsletter: Email Based Courses.
Email Based Courses are the lead magnet types I was referring to when I said their is one type that breaks all the rules (quick, actionable, and easily consumed) but is still one of, if not THE best lead magnet you can use.
What do I mean when I say it breaks the rules?
- It's dripped delivered over the course of days.
- It's much longer than a quick 1-5 page PDF.
- It's not immediately actionable (or at least not all of it).
So how the heck could this be one of the best lead magnet types!?
Email Based Courses do multiple things for you as a Newsletter Creator:
- They train your audience to consume your emails.
- They allow you to specifically curate the BEST content for your audience (in turn helping you build immediate trust, authority and expertise).
- They allow you to track the engagement of your audience as they come into your list (especially helpful when you begin using paid acquisition).
But there also is a sweet spot among them...
So don't get too crazy on me!
In the image above I show Dickie Bush's lead magnet for his Write With AI Newsletter, and Premium Ghostwriting Newsletter on top and then his Ship 30 Newsletter lead magnet below those.
The top two lead magnets are 5 day crash courses that have been adapted from testing and learning that 5 day is the sweet spot, while the 10 day email course you see on the bottom was actually phased out.
What can we learn?
- Sweet Spot = 5 days.
- 10 days = Too long.
Pro Tip: When building your first email based course I recommend doing it over the course of 4-8 weeks.
This allows you to start by using the newsletters and articles as teaser lead magnets (discussed in the last section), find the BEST ones (based on people opting in for them and engagement), and then curate them into an email based course for future readers.
📬#3 - PDF Downloads Of What They Already Have
I know, I know, I'm beginning to sound crazy - but stick with me for a second.
These are the lead magnets I have used to make over 7 figures online, and there's a way to use them with your social content as well...
Note: one key point I want to make note of here is that it's important that you are doing this with shorter content that is only 1-5 pages in a PDF download, and not full articles and deep dives that would turn into 20-30+ pages.
How I collect 250-500+ Email Subscribers a Day
In the example above (the top two images) you can see one of my articles on Superhero Jacked breaking down Chris Pratt's workout routine.
I have 2500+ workout routines on the site breaking down celebrities workouts, and even workouts inspired by superheroes, anime characters and more.
I have tested offering all 2500+ workout routines to people.
Results = Bad.
BUT, when I offer a downloadable version of the exact workout routine they're already on the site for (the workout is also free in the article they're already on)....
300-500+ organic newsletter subscribers per day with 40-50+% open rate.
This is similar to "No Lead Magnet" in the sense that you're not giving them anything extra to join and consume, outside of what you've already given them with the content on your Discovery Platforms.
How Eric Partaker does this with LinkedIn
Erik Partaker has nearly 500,000 followers on LinkedIn and over 200,000 newsletter subscribers.
He makes this offer on his LinkedIn posts:
"Want a high-res PDF of this infographic?
Try my free newsletter"
I have also seen this used by a handful of other LinkedIn creators and it seems to be performing fairly well.
I don't personally use infographics in my content, and carousels are already capable of being downloaded by my audience, but I will be looking to test this in the future.
Bonus Note: Eric goes on to say "You'll get 40+ high-value infographics for free."
This is likely due to the fact that he needs to package them all up on one specific page to allow readers to grab the one they're opting in for, unless he tried to have a way to have 40+ landing pages and automations.
If you can do this method in a way that really only has one or two for your audience to grab, it will likely perform much better in terms of engagement (especially since we're also comparing to someone who already has quite a bit of authority).
📬#4 - Cheat Sheets
Cheat Sheets can get a bad rap from people because so many creators use them.
In my opinion it's HOW you use them, and not whether or not you use them.
If you can deliver a ton of value in a one page cheat sheet that directly relates to the content you're going to be sending me on your newsletter and your overall niche and brand - then cheat sheets are a massive win.
It's very hard to make that happen, but if you can, then cheat sheets are one of the best options among lead magnets other than teasers and email based courses.
One example I love to use is Matt Barker's lead magnet "The Ultimate Hook Writing Cheat Sheet".
Matt gets us on his newsletter "The Digital Writer" and even sells a course under the same name, so his lead magnet fits perfectly down the path he's looking to take us, and also delivers a quick win.
What NOT To Do With Cheat Sheets
This really goes for all types of lead magnets, but being that we're just starting to get into some downloadable content among lead magnets I want to make a special note...
You do NOT want to make your lead magnet something that doesn't DIRECTLY relate to your niche and overall brand.
For example: if your niche is personal branding and you give me The Ultimate Hook Writing Cheat Sheet there might be some overlap in the thinking that it will help me with my social content, but there is not a direct overlap with the content I am likely to consume within your newsletter.
BUT, if you're going to teach me more about writing (writing online, copywriting, etc.), then I'm going to continue being interested in more of your newsletter content after consuming your lead magnet.
📬#5 - Checklists (and All Types of Lists)
We might have to start calling Codie Sanchez the Lead Magnet List Queen because I had originally intended to highlight her 130+ Boring Businesses to Buy and then make a separate section for other types of lists...
And then I realized she crushes all types of lists for lead magnets!
Here are the List Lead Magnets we see from Codie Sanchez:
- 130+ Boring Businesses to Buy
- 19 Books That Changes My Financial Life Forever
- Due Diligence Checklist for Small Business Buying
Codie has the most success with her 130+ Boring Businesses to Buy lead magnet.
This has been mentioned by Matt McGarry who has helped with growing her newsletter Contrarian Thinking, and it's also a reason why it's the most prominent one we find on her profile.
It also has the best direct connection to what she's looking to build from her list.
The unique thing here is that it's actually pretty long...
One of the reasons I wanted to highlight this one specifically is because I wanted to show that it can be LONG, while still being quick, actionable and not time consuming.
130+ businesses is A LOT of businesses...
BUT, it's also scannable and gives us a "quick" win that we can take more action on within a very short period of time.
Quick Note: Codie now has a massive audience. By having multiple lead magnets that have different interests at the core of the niches their targeting it allows her to segment the people opting in onto different segments so she can send them the best offers and content over time.
📬#6 - Quizzes
People love taking quizzes...
I don't see many quizzes used by creators on LinkedIn and Twitter, but they are something that I have personally used a ton, and know some other larger creators have had massive success with as well.
We're going to take a look at Ramit Sethi from I Will Teach You To Be Rich as our main example, but I have also used these extremely successfully on my Superhero Jacked newsletter AND my niche pickleball newsletter.
In the images above you can see three different parts of Ramit's quiz "Find Your Rich Life":
- Top Left Image: The landing page (which is his home page)
- Top Right Image: Six questions on the quiz, multiple choice with 3 answers each.
- Bottom Right Image: Gated Content
After we have taken a quiz we are pretty invested, spending the time to go through and choose answers, and having already committed to wanting to see the result.
So when we land on a gated page, we're far more likely to subscribe to be able to see that result.
This gives you as the creator a couple options:
- You can send just the result via email
- You could send the result AND a quick win that goes with that exact result.
But this doesn't JUST allow you get subscribers who have already committed to taking action.
This also allows you to deliver them specific content based on their answers...!
In the case of Ramit and his quiz: he has grown into a lot of different niches now, stemming from wealth management into making money online, and making more money with your career.
So this allows him to immediately segment you into what you're interested in, the same way we saw from Codie Sanchez with her multiple lead magnets.
You can use quizzes to learn from your audience, segment your audience, and even curate the best content to them based on their answers.
Bonus Note: I want to point out some of the copy Ramit uses on his optin-gate.
Ramit says: "You'll also receive the the Rich Life Insider newsletter as a bonus."
This tells the reader they're going to be getting more emails after they get the result, but it also frames it as a bonus, implying it's something they're going to definitely want to check out and be aware of.
📬What Lead Magnet is BEST for YOU!?
I want to make one thing EXTREMELY clear:
You do NOT need a lead magnet to start your newsletter.
Reminder: Justin Welsh has one of the most successful creator newsletters, as a solopreneur, with 200K+ engaged readers who spend MILLIONS on his courses YEARLY... without pushing lead magnets.
You SHOULD and CAN start your newsletter without even thinking about a lead magnet, because that will have you frame the newsletter AS the lead magnet.
There are many creators that grow massive lists like Justin without using a single lead magnet just because of the value they provide.
That said, there is of course certain lead magnets that stand out as the best AND worst options if you do decide to start testing them out.
Here's the list of the BEST Lead Magnets:
- No Lead Magnet (Teaser Posts)
- Email Based Courses
- Cheat Sheets
- Checklists and Listicles
- Quizzes
And with that also comes the worst...
Here's the list of the WORST Lead Magnets:
- eBooks
- Courses
- Workshops
- In-Depth PDFs
- Long Video Lessons
Will people subscribe for these?
Absolutely.
But you're increasing your odds of building a disengaged list of freebie seekers.
If there's one massive thing to take away from this it is this:
Start thinking of your newsletter as the reason people should want to subscribe.
Provide enough value in each email that the newsletter itself becomes the lead magnet each week.
