Successful Blogging

6 Lead Magnets That Will Skyrocket Your Email List

6 Lead Magnets That Will Skyrocket Your Email List

If you’ve been paying attention to this (or really any) blog on blogging, you know that growing your email list needs to be a top priority for every blogger.

And you’ve also probably realized that asking people to subscribe to get your blog posts in their inbox doesn’t really work anymore.

You need to give your readers an added incentive to sign up for your email list. But what do you give them?

I scoured the Internet to find out what my favorite bloggers use to grow their email lists. Here is what I found.

1. Webinars

Webinars are a great way to grow your email list and to make money.

I have an ongoing webinar called How to Turn Casual Readers into Buyers Every Single Day.

You can sign up to watch the webinar as soon as you visit my website, and from there, I show you how I can help you grow your blog audience.

Webinars work really well for growing your email list because they are live, meaning there is a natural sense of urgency. They also give you a chance to showcase your best material and create a buying relationship with your readers.

lead magnet Neil PatelNeil Patel’s main lead magnet is also a webinar. He teaches you how to grow your blog traffic without spending money on ads. From there, you are asked to fill out a survey so that he can get to know you better and hopefully convert you into a customer.

If you have a product to sell and you want to grow your list and get customers at the same time, I highly recommend trying out webinars.

2. PDF Guides

One of the most common lead magnets you will find online are guides. My guide to getting 1000 subscribers in one month is one of my best-performing lead magnets.

Guides are great because they allow you to establish your expertise quickly. They don’t take a lot of technology to create, but they can get you lots of subscribers – if you choose the right problem to tackle.

I recommend thinking about your readers’ pain points and helping them solve one of their most common problems with your guide.

Another blogger who uses a guide to grow his email list is Adam Connell of Blogging Wizard.

His guide is 32 tools to help you manage, market and grow your blog. He calls it the Serious Blogger’s Toolkit.

He compiled all of his favorite tools for bloggers, and he also organizes them by Critical, Important, Maybe Later, and Avoid, so that you know what to invest in.

As a bonus, he uses affiliate links for many of the tools he recommends, so he not only grows his list with his guide, he also makes commissions from it.

If you have affiliate relationships with a number of companies, and you want a great way to grow your list, I highly recommend you offer a tools guide as a lead magnet.

3. Cheat sheets

A cheat sheet is similar to a guide, but a bit shorter. It helps your readers get a “quick win” and gives them a resource that they can come back to again and again. Every time they use their cheat sheet, they will think about you and your blog.

Your main goal for your lead magnet – other than growing your email list – is to help your readers achieve a transformation. When you deliver quick results with your cheat sheet, you show your readers that you are the one who can help them achieve their goals.

lead magnetJon Morrow of Smart Blogger uses a Headline Hacks cheat sheet as a major lead magnet. As a blogger, there are so many things you need to learn, and by helping you with this one part of blogging – writing viral blog post headlines – Jon gives you a quick win and a sample of his expertise.

4. Courses

Another lead magnet that will establish you as an expert and give you a chance to impress your subscribers is a free course.

MY PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION FOR YOU  51 Steps to Launching (Or Relaunching) a Hot Blog

You can offer an email course that runs for a few days, or you can offer a “workshop” style course, which includes a pre-recorded video and possibly a worksheet or copy of the slides.

If you are an online teacher, doing a free course is a great way to show potential students what you have to offer them in your paid courses.

If you offer a multi-day email course, you also get the chance to show up in your readers’ inbox for an extended period, which lets you remind them of you and your blog.

lead magnet Tara GentileTara Gentile offers a 6 part course on how to price your products and services. By giving you this free course, she lets you have a sample of her teaching so that you can decide whether to work with her further.

lead magnet for blog Dre Beltrami of the Branded Solopreneur uses Mini-Courses to grow her email list. She does them as live webinars the first time, and afterward, she keeps them on her website so that new visitors can subscribe to watch them.

Each of her Mini-Courses teaches a specific design skill and gives her subscribers a taste of her style and her expertise.

5. Facebook groups

If you are selling access to a community or membership site, you can use a Facebook group to grow your email list and build relationships with your readers. Offering a free community also gives your subscribers a chance to see what your paid community may be like.

Once your Facebook group is large enough, Facebook will automatically recommend it to people in your niche, thereby giving you free organic subscribers.

You will also get more interaction in Facebook groups than you do from emails. That’s because your subscribers are already hanging out on Facebook and want to build relationships with people who are similar to them.

In addition to growing your email list with a Facebook group, you can also sell to your group members directly from your group.

lead magnetDaniela Uslan uses her Facebook group, Blogging on Your Own Terms, as her primary list builder. Once bloggers have joined her group and email list, they have access to blog sharing threads and coaching from her.

She also builds relationships with her members and then converts them into members of her paid community, Have Your Cupcake.

6. Resource libraries

If you’ve created a lot of different resources for your readers, such as checklists, guides, and free courses, and you want to offer them all in one place, think about creating a free resource library to grow your email list.

Your readers will be excited to get access to many resources and tools from you, and you will be able to keep all of your lead magnets in one place, thereby avoiding setting up different forms and email sequences for each one.

lead magnetMelyssa Griffin’s primary list builder is a resources library. Once you subscribe, you get access to everything from a Content Repurposing Spreadsheet to a Blogging Business Plan.

By giving you access to a large number of resources, Melyssa shows you what she has to offer and gains your trust. She also gives you a great sampling of what you will get if you buy one of her paid courses.

What are you going to use for your next lead magnet?

Will you do webinars or free courses?

Will you create a guide or a cheat sheet, or put together a resource library or free community?

Share your lead magnet ideas in the comments below.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Some great ideas in there Sue, some I am sure most people have never considered. A lead magnet does not need to be huge in every case. Even a checklist does well. That is what I share most of the time and have a list over 3k.

    My next thing will be webinars though! Let's see how that goes

  2. Hi Sue,

    Perfect information for me, I am planning to offer some free courses to my readers. All the options are great and superb for building an email list.

    Thanks for sharing. Have a great day…..

  3. Hey Sue,

    As always love your succinct yet informative posts. I've never thought of the Facebook group idea! I want to try it.

    Also, free courses work well, but many bloggers put zero effort into them. I like Ramit Sethi's mantra of "creating free material that's better than other people's paid material."

    When you to the extra mile with your free courses readers are dying to know what the paid material looks like.

    Off to share!

  4. Oh Sue, what a remarkable resource you have there.

    Always nailing it!

    I have a question, If I am offering a cheatsheet like yours, do you think I should write about a thousand words or a full book.

    Since it's free, I don't think much time should be invested in creating the cheat sheet.

    What do you think?

  5. Thanks so much, Sue, for this valuable information. My community is composed of moms and dads who are creating home programs for their children with autism. I coach them to select home program curriculum, create measurable goals, measure progress and update their children's programs to increase functional communication and family fun at home and decrease difficult behaviors. I love your ideas and am planning to develop a resource library lead magnet. For the moment, I do not have a lead magnet in place. Thanks again!

    • The resource library will work well for you, Alix. Just start with one piece in the library and add to it as you go along!

      Thanks,
      Sue

  6. Hey Sue,

    Great resources, Offering Free PDF guide or courses or cheat sheets works great.

    Even I tried with offering free 7 days video training in one of my niches, gave me a very good result.

    Thanks for sharing wonderful info.

  7. Hi Sue,

    These are some great ideas. I'm familiar with most of them but in our article it caused me to identify their marketing plan and the groups their trying to attract. I've been thinking on how to create a better lead magnet than the one(s) I have and comparing these actually gave me something to work with.

    Thanks – as always, great and valuable content.

  8. Hi Sue,

    Great information! I am planning to use mini course for lead generation.

    However, I knew almost all those tips except lead generation through Facebook group. It is a good idea I think I should consider it, too.

    Thanks for sharing such a wonderful post with us.

    Thanks

    Umesh Singh

  9. BIG ass high five for including some link love for lil ole me! You ROCK, Sue! I can't wait to get back to the mini course train next year. I've got a ton of ideas locked and loaded. 😀

  10. Great ideas for Lead magnets! I absolutely love Melyssa Griffin's resource library too!

    Thanks for the tips, Sue.

  11. Hi Sue,

    Great post.

    The one thing I find with lead magnets is it is very easy to "go for the email", rather than for the actual lead.

    With this whole content upgrades movement there is an obsession with list building and getting high conversion rates on blog posts. (I'm as guilty as the next person) But when it comes to the backend, and you're actually trying to sell something, the lead magnet needs to be in alignment with that journey and have some connection to the end product.

    I think we could all benefit from a simplified lead magnet strategy that is more strategically connected with the whole marketing funnel.

    Your mention of using Facebook groups as a lead magnet for a membership community is spot on from this perspective… that's what sparked my rant!

    Cheers,

    Will

    • Such a great point, Will. So important to have your Lead Magnet be the beginning of your sales funnel.

      I so appreciate your comment!
      Sue

  12. Hey Sue,

    Email marketing is one of the most important things to grow your business. People try their best to get more subscribers.

    The lead magnets mentioned above including the facebook groups, courses, webinars can boost the email list.

    Thanks for sharing with us.

    Enjoy the day.

    ~Ravi

  13. Hi Sue Ma'm,

    Thanks for this awesome guide.

    Currently I'm focusing on facebook groups to generate more leads.

    Thanks for sharing those 5 extra ideas.

    Hope you have a great weekend ahead.

    • You could do a cheat sheet on "The 5 Mistakes People Make When Selecting An Architect". Or a "Roadmap To A Successful Remodel Of Your Home".

      You can run some potential headlines past me – just email me at sue@successfulblogging.com

  17. Hey Sue! Great piece–I sent to several of my clients for fresh perspective on lead magnets.

    One of the things not mentioned here is quizzes. People love quizzes–finding out new things about themselves, or confirming information they already knew.

    My Content Personality Quiz is being downloaded like crazy. And people are loving that they can quickly determine which type of content best suits their personality style. I am all about helping people find more ease and joy when marketing their businesses!

    • Hi Shannon,

      Great point about quizzes! People (as you have seen) love to take a quiz. My Lead Magnet will be switching to a quiz shortly.

      Thanks for your feedback!
      Sue

  19. Hi Sue,

    Over the last year I've experimented with a number of strategies from my free eBook, a free consultation and now my free on-demand webinar.

    The eBook did extraordinarily well. It had over 10,000 downloads.

    I've taken it down and replaced it with the on-demand webinar and I'm amazed at how well it is performing. It's outpacing the eBook almost 2 to 1 at this point, over the same time period.

    The key is value, value and more value… of course I define value as solving one problem, meeting one need or fulfilling one desire for one person, per piece of content.

    It works!

    I appreciate your insights as always Sue!!!!

    I'm off to share now.

    Have a great week!

    ~ Don Purdum

  21. Great suggestions Sue.

    I've done pretty good with checklists and free guides. What I'd like to do is webinars…perhaps one day I'll get around to doing one.

    The one that's new to me is Facebook groups…they way you explain sounds like it can be very effective.

    Thanks for sharing these suggestions, Sue. Passing this along. Hope it's been a great week.

    Cori

    • I have two blogger friends that do great with Facebook groups – they get most of their clients that way.

      I appreciate you stopping by and commenting, Cori!
      Sue

  22. Hey Sue,

    Webinars are really amazing to grow our email list, we all need to attend a webinar a compatible web browser, and a way to share the audio portion of the session. I have noticed in your post you have shared great idea to grow our email lists and we easily make money by it, i agree with you we can start an email course for few days to generate.

    Social networking site such as Facebook is also valuable for this, here we can establish strong relationship with community. Eventually great post it will really helpful for many blogger to grow email list.

    With best wishes,

    Amar kumar

  23. Hi Sue,

    Some clear instructions for email marketing and lead generation there. Thanks!

    I have tried the checklist approach and got a few subscribers who certainly liked the idea of a printable pdf checklist. I am currently working on a free ebook to give away to my readers. Even though it will be free, I am making sure to make it resourceful and worthy of the readers' time, after all getting loyal readers is what one craves for!

    Thanks again for sharing this Sue. Have a good one!

    ~Arpit Roy

  25. Hi Sue,

    I was actually concentrating on affiliate marketing from the last couple of days, I came to know how important it is to capture the leads for the affiliate success.

    I have not yet tested any of the methods in this article but I need to concentrate on them, I am following Melissa Griffin from so many days, she is the expert in providing resources and case sheets for capturing the leads.

    First I will follow Melissa to get the leads, thanks for sharing the information at the right time for me, see you soon with another article.

  26. Oh Sue, what a remarkable resource you have there.

    Always nailing it!

    I have a question, If I am offering a cheat sheet like yours, do you think I should write about a thousand words or a full book.

  27. Sue,

    Wow. This really gave me what to think about for promoting my photography business better! Thank you!

  28. Hello Again Sue,

    Got to read another great blog from you. Getting onto the topic, I would relate to your opinion that asking people for subscription via emails sounds cheap in these days. A potential blog does not beg. However, enlarging email list had to take place in one or other way. I would choose your ways to keep on the top priority.

  30. Thanks for sharing six excellent list building ideas sue!

    And several of them, I definitely have not previously heard before!

    Particularly, strategies # 5 & 6. A resource library is an awesome idea,

    as well as using FB groups, as a way to lead into an entire list building process.

    They're all good and extremely practical.Thanks!

  31. Hi Sue,

    First I would like to thank for this excellent article.

    The presentation of your article is always good.

    The information that you shared was really useful to the new bloggers.

    Have a Great Day.

  33. Hi Sue ,

    Thanks for this fantastic post.

    Currently I’m focusing on Twitter and Google Plus to generate more leads.

    Thanks for sharing those 5 extra ideas, which are really helpful.

    Have a nice day.

    Thanks,

    Ashvin

  34. Amazing Stuff and much required.. I was wondering on how i can get the email list going.. found the prefect place and really glad to follow your website.. I am just starting off with a tech website http://www.techinsense.com.. This is really helpful… Thank You!

    • Yes, this post did help a lot of beginning bloggers. Thanks for letting me know in the comments!

      Sue

  35. Hi Sue, Thanks for the great information. I will be trying the techniques you mentioned. I have personally been struggling to build my list. So far I have 500 subscribers which took around a year to build. I believe if I had really applied myself, I would have built a bigger list. This information was very inspiring.

    I look forward to giving some of them magnets a try and seeing what kind of results will pan put.

    Thanks again Sue!

  36. Thanks for this powerful blog post.

    Yeah, I discovered recently the power of Facebook community, this led me to build a Facebook group of my targeted audience which has grown to over 45,000 members in just few months.

    I'm building my list with these people and the turn-up is really good.

    Alot of people don't know how to build a Facebook group that automatically get member. I want to package this idea into a short guide for lead magnet.

  37. All the marketing gurus talk about the importance of having a lead magnet, a carrot of sorts that can act as a motivation to subscribe to our website, creating that landing page as a lead magnet is easy, hard part is to create that 'temptation', interesting and engaging enough to have a 'viral' effect.

  38. Sue,

    I just set up a FB Group for my photography web site. I am not quite understanding how to politely ask folks who visit my web site to join my FB Group. Do I ask that question on my email capture/subscription bar? Or separately from the? Confused. Sorry.

    • I would recommend asking in your Welcome autoresponder email, Ron. That works really well!

      Thanks for commenting and asking your question.
      Sue

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