Having an email list is one of the most critical parts of a successful online business.
It’s a place where you build a stronger and more personal connection with your target audience.
Your email list is owned by you and not Facebook like your social media accounts, so no one will change the algorithm without your knowledge.
And most importantly:
Your email list is a place where the majority of your sales are happening.
Yes, you heard me right.
The best way to sell something to your target audience is via email, not your Insta stories.
If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the official stats – for every $1 you spend of your email list, you get an average of $42 in return!
That is a mind-blowing number, don’t you think?!
Now, I have good news for you:
Starting an email list is very easy and doesn’t have to cost tons of money.
There is just one thing you need to nail to start growing.
And that little thing is your lead magnet.
Most people think that having a pop-up inviting people to ‘Subscribe for a newsletter‘ is enough and that people will run to sign up for your list once they see it.
However, I’m here to tell you that it’s not enough.
You need to provide people with a valuable offer that is worth giving away their email address for.
And today, I want to give you 7 ideas for lead magnets that are guaranteed to skyrocket the growth of your email list.
So, let’s jump right in!
#1: 7/14/25-day Challenge
The first lead magnet idea on this list is a challenge.
It’s genuinely one of the most fun and interactive ways to welcome people to your list.
You have 7/14/25 (or how many days you choose) days to prove the people who signed up to your list, that you’re the person they didn’t know they needed.
It’s also a great way to preview your brand, voice, and style and start making that connection that you can later utilize when it’s time to pitch a sale.
The challenge doesn’t have to be live.
You can simply create the material and copy on a subject, like 14 Days To 1000 Instagram Followers Challenge, create a sign-up for (or landing page), and schedule the emails.
Of course, it’s essential to monitor and check if your information is up to date and relevant every few months or so, but for the most part, it can be a fully automated experience.
#2: Workbook
A very popular choice for a lead magnet is a workbook.
It’s very easy to create (stick around till the end, I have a Canva tutorial for you!), and people love a good workbook.
Think of something that your target audience is struggling with and try to give them an easy to follow solution with your workbook.
What would be an even better option is to combine the multiple-day challenge with a workbook.
Give people valuable information every day in your email and then give them homework that they can do for themselves in their workbooks you created.
I know this combination is a bit complex, but it truly puts you out there as a person who is an expert in their field.
One thing to remember:
Don’t make your workbook too complicated.
If people get too much information at once, they can get overwhelmed and not use your resources to the max.
It will not only benefit your audience, but it will also damage your brand, as well as people won’t get the value they were aiming to get.
So, it’s always best to stick with something simple when creating a workbook.
#3: Webinar
Another very popular choice for a lead magnet is a webinar.
This lead magnet is one of the most effective because it’s usually used to get people on the list, and then sell to them by the end of the webinar.
It’s a very potent lead magnet and effective if you want to make sales immediately.
If you give people a workbook in one email and then try to sell them your product or service in the next one, it might not go so well.
People didn’t have enough time to warm up to you and your offer.
With a webinar, however, it works differently.
People tune in to webinars as they do to real-life panels at conferences.
They have their pens and papers ready, and they know what they want coming into the webinar.
People see your face or hear your voice in real-time, which builds your authority and trust way faster than a written email.
So, when at the end of an hour or two hour-long value-packed webinars, you give them an option to buy something from you, that will benefit them even further, they’re more willing to do so.
If you have the means and time to set up a webinar properly and have a massive launch coming up, a webinar is a way to go.
#4: Discount Code
The most basic of all lead magnets is to offer a discount code.
If you have an online shop where you sell digital or physical products, the easiest way to lure people to your list is to offer a discount.
Retailers all around the world have been doing this for many years.
You know, when you land on a jewelry site, like Missoma, and you get a pop-up within minutes offering you to sign up to their newsletter to get 10% OFF your first order?
It’s enticing and worth giving your email, right?
So, if you have low-price offers, you sell jewelry, digital prints, clothing, or anything like that, it would be the easiest option for you.
However:
If you’re selling membership to a business club, an online course, or any other huge offer, discount code might not be the best option for you.
It doesn’t give the same effect and ruins the momentum, as usually, people need more warming up for more significant purchases like that than a simple 10% OFF.
#5: Quiz
Buzzfeed made quizzes very popular.
And now, smart marketers took the idea, adapted it, and made it into one of the most lucrative lead magnet ideas.
Creating a quiz as a lead magnet can be great:
It will position your brand as fun and youthful.
Further, it will get people talking about your brand as people love to share fun quizzes with their friends and on their social platforms.
It will also tell you a lot about people who sign up to your list if you do the quiz the right way.
So, you see, there are tons of benefits!
What type of quiz to create will depend largely on what you want to achieve and what your business is about.
If you’re unsure where to start, there are plenty of great free tools that allow you to create quizzes very quickly, like Typeform or Interact.
Make it fun and relatable, don’t be afraid to include pop culture references and use celebrities to attract more people.
However, make sure that your quiz fits your brand and industry as you want to attract only good quality leads and not random people interested to know whether they’re a Beyonce or Rihanna.
#6: Resource Library
Many bloggers found success by creating resource libraries accessible only to their email list.
You can create a few different templates, workbooks, and blueprints for your target audience and put them all in one place.
Instead of offering tons of different small freebies, you provide your audience with one huge resource library, and it can be very enticing.
You can always add more or remove some of the freebies in your library that don’t work anymore, and it’s easy to maintain this type of lead magnet.
However, it takes time and effort to set up, and it might not be as easy as creating a simple workbook or a 7-day challenge.
Also, you need to know a bit about WordPress’s backend or other website hosting service to create a library accessible with the password.
With WordPress, it’s pretty straightforward:
You just need to create a page, name it, put your resources in, and then set it so that it requires a password to unlock:
#7: Guide
Last but not least, on my list of lead magnets that will skyrocket the growth of your email list is a guide.
It’s also very effective and enticing for your audience while being easy for you to create.
Simply take one topic you want to provide value in and create a 10-page ebook file covering A to Z about it.
I would choose a simple evergreen content that wouldn’t need to be updated every few months.
Also, remember not to make it too long as people might not finish reading it, and then it loses its value, and people are not happy with what you have to offer.
A simple, 7-10 pages are more than enough, and if people are interested in more in-depth information, you can sell them your paid products/services.
If you want to be ever more extra, you can pair a guide with a workbook.
Give people all the information they need in your guide, and then give them a workbook to utilize the information they just learned practically.
It gives people more room to work with, and they won’t simply read and forget about your guide.
Now that you have all 7 different types of lead magnets you can use, I wanted to show you how to create a workbook using Canva easily.
Lead magnet creation doesn’t have to be difficult, and you don’t need to use fancy tools like Photoshop to create one that looks professional.
So, let’s jump in and quickly create a nice simple workbook:
Step 1: Register your free account and chose a template
Sign up for a free Canva account if you haven’t already. It’s easy and quick, and you can even do that via Facebook.
Once you do that, you’ll be in your dashboard, and you’ll want to go to Templates > Education > Lesson Plan.
Here you will see tons of different types of templates you can choose from:
Click Create a blank Lesson Plan.
Now, you’ll be taken to your Canva editor, where you’ll be creating your Workbook. You can still see all the available templates you can choose from on the left:
Before you choose the template and create a layout, let’s choose how many pages your workbook will have. You can do it by clicking little + icon at the top right corner of your document:
I chose to do four pages. The first page will be your cover, and the rest three will be for all the information needed.
Step 2: Design the cover
So, if you want to change the color of your background, click on the white document and you’ll see a color wheel appear on the upper left corner:
Choose any color you want for your background:
Now, go to the Text section and choose the font combination you like:
This option is amazing for those who are not familiar with fonts and how to match them, so they look professional.
I chose to use this font combo as it’s my favorite and it looks good on the cover:
But, if you don’t want to choose from the font combinations, you can simply add Text here:
Click on the Text and then Effects, and here you can choose different ways to improve your Text:
Play around with other text tools, adjust the position and size and color as you prefer.
Go to Elements and here you can choose different things to add for visual interest:
Click on Featured and add the first illustration. Position it under the Text:
You see, it immediately lifted the cover, and it looks way more professional and interesting.
Step 3: Design the layout of the workbook
Let’s choose one layout from the templates we saw before.
Go to Templates again, scroll down a bit, and choose this template for your page 2:
Now, delete the parts you don’t want, change fonts and colors to match your cover and overall branding:
It’s easy to adapt existing templates to your brand’s style by simply clicking on details and changing colors and fonts.
For page 3, let’s choose a different template and adjust it to our brand:
Change the fonts, colors, and Text to match the rest of your branding and make sense with your workbook’s purpose. It should look something like this after you’re done:
And now it’s time to design the page 4. Go to Text and click ‘add a heading‘:
Then, we’re going to add a text box. Go to Elements > Shapes and choose a simple square shape which you can mold into a rectangle for a text box:
Now, simply duplicate the text and the text box, and it should look something like this:
The end result should look like this:
And here, you have a finished workbook with three different page layouts and a cute looking cover!
And here you have it – 7 effective lead magnet ideas that will skyrocket your growth.
It’s relatively easy to create a good lead magnet, but it can truly make or break your email list.
When you’re creating your lead magnet, always think about your ideal audience and whether it’s giving them the most value.
If you are doing that, your email list growth will skyrocket in no time.
Now, if you want even more lead magnet ideas, I recommend you check this article out here.
And, if you’re unsure what service provider to choose from, check this guide comparing MailerLite and CoverKit here.
Author Bio:
Karolina Wilde is a freelance writer and content marketer who likes to write about business, blogging, and everything online marketing related. In her free time, she loves to drink matcha lattes and record her podcast The FOXY SOUL Show.