5 Lead Magnets That Will Help You Build a Mailing List. I Show Examples, Cost, and Payback

Our copywriter guide has been downloaded 7,000 times and has paid for itself 10 times over. And Mantra, an anime-style poster, brought us 770,000 rubles with a cost of 150,000 rubles. We show working lead magnets that we made for ourselves and our clients.

Lead magnets are free products that a company offers in exchange for users' contact information. The person gets some information – useful or entertaining, and the company gets a potential client who can be further led through the sales funnel. For example, we warm up new users to purchase training courses.

Lead magnets come in different forms: guides, webinars, free courses, books, brochures, reports, and even research. The main feature of a lead magnet is that it should arouse the burning interest of the target audience. People should want to take it for themselves, not being afraid to give up their data for it – email or phone number.

Guides, instructions and manuals

Guides or instructions on topics that are close to the brand and that people need. A guide can be as long as a whole book or as short as a few pages. The most important thing is that it should help the user understand the issue that concerns them or solve a problem.

For example, in our 150+ page copywriter guide, we have collected answers to the most frequently asked questions about the profession. This information will help beginners get started in copywriting correctly and avoid annoying mistakes.

We use the guide as a lead magnet for potential buyers of our training. We placed it on the editorial landing page, we pour paid traffic from direct, periodically announce it in social networks and do seeding in Telegram. Users who are not yet ready to study for money leave their data, and we gradually lead them to purchase: we tell them about the courses, show students' cases, push special offers.

Our guide is popular: it has been downloaded more than 7,000 times. The lead magnet paid for itself 10 times: we spent about 100 thousand rubles on creation, drove paid traffic for 350 thousand rubles, sold courses for 1.5 million rubles. Now the guide continues to bring leads, and nothing else needs to be done.

*The guide can be picked up on the training landing page*

Posters, posters and wall tips

Posters with a catchy design and strong text. You can place inspirational quotes, graphics or mini-instructions on the poster. Users will print out such beauty, hang it above their desk and remember your company for a long time.

For example, our Copywriter Mantra attracts with its unusual design and stylish layout. The designers specially drew illustrations for it, and the authors came up with inspiring texts. The mantra reminds copywriters that they are great, supports and inspires. For such a poster-support, it is not a pity to share mail.

We announced this lead magnet on the editorial social networks, and now you can pick it up on the training landing page. Users leave their email to get a poster, and we expand the mailing list. At the moment, Mantra has been downloaded 815 times. The lead magnet has already paid for itself five times: we spent about 150 thousand rubles on creating it, and sold 770 thousand rubles worth of courses. Mantra still continues to bring in applications for training, but there is no need to spend resources on it anymore.

On the Mantra landing page, you can share it with friends - this way users bring us even more contacts for the database — *On the Mantra landing page, you can share it with friends – this way users bring us even more contacts for the database*

*The mantra lifts the mood and helps calm down our subscribers. And brings leads to the editors*

Brochures and checklists

Documents that collect useful data in short texts with graphs, illustrations, and tables. Brochures cannot be too big, 50+ pages, like books, and they also do not provide step-by-step instructions, like guides. A brochure can tell about a company or product, share useful ideas, selections, and recommendations.

For example, for the Paywall service, we made a brochure that clients receive as a gift when signing up for an educational newsletter. Letters from the newsletter should help users understand what a subscription model is and gradually lead them to registering with the service. And in the brochure, authors can choose ideas for content that they will publish for their subscribers.

To make the brochure useful, we collected 20 interesting ideas for content and formatted them into clear text blocks with examples. Everything was designed and laid out in a separate PDF file.

Paywall offers users a brochure along with a course subscription - those who want to see ideas for content are automatically added to the service's database — *Paywall offers users a brochure along with a course subscription – those who want to see ideas for content are automatically added to the service's database*

E-books

Multi-page documents that help the target audience learn something new or understand some issue. This format looks impressive, it is trusted more – it seems that the company has tried for the readers.

For example, we wrote a book for the Foxford school on a pressing issue — bullying. There is an obvious benefit for parents: using the data from the book, you can recognize that your child is being bullied at school and learn how to deal with it. And the client received email addresses that can be used for newsletters — to talk about forms of education, announce discounts, and give bonuses.

To make a book on a complex topic, we interviewed school psychologists and victims of bullying – the information turned out to be reliable and useful. We came up with a structure, wrote the texts, designed and laid out the layout.

*Foxford School Sends Bullying Book to User's Email*

On average, a lead magnet can cost from 40 to 100,000 rubles. The price depends on what needs to be done: processing ready-made text material or collecting invoice from scratch, selecting images from stocks or drawing new ones, laying out one file or additionally preparing a demo version. The cost will also be affected by the volume of the product. For example, a 15-page brochure can cost 40 thousand rubles, and a 35+ page book with a demo version – from 70 thousand rubles.

And in the book for the EOS agency, we collected financial life hacks. The lead magnet serves as a bonus for subscribing to the newsletter, in which the agency explains who they are and how they can help people in difficult situations. The book clearly and without moralizing explains how to save, accumulate and earn. When the user downloaded the book, the newsletter was automatically connected to him.

We came up with a structure for the book, wrote the texts, drew comic pictures and laid it out. We also made a demo version that the user can view before leaving their data.

*You can view the contents of the book from EOS in the demo version on 11 pages*

Training courses and webinars

Courses. Free lessons on some interesting and necessary topic for the target audience. Usually such courses consist of 3-5 lessons. Educational courses are well received by the audience: lessons can be watched at a convenient time, and you don’t have to pay for it.

For example, we recently launched a course on medical texts. In six lessons, we cover the most important things: how to structure an article about medicines or diseases, select a reliable facture, and find clients. As a bonus, the course author, Polina Zharikova, analyzes the law “On Advertising” — explains what can be written in advertising articles so as not to violate anything.

We announced the course on social networks. Any copywriter or editor who wants to improve their skills in medical topics can get unlimited access in exchange for an email.

The lead magnet has already brought the editorial team 800 email addresses, which can then be used to announce paid courses. It is too early to talk about the results, but we expect a payback of five to ten times, like the guide and Mantra

*Our Telegram subscribers warmly welcomed the course and wrote us many pleasant reviews*

Webinars. Online classes with useful and interesting information for users. For example, we held a series of six webinars for authors, editors and marketers — we told them how to create a portfolio, make cool presentations and even advertise alcohol, if really necessary. After the announcement, 600 new subscribers came to our Telegram chat, and we received relatively cheap traffic — 70 rubles each. Advertising the webinars cost us only 42 thousand rubles.