What kind of lead magnets worked well for increasing the subscriber count of your newsletter?
In the second half of the year, I wanted to use some kind of lead magnet that I sent to people in exchange for their email address.
My questions are for observing purposes:
What type of lead magnet did you use to grow your newsletter?
Where did you promote the lead magnet? (social media, landing page, format, paid promotion?)
How many signups did it get you?
Replies
I did a standard PDF lead magnet. It's got a ton of valuable content, but honestly I think people are so numb to those these days and you need something more creative.
It can work, but even with good content and great landing page copy, it's tough to make it a meaningful lead generator.
I got MANY more leads when blasting the PDF lead magnet out in cold email campaigns. I did NOT include it in the outbound email. I just asked if people would be interested in a text-only email, and got like 2.8% reply rates, and 20% positive reply rates, which is excellent. Then I would just respond to them via email with a link to the PDF.
I also posted it all over social media, not much traction.
@emikes919 That's the thing. When we have access to ChatGPT, is pretty easy to find information. So that's why I am asking for some idea of something "attractive". Because AI makes lead magnets less effective.
@busmark_w_nika yeah it's hard! I'm looking for creative solutions to. Something else that worked really well for me was free video pitch deck reviews. They are high personalization and high effort, so not scalable, but they work. They were so successful as a lead magnet that now I'm turning them into a paid service
I've seen two effective “lead magnets”🙂:
1. Templates / Widgets :
Provides a “framework” that users can fill in the blanks or use directly, saving a lot of time. Examples: “Weekly Cell Phone Time Planning Template”, “Folder Categorization Template (Notion/Excel Version)”.
Result: If the templates are of high quality and relevant to your content, users will find them worthwhile.
2. Email course:
Split a big topic into several emails and send them every day or every other day to provide continuous value and cultivate users' habit of opening your emails. For example, a “5-Day Minimalist Email Course”.
Effect: You can gradually build trust and make users look forward to your next email.
@partick_support That Excel sheet sounds really good to me, but I’m not sure what to offer. :D Maybe top companies that are willing to promote your business almost for free, you know? I would like to somehow provide something that helps people with their business. LOL.
This is an interesting thread and timely for me, as I have given this some thought lately.
While I cannot answer your questions, and thus can't help you with your observations, I'd like to share some thoughts (and maybe invigorate some discussion). My plan (which I haven't implemented yet) for the ultimate lead magnet:
Give value first, for free. For me, that would be for example a library of B2B SaaS metrics with SQL queries you could use to analyze your product usage data with (e.g. "here's how you calculate Weekly Active Users from your RudderStack data"). This is to build trust and also authority.
Give even more value, this time for action. Builds on the free offer above, in my case that would be e.g. "Want to build actionable B2B SaaS dashboards using Looker Studio/Apache Superset - for free! Just sign up for my newsletter...". Here's the actual lead magnet.
Build problem & solution awareness. The previous steps kind of did this already, but now I would build problem & solution awareness in my newsletter, gently :) "Tired of maintaining those dashboards, why not try my product that does X and Y."
As for promoting the lead magnet, I would use social media posts and comments whenever appropriate. Maybe in selected communities if the occasion arises naturally.
To summarize: I would use a lead magnet that a) filters my ICP, b) builds trust and authority, c) gives real value, and d) identifies the gap that my product can fulfill (build solution awareness).
@arvoantoni
I can imagine that I offer some resources (for saving time or making money) to marketers. However, I need to make it in a way that AI can't handle it so quickly. (Which is almost impossible.) – I need to get something on top.
For your second point, would it make sense to create a "private" 6-video-long course for marketers?
Maybe offer 30% discount for my sponsorships or product (that I do not have right now). :D
@arvoantoni That is quite a good idea! :D Maybe I could merge marketing and AI prompts! :D :) Regarding video course – I need to reconsider it because it can be quite more time-demanding than some text-based thing :)
Hi Nika,
Thanks for sharing your questions! In my experience, offering a concise, actionable checklist or a simple downloadable guide related to the newsletter’s core topic works really well as a lead magnet. For example, a “Top 10 Tips” PDF or a quick-start guide that delivers immediate value encourages signups.
I promoted the lead magnet primarily through Twitter and LinkedIn posts, often accompanied by a short video or carousel explaining the benefits. Embedding the signup form directly on a dedicated landing page with clear CTAs also helped. I experimented with small-scale paid ads on Facebook and Instagram, which boosted visibility but organic reach from relevant communities yielded better conversion rates.
Overall, a well-targeted lead magnet combined with consistent promotion helped increase my newsletter subscribers by around 20-30% over a couple of months. Looking forward to hearing what works best for you!
For my newsletter, I created a “Minimalist Phone Makeover Checklist” (think: step-by-step guide to decluttering your phone and organizing apps into calming folders). It was short, actionable, and visually neat—no fluff, just instant results. People don’t want a 70-page ebook on minimalism; they want a to-do list that makes them feel accomplished in 10 minutes!