How I Broke The Lead Magnet Rules (And Grew My Email List By 237%)

Your cheap lead magnet is ruining your reputation. Do this instead

I was desperate to grow.

So I accepted every free offer of help. But after downloading 25 free ebooks. I was shocked by the dire quality of most lead magnets. Any amateur creator with access to Canva can create a book mockup, a nice front cover and 6 pages of text. And offer it with a clever alliteration title:

Become a niche ninja
Use my lead formula to land clients

But if you’re serious about making money. This is a massive mistake. It’ll ruin your reputation and rob you of future success. I’m going to show you how I created a high-converting lead magnet. And retained most of my new subscribers.

But first let’s get clear on the problem.

Why is this a problem?

Let’s be kind and assume your lead magnet works.

The graphic and title are irresistible. Loads sign up for it. You feel pleased with your 50,000 downloads. But before you pop the champagne. What’s your criteria for success? What is the goal of your lead magnet? (And it isn’t getting email addresses).

The purpose of a lead magnet is:

Impress my target audience with free content so they want to buy my products.

Aim to build your reputation and establish credibility. Get your signups to think:

Why is this free? It’s better than some stuff I’ve paid for. I can’t wait to see what else they offer.

Create a high-quality lead magnet to achieve this.

What happens to most email sign-ups

When designing a lead magnet think ahead.

If it’s poor quality and ‘feels free’. Guess what happens next? Lots of unsubscribes. People don’t open your future emails. They’ve seen the sort of value you offer and don’t want it.

It’s crazy to imagine people will give you the benefit of the doubt:

It was only a crappy freebie what did I expect? If I get their paid stuff that’ll be super valuable.

But what sort of lead magnet establishes authority? How can you position your business as the one to solvetheir problems?

Glad you asked.

A high-value irresistible lead magnet

I created a lead magnet. And the results stunned me.

I had a weekly newsletter with 300 subscribers and thought a lead magnet would help it grow. Within 10 weeks I gained 721 subscribers with a conversion rate of 60.7% on my landing page.

That’s a staggering 240% increase. Note 711 is a net gain (I’ll say more about unsubscribes and retention later).

My lead magnet is an email course called Long-Form Mastery. Sending 5 emails gives me 5 opportunities to make my mark. A downloaded ebook is quickly forgotten. Customer feedback shows LFM is rated highly.

Let me show you why it worked.

Higher volume of content

LFM delivers 5 x 1000-word emails over 5 days. This is 5x the content of the typical lead magnet. But it doesn’t feel overwhelming because it’s delivered in digestible chunks.

Make your lead magnet feel substantial to wow your customers.

Proven content

I’ve written 160 articles on this platform.

That’s 160 pieces of content I’ve tested with my target audience. LFM features 5 of my best pieces (as judged by readers). The course was easy to create because the content had already been created.

Don’t dump random content in your lead magnet. Use social media to test it first. You get one chance to impress. Make it count.

A course beats a download

A course raises the perceived value of your lead magnet.

Compare the prices of ebooks to courses and you can see customers place a premium on courses. Giving away a course takes advantage of this premium perception. The content may be similar. But changing the format elevates the value.

I’m going to reveal why my landing page was so effective (60% conversion rate). But first, let’s look at retention.

Why a course has high retention figures

The biggest challenge with lead magnets is retention.

People can’t resist signing up for something free. But unsubscribe once they’ve got it. A lead magnet that gets a ton of signups and retains them is the holy grail of marketing.

Let me show you LFM’s impressive results (then I’ll give away my secrets on how I achieved them!).

Here’s the stats for the 5 course emails. Only 14 people unsubscribed during the course. This is incredibly low given 788 started it.

It makes sense people wouldn’t unsubscribe because they want the whole course. But what happens after that? So many get a freebie then unsubscribe. This means people see no future value from you. Remember the goal is to build authority so people want to keep receiving my content. Retention rate is the indicator of this.

Let’s dive into the LFM retention stats.

The above screenshot shows 788 people started the course. As you can see from the screenshot below only 60 have unsubscribed.

That’s an astonishing retention rate of 92%.

This is not surprising given I had tested the content. But an email course gives newsletters a critical retention advantage. Think about the experience of those who subscribe. The course gets them in the habit of receiving emails from me. So if they liked these they’ll be happy to receive more. I’ve deliberately designed my weekly newsletter to match the style of my course. So it feels natural to keep receiving it.

When you download a pdf and then receive a different style newsletter it jars. It feels like a con. You haven’t signed up for this. The newsletter needs to be very strong to overcome these internal objections.

Craft your lead magnet as an email course. This makes the transition smooth and hardly noticeable. This is crucial if you want to keep people reading your stuff.

But how do we maximise the number of sign-ups? For that, we need a landing page that breaks the rules.

An irresistible landing page — my 4 tactics.

I’ve read advice for selling low-price (or free) items. Your landing page should be short and simple. This is why lead magnet landing pages are bare with a few lines of text, a graphic and a sign-up box.

Mine was nothing like this.

1. Treat your free product like a paid product

Expectations shape our experience. In The Expectation Effect, David Ronbson gives proof of this:

beer tastes nicer with a better name
drugs’ side effects are higher when we know about them
gym equipment gives greater fitness gains when we expect it to

We get what we expect. it’s vital marketers use this insight.

When your landing page says:

this is low quality
it delivers little
it feels cheap

Then people expect your product to have minimal impact. And when they expect this that will shape their experience. Alex Hormozi suggests raising prices of paid products, to raise customer expectations. Because higher expectations causes people to enjoy your product more. It sounds odd. But all the scientific research backs this up.

2. Promise outcomes

Features not benefits is a mistake experienced marketers don’t make.

Yet with free giveways, it’s easy to lower the bar. And not promise outcomes and explain what the product will deliver.

I wanted to strengthen the power of my landing page. So I included the results I’d achieved with this writing system. Show people what can be achieved with your product.

3. Make it tangible

You’ll see that I transformed my 5 emails into a 5 step-writing system. Make a digital product sound like a physical product. This is an easy way to increase their value.

A 5-step system positions this as a well-designed process for customers. Rather than a random collection of ideas thrown together.

4. Use social proof

Testimonials are the most powerful weapon in the marketer’s arsenal. Yet with lead magnets, most landing pages don’t bother to use them.

I sent an email asking for testimonials (I use Senja for this). I add the bonus of a short ebook. The content is from a high-performing article. I add the testimonials to the landing page:

Use my recipe for lead magnet success

If you want a lead magnet that delivers a ridiculous number of new signups and retains 90% of them. Steal my success secrets:

Design a high-quality product
Offer an email course rather than an ebook download
Deliver a lot of valuable content that you’ve tested
Craft a strong landing page with an emphasis on outcomes and plenty of social proof

Treat your lead magnet as a paid product.

Give it the same care and attention. Use proven content that offers real value. Giveaway something that delivers powerful results. Create a robust landing page full of social proof. With a clear outcome on offer.

Do this and you’ll gain a bucketload of new sign-ups. And more importantly, you’ll establish your authority. And have your subscribers on tenterhooks waiting for your paid offer.

Because that was the goal of your lead magnet wasn’t it?

If you want the writing system I used to grow to 5000 followers and earn $800/month. Join 794 writers and get it for free here: