When I was a teenager, I worked at a Thorntons store (if you’re not familiar with Thorntons, they make chocolate and confectionery).

One job I was often tasked with was standing outside the store with a tray of samples. I would offer a free chocolate to passers-by and talk to them about the product.

Some people would refuse the free sample (crazy, I know). Some people would take a sample and walk away. Some people would try a sample and then ask questions about the product before going inside the store to make a purchase.

This is how I view lead magnets. They are “free samples” - an opportunity for you to give your potential customers or clients a taster of your knowledge or services.

You can create different types of lead magnets - guides, ebooks, PDFs, checklists, webinars, videos, courses, or physical products. And you can give these away completely free or in return for subscribing to your email list or even for a very small fee (or cost of postage).

Some people will ignore the freebie. Some will take the freebie and disappear. And some will go on to become paying customers or clients.

The main thing to remember when you are creating a lead magnet is that you need to create something that will actually be useful or interesting to your ideal audience.

If your lead magnet isn’t relevant to your ideal customers, you’ll attract the wrong audience (or no audience at all).

If your lead magnet is crap or doesn’t deliver what you promise, your ideal customers are either going to feel deceived or disappointed and are less likely to trust you or buy from you.

So you have to create something of value. And you have to set realistic expectations. Don’t promise an in-depth, comprehensive guide if what you’re actually giving away is a one-page checklist.

Lead magnets are commonly used to attract subscribers to email lists. You offer a freebie of some sort in return for an email address.

For example, I have a free email course - Get Copy Confident. You give me your email address, and I send a series of 14 emails to help you improve your copy and content. Occasionally, I promote my products and services in these emails, and you are also added to my email list to receive my weekly emails.

Some people host free or paid webinars, and anyone who signs up is automatically added to their email list. Or you might get added to an email list when you buy an ebook or some other digital product.

It might be that you are offered a freebie in return for subscribing to a newsletter. Once you sign up, you get a link or a PDF. Or perhaps you complete a quiz and have to input your email address to get the results.

The idea of all these things is to attract people who might want or need your products or services now or in the near future. Once you have them on your email list, you can keep in touch with them and build trust.

But you don’t always need a lead magnet to attract people to your email list. If you offer something in your emails that people can’t get without signing up, then your email itself can act as the lead magnet.

For example, with The Freelance Fairytale newsletter, I include a 10-minute task in my weekly email. Each task should take around 10 minutes and is designed to help readers make a small improvement to their marketing or business each week. You only get these tasks if you’re a subscriber, so that’s the incentive to sign up.

So you can attract subscribers with or without a lead magnet.

But whether you decide to have one or not, you need to make your emails relevant and interesting. You need to think about how you can retain subscribers. Otherwise, people will simply unsubscribe once they’ve had the freebie or read the first couple of emails.

So think about what you could offer in your emails that people won’t get anywhere else. How can you make people interested in receiving, opening, and reading emails from you?

You’ll only retain subscribers if your emails are worth reading.

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