Email Freebies Ideas To Get More Email Subscribers
Are you looking for lead magnet ideas that will help you grow your email list?
Offering your new subscribers a free gift in return for signing up to your newsletter is a guaranteed way to speed up your list growth. It’s also a win-win situation where your freebie helps your subscriber and you get more subscribers on your list.
If you have no idea what to offer your subscriber as a freebie, you’re going to love my lead magnet ideas below. Not only will you get 25 awesome freebie ideas, but I’ll also give you some examples of how you can apply these lead magnet ideas for different niches. Keep in mind that this post contains some affiliate links.
Let’s have a look!
What is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet – also called an opt-in freebie or content upgrade – is usually a digital product that you offer to your readers as an incentive to sign up to your email list.
Your freebie should be highly relevant to your reader’s interests and offer a quick fix for a problem they’re trying to solve.
What makes a good lead magnet?
The secret to a high converting lead magnet is its relevance.
Here’s an example of a highly relevant lead magnet:
You’ve got a blog post with the title “5 Reasons Your Baby Doesn’t Sleep Through The Night”. As a lead magnet you offer a free Challenge called “7 Day Baby Sleep Challenge”, in which you give lots of relevant tips that will result in babies sleeping better.
As you can see, this freebie is relevant and it would be a logical next step for your readers to sign up.
If you were to offer a free Checklist for a roadtrip with a baby, this would not be relevant and your sign ups would be a lot lower.
How To Create A Good Lead Magnet
If you’ve never made a lead magnet before you might feel stuck on how to create one.
Because you can create many different types of freebies, it will obviously depend on your freebie as to what tool you’ll use to make it.
A great tool that is suitable for creating digital or printable freebies like eBooks, checklists, printables and much more, is Canva.
Canva is a free online graphic design editor that is super easy to use and will help even the least creative person create an attractive lead magnet.
For inspiration to create a lead magnet your audience can’t ignore, read this.
For instructions + a video on how to create a lead magnet in Canva, check out this post:
How To Create Freebies For Your Blog
For other types of lead magnets you could use the following tools:
- If you want to create an audio file, you can record this with Quick Time Player on a Mac or with the Sound Recorder on your PC.
- For video files you could use Screencast-O-Matic or the Filmora Video Editor (great for narated presentations as well!) and for video calls you could use Zoom.
- For email courses you can use email marketing platforms like Mailerlite or ConvertKit.
- For interactive and stunning PDFs you can use this Easy PDF Builder or Canva.
Okay, so now you know what a lead magnet is and how you can make one, let’s have a look at some awesome lead magnet ideas that your audience will love!
25 Lead Magnet Ideas
1. Free Courses
A great lead magnet you can use for many different niches is a free course. Teach your audience something they’ve been struggling with and you are guaranteed to get sign ups.
You can create a free email course with help of your email marketing platform or if you already have paid courses, you can use your course platform to create a free course.
2. eBooks
Another super popular freebie option. Just like with a course, in a free eBook you can help your audience overcome one of their most common struggles. Don’t think you have to write a 50 page book though, short and sweet often works best.
Here’s a quick tutorial on how to put together an eBook.
3. Planners
Does your audience like to be organised? Offer them a planner that is related to your main blog topic. Some examples are:
- Business planner
- Blog planner
- Birth planner
- Trip planner
- Budget planner
- Lesson planner
Learn more about how to create a printable planner here. Then you can create printable pages to offer for free, and even sell them down the line with print on demand platforms.
4. Workbook/Worksheets
Help your audience work through a process with an editable workbook. Ask them questions that will help them get from point A to Point B.
You can also create worksheets that teachers can give to their students or kids activities sheets for moms or preschool teachers to entertain their kids.
You can easily create printable planners, eBooks or other lead magnets in Canva, but if you’re struggling to make your lead magnets look amazing, make sure to check out these stunning lead magnet templates that are editable in Canva.
5. Charts
Are your followers the type of people that use charts? Create a chart to help them organise their life. If you’re a food blogger you could create a weekly menu planning chart. If your readers are moms, you could create a chore chart for their kids. If you are a wedding blogger, you could create a wedding reception seating chart.
6. Trackers
Help your audience keep track of what they’re doing with a tracker. Great examples of popular trackers are fitness trackers and finance trackers.
See an example Ana created for her audience to help them track and brainstorm blog posts:
7. Printables
A printable can be anything that’s meant to be printed out, like pretty scrapbooking paper or patterns, stickers, quotes, posters, postcards or anything else you can think of. Printables are easy to create in Canva and besides offering them as a lead magnet you could even sell them on your blog!
Related Reading: How To Sell eBooks And Printables On Your Blog
8. Challenges
Are your readers up for a challenge? A good challenge gives your readers instructions, holds them accountable, and moves them towards a goal.
Challenges are not that hard to create and most bloggers use their email marketing platform and create an automated email sequence which delivers a new task every day.
Take for example Ana’s One Year Of Content In One Month challenge.
9. Templates
If you’re a bit creative you could create templates for your audience. It’s fairly easy to create templates in Canva with the “share as a template” function. This creates a link that you can share with your subscriber and when they click on the link it opens a copy of your design in their Canva account. How cool is that, right?
Examples of things you can create templates for are:
- Social media templates
- eBook templates
- Lead magnet templates
- Bullet journal templates
- Menu templates
- Invitation templates
- Planner templates
10. Swipe Files
Help your audience out by allowing them to copy and paste a proven formula that they can edit to make their own. Swipe files are often used for email marketing ideas, copywriting and sales page copy.
11. Calendars
Calendars might only be popular at the start of the year (or the end of the year for the early birds…) but most people do love them! This could be a great freebie for mom bloggers as you could include important dates for kids throughout the year and of course school holidays.
12. Cheatsheets
Help your audience through a process with a cheat sheet full of tips and tricks. This is a pretty easy lead magnet to make but if you tackle the right problem, you could get lots of sign ups!
13. Journals
For some blogging niches a journal might just be the perfect freebie. Journals are great for writing down ideas, feelings or goals & achievements and could work well for craft, wellbeing or coaching niches and probably a few other niches.
14. Video tutorials
Do you blog about topics that are hard to explain without showing it in person? Why not create a step by step video tutorial and walk your subscribers through the process.
You might have to invest in some quality camera equipment or if you want to share your computer screen you can use a tool like Screencast-O-Matic or the Filmora Video Editor.
15. Audio files
It’s not often that you see an audio file as an opt in freebie, but it might just be perfect for your audience. Audio file examples are a guided meditation, vocal lessons, affirmations or a motivational speech.
16. Quizzes
People love quizzes! A quiz is a fun way to interact with your readers and it might give them a solution for their dilemma.
There are lots of things you could create a quiz for like:
- What skin type are you? – Health or Beauty Blogger
- What kind of dog is best for you? – Pet Blogger
- What kind of holiday do you need right now? – Travel or Adventure Blogger
- What kind of online business should you start? – Business Blogger
You could offer the quiz for free on your blog and to get the results they need to sign up to your email list. Here’s a tutorial on How To Segment And Grow Your Email List Using Quizzes.
17. Checklist
Checklists are a great lead magnet idea, especially when your audience is learning something new. A checklist will give them reassurance that they haven’t forgotten anything and will bring up points they need to address next.
18. Colouring Pages
Colouring in pages can be a great freebie idea for mom bloggers as it can help their audience of busy moms keep their children entertained. But don’t think colouring in pages are only suitable for kids, even mindfulness coaches can create colouring in pages for adults.
19. Resource Bundle
Do you have several resources that would be perfect for your subscribers? Why not put them together and offer them as a bundle? You could combine a challenge with a journal and a checklist and have the ultimate resource for your audience. Or create a mini-resource library:
20. Patterns
Do you have a sewing or knitting blog? I’m sure your audience would love a free pattern of one of your creations! To make it even better, you could include an instructional video or “How to” Guide with tips to get the best results.
21. Style Guide
Are you an interior designer or fashion blogger? Why not create a style guide for your followers? Give them the inspiration they need to create a certain style or look.
22. Discount
If you offer a service or have an online shop you can offer a discount to your subscribers. You could give them a percentage off their next purchase with a coupon or voucher.
23. “How to” Guide
Did your blog post cover the “what” and “why” but not the “how”? Offer a step by step “How to” guide as a content upgrade and show your new subscriber exactly how to do something. This is a great lead magnet idea, because you can use it for pretty much every niche.
24. Stock Photos
Are you a photographer and your audience needs stock photos on a regular basis? Create a free bundle of stock photos that they can download after signing up to your newsletter!
25. Free Consultation/Zoom Call
Are you a consultant or coach? Offer your subscribers a one-on-one consultation or strategy call! You can easily do this online with platforms like Zoom or if you’re advertising locally you could do this in person.
More Email Marketing Tips For Bloggers
- The Best Email Marketing Providers for Bloggers and Entrepreneurs
- Why Bloggers Need An Email List
- How To Start, Manage And Grow An Email List
I hope you like these lead magnet ideas and you now have plenty of inspiration to create your own.
This is a guest post by Lisa van der Velde from Sassy Boss. Lisa helps non-tech women start a blog and grow it into a profitable business.
You can find her at sassyboss.co
These lead magnet ideas are fantastic! I love how versatile they are for different niches. Thanks for sharing such creative and practical tips!