Lead magnet. Irresistible free offer. Opt-in. Freebie.
There are lots of different ways to say it, but a lead magnet is a key component of any coaching business’ lead generation strategy. If you’re just starting out, or even if you’ve been at it awhile, it can be confusing to know which lead magnet ideas are most effective for coaches, so let’s break it down together!
What Is a Lead Magnet?
A lead magnet is a free resource that you can share with potential email list subscribers in exchange for their email addresses. Strong lead magnets solve an ideal client’s problem and do it in a bite-sized fashion.
A strong lead magnet should be easily consumable and can vary in formats, from pre-recorded to live video, PDFs, or audio downloads, and more. Your lead magnet is often one of the first steps that someone will take with you on their journey to becoming a client.
That means it’s super important that it attracts the ideal client of your paid offers.
Why Should Coaches Use Lead Magnets?
Lead magnets are an effective way to attract new leads on to your email list. Having an (engaged) email list means that you have impact and income opportunities at your fingertips! Lead magnets are mutually beneficial for both your business and your subscribers.
Lead magnets provide a way for people who may be new to you to:
- Get to know and understand what kind of value you deliver as a coach
- Understand your coaching style
- Receive value in a low-barrier way before they make any kind of financial commitment or investment
They provide a way for you as a coach to:
- Attract aligned potential ideal clients
- Build a list of subscribers that have shown interest in what you do
- Provide free value for people that may not be able to afford your services just yet
- Begin a relationship you can nurture through email marketing
The Best & Most Effective Lead Magnet Ideas For Coaches
There are lots of different types of lead magnets you can create to attract your ideal clients. Here are just a few of the best and most effective lead magnet ideas for coaches.
1. Checklist
Checklists are great to walk someone through a process or framework in a simple, step-by-step way. They can help your ideal clients implement a particular idea or project, while also supporting them in understanding any gaps that may be in their own process or outside support that may be needed.
Checklists are fairly simple for a coach to create, easy for the subscriber to consume, and most importantly can help your ideal client take actionable steps on something that can support them. You get to decide how simple or complex you want your checklist to be, or if you want to include supplemental resources like a video training, or mini-trainings of each step.
Imagine how much value someone would get out of that!
2. Quiz
Quizzes are one of the most engaging kinds of lead magnets. Seriously, who doesn’t love taking a quiz?
Quizzes are an effective way to not only create some thought provoking insights for the quiz-taker (i.e. your potential ideal clients), but also to provide you with some amazing market research! Quizzes can be positioned as a quiz, assessment, or diagnostic tool.
3. Video Training
Video is one of the most effective marketing and educational tools out there. And they can be fun to make!
Video trainings should be no longer than 20 minutes for content you’re going super deep on, and can be as short as 3-7 minutes for more concise topics or trainings. You can even consider doing a series of videos broken down into small bites so the content is easy to consume and process.
4. Case Study
Case studies are a way to highlight the transformation you’ve helped one of your clients receive or a result you’ve helped them achieve. It can support the viewer in seeing what is possible for them, give them insight into your coaching framework, and overcome objections.
You can even do a series of case studies that highlight the diversity of your client base, each addressing a different niche that your client may be in, a different challenge or objection they overcame, or a different aspect of your coaching framework.
It’s super important when creating any videos that you also provide captions both in the interest of accessibility, as well as, ease of consumption for all types of viewers. In addition to being lead magnets, case studies can perform double duty by being positioned on your website or landing pages.
5. eBook
eBooks are a great way to position your expertise and authority by providing a deeper knowledge on a particular topic or theme. When considering an eBook as your lead magnet idea for coaches, you want to consider your audience.
Is your audience full of people that have the willingness to read through an eBook, or would they prefer video, audio, or another format? Similar to checklists, pre-recorded video trainings or the audio version of an eBook can be a great supplemental resource to include with your eBook lead magnet to help provide even more value!
6: Live Event
Live events like webinars, masterclasses, workshops, challenges, boot-camps or immersions are one of the most popular lead magnets. Not only will your registrants get a real taste of your energy and your coaching style by getting to see you live, but you also get the benefit of dialing in to who your hottest leads are – the people who signed up and then showed up.
Live events typically range from short 30 minute trainings to longer full day immersions. They are a great lead magnet that you can repurpose over and over again to attract more leads, refining your presentation every time you host it.
After you’ve run a live event, you can also flip it evergreen as a pre-recorded training!
7. Audio Recording
Audio recordings are perfect for meditations or visioning exercises. They are also super convenient as people can listen to them pretty much whenever and wherever they are at!
Make sure to record your audio clearly and perform any necessary editing, if required. You can even do a bundle of audios to help support an ideal client in several ways around the same theme.
How To Choose the Best Lead Magnets For Coaches
A great exercise in choosing your lead magnet idea for coaches is to create while keeping the end in mind. Think about the ideal client for your highest ticket offer and then consider both where they’re at now and where they want to be.
What is a bite-sized problem that you can help that person solve where they’re at now and that will take them one step closer to where they want to be? Once you’ve got that idea in mind, choose the format you are going to deliver it in.
When choosing the format you always want to keep your ideal audience at the forefront of your mind. Are your ideal clients working moms who would benefit from being able to listen to an audio on-the-go?
Are they business owners who enjoy networking opportunities like live events? Or would something like a simple checklist or quiz help bring them some awareness or insight around a process or gap in their life or business?
How Many Lead Magnets Should a Coach Have?
A coach should always have at least one strong lead magnet. When you’re starting out though, you may want to test a variation of lead magnets until you find which one attracts the most ideal clients.
To assess the success of your lead magnet, you’ll want to measure how many people who opt-in to your lead magnet eventually take additional steps toward working with you, whether that’s a low ticket offer or a high ticket one.
What To Do Once Someone Opts Into Your Lead Magnet for Coaches
Once someone opts into your lead magnet, you’re going to want to send an email to deliver it to them. It’s super important to test all parts of your lead magnet for coaches funnel to ensure everything is functioning as it should.
The last thing you want is someone’s first experience of you to leave a less than stellar impression. From initial delivery, you can continue the relationship with a welcome email sequence.
This helps to further introduce your new subscriber to you, the work you do, why you do it, and other ways they can stay connected. Another fun thing to do in your welcome sequence (I recommend doing this in the first email), is to survey them.
You can invite them to share what excited them about signing up for your lead magnet, what their biggest challenges are, or what type of content they would benefit from receiving.
How To Use Your Lead Magnet Ideas for Coaches To Get Clients
Once someone has received the delivery of their lead magnet, and gone through your welcome email sequence (should you decide to set one up), the most important next step is to nurture them by continuing to provide value, build trust, and position the benefit of the work that you do.
The purpose of using a lead magnet to build your email list is so that your list becomes a way for you to create both impact and revenue for your business. But… I’ve seen it over and over again – coaches who have huge email lists but super low engagement. This means when it comes time for you to leverage that list to create more clients, you’re at a disadvantage.
I typically find this when the coach is either:
- Doing lead generation activities that are not calling forward their ideal client (i.e. they’ve now got a list of NOT ideal clients)
- Not providing enough value in their emails.
- Sharing content that does not interest the people on their list.
- Emailing too little or too much.
- Unaware of, or not implementing, best email marketing practices, and thus experiencing email deliverability issues.
Let’s do a quick breakdown of each of these issues together.
1. Doing Lead Generation Activities That Are Not Calling Forward Your Ideal Client
If you’re a health and wellness coach, you wouldn’t perform lead generation activities like hosting a business webinar. Just like if you’re a business coach, you wouldn’t develop a nutrition calculator.
Now, these are pretty extreme examples, but they do display the importance of aligning your lead magnet ideas to your ideal client – coaches. This is why, as I recommended in one of our earlier sections, to start with the end in mind.
First, get very clear on who your actual ideal client is. What are their current pain points and challenges? What are their deepest desires? What’s stopping them from alleviating their pain and experiencing the transformation they want?
And then get super clear on what is the unique process you take them through to bring them from where they are now, to where they want to be. Base your lead magnet and lead generation activities on this information, honing in on your messaging, and calling forward the ideal clients for your list.
2. Not Providing Enough Value Emails
Sending a bunch of emails that are a constant pitch, whether that’s a free pitch or a paid pitch, isn’t going to build trust or a relationship with your audience. The person that joins your list today may not be ready to invest in you right away.
So you get to take them on a journey. And that journey gets to bring them value every step of the way.
Stuck wondering what type of value you can provide?
Think about the questions you get asked most often. What are the things your ideal clients love to pick your brain about?
Research other competitors in your niche. What kinds of things are they talking about and can that bring inspiration to what kind of value you can share?
Perform Google and Amazon searches to discover what things your ideal client is seeking answers on. Then, write about those things!
Whether or not someone is ready to take the next step with you right now, they should be gaining value out of what you share regardless.
3. Sharing Content That Does Not Interest People On Their List
If you are sharing content that does not interest the people on your list, well they’re probably gonna get tired of opening your emails to find something else they’re not interested in. This is where the survey I mentioned further up in the blog comes in handy and the tips I shared in number 2 above.
Your lead’s time is just as valuable as yours so make sure you are sharing content that they actually want to hear about!
4. Emailing Too Little or Too Much
Now this is a tough one. You could Google “What is the optimum frequency on which to email my list” and come up with a lot of different answers.
One thing is for certain, you don’t want to have people opt-in to your lead magnet and never hear from you again (or only hear from you when you’re ready to sell them on something). More importantly, than frequency is consistency.
So you’ll want to take into consideration your own bandwidth for creating content and decide upon a consistent frequency that works for you. Start there and then build on it, also considering unique ways you can share things with your list that don’t require you to write a lot of email copy.
Things like inspirational quotes, live videos you’ve created, or your blog.
5. Email Deliverability Issues
It’s important in creating an engaged email list that you are following best email marketing practices that take into account legal considerations as well as industry-accepted recommendations. NEVER email people who have unsubscribed or asked to be removed from your list.
Don’t use bait-and-switch subject lines that undermine your authority or integrity. Pay attention to anti-spam recommendations in your email marketing software.
Taking the time to consider each of these 5 steps above will help you in leveraging the resources you expended in your lead acquisition (getting people onto your email list using your lead magnet idea for coaches) into paying clients.
Use the lead magnet ideas for coaches listed above to start growing your coaching business and to get clients in your niche and target audience TODAY!
In closing, lead magnets are crucial to building an email list of your ideal clients. Crafting a successful lead magnet can take some time and effort, some testing, and some shifting.
But once you’ve honed in on the perfect lead magnet, it can be a game-changer in your business. Couple a strong lead magnet with nurturing your email list in a strategic and thoughtful way, and you will build one of the greatest assets, if not the greatest asset, to your business and serve you for years to come – an engaged email list of ideal clients!
