6 Irresistable Lead Magnets For Growing a Profitable Email List

Your email list is your personal key to the door that leads to profit.

Sure, there are many places you can reach out to someone and make a sale — your website, a paid Facebook ad, a clever tweet —

But email is one of the most reliable digital marketing channels there is.

For that reason, growing an email list is a must for affiliate marketers. And to do that, you need to convince people to sign up.

In most cases, people aren't going to do that spontaneously. That's not to say you shouldn't have email signup bottons with a strong CTA throughout your website, because you should.

But think about it — you just discovered a website, you're reading up on something, and they ask you to subscribe to their email newsletter in an overlay popup.

Would you?

Are you really going to sign up for yet another email newsletter? How many daily or weekly newsletters are already languishing in your Promotions folder, unnoticed and unread?

But if you get something in exchange for your email address, you'll probably give it out willingly. After all, you can always unsubscribe after you get access to the gated content.

When you offer something of value on the spot, you'll end up gathering a lot more email addresses for your list. And once you have their email, you have a chance to impress them enough that they'll stay subscribed.

But what should you use for lead generation?

There are quite a few different options for this, and what works for you could depend on what kind of products you're promoting.

Here are some of the most accessible options, courtesy of Nichehacks.

1. An In-Depth eBook

eBooks are the most common email bribes used by almost every other blogger.

Offering a free eBook used to be a much more tempting incentive a couple of years ago.

But with so many free eBooks on offer, it’s harder to attract subscribers with them.

But that doesn’t mean they’re useless. In fact, when created intelligently, eBooks can still be a great way to attract subscribers.

The secret to creating a highly desirable eBook is keeping it extremely focused and actionable.

Find a topic that is either easily digestible, or is so complex that the average bloggers in your niche don’t know a thing about it.

The easiest way to find such topics is by using Quora.

It’s one of my favorite research forums where people from almost every field of life discuss different topics and brainstorm new ideas.

You can also analyze the leading blogs in your niche and find out their most popular content.

This will give you a fair idea of what you audience really wants. Use BuzzSumo to make your job easier.

You can also find some great ideas in this detailed post.

Although it primarily focuses on blogging ideas, you use the approach to generate eBook ideas as well.

A prime example of an easily digestible eBook, is Jon Morrow’s headline hacks.

He calls it a cheat sheet, but in reality it’s a detailed eBook created in an easily digestible way.

[Image Source: Nichehacks]
Notice how Jon has narrowed the scope of his eBook to just the headlines.

This is the kind of immediate value which gets people interested in a freebie.

Neil Patel’s QuickSprout is, again, another great example to follow.

[Image Source: Nichehacks]
Basic Requirements

A high quality eBook which focuses on just one topic, created in MS Word, Apple Pages or Open Office Writer and converted into PDF (you can do online conversion here).

You can get your eBook cover designed for as low as $5 on Fiverr.

2. Eye Opening Checklists

If you’re like me, you hate reading 100 page eBooks and ultimate guides on your laptop or smartphone. And there might be thousands of your potential subscribers who feel the same way.

A great substitute to writing long and boring eBooks, is to create an eye-opening checklist.

Checklists are meant to highlight the most critical elements of your niche and are tempting email list incentives since they give subscribers a lot of actionable value in very little time.

They help the subscribers find flaws in their strategy by listing down the essential elements they need for success.

A great example of an effective checklist is the “Managing Content Marketing – Checklist” by Smart Insights.

[Image Source: Nichehacks]
Other great examples to follow are Neil Patel’s Ultimate Content Marketing Checklist or the Technical SEO Checklist by WordTracker.

You can create something like that for your niche, convert it into PDF and use it to attract subscribers.

Basic Requirements

In terms of technical requirements, you don’t any specific tools other than the ones I mentioned for creating eBooks.

3. To the Point Cheat Sheets

If you want to create a freebie that gives tons of knowledge and value to your subscribers in a very short time, try creating a cheat sheet.

Cheat sheets are like energy filled capsules that outline the key niche information, eye opening data insights and highly actionable shortcuts to success.

Cheat sheets attract lots of subscribers because they deliver game changing knowledge, while saving hours of valuable time.

For example, this set of cheat sheets will be an instant hit with corporate employees.

Similarly, Belinda uses cheat sheets on her copy writing blog to attract subscribers.

[Image Source: Nichehacks]
Your cheat sheet doesn’t even have to be very good looking either.

It just needs to give your subscribers the value they’re looking for.

Just look at this simple, but very effective, cheat sheet Jon Morrow uses on his niche blog GuestBlogging.com

[Image Source: Nichehacks]
Your cheat sheet can also be a quick and useful resource like this comparison chart of different eCommerce platforms.

It gives the readers a clear idea of the pros and cons of all the services compared.

In short, your cheat sheet should provide immediate value to the reader without taking too much of their time.

Basic Requirements

Technically, cheat sheets are eBooks, so you don’t need anything other than a word processor like MS Word to create them.

If you want to add flowcharts and diagrams to your cheat sheet, you can use online tools like Gliffy.

Alternatively, you can use default cheat sheet templates available on Cheatography.

4. The Dependable Blueprint

If you want to help your subscribers achieve a very specific objective and or want them to progress towards a certain milestone, create a well-crafted and highly actionable blueprint for them.

A blueprint is essentially a guideline of how your subscribers can reach a certain goal.

It covers a broader strategy and breaks it down into actionable points.

Depending on the length of the subject your blueprint is covering, it can be anything between 5 to 50 pages.

Usually blueprints are effective if you’re sharing something that you’ve already done yourself and want to teach your subscribers how to replicate your success.

The Definitive Blueprint for Lead Management by HubSpot, and the Content Marketing Blueprint are great examples of how an effective blueprint looks like.

Another good example is the “Step by Step Guide to Starting a Blog” by Matt Banner

[Image Source: Nichehacks]
Basic Requirement

Like several other incentives on this list, blueprints are also in eBook form so you only need a word processor to create the content, and PDF conversion service to create the final document.

5. The Call to Arms Manifesto

Sometimes the best way to attract people to your list is by inspiring them with what you stand for and what you believe in.

A loud and clear announcement of your values can often help in attracting like-minded people to your blog and developing a community around it.

This is where manifestos are so useful. By definition, “a manifesto is a published verbal declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government”

A blog manifesto is just that – a bold and clear statement of your intentions with your blog, what you wish to achieve through it, and what values you stand for.

LeavingWorkBehind, by Tom Ewer, was one of the first manifestos I saw when I started blogging.

And I still see it as a great example to follow.

[Image Source: Nichehacks]
Jeff Goins also has a writer’s manifesto aimed at breathing life back into depressed and failing writers.

[Image Source: Nichehacks]
Basic Requirements

You need to identify certain core values for your blog and your strategy needs to be consistent to those values.

There’s no harm in taking the unconventional or controversial route either.

Other than that, MS Word or Google Docs should be enough to help you create a manifesto.

6. Exclusive Gated Content

Don’t have the time to create a lead magnet but still want to build your email list?

Content gating is just the thing you need.

Instead of giving away all of your content for free, you can block or gate certain sections of your articles that users can access by entering their email address.

MarketingProfs is a good example

[Image Source: Nichehacks]
Needless to say, your content needs to be really good to generate enough interest in your readers to enter their email address.

Basic Requirement

There are several WordPress plugins you can use to create gated content on your site.