What a lead magnet is, and how to make one people actually want

A lead magnet is something useful you give away in exchange for a way to contact someone. That's it. The name makes it sound like a tactic, and really it's just a fair trade.

Why most of them fail

Because they're too big. A forty page ebook is a gift nobody has time for, and the person who downloads it feels vaguely guilty rather than helped.

The ones that work are small enough to use in ten minutes and specific enough to solve one real problem. Small and sharp beats big and general every time.

Make it the thing you already have

The best one is usually something you already use in your work. The checklist you run before a client call. The template you paste every week. The list of questions you ask at the start of a project.

It took you years to build and it takes you an afternoon to tidy up, which is the best ratio you'll find anywhere in marketing.

Make it obviously connected to what you sell

If you sell website design, a guide about productivity gets you a list of people who like productivity guides. Useless. The magnet should attract exactly the person who'd hire you, and the way you do that is by solving the small version of the problem you get paid for.

The small version proves you can do the big version.

Name it after the result, not the format

"The checklist I run before every client call so nothing gets missed" beats "Free PDF guide". Nobody wants a PDF. They want the outcome.

Put it where people already are

The magnet doesn't work sitting on your website. It works when you mention it at the end of a post about that exact problem, so the person reading is already thinking about it.

Kadenza handles the middle bit, so when somebody asks for it they get it right away and you end up with a real lead rather than a pile of comments you have to work through by hand.

Then actually use the list

A list you never contact is a list that forgets you. Send something occasionally that's worth opening. That's the whole follow-up strategy for most small businesses, and it's enough.