5 Keys To Scale Growth with Lead Magnets

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Growth In Reverse

Episode: 5 Keys To Scale Growth with Lead Magnets
Hosts: Chenell Basilio & Dylan Redekop
Date: February 25, 2026

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Overview

In this jam-packed and practical episode, Chenell and Dylan take a deep dive into one of the most essential—and sometimes misunderstood—newsletter growth strategies: the lead magnet. Together, they revisit what makes an exceptional lead magnet, discuss types that are working right now, share real-world creator examples, and lay out tactical advice (and warnings!) for anyone looking to rapidly grow their email list. While previous episodes referenced lead magnets in passing, this discussion is the first time they devote an entire show to the topic—making it a must-listen for newsletter operators at any level.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

What Is a Lead Magnet? (00:34-02:02)

• Definition:
  A lead magnet is a free resource given away in exchange for an email address—part of a value exchange that builds your list while offering real help.
• Clarification:
  You don’t pay with money; you pay with your email.
  “If I want a free resource from a newsletter creator, no, I have to pay with my email address.”
  — Chenell, (00:50)

Do Lead Magnets Still Work? (03:02-04:39)

• Yes!
  Both hosts agree the strategy is far from dead and, in fact, is seeing a resurgence as the effectiveness of “subscribe to my newsletter” wanes.
• Trojan Horse Effect:
  Lead magnets serve as a strategic, value-first way to earn attention and entry into a prospect’s inbox.
• Modern Use Cases:
  Tactics like “comment-to-get” on social platforms are thriving, underscoring the continued power and adaptability of lead magnets.

The 3 Core Types of Lead Magnets (04:39-07:17)

1. Single Gated Content
   (e.g. a single newsletter issue or article behind an opt-in)
2. Bundled/Repurposed Content
   (e.g. grouping several podcast episodes or blog posts by topic)
3. Custom Standalone Resource
   (e.g. quizzes, PDFs, templates, cheatsheets)

• Key Insight:
  Even existing valuable content can become an effective lead magnet if strategically gated.
  “If you write insanely valuable content, you can leverage that as a lead magnet.” — Chenell, (06:16)

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What Makes a Great Lead Magnet?

(The 5 Essential Keys)

1. Insanely Valuable—Would You Pay for It? (08:12-09:28)

• Bar for Success:
  “Would I pay for this thing? Would somebody pay for this? And I’m just gonna give it…for free.” — Dylan (08:12)
• Why Give it Free?
  Free, high-value lead magnets get shared, boost credibility, and drive viral growth.
  “You can't even put a dollar amount on that. That’s just like building up your credibility.” — Dylan (09:04)

2. Quick Win for the Subscriber (10:27-11:58)

• Immediate Value:
  Ideally, subscribers should see a tangible, fast result after accessing the lead magnet.
• Examples:
  Templates that are easy to implement, simple checklists, or clear “do this now” actions.
  “Is it clear when I download this lead magnet, like what I’m going to get out of it quickly?” — Chenell (10:27)

3. Easily Consumable Format (11:59-13:32)

• Accessible & Flexible:
  Short, digestible, but not always “short”—can be long if it’s well-structured and available in multiple formats (PDF, audio, etc.)
• Pro Tip:
  Give options: e.g. audiobooks for long docs, transcripts for videos.
  “If it's a video, give them like a transcript version that they can maybe skim…” — Chenell (13:03)

4. Solves a Painful or Common Problem (13:32-15:06)

• Problem-First Design:
  Don’t start with the tool, start with your audience’s real pain points.
  “Usually painkillers work better than vitamins, but...you could use kind of a vitamin in this situation, as well.” — Chenell (13:32)

5. Engaging & Interactive (15:18-17:06)

• Beyond Boring PDFs:
  Add links, visuals, interactive elements, or tools that encourage users to actually use the resource.
• Warning:
  A weak or irrelevant lead magnet can actually harm your reputation.
  “You can do…more harm than good if you are gating content that should not be gated.” — Chenell (17:06)
• Pro Tip:
  Only put your best (or most relevant) content behind an opt-in wall.

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Lead Magnet Types Working NOW (19:04-33:47)

Quizzes (19:04-19:49)

• Example: Millie Tomato’s Generalist Quiz
  Well-designed, psychology-backed quizzes get shared and drive highly-targeted opt-ins.
  “If you can do a quiz well...that could probably be the only lead magnet you need to create.” — Dylan (19:34)
• Viral Potential:
  When people share their “outcome,” it creates a growth flywheel.

"Comment-to-Get" Strategy (21:59-25:43)

• How it works:
  Users comment a keyword to receive a DM with the lead magnet (using Manychat, etc.).
• Platforms:
  LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube.
• Benefits:
  Drives post engagement, boosts algorithm reach, and increases direct interactions.
• Limitations:
  Don’t overuse—it can fatigue your audience.
  “Use it sparingly. But it does work if you have something that's super good.” — Dylan (22:04)
• Technical Note:
  Automations can remember email once given; ensure your flows check for past opt-ins.

AI Tools & Custom GPTs (25:43-28:00)

• Examples:
  Custom GPTs or AI prompt libraries solving pointed problems (e.g. Dylan’s “Hook Helper” for LinkedIn post hooks).
• Caveats:
  Effective only if the tool truly solves a pain point, not just for being “on trend.”

Swipe Files (28:00-29:18)

• What:
  Curated collections of the best performing assets (emails, subject lines, landing pages, etc.).
• Highlight:
  “Swipe files are so helpful. Swipe files are like a marketer’s dream.” — Dylan (28:41)

Databases (29:18-31:24)

• What:
  Lists of tools, VCs, sponsors, service providers, or other curated datasets.
• Further Use:
  Can expand from free lead magnet to paid product.

Pop-up Newsletters (30:39-33:10)

• Definition:
  Time-bound, specialized newsletters structured as a sequence or “mini course.”
  Example: Dylan’s “30 Days of Growth” netted 4,300+ opt-ins.
• Tactic:
  Content preview is public; full resource is gated behind email.

Classic Formats

• Checklists, guides, PDFs:
  Still effective if they solve a real pain point and/or offer a unique perspective.

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Pitfalls and Warnings

• Don't Gate Everything:
  Only gate resources with clear, substantial value.
  • “You can do more harm than good if you are gating content that should not be gated.” — Chenell (17:06)
• Don’t Just Copy—Tailor to YOUR Audience:
  The best lead magnets emerge from an understanding of immediate audience problems.
• Poor Quality Backfires:
  “If...they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, I downloaded that thing and it was really bad.’ Like, that’s not good. Like, you are going to do more damage to your reputation than you want.” — Dylan (18:14)

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Notable Quotes

• On Value:
  “My bar for a standout lead magnet...is, would I pay for this thing? Would somebody pay for this? And I’m just gonna give it to them for free.” — Dylan (08:12)

• On Gating Content:
  “You can do more harm than good if you are gating content that should not be gated.” — Chenell (17:06)

• On Quiz Lead Magnets:
  “If you can do a quiz well and not like a buzzfeed type quiz where there’s no valuable outcome from it, that could probably be the only lead magnet you need to create.” — Dylan (19:34)

• On Starting with Problems:
  “Don’t go into creating a lead magnet being like...I want to build a quiz. Actually, what are you solving? And then back into the format from there.” — Dylan (14:10)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |----------------------------|-------------| | What is a Lead Magnet? | 00:34-02:02 | | Do Lead Magnets Still Work?| 03:02-04:39 | | Lead Magnet Types | 04:39-07:17 | | What Makes a Great Lead Magnet (Value) | 08:12-09:28 | | Quick Wins | 10:27-11:58 | | Format & Length | 11:59-13:32 | | Problem-Solving | 13:32-15:06 | | Interactive/Engaging | 15:18-17:06 | | Quiz Lead Magnets | 19:04-19:49 | | Comment-to-Get Strategy | 21:59-25:43 | | AI Tools/Custom GPT | 25:43-28:00 | | Swipe Files | 28:00-29:18 | | Databases | 29:18-31:24 | | Pop-up Newsletters | 30:39-33:10 | | Promotion Pitfall & Next Episode Tease | 33:47-end |

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Final Advice & Takeaways

• Start Now:
  “If you’ve never created a lead magnet, I would just give it a shot. It’s a good forcing function to get you to think about a very specific problem that you can solve for a very specific person and then promote that thing.” — Dylan (36:22)
• Iterate & Improve:
  Your first lead magnet might not be perfect, but the process builds value and clarity for you and your audience.
• Don’t Forget Existing Subscribers:
  “Send the thing to your email subscribers first. That is like my number one tip.” — Dylan (34:13)

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What’s Next?

Stay tuned for Part 2, where Chenell and Dylan will break down how to promote lead magnets, including building growth loops and maximizing results.

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Meta Moment:
There is even a lead magnet for this very episode—full “growth-in-reverse” logic at play.

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Transcript

[Chanel]

You can do more harm than good if you are gating content that should not be gated.

[Dylan]

My bar for a standout lead magnet, like an insanely valuable lead magnet is

[Chanel]

he writes a really high value newsletter edition and then that is his lead magnet.

[Dylan]

You can't even put a dollar amount on. That's just like building up your credibility. It's the whole goal of this. This isn't just like give away a free thing and walk away from it.

[Chanel]

Just kind of like not super compelling.

[Dylan]

The main thing people miss is that is like my number one tip.

[Chanel]

Foreign.

[Dylan]

Let's talk about lead magnet.

[Chanel]

I'm stoked to talk about lead magnets.

[Dylan]

A magnet for leads.

[Chanel]

A magnet for leads. But what is a lead magnet? Chanel?

[Dylan]

It's a magnet for leads. It gets you leads, emails via a magnet.

[Chanel]

Do you have to pay for lead magnets?

[Dylan]

So good. I mean, magnets aren't free, so probably, but no, not in this regard.

[Chanel]

Okay, okay. If I want to lead, if I want a magnet for my fridge, yes. If I want a free resource from a newsletter creator, no, I have to pay with my email address.

[Dylan]

There you go.

[Chanel]

If you haven't figured it out already, we are going to talk today about lead magnets. We've been running this podcast for over a year now, and it kind of dawned on us that we have never really done a sort of in depth episode on lead magnets. We've talked about different creators and successful growth stories that have included lead magnets and we've even interviewed people about them, but we've never actually had like a dedicated show about it. So we thought this would be a great chance to, to dive into the world of lead magnets. Kind of give you guys a rundown of things we've seen that have been working really well. Some key things to include when you're creating your lead magnet, all that kind of stuff.

[Dylan]

Let's do it.

[Chanel]

Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay, so we talked about what a league magnet is right off the hop. So it's a, it's a free, like to really dumb it down, it's a free resource that you give away in exchange for somebody's email address. Right? There's a value exchange. There's. They're trusting you with their, with their email address and you are sending them a free resource. And so obviously people will do this because they want to build their email list, they'll build their newsletters. Right? So this is one way to go and do that.

[Dylan]

There's so many different versions of it too. Like, some. Some lead magnets are really easily consumable. Some of them are like quizzes that you wouldn't think are lead magnet. And so it's like the. The gamut runs wide with this one. So I think that it's gonna be a good but long episode.

[Chanel]

A good but long episode. Yes. Buckle up, buckle up. And we may just have a free resource for you to get in the show notes of this episode. You might have to enter your email address, though it might be a lead magnet. So we're going full meta, totally lead magnet.

[Dylan]

We are.

[Chanel]

Yeah.

[Dylan]

Yep. Growth. The reverse.com lead magnet. And you get it.

[Chanel]

You got it. Okay. So diving into lead magnets, I think one of the things that you and I have been in the space for pretty heavily in the last three to four years. Right. So we've seen people say lead magnets don't work. Say they do work. Swear by them, swear against them. So what is. What is kind of your case for lead magnet? Like, actually, let's start with this. Do lead magnets still work?

[Dylan]

A hundred percent. And I think there was a time, I don't know, two years ago that everyone was poo pooing on lead magnets because they're like, well, your content should just be valuable enough and whatever. And I've probably said this too, but I think there is a point at which people just want something quick. They want their problem solved fast for the specific thing. And a lead magnet is a great way to help someone solve a problem like that. And then they're now in your ecosystem and they can keep learning from you and consuming your other content. So I think lead magnets definitely still work. I think they're having a resurgence right now. And even if you don't think something is a lead magnet, you've probably seen these daily and you're just not realizing it.

[Chanel]

Yep. Yeah. The comment to get, we'll get into the different strategies, but like, if Somebody's posting on LinkedIn saying, I've built this thing, comment, keyword to get it, that is very much a league maintenance strategy.

[Dylan]

So same on Instagram too.

[Chanel]

Yes. With manychat and all that stuff, automation's built in. Yeah. There's. It's all over. It's on YouTube. It's everywhere. So, yeah, it's. They still work. And I'd say in some ways it worked better than ever. Because I think the allure of subscribe, like, subscribe to my newsletter. It doesn't have the pull it once did. Right. With the proliferation of Newsletters all over the place. You need to. You almost need this kind of Trojan horse strategy of the league maintenance. The Trojan horse. You're getting into people's inboxes and actually you're subscribing to their newsletter, and this is kind of your way in. So I kind of feel if your league man is, you know, very aligned to your newsletter content and actually going to help people in the same way that your newsletter will, then a lead magnet is still a very good strategy for people to get people on your email list.

[Dylan]

Yeah, and I think there's a couple of different buckets of lead magnets, so there is. Well, you can have your newsletter as a lead magnet. So for instance, I spend 40 hours writing a deep dive on someone. I could hypothetically say, hey, if you want to get this thing, instead of just go to the link to read it, enter your email, and I'll DM it to you or whatever. And that is one version of. Of it. I think the other version is, like, you can package up content that you've already created. Maybe it's a topic that you've talked about. So we had Sam vanderweilen on the podcast recently, and she was talking about how she would group together, you know, three episodes from her podcast about a specific topic, and then she would say, hey, comment the word mango or whatever and get the three. So they might have been about email marketing, or maybe they're about a specific legal strategy she's talking about. And that's a very, you know, it's a concise, bucketed way to like, give someone your content that's already created. You're just repurposing it. And then I think there's the typical lead magnet, which is like, let me go create a quiz or a PDF or a cheat sheet or something for this specific problem. And so I think those. And correct me if I'm wrong, maybe there's another one I'm not thinking of, but those are the three that I think of, like, piece of content that you're putting behind email, opt in gate, a bucket of content, essentially, and then dedicated resource.

[Chanel]

Are you saying those are, like, the three main types of lead magnets?

[Dylan]

I would say they're the three types of content you could give away as a lead magnet.

[Chanel]

I see.

[Dylan]

Okay. Yeah. So the resource one would be all encompassing. That's, like, the most common one, I think. But there are those other two that you can technically turn into a lead magnet for sure.

[Chanel]

Yeah. You can take your existing content. I mean, Matt McGarry spoke about this on our podcast recently too. He writes a really high value newsletter edition, and then that is his lead magnet. Right. So if you write insanely valuable content, you can leverage that as a lead magnet. So it just really depends on what you're comfortable gating and what you're. What you're comfortable, I guess, asking for and the work you plan to put into it. Because I have seen so many really weak lead magnets that are just like, get my three step guide to blah, blah, blah. And it's just kind of like not super compelling. So I think that's, for me, that's the big thing is like, would I, as I'm creating this, I'm like, would I actually find this compelling and a resource I need to get that I'd be willing to give my email address for? So I think that's something that when we're creating our lead magnets, we really have to keep in the forefront. I was gonna say in the back of our minds, but really should be on the forefront. Like, but I actually want this, or am I just kind of creating this thing that I'm just creating for the sake of, you know, promoting and hoping some people will, will, will bite on it?

[Dylan]

Yeah. So should we walk through, like, what makes a good lead magnet?

[Chanel]

Let's do it. Yes. Hey, Dylan, here. You know what sucks?

[Dylan (advertisement voice)]

When your newsletter plateaus and growth completely stalls out. It happened to me last year. But instead of panicking or worrying, I hopped into Chanel's Growth Vault. The Growth Vault has over 30 tactics and lessons on getting more subscribers and

[Chanel]

keeping them subscribed and engaged. I pulled out a few new strategies and implemented them that very day.

[Dylan (advertisement voice)]

The best part is the strategies are super tactical and. And they even come with video walkthroughs from Chanel. Oh, and the Growth Vault is constantly growing. Whenever Chanel finds a new proven strategy,

[Chanel]

she adds it and you get instant access.

[Dylan (advertisement voice)]

And for a limited time, the Growth Vault even includes Chanel's subscriber onboarding course, 10 lessons, and a few extra tips and tricks to make sure the subscribers you work so hard to get actually stick around. Check it all out in the growth [e-mail] vault.

[Dylan]

My. My bar is like, well, not always, but my bar for a standout lead magnet, like an insanely valuable lead magnet is, would I pay for this thing? Would somebody pay for this? And I'm just gonna give it to them for free. So instead of trying to, like, create a resource, charge $9 for it, why not just give it away? For free. And, like, if it's that good, people are probably gonna share it. You're gonna get more marketing push behind it because other people are referring others to this resource. And so I think that if you can create something that people would actually pay for and give it away for free, like, that's going to be a killer lead magnet.

[Chanel]

I 100 agree. And I think a lot of people would argue that, like, the money you will make from a $9 resource probably pales in comparison to the value you could get from just something that goes sort of viral as a free resource that gets shared and spread. I think totally.

[Dylan]

And if somebody was like, hey, did you see Dylan made this cool thing? Like, of course they're. Now you. You're associated with, like making great stuff. And that is. That by itself is. You can't even put a dollar amount on that. That's just like building up your credibility. People are learning about you and you never know who other people are sharing that with. So I think it's just a huge credibility booster if you can do it. Right.

[Chanel]

Yeah. The other thing that that's made me think of is reciprocity. Right. Because you're giving away something for free. It's the whole kind of like, give, give, give, give, give. You're not asking people for money. And then when it comes time to charge for something or sell something or have a, even even ask a favor from your audience because you've, you know, given so much value at no charge. I mean, the cost of their email address, which in this case should be essentially a value for them. Right. You're only wanting my. You only want my email address for. For all this great information. So I think when you, when you do that enough and then you do make the ask for what, whatever that favor is or whatever that purchase is, it's just people are that much more willing to at least consider it, if not purchase it or take you up on the offer.

[Dylan]

Yeah. So I think as we go through this, just remember that is like, number one, must have value in this thing. Like, insanely valuable is the. Probably the basis of making all this work. But yeah, I think we can move on to the next one. What's the next point of making a good lead magnet?

[Chanel]

We talked about valuable content, obviously, but a quick win. So for me, it's like, is it clear when I download this lead magnet, like, what I'm going to get out of it quickly? Like, is there. Is there a win that I'm going to get? Or if that isn't clear, up front, I think the lead magnet should have a really quick win built right in. So what do I mean by that? So maybe it is a. We did the 30 days of growth last year and so many of those strategies were really quick wins. Like just add this email to your email sequence. Like the 4 hour email as an example, Kieran Drew, who just adds a picture of him smiling at the end. Like, these are really simple things that you can add to your, your newsletter, your email, whatever, that are really quick wins. So that's kind of what I'm thinking. It's not like, hey, here's a how to build your queue to LinkedIn strategy. Like it that, to me that's good, that's helpful, but it's not like a really quick win that you can get. So I guess my point is the whole league, man, it doesn't need to be a quick win, but you have to have something where people are going to like see some progress in action and be able to take action right away.

[Dylan]

I agree with that. I think speed to implementation is a big piece of this too. It's like, what can you get people immediately that's going to give them like a boost or win, like you said.

[Chanel]

So even if it's like, you know, optimize your LinkedIn bio, for example, change your. Or here's like an example of five different, you know, LinkedIn bios that are crushing it and it's like, oh, I can easily tweak mine to make that change. Just like stuff that people can do really quickly, that's, that's going to be when I think is important.

[Dylan]

Yeah, I like that.

[Chanel]

So number two, something that's easily consumable. And there's a few cases, there's some outlier cases where the lead magnet has not been quote, unquote, easily consumable, meaning it's like more in depth. But I think for the most part we want things that are pretty quick to consume and learn from. Would you agree?

[Dylan]

Yeah, totally, I think. And, and even if it's not easily consumable doesn't mean it's short and like not, you know, this long drawn out thing. But I also think if you can give someone like, for example, we have the Ollie Richards example of the Google Doc that was like 120 or so pages long, which is like his full background story of like building a $10 million education business. I think that by itself, like you could look at that and be like, that's not easily consumable. But, but some people like to read. He also Gives you the audiobook if you reply to his first email, so you can easily consume it via audio. And so he's giving you multiple formats, which I think is super smart, especially if it's a longer piece of content like that.

[Chanel]

Yeah, I think giving people the option to listen to something is, is brilliant or a different way for them to consume it. If it's a video, give them like a transcript version that they can maybe skim and then they see a part of the video that they need more detail on. They can go to that timestamp, for example. So I think being easy, easily consumed is important. And thanks for clarifying that. Cause that is, there are different meanings to that. Easily consumable doesn't mean necessarily that it's super short.

[Dylan]

Although usually a lead magnet is pretty short, but sometimes they're not. So there's always an outlier.

[Chanel]

I was going to start rattling off different types of lead magnets that are easily consumable, but we're going to get to that. We are going to get to that. We're going to talk about different types of lead magnets, so please don't bounce being like, hey, you skipped that part. So, third point. I think we kind of touched on this in the beginning, but your leanmate needs to solve a painful or common problem with your audience, in my opinion at least. Usually painkillers work better than vitamins, but it can be, you could use, you know, kind of a vitamin in this situation as well. It doesn't always have to be like a really painful issue that you solve. However, I think you will get the best results if there's a common or very painful problem that you're solving for people.

[Dylan]

I think this is probably the first thing you should think about, is like, first, who am I creating this for? Like, who, who needs this thing? And also like, what problem am I solving? I think those are the two that should be like the most important. Don't go into creating a lead magnet being like, well, I want to build a GPT or I want to build a quiz. It's like, well, actually what are you solving? And then back into the format from there and that will be more valuable for the person consuming it.

[Chanel]

Yeah. And that's a great shadow because I've found myself being like, oh, I can make a custom GPT for stuff. What should I build? Or same with a quiz. Right? Like we've, we've talked ad nauseam about Millie Tomato's quiz and, and how successful it's been for her. And I'm like, what kind of quiz could I build? But it's like, no, wait, let's, let's think of the problems our audience is having and then find the right solution for it. So instead of, you know, starting with the software, which obviously is not a smart way to do it, or the tool that you're going to solve it with, you should really start at the root.

[Dylan]

And sometimes like, don't get me wrong, sometimes you're thinking about something and like you have this brilliant IDE idea because you started with the idea of a format. However, most of the time it's best if you start with like who's this actually for? What's problem am I solving?

[Chanel]

Yes. And then there's different paths you can go down or ways you can solve it. Yeah, tools you can use. So that kind of brings me to the last point here about things that make a good lead magnet. And for me this is maybe more of a personal opinion, but I feel a lead magnet should be somewhat interactive and engaging. Right. So what I mean by that is sometimes a PDF is all you need and that is, that is a great lead magnet. However, I feel as though in this day and age we need to be often a little bit more maybe interactive and engaging than that. And maybe interactive means instead of just a blank PDF, there's link outs to different resources or tools or something that you can do with it that's a little bit more beyond just reading a document. So whether again we'll get into different types of lead mints you can create. But I just feel like something that's, that people can leverage in more ways than just, I don't know, again, reading a blank sort of boring PDF if you can, if you could stimulate me more, I'm much more likely to go through it and be a fan of yours for providing me with this valuable resource that I actually started and finished and used.

[Dylan]

Yeah, I mean we don't set out to create these things so that they live on someone's desktop on their computer forever.

[Chanel]

Right.

[Dylan]

So like you want someone to actually use this thing, go through it and at the end be like, wow, Chanel was really great with that. I should look into more of her stuff. Right? That's the whole goal of this. This isn't just like give away a free thing that's kind of crappy and walk, like, just walk away from it. It's like you want people to keep using it, get some value out of it and then be done with it. So I think interacting and engaging, like having images or like even in a PDF having, like, the sections be hyperlinked so that it goes to that specific page. Like, something simple like that is just keep them moving through this document or this resource that you've created.

[Chanel]

Yeah, I think if you're making a PDF, make it like an optimized PDF in any way you can. Right? Like, make it. Make it good and not just a bunch of written text. So I think there's a. Something valuable that we kind of alluded to but haven't said outright, and that is that a bad lead magnet can cast a whole kind of negative vibe around you, your. Your newsletter and everything. Right. So you can do. Actually, in my opinion, you can do more harm than good if you are gating content that should not be gated. And yeah, that goes for everything from a lead magnet to paid content to gated free content. So just. Just be thoughtful around that. Like, hey, are people going to actually be a little bit annoyed that I'm making them give me their email address for this resource? That maybe isn't worth it. So I think we should also consider that. And like you said at the beginning, if you think about creating an insanely valuable piece of content that people are like, I can't believe you're giving this way and not charging for it, then you're going to avoid that. But don't get into the trap of, like, everyone's creating lead magnets. I need to create a lead magnet and just whip something up in a day and throw it out there.

[Dylan]

Yeah. And as we were talking about people sharing these things because they're so valuable. Like, on the flip side, if they're not good and someone's like, hey, have you heard of Chanel? And they're like, oh, yeah, I downloaded that thing and it was really bad. Like, that's not good. Like, you are going to do more damage to your.

[Chanel]

Your.

[Dylan]

To your reputation than. Than you want. So, yeah, don't just create a lead magnet because you hear this podcast and you're like, I need a freebie. No, like, do find something that's valuable for people and, and create something once you have that.

[Chanel]

Yep. Okay, so let's talk about what they should create. Now let's get into the. The meat of it. So I wrote down in our. In our notes here what kinds of lead magnets are working. And then specifically kind of right now, because we could. We've, you know, we've beat to death the PDF and those can. I think there's still a time and a place for them, but for the most part, like, what Are we seeing things that are working now?

[Dylan]

I think one of the ones we kind of already alluded to was the quiz, right. Millie's quiz. It's called Generalistquiz.com she has built this quiz with an organizational psychologist. It's super valuable and actually helpful for people to see themselves in one of the outcomes of the quiz. And so she's able to stand behind that fully. And like, people share the outcome that they get from the quiz because they're like, this is me. Like, I can see myself in this and you, like, are giving me words and language to use. And so they're sharing it. 100%.

[Chanel]

Flywheel.

[Dylan]

Right, the flywheel. So I think if you can do a quiz well and not like a buzzfeed type quiz where there's no valuable outcome from it, I think that, that, that could be like a huge. That could probably be the only lead magnet you need to create. To be honest with you, that's all

[Chanel]

she needed to create, right?

[Dylan]

Yeah, exactly. We've seen Tori Dunlap do the same thing. At this point, over a million people have downloaded her quiz, which is just bonkers and crazy. And then when you partner this with like TikTok or Instagram short form video right now, that is crushing it.

[Chanel]

Yep.

[Dylan]

That is like one of the things I'm seeing where.

[Chanel]

Hey, Dylan here. You know what sucks?

[Dylan (advertisement voice)]

When your newsletter plateaus and growth completely stalls out.

[Chanel]

It happened to me last year, but

[Dylan (advertisement voice)]

instead of panicking or worrying, I hopped into Chanel's Growth Vault. The Growth Vault has over 30 tactics and lessons on getting more subscribers and

[Chanel]

keeping them subscribed and engaged. I pulled out a few new strategies and implemented them that very day.

[Dylan (advertisement voice)]

The best part is these strategies are super tactical and they even come with video walkthroughs from Chanel. Oh, and the Growth Vault is constantly growing. Whenever Chanel finds a new proven strategy,

[Chanel]

she adds it and you get instant access.

[Dylan (advertisement voice)]

And for a limited time, the Growth Vault even includes Chanel's subscriber onboarding course, 10 lessons and a few extra tips and tricks to make sure the subscribers you work so hard to get actually stick around. Check it all out in the Growth Vault at growth in reverse.com vault really

[Chanel]

well, yeah, lots of people are. Are they're finding a lot of success with that. That kind of leads us into sort of that next strategy of the. The comment to get strategy. I think to. For lack of a better term, whether it's on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, these platforms where traditionally you haven't really seen people promoting lead magnets. They have, but not in this way. Right? Reply certain word and I'll send it to you. I think Twitter was probably the first place I ever saw this happen where people were kind of using it and then they were. They would manually, you know, reply or DM everybody that. That would reply. Until, you know, different apps like Tweet Hunter or whatever. Um, it was called Taplio. Maybe they created this, like automation. Tweet Hunter. Yeah, they created automation where you could auto reply to people, which was helpful. The point is that when you, when you tease a lead magnet in a. In a post or in a video, the whole strategy is, you know, comment certain word and then. And then get the resource. I'll send you the resource. And there's some benefits, some huge benefits to that.

[Dylan]

I mean, it starts building that post up and in terms of, like, the algorithm seeing a bunch of engagement on that post. And so it just creates more people seeing it. And it's like this little flywheel of, you know, more people see it, more people comment, more people subscribe to your email. And so it's. It's really beneficial, but it's one of those things that I wouldn't do too often. Can really burn out your audience if they're seeing you put this, one of these up like a couple times a week or, or more than that. So use it sparingly. But it does work if you have something that's super good.

[Chanel]

Yeah. I think Sam Vanderlin was telling us that she did it with pretty much every podcast episode. So her strategy was more along lines of correct me if I'm wrong, Chanel, but was more along lines of getting more people to see the posts, because I believe she just sent. For a while, she was just sending people the link to the podcast episode that the short, you know, short form video was referencing or that was clipped from. So she would just send that in a dm. However, she eventually was like, well, wait, no, we should probably get their email addresses somehow. So I think for a while it was just like, okay, how can we get more people engaging with this post? And that was one way to do it. And then it got to the point where it was like, okay, no, I'm going to actually get them to comment, and then I will DM them a link in exchange for. For their email address. And again, that, personally, I would think that probably would get some wear out after doing that for a while. If every time you posted something, people had to comment and then go to a link and then enter their email address. You can set up many chat automations that kind of avoid that if they've already done that for you. But that could. I, I could see that getting a little bit tiresome from an audience perspective.

[Dylan]

Yeah, I think the one cool thing with manychat is like once somebody enters their email address, it kind of saves that, as long as you keep that person's profile in the manychat account so they don't have to enter it every time and they'll be able to just get the free things, you know, each time.

[Chanel]

And you have to actually create that in the automation, the mini chat automation, to check to see if this person has given you their email address, because otherwise if you don't and you have to ask that, it will do that. So you have to have that, you have to have a. If this, then that kind of thing set up. But we're getting a little bit too in the weeds.

[Dylan]

Too far in the weeds.

[Chanel]

Yeah, yeah. Either way, it's. It works. Again. Meyer, who we've had in the Growth Reverse Pro community, he came and gave us like this really awesome automation he uses that he uses with clients that have done, I think over six figures through Instagram automations, he set up for them with Instagram to manychat, to Kit or their other. Whatever ESP they're using. He's just absolutely crushing it with a strategy for himself and for his clients too. So it is a strategy that does still work, but again, you might need to, like we've mentioned, use it somewhat sparingly. Doesn't have, maybe shouldn't be every single post that you do exactly what. Oh, sorry. I'll just tack on one more thing with the competing strategy. And I've. I have heard anecdotally that if you do this, say on LinkedIn and then you send people a DM, just having that conversation with them in the DMS, the next time you post, there's a more likelihood or a better chance that they will see you in their algorithm. I've tried to actually verify that this is true, that the algorithm does favor that, and I haven't found any actual verification that that is the case. Just a lot of people suspect that that is the case. So take that with what you. With what you will. But if you are getting people, if you're DMing people, there's a. There seems to be a stronger chance that they will see your content in the LinkedIn algorithm in the feed and therefore engage with it that much more. So some other benefits to DMing all right.

[Dylan]

So moving from the comment to get type stuff, I think one of the other ones that we're seeing nowadays because AI is so prevalent with everything is a custom GPT or prompts or anything like that. So I think you can build out a custom GPT that solves a specific problem that's super helpful. Like example, when we did the LinkedIn challenge in the pro community, I let people come in from the outside. I actually built one of these and it was called the Hook Helper.

[Chanel]

Oh yeah.

[Dylan]

Because the biggest problem I was seeing with people not having success on LinkedIn was that their hooks were not great. And if people don't see a good hook, they're going to scroll away and you've just lost everything. So the Hook Helper, essentially, it wasn't perfect. However, people are still telling me they use it to this day and essentially they put in. You can put in your entire post and it will come back with five options of. Here are some ideas for better hooks for this post. And it's just a reminder, like simply using that thing was just a reminder that, like, oh yeah, I should probably have a number in this first sentence or some more like enticing way to say this versus I spent this much time doing this thing. Or like, it's just, I think the, the hooks are so critical for your posts and that was really helpful for people. So. So yeah, that was like a little bonus that I gave away in that challenge.

[Chanel]

Yeah, that was a good example of a painkiller type of solution. Right. People like, really struggling, they needed help and maybe they couldn't afford to hire a proper copywriter, conversion copywriter. So your Hook Helper was a simpler solution for it. So I think that was a good one. Okay, so custom GPTs, AI prompts. Yes. A lot of people do these. Do do these. And a lot of people don't do AI prompts. Great. But there are ways to. There's a few people who are doing AI prompts really well and not just like trying to whip one up in, in a day or in less than a day, in 20 minutes, and try to sell it as a lead magnet or use it as lead magnet. So I think these done well can be super, super helpful. A few others that people are probably more familiar with that I think we should still touch on swipe files. So I saw another GIRO Pro member, Daniel Bustamante, he just released his like mega swipe file for lead magnets. It was very meta, but he just sent that out in an email yesterday or the day before. So it was like kind of his top 10 performing league magnets and the LinkedIn posts he used to promote them and all this stuff. Right. So it was a super valuable swipe file. Again, super meta for this episode. But those types of things, whether it's like a copy swipe file, a subject line swipe file, a email, like, design, styling, swipe file, those things can be really valuable. And all it takes is some, I think, taste, making some curation from your end to be able to actually pull these things together and know what actually is good. And then you can, you can tease that and share that with your audience as well. And people will give you their. Their email addresses to get the access to that.

[Dylan]

Totally. Swipe files are so helpful. And it's like, I am sitting on a bunch of these and I probably should do some stuff with them that I haven't. Like, every time I see a good welcome email, I'm like, I label it in Gmail. I have this whole thing. I should probably do something with that. But yeah, I mean, swipe files are. They're like a marketer's dream, right? It's just like, oh, I need to create a sales page or I need to create a landing page or anything. It's like, well, let me go check my swipe file. And there you go. So they're very valuable. Even though from the outset it looks like you're just curating a bunch of stuff, which is exactly what you're doing. But you're saving people so much time putting these examples together.

[Chanel]

Yep, absolutely. And take it for whatever. I think you agree to swipe file for any sort of niche or industry that you're in, there's. There's something of value to be there. So that's one that can be widely used and most of these can. That we're talking about. But from. Some people might think, oh, I just have to do like, marketing stuff with swipe files. No, it could be like thumbnails, like thumbnails that are crushing it on YouTube, for example. Again, I guess that's kind of marketing, but you get the point, right? Like, it can be reciprocated in many different ways. Databases is another interesting one. If you have access to, or you've taken the time to. This is kind of like a swipe file, but maybe a little bit different to conglomerate a bunch of different tools or professionals or like, all these different things that you can do. I've seen people do databases of, like, the best newsletters in certain niches and that sort of thing.

[Dylan]

Even like yeah, like, you know, VCs that are raising money or spending money or whatever the heck it is. I'm not in that space, so I'm not very good with that. But if someone, if like a venture capitalist is, you know, trying to find somebody to invest in, like hey, these are the VCs that are actually spending money right now. Like that's, that's a huge, huge, valuable win for, you know, a startup looking to actually raise money. And so if you can put together a long list of something like that, I think that'll do well.

[Chanel]

I mean some of this stuff, if, if there's, if it's the right, it's the right amount of information, people would even be willing to pay for it. Because I think of things like in the newsletter space we talk about advertising a lot and sponsorships. So you've got like, who sponsors stuff with their email intelligence platform where they're actually charging people. They'll give you a taste of it as a free, probably a little bit of a lead magnet as well. A free database of like, oh, all of these different companies have been advertising in newsletters. Sponsor Gap does the same thing. They, they send out an annual or a weekly report of different newsletter, different brands that are sponsoring newsletters. But if you want to get say the contact information for those brands, that's when you have to actually pony up and pay some money. So databases can be good lead magnets in that way to kind of even tease your paid product.

[Dylan]

Then the last one I just added to this was the pop up newsletters. You kind of mentioned 30 days of growth that I did last year, getting ready to do it again, which is fun. Ayo. Essentially for 30 days I put out a daily newsletter and it's a pop up. So it was, you know, there's a specific start, a specific end and there was like a reason to sign up. So you got 30 ways to grow or optimize your newsletter and. Or most of them were you could implement pretty quickly. And that itself was technically a lead magnet. Like it's free, you don't have to pay for it. That it's a very intense one. But it also yielded intense results. I think we ended up with like, actually I looked this morning, it was like 4,300 subscribers from that.

[Chanel]

Which is just crazy and counting, I suppose, right? Probably true. Every day. Yeah. Yeah.

[Dylan]

So because now I have this thing that I can give away as an actual lead magnet of like you could still go sign up for it and you get the email sequence.

[Chanel]

So yeah, if you're if you were not familiar with it, go to 30daysofgrowth co I believe.

[Dylan]

Yep, exactly.

[Chanel]

And you can check it out. It's also on Chanel's main website as well. You can see what we're talking about. And I think that is a great example. The other nice thing with it is every time you promoted one of those days of the pop up newsletter, people could see it and they could see what you're talking about and then they'd be driven to the page. But you gated it, which you don't do with your regular content, like your deep dives and stuff. You keep those open to the public to read and share freely. So people technically don't even have to necessarily sign up to read Deep Dives. But for this particular one, you could see the introduction and the title, sort of what it was about. But then if you actually wanted to read the tip, you had to. It was gated, so you had to enter your email address, which I thought was really smart.

[Dylan]

Yeah. I'm not usually a big fan of gating content, but for this purpose it was like I spent countless hours putting this together and I think it was worth it. So I never got a single person saying they were upset by that.

[Chanel]

They can go. They can pound. Man, you can go pound sand if you're upset about that. Okay. Those are the main types of lead magnets that we've been thinking about. Of course there are other types. We have not. This is not an exhaustive list, but

[Dylan]

what we've seen working well right now.

[Chanel]

Yeah. And we could probably be here forever if we wanted to go through like check. We didn't even go over like check checklists. Right. Like that kind of thing can work too.

[Dylan]

Or even just a PDF or like. Yeah, right, anything.

[Chanel]

Yeah. A three step guide, as I kind of joked about earlier, but the ultimate guide. Yeah. So that stuff can also work. But I think we could go a few different directions here. But I think an important thing is like promoting lead magnets because some people are kind of like among the mind of like, if I build it, they will come. Which is pretty much never the case. So if you are creating a lead magnet, how would you go about promoting it and like getting it in front of people?

[Dylan]

Well, now that we're like already 30 something minutes in, this might end up being a two part episode. And so I think if you want to learn how to actually get these in front of people, I think we should probably put this as a second part. So go listen to part two when that comes out because this is, it's going to be a whole thing in itself. Like it's a whole nother strategy to promote these. Do it well, make sure you actually like build in growth loops with these things. So I think how do you promote the lead magnet? I think the main thing people miss is send the thing to your email subscribers first. That is like my number one tip because most people create these new things and then they just promote them to get new subscribers and they never give it to their actual email list. When in reality, if you think about it, those are your raving fans already, like your email subscribers are. So if you can send an email and be like, hey, I spent time making this thing for you, here it is for free. You're already on the list. You get this thing for free. And then you can say, hey, I just started promoting this on LinkedIn, would love some, you know, engagement or support over there. And so you're, you're taking your, your raving fans and you're moving them over to social media to help support you with this free thing you just gave them. So like you were talking about with reciprocity, like you gave them this thing and now you're asking them to just say thanks on a social post. So I think that's the one thing

[Chanel]

people miss, which they're. And they're much more likely to do because you gave it to them for free. So I a hundred percent agree. I think that's a great idea and that's a good reminder that I need to do that more as well is to share the free thing I, I created with them. So I really like that and I think that's a great number one tip. Do we want to, do we want to address anything more in this, I guess part one of our league magnet series now that we're creating which, which is, which is really cool because we do have a bunch of some of the most successful league magnets that you've covered in deep dives on this list of notes here, some non deep dive examples that we could cover. But again, I think we should save that for, for another episode. So any other points that you wanted to, to cover here?

[Dylan]

I don't think so. I think if you've never created a lead magnet, I would just give it a shot. I think it's a good forcing function to get you to think about a very specific problem that you can solve for a very specific person and then promote that thing. And so I think it's a good exercise even if it doesn't add hundreds or thousands of subscribers to your email list.

[Chanel]

Yep, I agree. And you'll only get better at them as you go too. You'll figure out how to promote them better. What people actually like, what people engage with. It forces you to create usually at least a new email sequence, maybe an automation. So it kind of actually it's like almost like a mini launch of a newsletter. Cause you have to do all these different steps. And I'm not saying that to overwhelm anyone. I'm just saying it's like it's good practice to get into kind of the nuts and bolts of how to kind of run a mini almost like a mini campaign and making sure people may be segmented. So there's a lot of different things that that can be done with a lead magnet if you want to do it properly. But maybe we'll get into that as well in the other episode. Sweet. I think we should also mention one last time that we have a lead magnet for this lead magnet episode because we are fully meta like that.

[Dylan]

Awesome. This is great.

[Chanel]

Is that the pod?

[Dylan]

That's the pod.

[Chanel]

Hey, Dylan, here. You know what sucks?

[Dylan (advertisement voice)]

When your newsletter plateaus and growth completely stalls out. It happened to me last year. But instead of panicking or worrying, I hopped into Chanel's Growth Vault. The Growth Vault has over 30 tactics and lessons on getting more subscribers and

[Chanel]

keeping them subscribed and engaged. I pulled out a few new strategies and implemented them that very day.

[Dylan (advertisement voice)]

The best part is the strategies are super tactical and they even come with video walkthroughs from Chanel. Oh, and the Growth Vault is constantly growing. Whenever Chanel finds a new proven strategy,

[Chanel]

she adds it and you get instant access.

[Dylan (advertisement voice)]

And for a limited time, the Growth Vault even includes Chanel's subscriber onboarding course, 10 lessons, and a few extra tips and tricks to make sure the subscribers you work so hard to get actually stick around. Check it all out in the growth [e-mail] vault.