lead-magnet

name

lead-magnet

description

Design a lead magnet — the free offer that trades real value for an email address — by picking the right problem slice, hook, and format, validating it, and drafting the asset. Use when the user says 'grow my email list', 'I need a lead magnet / freebie / opt-in', 'create a free download', 'how do I capture leads', 'nobody signs up', or when a funnel needs an entry offer before the paid ask. Produces a Lead Magnet Spec (title, hook, format, contents outline, delivery, follow-up path) plus a draft of the asset itself when the format allows.

Lead Magnet

Design and draft the free offer that turns strangers into subscribers. Governing principle: a lead magnet solves one specific problem fast, and the problem it solves must be the first step of the problem the paid offer solves — so consuming the magnet naturally creates demand for the product, instead of attracting freebie-hunters who will never buy.

When to use / when not to

• Use when building or fixing the top of an email funnel, or when list growth has stalled.
• If there's no clear positioning yet, run skills/marketing/positioning-angles first — the magnet's problem slice comes from the positioning claim.
• The landing page that sells the magnet is skills/marketing/direct-response-copy's job; the emails that deliver it and convert to paid are skills/marketing/email-sequences' job. Produce the spec + asset here, then hand off.
• If the user wants a recurring free email (not a one-time asset), that's skills/marketing/newsletter.

Intake

One batch; reuse artifacts from skills/marketing/orchestrator and skills/marketing/positioning-angles instead of re-asking:

1. What paid offer should this magnet ultimately sell, and what problem does that offer solve?
2. Who exactly is the ideal subscriber, and what's the most painful first step of that problem for them?
3. What do you already have that could be repurposed (talks, docs, spreadsheets, processes, data)?
4. Any delivery constraints — email platform, ability to host PDFs/video, willingness to maintain a tool?

Don't stall: with a known offer and audience, choose the problem slice yourself, state it as an assumption, and proceed.

Workflow

1. Pick the problem slice

Choose one narrow, urgent sub-problem of the paid offer's problem. Decision rules:

• Must be solvable in one sitting (the magnet's consumption, not a course of study).
• Must be upstream of the paid offer: solving it should surface the need the product fills ("audit reveals gaps → product fixes gaps").
• Reject slices that fully substitute for the paid offer (cannibalizes sales) and slices so broad any audience would want them (attracts the wrong list).

2. Choose the hook

Propose the 2 best-fitting hooks with example titles; the user picks one.

Hook	Move	Example title	Works because
Quick win	Immediate result	"The 5-Minute Positioning Audit"	People want results fast
Forbidden knowledge	Insider/secret frame	"The Positioning Secrets Top Agencies Don't Want You to Know"	Curiosity drives action
Shortcut	Faster path	"The 30-Day Positioning Framework (Instead of 90)"	Time-saving is valued
Social proof	Others' results	"How 500+ Founders Found Their Positioning in 30 Days"	Proof builds trust
Diagnosis	Reveal their blind spot	"The Positioning Diagnostic: Discover Your Blind Spots"	Self-awareness drives action

Decision rules: skeptical/jaded audience → social proof or diagnosis; impatient/busy audience → quick win or shortcut; sophisticated audience that's "seen everything" → diagnosis; forbidden knowledge only when there's a genuine insider angle. Social-proof hooks require real numbers — never invent them; if none exist, pick another hook.

3. Choose the format

Match format to the problem slice, not to fashion:

Format	Best for	Rule of thumb
Checklist	Process the reader already roughly knows	Consumable in minutes
Template	"Blank page" problems — they know what, not how to structure it	Fill-in-the-blanks, usable immediately
Guide/workbook	Problems needing explanation before action	5–20 pages, never more
Audit/assessment	"I don't know what's wrong" problems	Scored questions → verdict
Video course	Show-don't-tell topics	3–5 short videos
Spreadsheet/calculator	Numeric decisions	One clear output number

Decision rules: diagnosis hook → audit/assessment format; quick win → checklist or template; shortcut → template or calculator. Prefer the format the user can build from existing assets (intake Q3). When two formats tie, pick the faster-to-consume one.

4. Validate before building

All five must pass, or return to the failing step:

1. Solves exactly one problem (else → Step 1).
2. The ideal customer wants it — not just anyone (else → Step 1).
3. Deliverable immediately and automatically on signup (else → Step 3).
4. Better than the competing free offers a search would surface (else sharpen the hook or slice).
5. Consuming it makes the paid offer the obvious next step (else → Step 1).

5. Title and draft

Draft 3–5 title candidates varying the hook intensity; the user picks one. Titles must name the outcome and pass the specificity test ("The 10-Point Positioning Checklist", not "Free Marketing Guide"). Then draft the asset itself: checklists, templates, guides, and audits are drafted in full here; for video courses produce the script outline; for calculators produce the model logic and labels.

6. Hand off

Package the spec (format below) and route: landing page copy → skills/marketing/direct-response-copy; delivery + nurture emails → skills/marketing/email-sequences.

Required output format

# Lead Magnet Spec — [Title]

**Title:** [chosen] (runners-up: [2])
**Hook:** [type] — [why it fits this audience]
**Format:** [type] — [why it fits this problem]
**Problem it solves:** [one sentence]
**Paid offer it leads to:** [offer] — bridge: [why solving this creates demand for that]
**Ideal subscriber:** [who] · **Deliberately excludes:** [who it shouldn't attract]

## Contents outline
1. ...
2. ...

## Delivery
- Mechanism: [instant email / hosted page / tool link]
- Consumption time: [minutes]

## Validation record
1. One problem: PASS/FAIL — [note]  2. Ideal customer wants it: ...  3. Instant delivery: ...
4. Beats competing freebies: ...    5. Sells the next step: ...

## Handoffs
- Landing page → skills/marketing/direct-response-copy (pass this spec + positioning statement)
- Delivery & nurture emails → skills/marketing/email-sequences (pass the promise the emails must keep)

[Draft of the asset follows / is attached]

Quality bar (check before delivering)

• One problem, one audience — the "deliberately excludes" line is filled in and real.
• Consumable in one sitting (guide ≤ 20 pages; checklist/template in minutes).
• The bridge sentence to the paid offer is causal, not "and then buy our stuff".
• Title names a concrete outcome; no invented numbers or fake social proof anywhere.
• All five validation checks recorded PASS.
• Doesn't give away the paid offer's core deliverable.

Integration

• Upstream: skills/marketing/positioning-angles supplies the claim the magnet's slice derives from; skills/marketing/orchestrator routes here on conversion paths; skills/marketing/keyword-research can suggest magnet topics from high-intent clusters.
• Downstream: skills/marketing/direct-response-copy consumes the spec to write the opt-in page; skills/marketing/email-sequences consumes the promise + paid-offer bridge to build the welcome sequence. What crosses the boundary is this spec document.