Lead magnet ideas for coaches: tips and examples

As a personal coach, your success depends on how many people follow you and want to listen to you. So, the question, “How to increase the number of followers and subscribers?” never loses its relevance. And, often, the answer to it is 

Create useful free things — lead magnets. People love those. 

Though not all lead magnets are created equal: their efficiency depends on your audience’s preferences and your strengths. To help you out, we’ve gathered top lead magnet ideas for coaches and practical advice on lead magnet design and execution. 

What is a good lead magnet for coaches? 

A lead magnet is a double-edged sword. 

If your magnet is of high quality, it will bring loyal followers.

If the quality of your “useful free thing” is bad, people who’ve checked it will avoid you or, worse, spread the word about its quality. 

Moreso, not only is the substance of the lead magnet important, its shape plays a major role as well. You need to know which format will work best with your lead magnet’s content and your target audience. Is it a case study, a roadmap, a video course, etc? 

So, what is a good lead magnet for coaches? 

Well, a good lead magnet is a useful free content that

1. Targets your audience’s needs and problems;
2. Is of high-quality (no typos, good prose, professional design);
3. Is presented in a form that caters to your target audience’s tastes. 

As follows, if you need an effective lead magnet for coaches, do target audience research. If you know your TA’s problems and the best way to present the solution, you’re good to go.

Now, let’s take a look at top lead magnet examples and ideas for coaches.

Top Lead Magnet Ideas for Coaches 

No matter whether you coach writers, editors, entrepreneurs, artists, or people from different walks of life, the following lead magnet ideas will help you grow your audience. 

eBook Lead Magnet

An eBook is a very time-consuming and “expensive” lead magnet. 

But, it has the benefit that absolutely dwarfs the disadvantage. A book feels like a LOT to be free. 

When you have the chance to get an eBook that promises to solve some of your problems in exchange for an email address, it’s a real gift. An author spent time and money writing, editing, and designing the book and now offers it to you in exchange for your attention. It’s difficult to refuse such an offer. 

eBooks are also great for targeting a narrow niche. For example, there aren’t many books on Food Truck Business, Home Edit Challenges, or ECG Pocket Guides. So the ones that exist feel even more precious. 

And later, you can publish the book online and earn money from it. (You can also use this fact to create a sense of urgency, ie “Download this book for free while you can!”). 

Besides, for coaches, an eBook is an ideal format to showcase their expertise and experience in great detail. If people read and enjoy your eBook, they will be much more likely to listen to what you have to say. (You can read our guide on writing a self-help book here.)

Checklists 

On the opposite side to eBooks, there are checklists. While books are created to be comprehensive in-depth reflections and analyses of certain topics, checklists serve as a distillation of your knowledge and advice. They are concise and straight-to-the-point pieces of content without personal anecdotes and random interesting trivia.  

A perfect checklist lead magnet presents all your knowledge and ideas as quickly and tightly as possible without harming their quality. You can read such a checklist diagonally in a matter of minutes and learn all the main ideas and tricks. 

To make checklists even easier to parse, you should use informative graphics, relevant images, and visualized data. 

Those lead magnets for coaches are great for targeting people who are busy or want quick actionable guides. 

Interactive quizzes and games 

Have you ever been in this situation? 

There’s a lot of work to be done, and the deadlines are approaching, but you’ve stumbled upon some random online quiz. For example, 

• Your writing style quiz
• What kind of a thinker are you? 
• How likely are you to succeed in business? 

You just really want to try the test without any apparent reason. And instead of doing the work, you’re answering random, often obscure, questions. 

Yeah, we’ve all been there. 

And no wonder, no matter our age, we like answering questions about ourselves or simply testing our knowledge. Whether it’s inherent curiosity or desire to play around that drives us in such cases, quizzes are effective at getting our attention. 

But to make quizzes into effective lead magnets for coaches, you should include actionable advice based on the answers. It will show your expertise and that you really want to help the person on the other side of the screen. 

Roadmaps

Roadmaps provide a nuanced step-by-step plan for achieving certain goals. For example,

• Build an online business with $500: a guide;
• How to write a book: from your first paragraph to successful publication;
• Improve your management skills in 10 steps: a professional roadmap;

Roadmaps should be concise and easy to follow with specific advice and tips. A good roadmap is fairly similar to a good checklist in this regard. Lead magnet design is also important for a roadmap.

People are eager for the “success recipes”. If you can give them one, do it, and the audience will flock to you. 

Video Calls and One-on-One Interactions

In the age of remote work, quarantines, messaging, and super-short interactions, real connection is especially rare and valuable. That’s why video calls and one-on-one online meetings can be effective lead magnets. 

But as a coach, you must be careful with live interactions. 

First, you need to ensure that your audience likes and wants such interactions. Live calls and one-on-ones may not be the best choice for people who try to avoid excessive interactions. 

Second, you need to be able to handle such events well regardless of how awkward or difficult they go. 

If you’re sure of both your audience preferences and communication skills, a video call is a powerful lead magnet for coaches. 

As for the content of the call, you can choose whatever suits you and your audience the most:

• A consultation
• A casual chat about casual things 
• A short critique of work 
• A QnA
• A brainstorming session

Access to Exclusive Communities

One of the main pillars of success in almost any industry is networking and being in one space with people who share your passions. It can provide great opportunities and help to cultivate discipline.

That’s why access to communities can be a great lead magnet for coaches. The idea that you can become a part of an exclusive community of like-minded individuals who learn, grow, and try to create something together is tempting. One of the most popular choices for such closed circles is Discord communities. 

The problem is you first need to build such a community though. So, this lead magnet for coaches is a late-stage one, when you already have some following and want to further boost it.  

As a slightly easier alternative, you can provide access to exclusive video streams or webinars.  

Case Studies 

A case study presents your advice and knowledge through the lens of the completed projects with an accurate description of challenges, issues, and ways of overcoming said obstacles. 

A case study is a real gem for people who prefer real-life applicability and knowledge gained through experience. 

If you have experiences that can be packaged as a case study, use them as a lead magnet. 

Video courses 

A video course is a powerful lead magnet for coaches. 

First of all, it’s a course, which is already a tempting proposition for people who want to learn. Secondly, it’s in a video format, which modern users prefer. Thirdly, it can showcase your expertise, personality, and charisma — a full package. 

Unfortunately, a video course is arguably the most difficult lead magnet to get right. You need to spend time writing content, recording, editing, creating tasks for students (and in some cases, checking them).

On the bright side, if a video course comes out great, you can use it for years and even start selling it at some point. 

How Do You Make an Irresistible Lead Magnet for Coaches? 

An irresistible lead magnet for coaches comes down to the three requirements:

1. Content addresses a relevant issue/need of your audience;
2. Content is of high quality, not repetitive, and unique in some way;
3. The design is pleasant and easy to follow. 

The first two requirements are self-explanatory. The third has some nuance to it. 

Relying on our graphic design and book cover design experience, we propose the following requirements of a good lead magnet design:

• The lead magnet is not overdesigned. All the visuals serve the content and help maintain proper accents. In other words, no design for the sake of design. 
• The lead magnet follows your visual brand as the brand is necessary for recognizability (Even if your brand only starts forming, you need to know where it’s headed). 
• The lead magnet’s composition is intuitive and easy to follow.
• All the communicated emotions are in line with the content. All the colors, typography, and art suit the content’s vibe. 

A lead magnet for coaches that adheres to the aforementioned requirements will be difficult to resist. 

How Coaches Choose a Lead Magnet? 

To choose a lead magnet as a coach, you need to determine the hottest problem of your audience. Answer what are their goals and dreams? What struggles of everyday life can prevent them from achieving those goals? How can you help them to overcome said difficulties? 

The answers will help you to determine the core thesis of your future lead magnet. Next, you need to figure out which lead magnet form suits your thesis, skills, time, and budget the most. Pick something that you can deliver quickly without sacrificing its quality. You don’t want to spend much time on lead magnet creation as it defeats its purpose — to help you grow an audience quickly. 

Finally, you need a professional designer that will help you make your lead magnet difficult to resist. And if you need an eBook cover or appealing marketing materials for your lead magnet, feel free to contact us.