Lead Magnet Ideas for Coaches: Freebies that Attract Your Clients

A lead magnet can help you attract your coaching audience

As a coach, healer, or holistic entrepreneur, you understand the importance of attracting the right clients. After all, you want to work with clients who are truly invested in their personal growth and development, and who will show up fully and put in the work to achieve their goals. 

So, how do you attract those ideal clients? One tool that all coaches and healers should consider having on their website is a lead magnet. A powerful lead magnet can both provide value to your ideal clients and help you grow your audience.

What is a lead magnet?

A lead magnet (otherwise known as a “freebie”) is a free resource that you offer to potential clients in exchange for their email address.

This free offer could be a quiz, guide, checklist,  webinar, a video series, or any other type of content that helps your audience achieve a goal or solve a problem they have.

Ideally, your lead magnet offers something unique and valuable to your audience and establishes you as an authority in your field.

Why should coaches have a lead magnet?

Lead magnets help you build your email list and attract the right clients. When your ideal client downloads your lead magnet, they also give you permission to continue the conversation and build a relationship with them.

Most people (especially people who don’t know you) won’t buy from you right away. They need to know, like, and trust you, before they’ll buy. This is why you want to be able to engage with them over a period of time. (Email marketing is great for this!)

And in order to send emails to them, they need to opt-in. In order for them to opt-in, they need a compelling reason. That’s where your lead magnet comes in.

What makes an effective freebie for coaches?

Since you want to provide immediate value and help your ideal client find a “quick win,” your freebie should be something that is consumable in one sitting. (For example, don’t give out an ebook that takes hours to consume or a guide that doesn’t offer any actionable value.)

Your freebie should also be relevant to your audience, which means you need to know your coaching niche, and speak to the challenges and desires of your ideal clients. 

Last but not least, your freebie should be visually appealing and well-designed to make a good first impression. (And you don’t need to hire a designer for this, Canva has some great templates!)

Best lead magnet ideas for coaches

The best lead magnet for your coaching business depends on who you serve, and what their challenges and desires are, as well as what your areas of expertise are. Ideally, your freebie is unique and something they can only get from you.

Here are the most common types of lead magnets:

A Quiz.

A quiz makes for a great lead magnet because it’s engaging, fun, and can deliver results or insights to your ideal clients. If you’re creating a quiz as a lead magnet, you want to consider how you can provide a fun, engaging experience and give your clients an answer to something they’ve been seeking.

Free Guide.

Create a short, PDF guide on something your ideal client desires to know about in your area of expertise. This could be a how-to guide, a process, or a list of tips they can use to achieve something they desire. Make sure it’s relatively short, visually appealing, and easy to read.

Checklist.

A checklist is great because it’s an easily consumable resource that helps your audience achieve a specific goal. Your checklist could have a list of steps to take, things to avoid, or questions to ask themselves. Make it actionable and easy to follow.

A Mini-Course.

For the folks who love video, you can create a mini-course that helps your audience solve a problem. A mini-course may include a series of videos that walk them through a process over a period of time. Make sure to keep the videos short so they’re easy to complete!

A Webinar.

Hosting a live or pre-recorded webinar can be a great way to provide valuable information and/or training to your ideal audience. If you’re choosing to go the webinar route, ensure that your webinar is interactive and addresses a topic that’s important to your ideal client.

Audio Recording.

You might create an audio training that helps your ideal clients achieve a specific goal. This could be a podcast episode, a meditation, or a guided visualization. Make it easy to listen to and engaging.

As you can see, there are a variety of freebies you can utilize in your coaching business to attract your clients! For best results, pick one, and track its effectiveness over time, rather than create a bunch of lead magnets to start.

Examples of Lead Magnets for Coaches

Still not sure where to start with your lead magnet? Here are some ideas based on other coaching businesses.

Lead magnet examples for life coaches:

• Free Guide: 10 ways to get unstuck and achieve your goals
• Free Meditation: Get unstressed and feel more ease in 5 minutes
• Free Mini-Course: 5 days to more confidence 
• Free Quiz: Discover your communication style

Lead magnet examples for health coaches:

• Free Checklist: Daily practices for better health
• Free Webinar: How to food prep for the week
• Free Guide: How to use mindfulness to reduce stress
• Free Quiz: Discover your eating patterns

Do a little competitive research to see what others in your niche are doing, with the purpose of creating a lead magnet that is unique to you and helps you stand out in the market.

Tips for creating your lead magnet

Are you inspired and ready to start creating your own lead magnet? Great! These tips can help you create the best lead magnet for your audience.

1. First, know your audience.

Before you create your lead magnet, make sure you understand your audience’s pain points, aspirations, and needs. This will help you create something that is truly valuable to them. (If you’re just starting with this, you might do some market research.)

2. Second, choose ONE problem or desire to address with your lead magnet.

Your ideal clients will have a variety of challenges and goals. Your goal is not to address them all, but to choose a solvable problem that you can address in a simple resource. Avoid overwhelming your audience with too much information or too many steps. (Remember, the rule in marketing is, “If you confuse, you lose!”)

3. Choose a topic your ideal clients want to know about.

It might sound obvious, but you want to create a lead magnet around something your ideal clients already know they want and need. Meaning, don’t make it harder for yourself by offering them something they “should” want, but don’t quite understand. Address a question they already have.

4. Make your lead magnet actionable.

The goal of the lead magnet is to give your ideal clients a win, even a small one. Don’t make your lead magnet overly complex or complicated. Keep it simple but effective. If they can’t take action or solve a problem, it may end up frustrating them, which is not a good experience!

5. Make it visually appealing.

Your lead magnet should look professional and visually appealing. Use high-quality images, clean design, and easy-to-read fonts. Make sure your lead magnet fits in with your overall coaching brand when it comes to both look and feel and tone of voice.

How to create your lead magnet

Here’s the process you can use when creating your lead magnet.

1. First, mock up your lead magnet on a Google doc. Polish it and get it to where you want it before putting it into Canva or another platform.

2. Then, design your lead magnet. If it’s a PDF or checklist, you might use a Canva template. If it’s a quiz, you might use Interact or Thrive. If it’s an audio or video file, you’ll need a place to host the file, likely on your website.

3. Third, hook up your lead magnet with your email service provider. (Common email service providers with free plans include Mailerlite and Mailchimp.) There are plenty of videos on YouTube that can walk you through the process of hooking up your freebie with your email list to collect email addresses

4. Next, promote your lead magnet on your website. Promote it on your home page, ideally on the top of the fold. You might also do a delayed pop up on your website. You can create a landing page specific to your freebie. Make it as easy as possible for someone to grab your freebie when they get to your website.

Whew! After all that, your lead magnet should be hooked up and ready to go. (Test it to make sure!) 

How to promote your lead magnet

When you’re just starting out, you likely won’t have much website traffic. This means you’ll want to promote your lead magnet outside your website.

Here are some good places to start promoting your freebie:

• Share it on social media. Share your lead magnet on your social media channels and encourage your followers to download it.

   

• Put it in your social media bio. Include a link to your freebie in every social media bio you have.

   

• Add it to your email signature. Make it easy for potential clients to find.

   

• Consider doing a freebie swap with another business owner to get in front of a larger audience.

The benefits of offering a lead magnet to your coaching audience

Offering a lead magnet in your coaching business has many benefits:

• It helps you attract the right clients and provide valuable information they’re seeking
• It helps you build your list and start establishing on-going relationships with prospective clients
• It helps you establish yourself as an expert in your field and get known for your area of expertise

Over time, this can lead to more coaching clients and help you grow your coaching business.