You’re building your email list, right?
If you’re not, start today.
Email is still one of the highest-ROI, most reliable owned channels in marketing. Nothing else gives you direct access to subscribers the way email does.
Think about it: email lets you reach current and potential customers whenever you need to. Most people check their inbox at least daily—often multiple times.
Building a list gives you influence over subscriber behavior and lets you drive page views, sales, reviews, product feedback—whatever outcome you care about.
Creating great content isn’t enough.
Traffic and social shares are nice, but they’re not the goal of content marketing.
Pop quiz: What is the real purpose of any marketing?
To make sales.
You won’t usually close a sale directly from a blog post (for most products).
But you can collect your readers’ contact information—even if it’s just an email.
Not long ago, a generic “subscribe to the blog” box in the sidebar was enough to get decent sign-ups.
Today, brands publish more content than ever, and that trend isn’t slowing down.
People are overwhelmed. Everyone wants their email address.
That dusty old sidebar form won’t do much anymore.
Marketers evolve, and so do our tactics.
We began offering free value—e-books, courses, checklists, videos—in exchange for an email. These are called lead magnets because…well…they attract leads.
And it worked.
You’re trading premium value for a reader’s email. Fair deal.
But now almost everyone offers a free bonus.
If your lead magnet isn’t special, two things happen.
Either you get few sign-ups, or you get sign-ups and then fast unsubscribes because the bonus disappoints.
The most successful marketers create lead magnets that are a level above everyone else’s.
Yes, it takes time and effort, but even a 2–3 point lift in your opt-in rate can compound into serious revenue over the next year.
It also takes skill and a bit of research to create a great lead magnet—that’s what we’ll cover in this post.
Let’s get started.
1. Research always comes first
One of the hardest parts of marketing is truly understanding your audience.
Even when you think you get them, you may still disagree on what’s actually valuable.
If your current lead magnets convert at ~1% or less, you’re probably off the mark.
That’s tough to hear, but it’s good news: it’s fixable. Dial in the offer and you can double or triple your opt-in rate.
The goal of research is to discover what your audience values most right now.
Validate that your audience is interested in a topic
If your blog gets consistent traffic, this is straightforward.
Check which articles get the most views and engagement (comments and shares). That’s your demand signal.
Create a spreadsheet of your top posts and their traffic over at least three months. GA4 users can find this in “Reports > Engagement > Pages and screens.”
Sort by traffic to see the topics your audience cares about most.
Then build an offer around those topics. Use it as a content upgrade on the post, and promote it around your site.
Examples:
- Article: “22 Gmail Plugins That All Content Marketers Need to Know About”
- Offer: Get the exact templates we use to reach out to influencers
- Article: “How to Make Custom Images for Your Blog Posts Without Hiring a Designer”
- Offer: A private list of 10 designers who create custom images for $5 per image
2. See what your competitors are offering
If your site is new or has low traffic, use competitor research instead.
Your most visible competitors have been blogging for years. Piggyback on their learnings and see what resonates with their audience.
Identify 5–10 competitors.
Add them to a spreadsheet. Next to each one, create a column for their main lead magnet and five columns for their most popular posts.
Find the primary lead magnet on their blog or Home page—it’s usually highlighted:
Record the title and a short description in your sheet.
For popular posts, ignore “Popular Posts” widgets (they can be manipulated). Use BuzzSumo to find the most-shared content: enter the competitor’s URL and sort by total shares.
Copy the top five headlines into your spreadsheet.
Here’s what your sheet should look like when filled in.
This spreadsheet is practical for two reasons.
First, it shows which lead magnet each blogger believes converts best right now (until testing proves otherwise).
If you’re starting a blog in this space and can write a short e-book like How to Get Your First 10,000 Subscribers, you can be confident it’ll convert—based on Social Triggers’ offer.
Second, it helps you avoid “copycat” positioning.
If we’re looking for traffic and subscriber advice and see both your site and Social Triggers, we’re unlikely to sign up for both. We’ll pick the most credible one—the established authority.
Now go back to your spreadsheet.
Group the posts into categories. This reveals the most popular themes in your niche:
With a limited sample, we identified four categories:
- Writing better (4 posts)
- Why blogs succeed (2)
- Selling online (2)
- Increasing traffic and subscribers (2)
Now compare the top categories to the lead magnets your competitors offer. Find the gap.
It’s clear bloggers care a lot about writing better—no surprise given the shift to higher-quality content.
Boost Blog Traffic’s Headline Hacks focuses on headlines. You could target a different slice of “writing better”—using popular posts you listed as inspiration.
For example:
- The 20 Words All Successful Bloggers Use in Their Writing
- 51 Essential Time-Saving Resources for Any Blogger
- Free e-book: The Simple Way I Write 1,000-Word High-Quality Posts in an Hour
3. Look at what your visitors buy
A great lead magnet should be good enough that people would pay for it. When you give it away, conversions jump.
There are many places to gauge what your readers value; three work in nearly any niche.
Source #1 – The Kindle marketplace: Amazon still sells a lot of books—especially Kindle.
Focus on Kindle because e-books mirror typical lead magnets.
People comfortable buying online (hopefully from you) are comfortable buying a Kindle book.
Start at the Kindle store.
Use the left sidebar to drill down into subcategories until you reach your niche.
Example niche: a yoga website.
We clicked through three levels to reach the yoga section:
You’ll see a list of books.
On the left, sort by average customer review:
Now you’ll have the top-rated results in your category:
From the first few results, you can already generate ideas readers will pay for:
- A guide to Yin Yoga (free e-book)
- A guide to Yoga Poses (e-book, video series, or an email course)
Read reviews to see what buyers valued most—include those elements in your lead magnet.
Source #2 – What do your competitors sell? Your competitors hold a big chunk of your target audience.
If they’re established, they probably sell products.
Find a “Shop” or landing page link in the top nav or sidebar:
Here’s what to learn from their products to inspire a high-value lead magnet.
Look for “intro-level” products (often under $20). They don’t make much revenue, but if people buy them, they value them—and that’s your proof.
Create a similar product and offer it as a free lead magnet.
For example, the shop above sells a 20-minute guided yoga meditation session:
It’s priced at $7.99.
With low-priced products, you’ll see three groups:
- Very willing to pay — Confident it’s worth it.
- Not sure — Interested but hesitant.
- Will never pay — No budget or always seeking free options.
Offer a free version and you’ll capture groups 2 and 3.
Group 2 is most valuable—they may buy from you later.
Often they’ll search for a “free 20 minute guided yoga meditation session” to try before buying.
If your free lead magnet impresses them, they’ll remember you. When they’re ready to buy, you’ll be top of mind.
Source #3 – Look for course ideas: Most lead magnets solve a small, specific problem—essentially a mini-course.
Online education has exploded—universities and private educators alike.
The best place to scan is Udemy. Anyone can post a course, so you’ll find variety.
Search your niche.
Use a keyword, browse the catalog, or pick categories in the left nav.
In our example, we searched “yoga.”
Sort by popularity to see what people actually want.
From the top results, here are three lead-magnet ideas:
- A 30-day yoga email challenge
- A 14-day yoga detox email course
- A video or email course on yoga for busy professionals
People pay for these courses. Offer a focused free version and you’ll attract your target audience.
4. Most readers will tell you, just ask them
One amazing source of lead-magnet ideas is the list you already have.
They like your content and believe you have value to offer.
When you send your next post to a segment of your list, ask how you could improve it for them.
Don’t publish publicly yet—wait for quick feedback.
If you have a large list, send to a few hundred subscribers first.
Use a simple template like this:
Hey (name),
I wanted to share the latest (your brand) post:
(Post title and link)
(2-paragraph description of post)
Quick favor?
After you read it, tell me how I could make it more useful. Anything you’re especially curious about?
Thanks,
(Your name)
Your best readers will reply with powerful lead-magnet ideas.
Create one quickly and add it to the post when you publish.
5. Don’t be afraid to listen
Your comments section is a gold mine—especially from readers who haven’t subscribed yet.
They read your content and like it enough to comment.
So, what will it take to earn their email?
Readers often tell you what they’re curious about in the comments. Pay attention and turn those questions into lead magnets.
6. One way to skyrocket your opt-in rate
To earn a subscription, offer something your reader wants—right now.
Interest in your lead magnet climbs when the blog topic matches the reader’s current intent.
So what happens if you prioritize topics your audience is most interested in?
You’ll get more shares, traffic, and eyeballs on the matched lead magnet—translating into more subscribers.
How do you find the hottest topics?
Open your analytics and look at performance by page.
In GA4, go to “Reports > Engagement > Pages and screens.”
Tag each top post with a category. Analyze your top 10–30 posts (depending on your volume).
You’ll notice one or two categories dominate.
Focus more content and offers in those categories and you’ll grow both your list and your overall traffic.
How to see what content your audience loves when you don’t have an audience:
If you’re still building traffic, use external signals.
You have two options.
You could publish on many subtopics and see what sticks.
Totally fine.
Or research to find proven-popular topics first.
Two simple ways:
First, try Reddit.
Find a subreddit for your niche—for a new marketing blog, we’d start at the marketing subreddit.
Click “Top” > “All Time” to see the most-upvoted posts.
Most subreddits have thousands of submissions, so you’ll get a clear read on what that audience likes.
Scan the top 100 and categorize them like before.
You’ll see certain themes repeatedly. Note: some submissions will be off-topic since Reddit includes more than blog posts.
The second option is to review close competitors.
They already serve the audience you want. Look at their posts to see which topics get traction.
You won’t have their traffic stats,
but you can log the title of each post and the number of comments or social shares:
It’s not perfect, but it’s a useful proxy.
7. Don’t just create another lead magnet
We’ll keep hammering this: you need high-quality lead magnets.
Your new subscriber should be shocked you didn’t charge for it.
After a few hundred downloads, you should see at least a couple emails saying exactly that.
The biggest mistake? Vague offers.
Create a useful offer that solves one specific problem for your reader.
Otherwise, you’ll make a weak first impression; your freebie gets tossed, and the unsubscribe comes soon after.
Deliver something that makes a short-term difference and you’ll be memorable.
Format doesn’t matter—quality does. Make sure it:
- covers something your reader genuinely cares about,
- delivers real, immediate value, and
- accomplishes at least one specific outcome for your subscriber.
To make this concrete, let’s look at examples.
Example 1: E-books
E-books can be great—or terrible. They don’t need to be long; they do need to be specific. Too many are padded with fluff.
A good e-book lets you go deeper on a topic than a checklist or worksheet can.
Michael Hyatt offers a free e-book with a specific promise: take 10 hours off your work week. It’s compelling because results show up quickly.
He also highlights credibility (best-selling author, successful operator) right before the offer—smart way to reduce friction.
Example 2: Free Courses
Free courses are one of our favorites. Subscribers come back repeatedly, build a habit of opening your emails, and deepen trust.
They’re also perceived as more valuable, so completion and engagement tend to be higher.
Example 3: Lists or Short Guides
If you’re an expert, you can deliver huge value fast with a focused list or short guide.
On BloggerJet, Tim Soulo offers a short guide on growing blogs to 100K visitors per month.
When you know the material, a high-impact short guide can take an hour or two to produce.
Example 4: Free Trial
No blog-based business? Lead magnets still work.
Any product company—especially software—has an instant value offer: a free trial.
Trials not only lift initial sign-ups but also downstream conversions. People don’t like losing access to something they’re using.
Here are 2 simple lead magnets that you can create.
How to make a high quality PDF version of a guide:
Long guides are hard to finish in one sitting.
Busy readers rarely get through everything in a browser.
Offer a PDF version of the post in exchange for an email.
Brian Dean uses this often:
Why this works:
1) Subscribers actually use it—on a commute, at work, or whenever they have time.
2) It’s fast for you to create. If time is your bottleneck, this takes minutes.
Pro tip: add a custom cover. It feels like a professional e-book and increases perceived value.
Design it yourself, or buy one on Fiverr—search “e-book cover” and choose a highly rated gig:
Note: most designers take a few days, so plan ahead.
To build the PDF, copy your post into a blank Word or Google Doc.
Fix any formatting glitches.
Google Docs recognizes WordPress heading tags automatically.
That makes creating a table of contents easy and useful.
Go to “Insert > Table of contents”:
You’ll get linked section headings:
Paste your cover on the first page.
When everything looks good, go to “File > Download as” and choose PDF:
Paste your URL and click “print preview”:
The tool generates a minimal, print-optimized version of your post.
If anything looks off, hover and delete it (“click to delete”):
When ready, click “PDF” at the top to download.
How to make a high quality checklist:
Checklists break a process into clear steps your audience can follow.
They’re best when you’re outlining a specific strategy or technique.
What comes to mind when you hear “checklist”?
Probably something like this:
Useful, sure—but pretty plain.
What if your checklist looked premium? Something people actually print and use?
That’s exactly what Bryan Harris at Video Fruit has done. Check this out:
That’s not a typical checklist—custom cover, strong layout, professional look.
People will actually use this—again and again.
And you can make something similar.
Get a cover made on Fiverr, or create the whole thing yourself.
You could use Illustrator, but Google Docs is enough.
Start with your headline—big and bold, pick a font you like:
Add a brief description in normal size.
Insert a horizontal line to separate header from content (Insert > Horizontal line):
How do you align the number, step name, and checkbox so neatly?
Easy.
Insert a 1×3 table (Insert > Table).
Drag the vertical cell borders until you like the layout.
Make the left cell a square, set white text on black background, and increase the font size for the step number:
Type the step name in the middle cell.
For the checkbox, put your cursor in the right cell and go to Insert > Drawing to create a small square shape.
Pick a rectangle from Shapes, hold Shift to draw a perfect square.
Click Save & Close; resize the square in the cell if needed.
Now you’ll have something like this:
To remove the visible table lines, highlight all three cells, right-click > Table properties.
Set border to “0 pt” (no border):
Then set each cell’s vertical alignment to “center” if needed.
That’s the hardest part done.
Type the step description below, including any bullets.
Align the description to the title by dragging the blue marker on the ruler.
Copy-paste the whole section to speed up the rest of your steps.
Optional: add a page background color (File > Page setup… > Page color).
Use a custom color if you want.
Now you’ve got a great-looking checklist:
Pair it with a strong cover and you’ve got a lead magnet people are happy to trade an email for.
8. The truth about pop-ups
Pop-ups can dramatically increase sign-ups—and they can also annoy visitors if done poorly.
Well-implemented pop-ups often convert in the mid-single digits on average, and best-in-class campaigns hit double digits.
Worried they’ll spike bounce rate? They can, if intrusive. But when implemented thoughtfully, many sites see no meaningful change in bounce or time on page.
The question is: how do you use pop-ups correctly?
It comes down to 3 factors.
Factor #1: Time until pop-up is displayed
Some readers—even loyal ones—will close a pop-up shown instantly.
One test found that showing a pop-up around 10 seconds after load performed best for that site:
That makes sense—no one likes being interrupted the second they arrive.
But you must test timing on your own site.
Another option is exit-intent (show when the cursor moves to close the tab). It’s common in modern tools and works well for capturing abandoning visitors.
XeroShoes used exit-intent pop-ups to increase overall opt-ins by 2.5%.
Factor #2: Frequency
Want to scare readers away? Show the same pop-up on every pageview.
Set a frequency cap (via cookies/local storage). If you set it to at least a week, you’ll avoid fatiguing regulars.
Factor #3: Ease of closing
This might be the most important factor. Make pop-ups easy to close.
A tiny, hard-to-see “x” frustrates users—especially on mobile. Use a clear close button or link with sufficient size and contrast.
Test on mobile devices and keep interstitials non-intrusive to protect UX (and your organic visibility).
A safer alternative: Slide-in forms
If you’re against pop-ups, slide-ins capture attention without blocking content.
After a reader scrolls a set amount, a small box slides in the bottom corner. It’s subtle, visible, and less disruptive, yet motion draws the eye.
HubSpot uses these effectively.
In one test, their slide-ins outperformed a static end-of-post form by 27%—but as always, test on your audience.
Also confirm slide-ins don’t cover key mobile UI elements.
9. Designing a high-converting opt-in form
Static forms or pop-ups—it doesn’t matter. The same fundamentals drive conversions.
Focus on three essentials: your offer, your headline, and your call to action (CTA).
Factor #1: A valuable offer
This is why we started with research. Offer something your reader wants badly enough to trade their email for it.
Factor #2: A clear headline
Keep it clear and literal. State exactly what they’ll get—often preceded by “Download,” “Get a copy of,” or similar.
Factor #3: A first person CTA
Always include a CTA. After the email field, tell them what happens next.
Boost conversions with first-person, benefit-focused button copy.
Try CTAs like:
- “Yes, I want more traffic”
- “Show me how to get more subscribers”
- “Give me your secrets”
On Social Triggers, Derek Halpern replaces the tiny “x” with clear Yes/No buttons—both written in first person.
To close, you read “I reject the free e-book.” It’s a small nudge, but clever experiments like this often test well.
10. The most effective email collecting tools
Static forms can be designed by a developer or via templates from your email provider (AWeber, Mailchimp, etc.).
But pop-up and in-content offers are often the highest-converting. You’ll need a dedicated tool.
Here are three WordPress-friendly options that span price ranges. As price drops, expect more DIY setup and fewer conveniences.
Option 1: Hello Bar
Hello Bar offers simple, minimal pop-ups, bars, and slide-ins to capture more emails.
Cost: Free plan available; paid tiers are offered if you need higher view limits and advanced features.
We’ve used it on our blogs to help grow to 100,000+ subscribers.
Option 2: OptinMonster
Created by Syed Balkhi and Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster is a flexible mid-range tool with powerful targeting and testing.
Cost: Entry-level plans are affordable (often discounted annually). Higher tiers add exit-intent, more pageviews, and advanced targeting.
You can quickly build campaigns from templates and run A/B tests—both essential.
Option 3: Leadpages
One of the most comprehensive options if you want pop-ups plus high-converting landing pages.
Cost: Standard plans are available; pricing varies by billing cycle and features.
Leadpages started with landing pages and later added pop-ups. If you build lots of landing pages across domains, the bundled value can be strong.
With a basic plan, you also get unlimited landing pages—useful if you spin up campaigns frequently.
11. The best places to ask for email addresses
Last piece of the puzzle: where to ask for emails.
The traditional sidebar form isn’t essential. Most convert around 0.4%—even strong ones rarely break 1%.
We’re not saying you can’t have one—just know it’s a small slice of sign-ups.
Option 1. The Home page
A large share of visitors end up on your Home page, often after exploring other pages.
These readers convert well with a “feature box”—a prominent section near the top that stands out and clearly asks for an opt-in.
Option 2. In blog posts
The majority of your traffic lands on individual posts, so ask for the email there.
Sidebar forms get ignored; in-content offers don’t.
Start with an opt-in after the post. If someone finished reading, they’re primed for more value.
Don’t wait if there’s a perfect contextual moment. Trigger a pop-up after a set time or scroll depth—or link within the content to open your pop-up:
This lets you pitch the bonus exactly when it’s most relevant.
Option 3. The About page
Your About page often ranks among your top-visited pages.
Visitors who navigate there usually like what they’ve read and want to know more about you. They’re evaluating credibility.
Great time to ask for an email. Sometimes, you don’t even need a bonus—your content and expertise are enough to convert.
12. Understand the two biggest factors behind opt-in rates
At this point, you’ve got research, ideas, and execution tactics.
But the biggest wins come from understanding why people opt in.
It boils down to two factors.
Factor #1 – Relevance
If we’re reading a post about social media marketing and you offer a yoga poses e-book, we’ll pass.
More realistically, if your SEO post offers a social traffic e-book, some readers will opt in—but fewer than if the bonus matches SEO exactly.
Offer an SEO-specific bonus on an SEO post and interest spikes.
This is a post-specific lead magnet—a content upgrade.
Create lead magnets for each key post or topic to maximize relevance.
Bryan Harris has reported opt-in rates of 20–30%, and sometimes up to 62%, using content upgrades.
Factor #2 – Value
Matching the topic isn’t enough.
If your “bonus” is a basic list anyone can find, few will opt in.
Reveal something scarce or genuinely useful (templates, a tactic, a dataset) and perceived value jumps—so do conversions.
The higher the perceived value before they even download, the higher your opt-in rate.
Follow the first five steps above and your lead magnet will be tightly relevant and high-value.
Conclusion
Lead magnets are a powerful way to learn about—and serve—your readers.
Use those emails to build relationships that turn readers into customers.
But if you create lead magnets half-heartedly, your opt-in rates will stay low.
Optimizing opt-ins takes work—no way around it.
Those who apply the strategies in this article will be rewarded.
If your blog gets 10,000 visitors a month, a modest two-point lift in your opt-in rate means ~200 extra subscribers per month, or ~2,400 per year.
Treat your list well and that can be worth well over $10,000.
That should be all the incentive you need to spend a few hours evaluating your setup and improving it.
Use your judgment.
Always consider how your audience will react to any tactic—and test!
Find what works on your site using the guidelines in this post.