Lead Magnet Ideation Sheet

A coach who has been practicing for a year has an email signup form on her website that has collected eleven subscribers in eight months - mostly people she knows personally. She posts content on LinkedIn but has no mechanism to convert engaged readers into list subscribers. She hasn't thought about what she would offer someone in exchange for their email address.

Frame the worksheet as a conversion infrastructure decision, not a content creation task. 'The gap between people who engage with your content and people who give you their email is trust and specificity. A lead magnet is how you close that gap - it proves you can deliver something specific and useful before they've paid you anything.' Have her complete the Audience and Problem sections first. The lead magnet format should follow from what would actually solve the problem, not from what's easiest to produce.

Watch whether she gravitates toward formats because they feel professional (an ebook, a video series) rather than because they match the problem she's solving. A coach helping mid-career professionals negotiate salary increases will get more sign-ups from a one-page negotiation prep checklist than from a twelve-page PDF guide. Match format to the speed and specificity with which her audience needs the answer to their problem.

After completing the worksheet, ask: 'If your ideal client found this lead magnet through a Google search rather than through your content, would they sign up?' The answer tests whether the lead magnet stands alone as a useful resource or whether it only makes sense in the context of already following her. A standalone-useful lead magnet works harder because it can be found and shared outside her existing audience.

A coach with a growing LinkedIn audience has been intending to build a lead magnet for six months. She has a running list of ideas - a quiz, a checklist, a mini-course, a workbook - and adds to it regularly. The list has become a reason not to decide. She brings it up in most conversations about her business but has not started any of them.

Use the worksheet to create evaluation criteria before revisiting the idea list. 'The problem isn't too few ideas - it's no criteria for comparing them. Before you look at your list again, complete the Audience and Problem sections. Then look at each idea through a single filter: which of these would my ideal client search for specifically, rather than stumble across?' Have her score each existing idea against the specificity of her audience and problem description before generating new ideas.

Watch whether the decision-making stall is about the lead magnet specifically or a broader pattern of unfinished business-building projects. If the magnet is one of several stalled initiatives, completing the worksheet may produce another item on a list she doesn't execute. Ask directly: 'What is the smallest version of the best idea that you could complete in the next two weeks?' The answer tells you whether the stall is about the decision or about something else.

After completing the worksheet and identifying one lead magnet to build, ask her to name the specific week she will complete it and what she needs to have done by the end of that week to stay on track. A decision without a next action and a deadline has the same completion rate as no decision. The worksheet is only useful if it produces a defined first step.

A coach has had a free PDF guide on her website for four months. She mentions it regularly in her content and in conversation. She has gotten twelve downloads, three of which converted to discovery calls, none of which converted to clients. She can't tell whether the lead magnet itself is underperforming, the promotional approach is weak, or the problem is the offer she makes to list subscribers.

Use the worksheet as an audit of the existing asset before building a new one. 'Before creating something new, it's worth diagnosing what the current one is and isn't doing. Walk through the Audience and Problem sections against your existing PDF. Does the guide solve a specific problem for a specific person, or does it provide general information about coaching?' The audit will tell her whether the asset needs to be replaced, repositioned, or promoted differently.

Watch whether she describes the problem her lead magnet solves in the same vague terms as the lead magnet itself. If the problem description is 'helps people get clarity on their goals,' the lead magnet likely has the same vagueness - and that's why it's generating downloads but not qualified list subscribers. A lead magnet that solves a generic problem attracts generic interest from people who won't buy coaching.

After completing the audit, ask her to look at the three discovery call conversions and describe what those people said about why they downloaded the guide. That language - the specific words they used to describe their problem - is the rewrite brief for both the lead magnet and its title. If she doesn't know what they said, ask her to add that question to her discovery call opening.