(Ep 2 of 5) The One Lead Magnet That’s Still Working

Struggling to grow your email list? You’re not alone—and your problem probably isn’t your email platform… it’s your lead magnet.

In this episode, we’ll break down:
✅ What a lead magnet really is (especially if you’re new to list-building)
✅ How to come up with the right lead magnet idea for your course audience
✅ Lead magnet examples
✅ Smart ways to validate your freebie idea before you spend hours building it
✅ Why your lead magnet should naturally lead into your paid course

You’ll also hear how the List Builder Assistant inside Digital Course Assistant helps you come up with aligned, strategic lead magnets that attract the right students for your course.

🎁 Ready to grow your list with smarter lead magnets?
Learn more about Digital Course Assistant at digitalcourseassistant.com

I’m giving away a FREE year of the Digital Course Assistant membership to one lucky course creator.

It only takes a second to enter, and the giveaway ends July 31, so don’t miss out.

📌 DigitalCourseAssistant.com/win/

If you loved this episode, I’ve got something fun for you. Right now, I’m giving away a FREE year of the Digital Course Assistant membership to one lucky course creator! That means 12 months of custom-built AI tools to help you launch faster, market better, and stress less — totally free.Head to digitalcourseassistant.com/win to enter now. Earn extra entries by sharing!

Transcript

 Welcome to the Digital Course Assistant podcast, the show for course creators who wanna launch faster, market better, and stress less. I'm your host, Julie Ball, and each episode I'm sharing tools, tactics, and AI powered shortcuts to help you grow a smarter, simpler course business. This is season one, and our focus is smarter marketing for course creators. 

Before we dive in, just so you know, I've walked the walk. I'd like to share. That I've been an entrepreneur since 2011. I've sold over half a million dollars in digital courses myself, over $2 million in subscription box sales before exiting. I've spoken on stages, published a book, and I've tried over 65 different software platforms to help small business owners get out of tech overwhelm.

So when I say I've tried just about everything, I really mean it. And I've landed here because podcasting is my favorite format to create content. So you wanna talk about lead magnets? Cool. Me too. Okay. Let's be honest. Lead magnets just don't convert like they used to. Everyone's been told to just make a freebie.

And now we've got a C of forgettable PDFs, underwhelming mini courses and opt-ins just collecting digital dust.

If your email list growth has slowed or never really took off, this episode is for you. Today, I'm sharing the one kind of lead magnet that still consistently works in 2025, why it matters and how to create yours with way less effort using ai. First, let's make sure we're all on the same page.

A lead magnet is a free resource you offer in exchange for someone's email address. It's a value packed, bite-sized win that helps your audience solve a specific problem, or take a first step toward a bigger transformation that you might offer in your course. Think of it like a taste test, giving your audience a preview of your teaching style, your process, and the kind of results that you can get them.

Here are a few examples and I'm gonna use some of the same niches that I did in the first episode. If you haven't listened to that one, go back now and listen to that first. Okay? So here's some lead magnet examples. If you teach sleep training for parents of newborns, your lead magnet might be five gentle tricks to help your baby sleep longer Tonight, if you teach Pilates, it might be a 10 minute morning stretch routine for busy parents, and if you teach watercolor painting, it could be the beginner's guide to choosing watercolor brushes without wasting money.

The key. Well, your lead magnet should solve one small specific problem for your audience, giving them a quick win while building trust. It shouldn't try to solve everything at once. If your lead magnet is too big, it can feel overwhelming and leave people stuck.

So a great lead magnet is specific, actionable, and easy to consume, and here's why this matters. Your lead magnet is the entry point into your email list and your world, your bigger ecosystem. It's how you start building a relationship. Trust with potential students and guide them in a journey toward your paid offers, but in a way that feels natural and helpful when done well, your lead magnet doesn't just grow your list, it attracts people who are aligned with what you teach and more likely to become paying students down the road.

So why do most lead magnets fail or fall short? Well, let's start with the truth. People don't want just more info. They want a quick win, something useful that they can apply. Right now, most lead magnets fail because they're too broad or irrelevant. Maybe they require too much time to consume or they don't solve a specific urgent problem.

And when something feels like a homework assignment, people aren't gonna download it. And if they do, they won't remember you after

the type of freebie that still performs well today is what I call a quick win. I know we are not reinventing the wheel here. We are just refocusing on things that matter that we might have lost over the years that we might have forgotten to focus on the basics.

So make it a quick win. That means it solves one small but valuable problem for your ideal audience. It's skimmable and fast to implement, and it feels useful even before the reader opts in. The most important part, what matters isn't how long the freebie is, it's how fast it creates clarity or momentum.

So let's talk about how to come up with the right idea for your audience. A strong lead magnet sits at the intersection of what your audience wants and what you teach. So here are some guiding questions to help you brainstorm.

What does your audience need to believe or understand before they're ready for your course? So, for example, if you teach watercolor painting, maybe they need to believe they can learn to paint even if they've never held a brush.

Ask yourself what is a quick win you can help them achieve? So if you teach sleep training, this could be helping them extend one nap by 30 minutes. What a quick little win that gives that parent hope. What are your people already asking you about all the time? Your dms, emails and social media comments are a goldmine for lead magnet ideas.

Ask yourself, what's a problem your ideal course student already knows they have. So for example, if you teach sleep training, your audience already knows they're struggling with getting their baby to sleep through the night. So your lead magnet could be something around five gentle sleep tricks for exhausted parents.

You see how you are dialing in on the problem that they already know they have.

What's something they need to do before they're ready to buy your course? So if you teach watercolor painting, they might need to gather the right supplies before they're ready for your beginner course. So your lead magnet could be the ultimate beginner watercolor supply list on a budget. Lastly, ask yourself, what's a result they'd love to see in 10 minutes or less?

If you teach Pilates, they might want instant relief from back pain, so your lead magnet could be five minute stretch routine to ease lower back pain today. So hopefully those questions and examples help you stir your own creativity.

But what if you're stuck? Lemme give you some practical methods you can use right now to discover the right lead magnet for your audience.

So of course you can go to Google, type in phrases that your audience might be searching like, how to get my baby to nap, or Beginner watercolor Tips. In that Google search, make sure you look at the autofill suggestions and the people also ask boxes.

It's a gold mine for real life problems people are trying to solve and are searching for.

You can send out and review customer surveys, so email your list or post on social asking what's the biggest challenge with your topic right now, and then fill in what your topic is. The exact words that people use in their responses are gonna give you direct insight on what they need. You could also ask on social media, just check comments on your posts in Facebook groups, and even on TikTok videos in your niche to see what questions come up repeatedly.

These don't have to be your channels or profiles necessarily , but rather you can look at other people's social media if they're in that same niche. And of course you knew this was coming. You can use AI tools. Tools like the digital course assistant can help you quickly brainstorm lead magnet ideas based on your course topic and audience saving you hours of guesswork.

And using these methods, you can come up with a lead magnet idea that feels aligned, relevant, and genuinely helpful, making it easier to grow your list with people who are actually interested in what you teach.

And what if you're still stuck or just don't have time for all of that? That's exactly where the list builder tool inside digital course assistant comes in. Not surprisingly, I use AI to build better lead magnets.

I use it to brainstorm, opt-in ideas that feel aligned. I use it to choose a name that grabs attention. I use it to outline the content so it's easy to create. I even use it to draft the landing page copy. Lucky for you. It's one of the many AI assistants I'm building in the digital course assistant membership.

Your new secret weapon to 10 x your productivity and marketing efforts

With the list voter assistant, you're not staring at a blank page. You're choosing from high converting ideas and implementing one that fits best. It's designed to help you create strategic aligned lead magnets that attract your best fit buyers and make list growth feel simple. Again, this tool will soon be part of the digital course assistant, my AI powered membership for course creators who wanna market smarter and grow their business with ease.

If you wanna be the first to know when the list builder assistant is ready , head to digital course assistant.com. And depending on when you're listening to this, that tool might already be ready and waiting for you.

Thanks for listening today, and we'll see you in the next episode.