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Lead magnets & newsletters...
More on-again-off-again than J-Lo and Ben. The mid 20-teens was lead magnet mania.
Every blog article in 2014 was throwing pop-ups in your face, pitching their lead magnets. It was a hot, steamy affair. Peak lead magnet.
But somewhere along the way, newsletter folks claimed lead magnets stopped working.
"they don't work, nobody sticks around, bad leads" wah wah wah.
Readers were burned by crappy lead magnets with sky-high promises. The relationship fizzled out because they lost trust in digital marketers (*gasp* shocking, I know) and figured out those "5 Simple Steps to $1M in Passive Income" PDFs were not so simple... or legit.
If you've been runnin' in the newsletter streets lately, you'll know that lead magnets & newsletters are SO back together.
(and also like J-Lo & Ben, it probably won't last)
But why? What's changed?
We did some digging and tried to figure out what lead magnets are actually working in 2026.
And we found some great examples that are driving thousands of quality subscribers.
But first...
What actually makes a "good" lead magnet?And how can you promote it and use it to grow?
Read on...
"Would someone pay for this?"
Your lead magnet should be so valuable that readers would fork over real money—not just an email address.
It's just another extension of Insanely Valuable Content™️.
Good lead magnets solve painful problems (problems people would be willing to pay for).
These free resources:
That's worth paying for when done right.
An email address is not currency. But when one is exchanged for a "free guide", the guide better deliver.
Because a bad lead magnet can damage your reputation, trust, and more.
A reader won't ask for a refund. But they'll unsubscribe and never trust you again. They might even tell their friends... Careful.
Don't have a lead magnet idea, or time to build something "high value"?
Good news.
Most of us already have lead magnets at our disposal—we just haven't uncovered them.
Chenell and I discovered the best lead magnets tend to fall into one of three buckets. And each one can be built from content you've already created 👇
A deep dive, a high-value newsletter, or an in-depth case study.
This is what Matt McGarry does.
He doesn't create a traditional lead magnet. Instead, he creates what he calls lazy lead magnets:
Think swipe files, curated resources, bundled content.
Chenell did exactly this.
After writing dozens of deep dives on successful newsletter creators, Chenell built the Growth Levers Library.
It's not "new" content.
But readers would have to dig through 60+ webpages and thousands of words to get this content. This is valuable because it's
Think a quiz, tool/GPT, or template.
Milly Tamati hit 50,000 subscribers using a focused resource.
She runs the Generalist World newsletter and community. But she wanted a better way to get more generalists into her ecosystem.
So she combined all her knowledge, articles, and resources about generalists and created the Generalist Quiz.
This worked so well for Milly because the process is simple:
Milly calls this an "elite flywheel" (she shared even more details in our podcast episode with her).
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It's time for a little FREE RESOURCE article break...
👇👇
→ How to build a False Double Opt-In to rescue unconfirmed subs
→ A Guide To 10x Your Newsletter Replies >>
→ The 1KS Roadmap: A Free Course To Your First 1,000 Subscribers
→ Increase opt-ins like a best-selling author (FREE templates)
→ 30 Days of Growth (via Chenell @ Growth In Reverse)
One word: context.
Milly's quiz might be an exception to this rule, but generic lead magnets just don't work like they used to.
Brennan Dunn increased a client's conversions by 500% on an article pop-up for a lead magnet by making one small change:
→ Matching context: article content to lead magnet content.
Instead of pitching the same general lead magnet on every page on the client's website, Brennan had the client create lead magnets that were contextual to the article.
For example: an article about denim featured a lead magnet titled: "5 Ways To Style Your Favorite Jeans".
That's it! It's so simple that it feels painfully obvious. But so many miss this. This change increased pop-up conversions from ~2% to 10.39% — more than a 5x increase.
Bottom line: contextual lead magnets *will* convert better than generic lead magnets.
It's really simple:
Send your lead magnet to your existing newsletter subscribers first.
Why?
Your readers are already bought into your content. So reward their loyalty with first access to your shiny new resource!
Then when it's time to do a proper public lead magnet launch (like Erica Schneider does) you can ask your readers to help spread the word. And some might even do it unprompted.
Huge win.
The days of wild growth with a PDF or eBook lead magnet are more or less gone. (Though if you have one that's crushing, please share it with me!)
The lead magnet formats we've seen clearly outperforming are:
It's easy to think the work ends when the lead magnet is done. Like a hard days work. Dust off your hands and go rest.
But that's actually when the hard work should start. Especially if you've built a lazy lead magnet.
To get the most out of this new free resource you've created (or curated), you should treat it like a mini-product launch.
That's where the best results come from:
Erica Schneider pulled in ~700 subscribers from a single LinkedIn-led launch doing even less than this.
There is a LOT of value in 700 invested subscribers coming from a lead magnet highly aligned to your newsletter content.
Check our two latest podcast episodes on Lead Magnets:
Part 1: This strategy is quietly driving THOUSANDS of email subscribers
Part 2: This “Unconventional” Lead Magnet Gets 500–1000 Leads/Month
And if you want more newsletter content like this…
Every week I share tactics to help you grow, optimize, and monetize your newsletter—without the gimmicks.
📩 Subscribe free: https://growthcurrency.net
Or if you're more the DIY type…
📥 Grab my 1KS Roadmap: https://www.growthcurrency.net/1ks-roadmap
One other super smart thing you can do to grow your newsletter? Use Kit to create the landing page you send your traffic to. You've nailed the pitch, now nail the conversion point. With Kit, you can send newsletters AND grow on autopilot with the Kit Creator Network.
I personally have gotten over 2,236 subscribers from the Kit Creator Network alone!
Kit makes the whole newsletter thing WAY easier. And legit more fun.
Trust me. I’ve tried all the major ESPs.
Kit offers the most user-friendly and customizable features for creators like us. I’ve been using Kit for nearly 4 years and recommend it to everyone — and not just because I’m an affiliate. I sincerely love the product, their team, and vibe.
Get a FREE Kit plan that includes your first 10,000 subscribers →
Here are a few ways I can help:
And how a solopreneur gained 18k subscribers — and $1.2M in revenue.
Nobody knows your newsletter exists. So tell them. Here are 5 ways to pitch your newsletter.
Stop being an Invisible Expert—do this instead.
Growth Currency teaches you how to...
→ Start a newsletter → Get subscribers → Earn an income.
Join 2,500+ readers learning how each week.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. No hard feelings.