The Lead Magnet Checklist

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This is the checklist we run on every client magnet before it ships. Every magnet you send out trains your audience what your name means, so run these seven checks on yours before it goes out. The rest of this page shows you how to pass them, and ends with the build sheet we use to make one from scratch.

The seven checks

• One problem, solved completely. Not your whole method, not "an intro to." Pick one problem and finish it.
• A stranger can win without paying you. Read it as someone who will never buy. If they can't get a result from it on their own, it's bait.
• The answer is on page one. No backstory or theory warm-up. They asked for a fix, so open with the fix and explain after if you have to.
• It's runnable today. A template to fill in, words to copy. If using it requires a call with you, it's not a magnet, it's a pitch with extra steps.
• It matches the post it sits behind. The post names a pain, the magnet kills that exact pain. A weaker magnet that matches the post beats a better one that doesn't.
• Free feels wrong. The taker should wonder why you gave this away. Concrete test: at least one thing inside it could sit in your paid offer as it is. A template you charge for, a script you use with clients, numbers from your own funnel. If nothing in it belongs in the paid version, you're not over-delivering.
• The pitch comes after the value, never instead of it. One clear offer at the bottom is fine, people expect it. What burns you is a pitch dressed up as the gift itself.

The checks in action

Here's the audit run on a typical magnet in this space, a designed 12 page PDF called something like "The 100K Scaling Blueprint."

• One problem? Fail. It promises the whole journey to 100K.
• Stranger wins? Fail. Every section ends at "this is what we help clients with."
• Answer on page one? Fail. Page one is the founder's story.
• Runnable today? Fail. No template, no script, nothing to execute.
• Matches the post? Fail. The post was about Instagram hooks. The PDF is about scaling.
• Free feels wrong? Fail. Nothing in it belongs in a paid offer.
• Pitch after value? Fail. It's all pitch.

Seven fails, and it still collects emails every day.

The list grows while every taker learns your name means a sales pitch.

Now the same seven on a magnet that passes. Take a hook rewrite template: ten before-and-afters from the make-money space, and a fill-in frame the taker runs on their own worst hook.

• One problem? Pass. Hooks nobody stops for, nothing else.
• Stranger wins? Pass. They rewrite their own hook from the frame, no call needed.
• Answer on page one? Pass. The frame is first. The reasoning comes after.
• Runnable today? Pass. Fill in the frame, ship the post today.
• Matches the post? Pass. It sits behind a post about hooks that get scrolled past.
• Free feels wrong? Pass. The frame is one you'd pay a copywriter to build.
• Pitch after value? Pass. One line about the offer, at the end.

Seven passes. That's the bar.

That's what earns the reply instead of the unsubscribe.

How to pick the problem

List the small problems your buyer hits on the way to the big one you charge for. Pick one that meets three conditions. They can't clear it alone. You can solve it start to finish inside a document. And solving it moves them toward the problem your offer solves, so the right people take it and the wrong people scroll past.

Then go deep on that one point. Skip the ultimate guide, your content already does the overview job. The magnet's job is depth on one thing.

Example: you sell a done-for-you content system to coaches. The big pain is content that brings no clients. A small pain on the way there is hooks nobody stops for. The magnet is a hook rewrite template with ten before and afters from the make-money space. One pain, solved completely, and everyone who takes it is someone who makes content for a living.

Match it to the content

Build backwards. Decide the magnet first, then write the post that makes it the obvious next step. The post agitates one specific pain, the magnet solves that exact pain. When the two match, commenting feels like the natural end of the post instead of an ad stapled to it.

That's also why one magnet can't serve every post. Keep a small set, three to five at most, and give each post the closest match. If nothing fits, run the post without one.

You're holding the play in action right now. A reel about lead magnets, a magnet about building them.

The build sheet

This is the sheet we fill in for every client magnet. Copy it and answer each line for yours. Every blank you leave is the check it will fail.

What it should look like

A plain document. Google Doc, Notion page, one pager. A checklist, a template, a swipe file, a short script. Plain is enough, because design doesn't make it deliver, and the hours are better spent on the fix itself. A forty page designed PDF is usually a teaser with a table of contents.

Ugly is fine, as long as it opens in one tap. No account creation, no extra gates. Name exactly what they get, and send exactly that. Every gap between the promise and the file trains the wrong lesson.

How you know it worked

Not by list size. A magnet that doesn't deliver still collects emails. Look at what happens after delivery. Someone replies thanks. Someone brings it up days later, or comes back for the next one and asks about the offer behind it. Concrete bar: after fifty deliveries, if not one person has replied or brought it up, it didn't land. Rebuild it.

Before you send anything, run the seven checks on this document. One problem, the answer up top, a build sheet you can use today, a frame you'd pay for. It clears its own bar, or we wouldn't have sent it.