Glossary
Lead magnet
Also called opt-in incentive, freebie.
Last reviewed 18 September 2026
What is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet is a specific, useful thing offered in exchange for an email address and permission to send more, and both halves matter: without the useful thing you are asking a stranger for their address for nothing, and without the permission you have a download page and no list.
It is not a sample of your paid work and it is not a brochure with a form in front of it. It is a complete small thing that solves one problem the reader actually has and leaves them better off even if they never buy anything, which is mechanism rather than generosity: a magnet only worth having if you buy the next thing is an advertisement, and it is opted into at the rate advertisements are.
The second thing to be clear about is what it is for. A lead magnet is not for downloads, it is for a list of people who open your mail, and those two goals pull in different directions, because the highest-converting offers tend to be the most generic ones.
See also
- Opt-in page
An opt-in page is a page whose only job is to describe one thing and collect an email address for it, and a dedicated one commonly converts 15 to 30 per cent of its visitors where an inline form in a sidebar converts 1 to 3 per cent.
- Email course
An email course is a finite sequence of lessons delivered one email at a time, in order, on a clock that starts when each reader joins, and it ends on a day both of you knew about in advance.
- Confirmed opt-in
Confirmed opt-in, usually called double opt-in, is the practice of sending one message to a newly submitted address and adding it to a list only after somebody clicks the link in that message.
Read next
This term is covered properly in Lead magnets: what works in 2026, and why a course beats a PDF, which is a longer piece on the subject.
Every other term is on the glossary index , the longer writing is in the guides, and what this site itself does is on the home page.
Thinking of writing one of these?
5dayemail hosts a five-to-ten day email course: you write it once, and everyone who joins your list gets one email a day, in order, starting from the day they confirm.
Accounts are opened a few at a time rather than by signing up. Leave your address and you will be written to when the next ones open.
One message, when there is room. No course emails, no newsletter, and the address is not passed on. Ask and it is deleted; what is kept, and for how long, is in the privacy policy.