Lead magnet: a gift for an email
Lesson 7 of 31 in the course “Million Dollar Sales Course”. Free, with animations and a quiz.
Salty pretzels
Last lesson you built a ladder, and its bottom step is free. That step is called a lead magnet. A lead is a person who showed interest and left their contact. Hormozi explains it with pretzels at a bar. They’re free and salty, so they fix hunger and instantly make you thirsty. The drink costs money. A good lead magnet works the same way: it fully fixes one small problem, and then the person sees the next one, which your paid product solves.
Case: 0 sales vs a booked-out calendar
Hormozi shares how he started. His mentor told him to do a webinar. He spent 8 Sundays on pages, emails and slides, launched ads, and in 3 days got 80 leads and 0 sales. Then he saw someone else’s “free case study” ad and copied the idea: a 13-minute screen recording of a real gym’s ad account, what they spent and how many people came in. He called it “how we added 213 members to a small gym”. By his account, the next morning his sales rep’s calendar was booked a week out. People didn’t want a presentation. They wanted proof.
Step 1: pick a narrow problem
The classic mistake is a freebie “about everything”. Hormozi’s advice: any big goal has lots of small problems along the way. Pick one narrow one and solve it completely. His example: people selling a house first need to know its price, take photos, clean up. Each of those is a good freebie. The test is simple: once this problem is solved, your paid product should solve the next one. Misha’s freebie is 5 colour presets. The image gets brighter, and right away it’s obvious the edit is still boring. That’s the course.
Step 2: 3 kinds of freebie
Hormozi splits lead magnets into three kinds. The first reveals a problem the person didn’t know about: a site speed test, or a video review that shows why people drop off. The second lets them try: a sample in a shop, a free lesson, a week of access. The third is one step of several: the first coat of sealant is free, the rest are paid. The format can be a tool, text or video, a service, or a physical thing. Three kinds times four formats gives 12 options for one problem. Make several and see which one people take most.
Step 3: the name decides
Nobody takes even the most useful freebie if the name is boring. Hormozi didn’t know what to call his book, so he ran polls with his followers. “Leads” beat “Advertising” and “Marketing”. The subtitle “How to get strangers to want to buy your stuff” beat the same line without “how to” and a version with the extra word “more”. Two small words changed the result. You don’t need a big account: run a poll in stories or ask 10 people in DMs. If someone replies “where do I get it?”, the name works.
Step 4: a freebie as good as paid
Scared to give your best away for free? Hormozi says the opposite: give away the secrets, sell the implementation. Most people who download your freebie will never buy. But all of them will form an opinion of you and tell their friends. A weak freebie says “all his stuff is like that”. A strong one makes them think “if this is free, imagine the paid stuff”. Sabri Suby says the same in “Sell Like Crazy”: you can’t lure an email and then send two pages of ads about yourself. Knowing how isn’t the same as having it done. People still pay for help and speed.
Step 5: say what to do and why now
The person got value. Next you need a call to action, meaning a clear ask: “tap”, “reply”, “grab it”. Hormozi adds a reason to do it now and points to Ellen Langer’s 1978 experiment. Someone asked to cut in line at a copier. For 5 pages, 60% agreed with no reason, 94% with “I’m in a rush”, and even 93% with the empty “I have to make copies”. But for 20 pages the empty reason didn’t help: 24%, same as none. Takeaway: a big ask needs a real reason. For example, an honest one: “I’m taking 10 people for reviews, I can’t do more.”
Do it yourself: lead magnet card
Fill in 5 lines, like in the picture. Who for: your customer from lesson two. Narrow problem: one that can be fixed in 10 minutes. Kind and format: reveal a problem, let them try, or give away one step. Name: 3 options, then a poll with 10 people. Next step: what you’ll offer at the end and why now. And right next to the form, say honestly that you’ll send emails and that they can unsubscribe in one click. Why that matters is the next lesson.
Check yourself
- Which freebie is better?
Correct answer: Checklist “7 mistakes that make people scroll past your video”. The checklist solves one narrow problem in a couple of minutes and instantly reveals the next: you found the mistakes, but how do you edit differently? That leads to the course. - What should he most likely fix first?
Correct answer: The name: promise a specific benefit instead of “useful materials”. People see the name first and decide in a second. “Useful materials” promises nothing. Hormozi changed a couple of words and the test result changed. - Which call to action is better?
Correct answer: “Reply ‘review’, I’m taking 10 videos this week, I can’t do more”. It’s clear what to do, and there’s a real reason to hurry: Misha really can only do 10 reviews a week. Honest scarcity works and doesn’t break trust. - What do you tell your friend?
Correct answer: Give away the secrets, sell the help: a strong freebie sells the course, a weak one ruins your reputation. Most won’t buy, but everyone judges you by the freebie. Strong value builds trust, and knowing how isn’t the same as having it done. People pay for help and speed.
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