Glossary
What is a lead magnet?
A lead magnet is something genuinely useful given away in exchange for an email address. The exchange only works if the thing is worth the address — which is why a specific, finishable guide beats a generic one every time.
What makes one work
- Specific over broad. “Pricing a freelance project” gets more sign-ups than “The complete guide to freelancing”, because the first one is a problem somebody has today.
- Finishable. Twenty pages read beats two hundred downloaded. The goal is a reader who got something out of it within the hour, not a reader impressed by the file size.
- Ends somewhere. A lead magnet that solves the problem and then names the next problem is what turns a subscriber into a customer.
Why a short ebook, and not a video
A PDF is skimmable, searchable, forwardable and costs nothing to deliver. A video is none of those things and demands a slot in somebody’s day. Videos convert well as an upsell; PDFs convert well as a first exchange.
BookArc’s Lead Magnet format is built for exactly this shape — five to seven short chapters, sized to be read in one sitting. See ebook types for what it produces.
The mistake almost everybody makes
Writing it for everybody. A lead magnet aimed at “small business owners” collects addresses belonging to people who will never buy anything. One aimed at “consultants who charge by the day and are undercharging” collects fewer addresses and a real pipeline.
Related terms
- Back matterBack matter is everything after the final chapter: acknowledgements, about the author, appendices, index, and — in a self-published book — the call to action. It is the page a reader reaches having just finished your book, which makes it the most valuable page in it.
- Book blurbThe blurb is the description on the back cover and on the store page. It is not a summary — its only job is to make a browsing stranger want to read the first chapter, which is a different task from describing the book accurately.
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