MBA2628 How to Make a Lead Magnet So Good They’d Pay for It
2 Feb 2026 · 6 min
Omar Zenhom explains the "20 bucks or don't bother" rule for lead magnets: they need to solve a specific problem, deliver a quick win, and make people want more. Examples include a 10-day email course, WebinarNinja free trial, and Canva's free plan. Use product-style naming, scarcity, and testimonials to make yours work.
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If your lead magnet is weak, you're weak. Seriously. Everything that follows will struggle. Your list, growth. Your sales, your business, the truth, money. Most lead magnets are forgettable, but what if yours was so good that people would actually pay for it? That's how you build trust fast and that's how you build momentum. And today, I'm going to show you exactly how to do it. Welcome Back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenholm, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow and scale your business. A lead magnet is your first impression. It's your handshake. It's your opening move. It's your test drive. You're saying, give me your email and I'm gonna give you something valuable right now. But if your lead magnet isn't magnetic, they'll either unsubscribe, ignore you, or worse, never sign up at all. So what makes a great lead magnet? It's not how long it is or how fancy it looks. A great lead Magne checks all three boxes. Number one, it solves a specific problem. Two, it delivers a quick win. And three, it makes them say, if this is free, I can't wait to see what they charge for. That's when you got them that's when the trust begins. Treat your lead magnets like a mini paid product. Make it actionable, make it specific, make it valuable. Even if they never buy from you again. Let me give you some examples. For example, a calculator that helps them price their services. This is very useful for somebody who has a service based business and they want to know how to charge a script that they can use for their emails or their sales calls. When I was running my software company Webinar Ninja, one of our lead magnets was email scripts that they can send out so they can market their webinars. Also the scripts for the follow up emails to remind them about the webinar as well as the replay later on. Give them a template that saves them hours of work. For example, we give out tons of templates on our websites because they work and they're valuable and people love them because hey, if they can use something right now, it's super valuable. It's plug and play and easy to use. This isn't fluff. This is the start of a transformation for your clients. I have a lead magnet rule. 20 bucks or don't bother. Ask yourself this. Would I charge $20 for this if I couldn't give it away for free? If the answer is no, it's not strong enough. You need a better lead magnet, plain and simple. It has to feel like they're getting away with something, like they're getting a steal. I'm going to give you three examples of this rule 20 bucks or don't bother. Number one. When I started the $100 MBA, our first lead magnet was a 10 day free course. It was delivered via email every day for 10 days. They got an email with a video to watch. People binge watched it. They couldn't wait for the next email. We got replies saying this is better than a paid course that I just bought. That's the type of energy you should be receiving. Another example is my software company Webinar Ninja that I built for 10 years. Our number one lead magnet was our free trial. People got to run their first webinar, make sales on that webinar, make more than a annual fee for our software. So it's a no brainer.
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My third example is Canva. Canva allows you to create great graphics and videos like you're a pro and they have a free plan. That's their lead magnet. And yes, there are a few features that are gated to the pro plan, but for the most part, you can do a lot with the free plan and look like a pro with your graphic design, with creating an Instagram reel, or post, with designing your banner for Facebook or your YouTube channel. It's just incredible. It's an incredible lead magic because it's well worth free. It's worth more than $20. It's a no brainer for people to sign up because there's so much value there. That's what gets results when you totally over deliver. And people are just like, I can't believe this is free. These guys are awesome. Why do you want that energy? Because at some point they're gonna want more than what you're offering for free. And they're not gonna go shopping around because they already got used to your product, your service, your way of teaching. And the law of reciprocity kicks in. People are like, hey, I've been using this product for free. I've been taking the free courses. This is incredible. I got to pay these people now that I can afford it and now that I need more. The key here to make a valuable lead magnet is to make it irresistible with a few tweaks. Let me give you those tweaks. Number one, name your lead magnet like it's a product you're about to sell. Give it a really good name, just like a product. So say for example, you're creating a PDF or a guide. Name it like the 10K offer builder where it walks them step by step. How to create a $10,000 offer you want to get really fancy, Add scarcity, Make the lead magnet only available for one month. This lead magnet only available in the month of May, right, You're going to get some signups. People are like, hey, I better grab it before it's gone. Maybe add some immediacy. Get results with this lead magnet in under 30 minutes or 3 days. Add some proof. Show some testimonials from people that used your lead magnet. Don't just get testimonials for your products and services. Get some testimonials on the free stuff you offer. I ran a three day live training called on youn Job. The first thing we did when we wrapped up that training is send out an email asking for feedback. And through that I got testimonials. Therefore, I can use those testimonials when I'm promoting my lead magnet. Now, you're not just offering a freebie. You're you're offering value on another level. You're leveling up your brand and your business. And now you're offering something that's worth paying attention to. People are gonna be like, hey, I can't miss this. This is really cool. This is really interesting. I haven't seen something like this before. That's how you rise above the competition. Look, your lead magnet is more than a download, it's a promise. It says, you can trust me. I will deliver for you. So make it count over, deliver. Blow them away early on and they'll stick with you and they'll stick around for everything else that you offer in the future. Thanks so much for tuning into the podcast. If you found this episode helpful, share it. Share it with a friend. Go ahead and send it to 100 MBA NET so they can check out all our podcast episodes, including this one. And that way you can share the love. Thank you so much for doing that in advance. If you want to go deeper, if you want to learn more, then you should sign up for my three Things newsletter. Every week I send you an email to coach you from afar. I give you three things. Something to think about. Something to change your mindset so that you're growing mentally. Number two, something to do so that you're progressing and moving up levels each week. And number three, something to learn so you're skilling up and growing as an entrepreneur. There's no fluff, no noise, just like the podcast, just practical coaching from afar. Just go to 1-000mba net and sign up for any of our lead magnets, any of our guides, any of our templates, and you'll be added to our newsletter automatically. Now go build your lead magnet. And by the way, if you need a template to build your lead magnet. We have that. Okay. You can download it over on our website. Go to 100mba.net template templates and it's in our bundle of templates. And you can use Canva to build out your own lead magnet for free. Make sure it's valuable. Make sure you're following that rule. 20 bucks or don't bother and you won't regret it. Thanks again and I'll check you next time.
ADP knows anything can change the world of work. Like what if a blocked shipping port caused a worldwide coffee shortage? Suddenly, businesses are scrambling to manage an increasingly drowsy workforce. Productivity slips 20% just due to the extended time it takes to conduct a job interview while yawning. Anything can change the world of work. From HR to payroll. ADP helps businesses take on the next anything. ADP always designing for people.
