Grow Your Email List: 8 Lead Generation Freebies for Course Creators

You are fully aware that in order to launch your course you need to build an email list. Great. Amazing. How the heck do we do that? Enter: the lead generation tool ✨

Lead generation tools can take many shapes and forms. They might also be called freebies, opt-ins, lead magnets, incentive offers, list builders, value pieces, etc. No matter what you choose to call yours, lead generation tools are a vital part of your course marketing efforts.

Like I mentioned before, opt-ins are used to build your email list. How, you might ask? To put it in super basic terms: we give someone a free thing, and in exchange, they give us their email address.

That free thing is your opt-in. It is usually (but not always) a downloadable document that provides a quick win. Meaning: once they download and review the content, they gain valuable knowledge and take an actionable step towards their goal.

Let me pause to highlight again that lead magnets should be simple, easy, quick wins. The psychology behind this is that if you pack a punch by providing value and helping your potential customer see measurable change for free, they begin to trust your expertise. Trust = gold, trust = they’re more likely to purchase your course from you 🙌🏻

Without further ado, here are 8 types of lead generation tools for your course marketing:

1. Checklists
2. Resource Lists
3. Quizzes
4. Worksheets
5. Planners/Calendars
6. Calculators
7. Self-Assessments
8. Roadmaps

Checklists

Checklists are a simple freebie that gives your reader a bird’s eye view of tasks they need to complete to solve a specific problem. Ideally, the problem that the checklist helps solve is a small piece in a big challenge they want to overcome - and the solution to the big challenge is your course.

I personally love a good checklist. If someone has figured out a progressive checklist that I need to complete to accomplish a goal I have, you can sure as heck can bet that I will happily type in my email to receive that checklist.

Resource Lists

Resource lists - also called toolkits - are a curated list of essential products someone needs to begin their transformational journey. Resource lists are great because they give people an idea of the basic monetary investment they have to make to meet their goal.

Toolkits are especially valuable because they provide people with a well-defined list of products that are recommended by you, the expert. Once they have this list, they don’t have to continue their search and compare/contrast different products. They can trust your recommendations and move on to the next step.

✨Bonus: look into receiving commissions for the products on your resource list!

Quizzes

I think quizzes are an especially fun lead magnet because they remind me of personality quizzes I used to find in magazines and on popular websites.

Quizzes are a unique way to help your audience learn more about themselves and make a path-defining decision. Quizzes can also help you learn more about your readers and what kind of content they might find useful.

Worksheets

Worksheets are the perfect freebie for someone to take action. They’re not just information - they provide a way for the reader to begin actively participating and making tangible moves towards their goal.

Worksheets are also valuable because they demonstrate your teaching style and when your style matches theirs, they start trusting your process and become more interested in your content and ultimately, your course.

Planners & Calendars

When I say planners and calendars, I don’t mean just a simple template with boxes and blanks for activities. This opt-in could provide immense value if targeted at your specific niche and filled with content of what to do each day of the calendar.

A potential customer might have no clue where to start in terms of what their schedule should look like to one day meet success. A planner or calendar helps define simple steps someone could take over a specific period of time.

An example of a valuable calendar might be something like a “Weekly Hair Care Routine for Absolute Beginners” for a course creator who is an expert in transforming students’ hair health.

Calculators

Calculators are a lead generation tool that are especially useful for niches that help students grow wealth. Calculators often answer questions like “How much should I charge for x?” or “How many clients do I need to hit x income?” Readers input their unique data and receive a result that is tailored to their specific situation.

Calculators provide the opportunity to demonstrate your expertise, help your readers answer important number concerns, and highlight how your course can assist them in their income goals.

Self Assessments

An assessment helps your potential customer define where they are in their journey, and see the different stages they need to pass through to meet their goal. Assessments may ask questions or list different identifiers to help readers determine which stage they are at.

Your self-assessment opt-in could provide even more value by recommending specific resources that are helpful for each stage like books, podcasts, or products. You could also provide some plain ol’ encouragement for each stage by speaking to different struggles or emotions they might be having during that time and tips on how to overcome them.

Roadmaps

Roadmaps could also be called cheat-sheets, launch plans, or guides. The basic idea is that this opt-in gives away the outline of your course…without actually labeling it as your course. 

Roadmaps give details about each step your reader needs to take on their journey. The key to creating a good roadmap is to discuss what the reader needs to accomplish, not how. The “how” is your detailed, transformational course!

You might be worried about releasing course information as a freebie. The thing is, there is absolutely no way you can pack all of the information for your course into a short, easily digestible freebie, so you don’t have to worry about giving “too much” away for free. Keep it simple!

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Lead magnets are super fun to create because we get to share our knowledge and help start someone on a path towards transformation. Inviting someone into our world is exciting! Once they’ve downloaded their freebie and joined the email list, we get to continue providing value in their journey and hopefully aid them in success through our course.

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Wondering what your next steps are? Check out these other blog posts I wrote about creating freebies to grow your email subscriber list:

How to Create a Freebie - A Tutorial for Course Creators

6 Subtle Freebie Mistakes That Even 7-Figure Course Creators Still Make