# How to write a lead magnet people actually read

Promise one result to one named reader, deliver the first part of it on the first pages, and cut whatever does not serve that result. People finish a lead magnet because it solves something they have today, so skip the background, give each section one point, say that point in its heading, and end on one next step.

Updated 30 October 2026. Web page: https://chapbook.ink/guides/how-to-write-a-lead-magnet/

## Start with the promise, not the topic

“A guide to pricing” is a topic. It gives the reader no reason to open it today, and it gives you no test for what to leave out. A promise does both.

Compare the promise behind the sample on this page: in ten minutes, a founder will recognize which of five pricing mistakes they are making and know the first step to fix each one. A reader can tell whether the result was delivered. So can you, section by section, as you write.

Check the time limit the same way, because this one doesn’t hold: at about 238 words a minute, the sample’s length takes the average reader about sixteen minutes, not ten. Before you promise a time, divide your word count by that rate.

Good promises share three things: a result the reader can check, a time limit the length can keep, and a scope small enough to finish. If yours covers everything about a subject, it is a book. Pick the part someone needs first.

## Write for one person

The reader for that same sample is a technical founder who set the price by copying a competitor or guessing, and suspects it is wrong. “Founders” would not do the same work. That one sentence tells you which mistakes to include, what you can skip explaining, and which examples will feel familiar.

Try writing the reader’s situation as the moment just before they went looking for help. You will end up using the same words they would search for, in your title and your headings.

## Make the first page earn the second

The easy way to lose a reader is to open by explaining why the subject matters, to someone who signed up because they already think it does. Cut that, along with the welcome note, the definition of the term and the long story about you.

Open on the problem as the reader sees it, then give them the first thing they can use. Readers who get something on page one have a reason to believe page two will pay off. Your story belongs at the end, where it answers the question “who wrote this?”

## Let the headings do the work

Some readers skim before they decide to read. A heading like “Background” tells a skimmer nothing, while “Mistake 1: Copying a competitor” tells them the point and whether it applies to them. Read your headings in order with the text hidden. They should make your argument on their own.

Keep to one point per section. If a section needs a second heading, it probably wants to be two sections, or one fewer idea. Short sections also make the length easier to live with: at about 238 words a minute, the average adult reading rate for non-fiction in [Brysbaert’s 2019 review](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2019.104047), a 500-word section takes about two minutes. For overall targets, see [how long a lead magnet should be](/guides/how-long-should-a-lead-magnet-be/).

## Be specific in ways a stranger can’t copy

General advice is everywhere and free. What people can’t find elsewhere is the case you worked on, the number you saw, the thing that went wrong and how you fixed it. One real example usually does more than three principles.

Only use what is true and yours to share. A made-up statistic or a client story told without permission can cost you the trust the guide was written to earn.

## End on one next step

A reader who finishes has just had the best experience of you they’ve had so far. Ask for one thing that follows from the result: book the call, try the template, read the next guide. Say what happens when they click. Several offers at once usually means none of them gets picked.

## Where Chapbook fits

Chapbook’s brief asks you for these things up front: the reader, the promise and the voice. Drafting can read a voice profile made from up to 5 pieces of your writing and up to 10 sources of your own material, and the assistant’s later changes arrive as suggestions to accept or reject. A lead magnet’s Next step page is on by default and prints once you add a link, as a button, the address and, in the PDF, a QR code. The sample on this page was generated from one brief and exported unedited, so you can judge the draft for yourself. A draft is where this work starts: the examples only you know are still yours to add.

## What to do

1. **Finish the sentence “By the end, you will…”.** Write the promise first, in terms a reader could check: a list made, a mistake found, a decision taken. If nobody could tell whether you kept it, rewrite it.
2. **Name one reader and their situation.** Describe one person and what has just gone wrong for them. Everything else, from the examples to the words you can skip explaining, follows from this.
3. **Draft only the headings.** Write each section’s point as a heading and read them in order. If the list alone makes the argument, the structure is ready. If it doesn’t, fix it before you write the text.
4. **Move the first useful thing to page one.** Delete your opening paragraph and see whether anything is lost. Put your bio and your story at the end, where people who found the guide useful will want them.
5. **Add one example only you could give.** Replace a general statement with a real case from your work, with permission where you need it. This is what makes it worth reading and hard to copy.
6. **Watch one reader go through it.** Ask someone from the audience to read it and tell you where they stopped. Fix that place first, since nothing after it was read.

## Made with Chapbook: Five Pricing Mistakes

Five Pricing Mistakes: A ten-minute read for founders, by Jane Founder. Lead magnet, 3,735 words, 17 pages. A sample generated from one brief and exported unedited; it is not a customer's book. Read every page: https://chapbook.ink/examples/lead-magnet/

The brief:

> The five pricing mistakes that cost early software companies customers, and what to do instead. Promise: In ten minutes you will recognise which of the five mistakes you are making and know the first step to fix each one. Reader: A technical or product-minded founder who set the price by copying a competitor or guessing, and suspects it is wrong. Voice: Short paragraphs, concrete examples with realistic fictional companies, no invented statistics or studies; reason from mechanics and examples.

The outline the planner proposed:

1. Introduction (291 words)
2. Mistake 1: Copying a competitor (558 words)
3. Mistake 2: One tier for everyone (588 words)
4. Mistake 3: Never asking (608 words)
5. Mistake 4: Anchoring on your costs (641 words)
6. Mistake 5: Never revisiting the number (606 words)
7. What to do instead (411 words)

## Questions

### What makes a lead magnet worth reading?

A specific promise to a specific reader, kept quickly. It solves one problem the reader has now, and it gets to the useful part on the first pages.

### How should a lead magnet start?

With the first useful thing. Readers have already agreed the topic matters by signing up, so skip the background and the author’s story and start on the problem.

### How do you title a lead magnet?

Say who it helps and what they get. A count, a time or a named result helps, as in “Five Pricing Mistakes: A ten-minute read for founders”. Leave clever wordplay out.

### How many calls to action should a lead magnet have?

One main one, at the end. It should be the natural next step after the result the guide gave, not a menu of everything you sell.

### Can AI write a lead magnet people will read?

It can draft one, but readers stay for your examples and judgment. Give it your material and voice, then check every claim and add what only you know.

## Sources

- [Brysbaert (2019), “How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate”, Journal of Memory and Language 109](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2019.104047)