Lead magnet ideas for agencies
An agency’s best lead magnet helps a client buy your service well: a self-audit they can run before calling, a guide to writing a brief, or how to compare proposals. It shows your judgment without any spec work. Here are ten for marketing, design and development agencies, each a brief that opens in Chapbook as a starting point.
A brief to start from
A one-hour website self-audit for a small business: twenty checks across the homepage message, service pages, contact path, speed on a phone and search basics, how to score them and which fixes to make first. Reader: the marketing manager at a regional company whose site was last rebuilt six years ago. Voice: blunt and helpful, plain words, fictional examples, no invented benchmarks and no promised traffic or ranking.
Start from this brief10 ideas, each a brief to start from
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The self-audit you run in your sales process
You already review a prospect’s site or account before a pitch. A version they can run themselves shows what you look for, and the ones who get stuck halfway are the ones who call.
Lead magnet Start from this brief: The self-audit you run in your sales process
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How to write a brief an agency can use
Vague briefs cost everyone time. A guide with a fill-in template improves the briefs you receive, and it’s something a junior marketer will gladly take to their boss.
Workbook Start from this brief: How to write a brief an agency can use
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How to compare agency proposals
A buyer holding three proposals can’t tell why one costs twice as much. A fair guide to scope, seniority and what’s left out helps them, and it helps you if your quote isn’t the lowest.
Lead magnet Start from this brief: How to compare agency proposals
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The in-house or agency decision
Many prospects aren’t choosing among agencies. They’re deciding whether to hire someone instead. Taking that question seriously, including when hiring is right, earns trust.
Lead magnet Start from this brief: The in-house or agency decision
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The guide to the thing clients keep misreading
Clients ask for the same report explained every month. An illustrated guide answers that once, and prospects get to see how clearly you communicate before they ever hire you.
Illustrated guide Start from this brief: The guide to the thing clients keep misreading
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A pre-launch checklist for a new website
Every agency has an internal launch list built from past mistakes. Shared, it’s useful right away and shows the care you take with details clients never see.
Lead magnet Start from this brief: A pre-launch checklist for a new website
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A rebrand survival workbook
A rebrand fails or succeeds on internal agreement more than on the logo. A workbook that gets stakeholders aligned first helps your best-fit client before the first meeting.
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Case studies told as decisions
Most case studies look alike: challenge, solution, big number. Telling yours as the decisions you made, including what didn’t work, reads like something written by people who know the job.
Collection Start from this brief: Case studies told as decisions
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A capabilities brochure worth forwarding
Referrers need a short thing to send. A brochure that says who you are for and who you turn down is easier to forward than a website, and more convincing than a list of services.
Brochure Start from this brief: A capabilities brochure worth forwarding
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The point-of-view book
A book that takes one clear position on your field is something to send before a pitch or to bring to a conference. It gives you a reason to be asked and sets you apart from a list of services.
Nonfiction book Start from this brief: The point-of-view book
How to choose one
Think about the last good client you nearly lost, and why. If they didn’t know what they needed, write the self-audit. If they couldn’t tell your quote from a cheaper one, write the guide to comparing proposals. If they weren’t sure they needed an agency at all, write the decision guide and be honest about when hiring is the better choice.
Don’t give a prospect a sample of the work you sell. Give them the thinking behind it: the checks you run, the questions you ask, the mistakes you’ve learned to catch.
Every brief here opens in Chapbook
Each idea comes with the paragraph Chapbook needs to start: the topic, the reader and the voice. The brief at the top of this page is a starting point, not a book we have already made from it: open it, change the service and the client to yours, and add your own checklists or articles as sources. Chapbook then proposes titles and an outline for you to approve before anything is drafted.
Questions people ask
What makes a good lead magnet for an agency?
One that helps a prospect buy your service well and shows how you think, like a self-audit or a guide to comparing proposals. It should do something a capabilities deck can’t: be useful to someone who hasn’t decided to hire yet.
Can an agency make lead magnets for its clients in Chapbook?
Yes. Chapbook accounts are personal, with no teams or client workspaces, so one person holds the books in their own Library and exports the files to deliver to each client.
Can I use real client numbers in a case study?
Only with the client’s permission. Add the approved figures as a source, and use the read-through, which flags any figure no source supports. Tell it to invent none, and read every number yourself, because a draft can still get one wrong.
Read a chapter of your own book before you pay for it.
The outline, one sample chapter up to 2,500 words and a watermarked cover are free: 60 Book Credits on sign-up, no card.