Lead magnet ideas for SaaS companies
The lead magnets that work for a SaaS company teach the job the product does before the reader needs the product: a guide to a decision the buyer is stuck on, a workbook for a process they run, or the mistakes your support team sees every week. Here are ten, each a brief that opens in Chapbook, and one expanded into the outline it produced.
Five Pricing Mistakes
A ten-minute read for founders, by Jane Founder
Lead magnet, 3,735 words, 17 pages
The outline the planner proposed from its brief, chapter by chapter:
- 01 Introduction 291 words
- 02 Mistake 1: Copying a competitor 558 words
- 03 Mistake 2: One tier for everyone 588 words
- 04 Mistake 3: Never asking 608 words
- 05 Mistake 4: Anchoring on your costs 641 words
- 06 Mistake 5: Never revisiting the number 606 words
- 07 What to do instead 411 words
10 ideas, each a brief to start from
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The mistakes your buyers make
A reader can check a list of mistakes against their own work in ten minutes, and each one points at a problem your product solves. Five Pricing Mistakes, expanded on this page, is this idea written for founders.
Lead magnet Expanded above: the outline it produced. Start from this brief: The mistakes your buyers make
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A buyer’s guide to your category
Buyers comparing tools want criteria before they want a demo. The guide that gives them fair questions to ask earns a place on the shortlist.
Lead magnet Start from this brief: A buyer’s guide to your category
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A 30-day setup workbook
A trial user who finishes setup is one who stays. A workbook with one small task a day turns the setup into a routine they can follow without a call.
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The playbook for the job your product does
A longer book on the work itself, not the software, is something a buyer keeps and returns to. It shows you understand the job better than a feature list can.
Nonfiction book Start from this brief: The playbook for the job your product does
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An illustrated guide to a confusing report
Every product has a screen people misread. An illustrated walk through it, one picture per idea, answers the support ticket before it is written.
Illustrated guide Start from this brief: An illustrated guide to a confusing report
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The best of your blog, as one book
Twelve of your strongest posts read better as one designed collection than as twelve links. It turns writing you already have into a reason to sign up.
Collection Start from this brief: The best of your blog, as one book
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A quarterly field report
A designed issue on what changed in your field this quarter gives prospects a reason to stay subscribed between launches. Write it from public sources and your own product notes, never from invented data.
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A brochure for your next webinar
A short brochure tells someone in a sentence why to give you an hour, and gives them something to forward to a colleague who should come too.
Brochure Start from this brief: A brochure for your next webinar
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A launch checklist
A checklist is the shortest useful lead magnet there is: the reader can use it the same day, and each item is a reminder of what your product handles.
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A casebook of real customers
Three customers’ stories, told as problems solved rather than testimonials, persuade the reader who is in the same spot. Write them only from interviews you have permission to use.
Collection Start from this brief: A casebook of real customers
How to choose one
Start from the question your sales calls keep answering. If prospects ask how to choose, write the buyer’s guide. If trial users stall in setup, write the workbook. If support answers the same misreading every week, write the illustrated guide to that screen.
Keep it to one promise the reader can check. “Five pricing mistakes and the first fix for each” tells a founder in a line whether it is for them; “everything about pricing” does not.
Every brief here opens in Chapbook
Each idea comes with the paragraph Chapbook needs to start: the topic, the reader and the voice. Open one, change the product, the reader or the industry to yours, and Chapbook proposes titles and an outline to approve before anything is drafted. The first idea is shown expanded: the outline the planner proposed for it, and the book it became.
Questions people ask
What makes a good lead magnet for a SaaS company?
One that solves a specific problem your buyer has today, is short enough to finish in one sitting, and sits close enough to your product that the next step is obvious.
How long should a SaaS lead magnet be?
Long enough to keep one promise. A Chapbook lead magnet is 1,000 to 10,000 words, and you set each chapter's length in the outline before anything is drafted.
Can a lead magnet use my own product data?
Yes. Add up to 10 sources (PDFs, documents or web pages) to a book; chapters can cite them inline, and the read-through flags any figure no source supports.
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.