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Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn Lead Magnets
Everything you need to know about this trending content format (with real examples)
Tommy Clark
April 29, 2025
Hey!
Welcome to Social Files—your no-BS guide to generating demand for your B2B product using social & content.
Hope your week is off to a great start. You’ll notice I’m sending this on a Tuesday rather than a Monday. The jet lag from my trip back to the US from Spain hit me a bit too hard.
Though apparently I came back at the right time—would not have been fun to get stuck there during a country-wide power outage…
Ok. Back to content. I’ve got a great guide for you today. We’re talking about a content format that is crushing right now on LinkedIn—lead magnets.
We’ll walk through how to execute them, the 5 different formats, and plenty of examples you can save as inspiration.
Shall we?
🔎 DEEP DIVE
Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn Lead Magnets
Everything you need to know about this trending content format (with real examples)
The founders who win on LinkedIn are alchemists. They know how to convert raw attention into revenue.
Attention on its own—likes, comments, shares—is ephemeral. It comes and goes, fast. If you are not intentional about moving those engagers towards a buying decision, you’ll end up on a treadmill.
The single most important idea to remember here: give your reader an obvious next step.
Point them towards where to go next, so they don’t just keep scrolling to the next post on the timeline…gone into the ether.
Lead magnets are one way to do this without relentlessly pitch-slapping your audience with “book a demo NOW!”
Lead magnets aren’t new. They’ve been in marketing forever. But I’m seeing them work really well on LinkedIn for startup founders right now.
In today’s guide, I’ll walk you through:
Characteristics of lead magnets that convert
Examples & templates for lead magnets you can use this week
How to turn opt-ins into demos booked more regularly (with examples)
Good VS Bad Lead Magnets
Beware of over-promising & burning your audience.
People who hate on lead magnets are typically folks who opted in for one, only to get a shitty PDF with zero value in return. I don’t blame them.
It is easy to make massive promises in the copy promoting your lead magnet:
“Here’s the EXACT cold email framework we used to book 50+ qualified demos per week”
“Here’s the paid ads system we used to scale from $5K to $500K per month in spend”
“Here’s a custom GPT that will write better copy than any Content Writer”
These all sound great. But if you fail to deliver, which many folks do, you burn whatever trust you had with your prospect.
Now they view you as a liar. Would you buy from someone who is a liar?
No? Thought so.
Here are two questions I want you to filter every lead magnet through (to avoid pitchforks and end up with happy leads who love you):
“Would the ICP pay $50 for this lead magnet if it was a paid product?
“Would the ICP share this with their boss in a Slack DM?”
If the answer to either is “NO,” the lead magnet will likely flop.
Great lead magnets decrease friction.
Great lead magnets are also low friction. You don’t want someone to read the hook and think, “That’s a lot of work.”
You want the reader to feel like they can download the lead magnet and use it instantly. This is why templates & frameworks hit so well. People feel like they can plug-and-play templates to help them do their job better.
For example:
“20 cold email templates we used in 2025 to book 20+ qualified demos per week” would perform better than “Ultimate Guide to Cold Email in 2025.”
The latter isn’t even “bad.” It’s just kind of meh. The former would crush, since it has specific data that makes the resource appealing (reader think, I want to book 20+ meetings per week).
Also, the template framing lowers the friction of using the lead magnet. See how this works?
You'll also notice that a lot of winning lead magnets have specific numbers and data. Ideally, you want an eye-catching, large, specific number. You’ll see this in a lot of the examples I share in the next section. Of course, it's important to make sure you can back that data up (this should be obvious).
Great lead magnets are paired with strong visuals.
This concept is more specific to social & LinkedIn.
I find that a lot of the lead magnets which perform well are paired with a compelling image or video that functions as a visual hook.
For example, this Google Ads Playbook that Austin Hughes published is paired with a graph which visualizes the increase in pipeline generated over time.
This example of a 3rd party breakdown of Alex Hormozi’s Skool funnel is paired with a GIF of said funnel. This gives the reader a sneak preview of the asset they will get access too. To close the loop and see the video, they need to opt in.
The visual should give away enough information to be interesting, but withhold enough to drive the opt in.
A few options:
Share a graph or chart that visualizes data relevant to the lead magnet
Share a diagram or visual of the actual deliverable (this works well when sharing a ‘funnel’ or ‘workflow’ where there is a flow chart)
Share a GIF scrolling through the guide or playbook (too fast for someone to read on the timeline)
TLDR: Think of the visual for lead magnet posts like a YouTuber thinks of their thumbnails.
Winning LinkedIn Lead Magnet Examples
(1) Templates & Frameworks
What it is: Is there a process or practice that you can frame as a template for your ICP?
Why it works: Low perceived friction to use. People love to use templates as inspiration in their work.
Examples:
Power words that work well here:
Template
Framework
Workflow
Swipe Files
Large numbers (”99 tactics,” “75 templates,” etc)
(2) Database
What it is:
Why it works: Similar to templates. People love to save inspiration to use in their work.
Examples:
(3) Proprietary Data
What it is: Share insights from data your ICP cares about, which only you have access to. This can be analytics from your product or first-party research that your content team conducts.
Why it works: People love to get insider information that will help them do their job better. You make them feel like they’re getting a look behind the curtain, and access to information their competitors don’t have.
Examples:
“After analyzing $1B+ in ad spend across 4,000+ DTC brands, here are 5 key insights we've uncovered” (example)
B2B Marketing Compensation Report (example)
Line I loved from the copy: “We surveyed 1,000+ B2B marketers and crunched the numbers to shed light on what they’re really making in 2025.”
99 agency growth strategies (example)
(4) Blueprints & Playbooks
What it is: Document and share a blueprint of a workflow or strategy that your ICP wants to implement and is relevant to your product.
Why it works: Similar to templates & databases, people love to have the plan laid out for them. They want to copy what works. And packaging something as a “blueprint” or “playbook” hits on this desire.
Examples:
Power words that work well here:
Blueprint
Playbook
Guide
System
(5) 3rd Party Playbooks
What it is: Same idea as Blueprints & Playbooks, with one difference. Take someone else’s strategy (usually a well known person or company) and publish your breakdown of it.
Why it works: taps into the same desires as the other formats we’ve discussed, AND uses a strategy called “credibility jacking.” The popular name in the hook stops the scroll, even if the reader doesn’t know who YOU are yet.
Example:
(5) Newsletters
What it is: Take a newsletter you wrote, and frame it using one of the above angles.
Why it works: Allows you to repurpose content that already exists. Drives visibility & subscribers to your newsletter
Examples:
Founder-led content playbook used to generate 200-500K impressions per week (example)
Notice how we framed the newsletter piece as a “guide.” I don’t think saying “I wrote a newsletter” would have hit the same.
I wrote this newsletter on 40 lessons I learned in 7 years posting on LinkedIn. I could frame this as either a Blueprint or Database, and then use the lead magnet format on LinkedIn to drive people to this newsletter.
You can also use this same framework for YouTube videos. I haven’t seen this as much on LinkedIn yet, but creators on Instagram use “Comment for X” posts to drive YT viewership (example).
How often should you plug lead magnets?
Of course, it depends. But as a starting point, here’s how I approach it:
→ Run 1x “Comment for X” post per week on LinkedIn (as of now—this might evolve as the format runs its course)
→ Drop a “PS line” CTA in 2-3x posts per week. These are less invasive, and nudge readers to take the next step in your funnel.
→ Set a Lead Magnet as one of the Featured Links in your LinkedIn bio (I have Social Files as a FL in my bio).
→ You can also set your lead magnet as your main link in bio. Though some founders prefer to direct this to a “book a demo” page. I send mine to newsletter, but this is because we have a waitlist for Compound and I’m not as concerned about booking meetings right now.
Turning attention into pipeline.
Ok, so you have your lead magnet. How do you take people who opt-in and turn move them closer to becoming a buyer?
(1) Include a CTA at the end of your lead magnet. On the last page, slide, frame of the asset you give away…include a CTA to book a demo with your team. A percentage of the people who consume your lead magnet will do this.
(2) Feed subscribers into an email nurture sequence. I’m not sure why more SaaS marketers don’t do this. Say what you want about info products, those people have their email flows dialed. I think there is an opportunity to take people who opt in to your lead magnet and run them through a 15-30 day nurture sequence. I currently have a 30-day nurture sequence set up for anyone who subscribes to Social Files.
You’ll want your emails to alternate between:
Highlighting pain points your ICP faces
Sharing case studies and social proof from happy customers
Giving value & educational content that positions you as a trust expert
Your lead magnet is the bridge that gets someone off the timeline and into your inbox.
(3) Have your SDRs engage with leads who opt in. People who opt in to a lead magnet (given that it’s relevant to your product) are high intent. Release the hounds (your sales team) and have them follow up via email or LinkedIn to try and book a demo.
Here’s an example of what this could look like (this came from the founder’s account):
Don’t go crazy here, but sending a simple nudge is a great way to move folks who are interested along in the buyer’s journey faster. You could get someone who would have booked 1 month from now to book for this week.
Your cheat sheet
Ok. This all sounds great. What are your tangible next steps?
(1) Commit to shipping 1x lead magnet every other week. If you have the capacity to go weekly, go for it. But I’d urge you to take the time to make every lead magnet A+. A 10/10 lead magnet will drive 10x the performance of a 7/10 lead magnet.
(2) Pick one of the formats above. I’d recommend going with Templates first. Those seem to crush the most predictably.
(3) Identify tangible, compelling metrics you have use in the hook. For example, can you share cold email sequences which “booked you 100+ qualified meetings in 30 days?” The more hard numbers you have, the better it will perform.
(4) Set up your infrastructure to convert attention into pipeline. Do you have a newsletter you can drive folks to? Do you have an email nurture sequence for the first 7-30 days post opt-in? Do you have a follow up sequence for your SDRs to run? Are you connecting with all ICP engagers on LinkedIn, so they see your future content? Once someone engages with one of these posts, they should be in your flywheel forever.
(5) Bonus tip here: you can also take the material in the lead magnet and post it as its own native content. First, post the gated version where people have to comment to get access. 2-3 weeks later, post another variation where you just share the information in the lead magnet on the timeline without gating it.
If you follow this guide by the book, you will generate more email subscribers, and more pipeline. You will continue to decrease your reliance on the social algorithm. And you’ll find that your content is less reliant on the fickle LinkedIn algorithm.
Hope this helps.
If you're just getting started with founder-led content, I’d recommend checking this essay out next. 40 lessons I learned from 10,000+ LinkedIn posts.
🗃 FILE CABINET
Here’s my favorite marketing and business content I bookmarked this week.
How to Grow From 0 to 10,000 Followers on LinkedIn FAST ****by Tommy Clark 🎥
The New Rules of YouTube (2025) by Colin & Samir (feat. Paddy Galloway) 🎥
How to build a brand (full course) by Caleb Ralston
Check these out.
BEFORE YOU GO…
As always, thanks for allowing me into your email inbox every week.
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Talk soon,
Tommy Clark