This post dives into 3 questions to ask yourself about your freebie and gives you 20 opt-in ideas and examples you can offer your ideal clients to set yourself apart.

As business owners, we need to grow our email lists.

The money is in the list.

But how do you actually do that?

You create a really great free offer in exchange for an email address.

Sounds easy enough, right?

Sure, if you had all the time in the world.

As an entrepreneur, your time is limited.

And your time is valuable.

If you don’t have any way of collecting email addresses at all yet, JUST GET SOMETHING OUT THERE.

Done is better than none. But don’t put crap out there. It has to be valuable.

Ask yourself these 3 questions about your free opt-in:

1. Does my free offer just provide tips and tricks or does it solve a problem?

Tips, tricks and free content is everywhere. You have to connect with your client emotionally and actually give them a transformation. Take them from point A to point B and leave them asking how you can get them to point C.

If you cannot form a transformation for them in your free stuff, what makes them want to get out their wallet to pay you for a transformation.

2. Do you have a strategy?

Think about the logical next step for your ideal client after they complete your free offer. Is it your paid product or service? 

3. Does your free offer start to build know, like and trust?

Your free offer has to show your expertise and get your new subscriber to start trusting in you.

For example, let’s say you are a personal trainer and your free offer is a video series that shows your ideal client various ways to exercise their abs without sit ups. Your new subscriber throws in a few of these exercises and feels great. Now they want to know how to lose some extra weight and firm up their backside, guess who they are going to ask for help?

Learn best by example?

Me too.

Here are 20 free opt-in ideas + examples you could offer your readers:

Note: If this is the first opt-in you have ever created and you do not have a very engaged audience, I suggest keeping it simple (a checklist, worksheet, resource guide, short and to the point pdf., etc).

Simple does not mean lack of value. Too much information can actually overwhelm people.

You don’t want to put a ton of time into something that is too big of a commitment for an audience who is still getting to know you and deciding if they trust you.

They are coming to you for understanding and clear direction. They don’t want to have to think or work too hard.

PDF or Ebook

This can cover pretty much ANY topic and is easy to create in Canva or just lay it all out in a Word.doc then turn it into a PDF.

PDF Download Example: Steph from Stupid Easy Paleo: 7 Day Paleo Meal Plan – She includes the meal plan, recipes, and shopping list.

Ebook Example: Jase Stuart Men’s Health Mentor: 14 Non-Diet Fat Loss Hacks – Anything to do with weight loss and nutrition is kind of the low hanging fruit in the fitness industry – people eat it up! In his book, Jase gives simple, shortcut strategies to hack your weight.

Checklist

Oh my, do people LOVE checklists! You could put the steps to the process you teach into a checklist. Or offer a checklist that will help idea client stay organized and save him or her time. You can create a checklist in Canva and save it to a PDF.

Example: Amy Porterfield’s Ultimate Checklist for Troubleshooting When Conversations are Down – Amy offers a free download with most podcast episodes.

Cheat Sheet

A cheat sheet offers a quick solutions and lists point or steps to achieve a result.

Example: Jenny Melrose’s Pitch Perfect Cheat Sheet – Jenny includes a cheat sheets, check list, and real life examples on how to pitch to brands and make money from your blog.

Worksheet

These often go along with a blog post or course to add value and enhance the reader’s experience. It helps organize a bunch of information into one visually appealing place.

Example: Beth Brombosz from Blogger to Author: First Steps to Your First Book worksheets – Helps you get organized and get started with writing your ebook.

Workshop / Workbook 

This is a great way to provide amazing value, connect with your audience and lead into a high-ticket offer.

Example: Kelly Roach’s Live Launch Method offers a live workshop with a workbook that teaches enrepreneur’s how to do the same thing!

Guide 

Similar to any other PDF you create, a guide can be about any kind of helpful tips or strategies that will help your audience.

Example: Jill Fit offers a few different free guides– A Cardio Guide, A 3-Day De-bloat Guide, and a Mindset Manuel

Resource Guide

This is a roundup of your favorite resources, tools, apps, programs, etc. that will save your audience time and allow them to skip past the trial and error stage.

Example: Jenna Kutcher’s 5 Must-Have Apps for Instagram – Some her favorite tools

Templates

Give your readers the templates you use or your clients use to achieve a specific result. This can be a google doc, spreadsheet, etc…

Example:  My 12-week Nutrition Program Outline – This is my outline of a nutrition program with topics, descriptions and action items. It leads into the whole done-for-you program if people need more support.

Swipe File or “Done-for-you” Content”

People are busy and love “done-for-you” content because they don’t have to re-create the wheel, so these are usually a great opt-in. Think emails, copy, examples, etc

Example: Health and Finess Social Media Content – This is my sneak peak at the Content Solution Club and includes recipes, images, social media posts and a lead magent.

Behind-the-scenes Content

Everyone loves to get behind the scenes and feel like a VIP. This could be case studies, things that have worked or did not work, questions and answers from clients, anything you use that has helped you to XYZ, etc.

Example: Jenna Kutcher’s 3 Life Changing Secrets from my $100k a Day Business Coach – She shares a personal story and lessons

Quiz

You can have your readers take the quiz, but then have to opt-in to your email list in order to get their results. Or, provide an additional resource that helps explain their results.

Example: What Kind of Leader Are You? – This is my quiz that helps you to discover your leadership strengths and how to use them to inspire others. The quiz and results are free, but if you want more details about your results, you provide your email address.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BUILD YOUR OWN QUIZ?

I love how easy Interact is to use (<– yep, that’s an affiliate link because it is an amazing and easy-to-use quiz builder platform)

Webinar

This could be a live or previously recorded webinar. The appeal of a free live (or recorded) training is much higher than a free PDF.

Example: ProBlogger’s 10 Things I Wish I knew About Blogging – You can access the recoridng here.

Video Series

This is a common lead magnet for an online course, because the video trainings typically offer much higher value than some of the other opt-ins. This is a common opt-in for an online course and the videos can include topics included inside the course.

Example: Beth Brombosz’s 5 Day Yoga Jump Start video series – Every day for five days, you get an email with a link to a video (around five minutes long) with an exercise for that day.

Video Training or Tutorial

This is just one video training and can be a mini version of the video series. You may also add a small PDF download that goes with the video.

Example: Jasmine Star’s Instagram Training – This is over but the lading page gives you the idea.

Audio Training

This is a nuque way to reach people who prefer audio over video or reading.

Example: Marie Forleo’s How To Get Anything You Want Audio Download – It is like listening to her audio book. 😉

Live Call/ 1:1 Calls

This is a great opportunity for your audience to ask you questions and for you to learn more about your audience!

Example: Kelly Roach offers both of these during her launches

Challenge

These are super popular in the health and fitness industry because they are meant to keep participants accountable. Challenges are usually based around a specific skill or problem-area. You want to keep them short enough that people stay engaged but long enough that they achieve a result.

Examples: Beyond Fit Mom’s 7 Day Jump Start Challenge – This is an intro to one of the many plans and challenges she offers

Email Course

This is a great option to get your audience used to opening your emails and allows you to break up a series of steps into separate emails over the course of 1-3 weeks.

Example: Jill Fit’s 7-Day Biz School for Health + Fitness Pros – This was such a good email course!!

Resource Library

This is a great idea if you have a bunch of smaller opt-in freebies and you want them to all be stored in the same place. It is also a very valuable opt-in as your ideal client is getting tons of tips, tricks, and resources.

Example: My Business Builders Resource Library – Includes

• Framework for Starting an Online Business
• Yearly Success Planner for Goals, Content + Marketing
• 3-Month Launch Blueprint
• Facebook Ad Copy Template

Online Summit

This is a REALLY content-packed series of video interviews that usually leads into a high ticket program. Sometimes you can only access the videos for a certain period of time (usually 24 hours), other times they are available to subscribers forever.

Example: Danielle’s Courageous Mama Summit – Summit is over but people can still access content for a cost.