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Tutorial: Collect Your First Emails With a Lead Magnet

Offer a free resource, such as a PDF, a checklist, a mini-course or a template, in exchange for an email address. This free resource is what's called a lead magnet. It's one of the most effective ways to grow your contact list with people who are already interested in your topic.

There are two ways to set this up on TinyPages. Choose the one that fits your situation.

  • Option A is the fastest to build and works on every plan (the free plan allows a single lead magnet, meaning one free product), but it sends an automatic access email you can't customize or turn off. If you also send your own welcome email, your contacts get two emails close together.
  • Option B takes a few more steps and lets you send a single welcome email that you fully control. It's the right fit for a downloadable resource like a PDF. Without a free product, your contacts don't get access to the member area: avoid this option if your lead magnet is a mini-course. Option B relies on an automation, so it requires the Pro plan.

If you turned on double opt-in (an email asking each new contact to confirm their address), your contacts also receive that confirmation email, whichever option you choose.

Option A: the lead magnet in the form (simplest)​

This approach puts everything on one page: the visitor sees your offer, enters their email, and immediately receives the free resource.

  1. Go to Products in your dashboard → click Create product.
  2. Set the price to $0 → click Create.
  3. Go to Web pages → click Create page. The page opens in the editor.
  4. Build your page: write a headline, then present the free resource and what it brings.
  5. In the editor, type /email to insert the Email form block.
  6. Click on the Email form block → the settings panel opens on the right → turn on Subscribe to a lead magnet → select the free product you created in step 1.
  7. Click Publish → choose the end of the page address, called the slug (e.g., free-guide) → confirm.
  8. Share the page link with your audience.

Option B: two pages and your own welcome email​

This approach offers the resource on a dedicated thank-you page and sends your welcome email through an automation you build yourself. There's no free product involved, so no automatic access email goes out: each new contact gets a single email, written by you.

Pro feature

To publish the welcome email of step 5, you need the Pro plan. On the free plan, the automation stays unpublished and your contacts receive nothing, so use Option A instead.

  1. Go to Web pages → click Create page → create your thank-you page. Type /file to insert a File block and upload your PDF, so people can download it right on this page → click Publish.
  2. Create a second page, your sign-up page → insert an Email form block.
  3. In the block settings panel, turn on Tag contacts and choose a tag (e.g., lead-magnet-guide). Under Redirect after signup, pick the thank-you page created in step 1: the list shows your published pages, next to Default confirmation page and Custom URL. Leave Subscribe to a lead magnet off.
  4. Publish the sign-up page: click Publish.
  5. Go to Automations → click Create an automation → open the A tag tab → choose the tag from step 3. Write your welcome email, click Next, set Send on day to 0 (sent as soon as the person signs up), then click Publish.

With Option B, the thank-you page can also present a paid offer, a natural next step once the contact has received their free resource.

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