Types of lead magnet: choose the smallest that works.

Pick the smallest format that finishes the job.

"I know I need a lead magnet. I just keep choosing the wrong shape, then lose a fortnight to a workbook nobody finishes." If that is roughly how your last attempt went, the idea was probably fine. The format was wrong.

The fix is one question asked before you open a template: what is this reader trying to do this week? Decide, do or learn. Answer that, choose the smallest format that lets them finish, and the outline follows the format instead of your notes being forced into someone else's layout.

Below: six formats mapped to those tasks, a shrink rule for a workbook that has already grown, and a worked example that ends as one page.

Sort the types by the reader's task, not the file type.

Lists of lead magnet types usually organise by file: PDF, video, quiz, email course. That helps when you choose a delivery route. It does not help you decide what to write. Group by the job instead, then pick the file that carries it.

1. Decide. "Is this worth my attention?" Smallest fit: a scorecard. Leave out: background theory and a scale that needs explaining twice.
2. Do. "How do I finish this step without missing something?" Smallest fit: a checklist, or a worksheet when they must use their own numbers. Leave out: the case for doing it at all.
3. Learn. "What does good look like?" Smallest fit: one short mini-guide on one narrow problem. Leave out: exercises that need a facilitator.

A resource that tries to serve all three usually serves none. Name the primary task in the title: "Month-end close checklist" tells one reader they are in the right place and everyone else that they are not. That filtering is the useful part.

Worksheet G in the free Brief Builder walks through this choice; G2 sets an outline and length budget.

Six formats and what each one is for.

These are the formats consultancies reach for most often. The second sentence in each card is where over-scoping usually starts.

Checklists, scorecards and worksheets are easy to confuse. A checklist confirms steps were completed. A scorecard compares a few judgements over time. A worksheet makes room to think one decision through with real numbers. Tick boxes plus a score out of ten means two formats. Pick one.

If you are torn between a tick-box resource and a written one, see checklist or mini-guide.

Lead magnet PDF examples, shrunk to fit.

Each fictional example below ends with one artefact. They are illustrative, not client results.

• Ledgerwise Finance (fractional CFO), monthly cash review. Task: do. One page of review questions in review order, plus one line for the decision taken. Not a treasury handbook.
• Northbeam Studio (agency), client kickoff. Task: do, then decide. One sheet: what to confirm before the kickoff call, what to agree during it. Not a project toolkit.
• Rowanfield Career Coaching (coach), role change. Task: decide. A short scorecard completed alone before a first conversation. Not a careers workbook.

A workbook looks more substantial in your downloads folder. But a reader who never finishes the file never sees the part that would have helped, and never associates that help with you.

The shrink rule: cut before you redesign.

If the draft has already grown, do not start over. Work through these five steps in order, before you touch the layout.

Then read the draft with one person from your audience and watch where they pause. If they ask what to write in a box, the instruction is unclear. If they skip a section, it was not needed.

Worked example: a workbook cut to one page.

Illustrative example, not a client project. A hypothetical strategy consultant drafts an operating rhythm workbook, then applies the shrink rule.

1. A welcome note and a page on why operating rhythm matters became two sentences above the working page.
2. A twenty-question self-assessment became six criteria the reader can judge in a minute.
3. A weekly meeting agenda moved into the follow-up emails.
4. Monthly and quarterly planning chapters became one line: the next review date.
5. A glossary was removed; that vocabulary belongs in the consultant's notes.

The published file is one side of A4:

• Title: the task and stage, such as "Weekly operating review, before your first month end".
• Purpose and instructions: two lines each. Score each row 0, 1 or 2; circle the lowest.
• Six rows: one criterion each, in your clients' language, with a short evidence line.
• One total, one decision line, one next step and a review date.

If it does not fit, cut a criterion rather than the answer space. Six criteria with room to write beat twelve crowded onto the page. The longer material is not wasted; it becomes follow-up emails and paid work.

Make it specific enough that it does not collect dust.

The honest answer to "I have downloaded workbooks that just collect dust" is that many free resources are written for everyone, so they fit nobody. A smaller format only helps if the content could only have come from your niche.

• Use the words your clients use on calls.
• Name the stage, such as "before your first operations review".
• Add one judgement only a practitioner would: a common mistake, an exception, a sign to stop.
• Cite or remove every factual claim.

A drafted structure is not the problem by itself. The problem is a file containing nothing you could only have learned from doing the work. Keep the structure if it helps, replace the judgement with your own, and check the claims. The free Source and Claim Review Checklist gives you ten checks and three claim records; reviewing AI-written claims covers the judgement part. No format filters out freebie-seekers completely, but asking for a decision that only makes sense if the reader has the problem reduces the mismatch.

What a lead magnet design template is for.

A template is good at the tedious parts: page hierarchy, answer space, a title block that survives a phone screen, fillable fields that keep what was typed. It is not good at the part that makes the resource yours.

If you need a print-size version of a social image, Canva's plan page describes Magic Resize as reformatting a design for another size with a single click. Check the result page by page.

Check the licence before you publish, especially if a client will receive the file. Canva's Content License Agreement, for example, licenses Pro Content for a single design and issues a new licence for each new design, including a Magic Resized one. Transferring a design to a client adds conditions: a written agreement, use limited to that client's purposes, and the designer remaining responsible for compliance. Read the current terms and ask a qualified adviser about commercial use. For the export side, see formatting a PDF readers can use and what to check in template packs.

Your format decision checklist.

Run this before you draft, and again before you export.

• The reader's primary task is written down: decide, do or learn.
• The format is the smallest one that still lets a stranger finish.
• The title names the task and the stage, not the topic.
• One output exists at the end, and the page says what it is.
• Every page has a one-line job.
• The wording comes from your clients, not the template.
• Every claim is checkable or removed.
• Licences for any template assets are confirmed.

Questions about choosing a format.

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