Three Types of Lead Magnets: Reveal, Sample, or Single Step

The Framework

The Three Types of Lead Magnets from Alex Hormozi's $100M Leads categorizes every possible lead magnet into one of three solution types, each creating a different relationship with your core offer. The type you choose determines how the lead magnet connects to your paid product — and getting this wrong is why most lead magnets generate downloads but not customers.

The Three Types

Type 1: Reveal the Problem (Diagnostic). Show people what's wrong without fixing it. A website audit that scores their site 37/100. A financial health check that reveals their retirement gap. A body composition analysis that shows their muscle-to-fat ratio. The diagnosis is valuable on its own — people genuinely want to know where they stand — but the revealed problem creates immediate demand for the solution.

Diagnostic lead magnets produce the highest conversion to core offers because they create urgency through specific, personalized awareness. Generic advice ("most businesses have website issues") produces mild concern. Specific diagnosis ("your page load time is 8.3 seconds and you're losing 47% of visitors") produces action. The specificity is the urgency mechanism.

Diagnostic magnets also qualify leads naturally: the person who wants a website audit is someone with a website who cares about its performance. The person who wants a body composition analysis is someone who cares about fitness. The magnet self-selects for relevance.

Type 2: Provide a Sample or Trial. Give people a direct experience of your core offer — a free class from your course, a trial month of your software, a complimentary session of your coaching. The sample lets them experience the quality firsthand, and the experience creates desire for the full product.

Samples work best when the core offer's value is experiential — hard to describe but obvious once experienced. A gym's free week convinces more skeptics than any sales page because the endorphin hit, community energy, and physical results speak louder than marketing copy. Software free trials work for the same reason: using the tool demonstrates value faster than reading about it.

The risk: samples that deliver too much value reduce urgency to upgrade. Hormozi's guidance is to make the sample genuinely excellent but clearly incomplete — a chapter from the book, not the whole book; a class from the course, not the whole course.

Type 3: Give One Step of a Multi-Step Process. Teach the first step completely and free, revealing that the first step is necessary but not sufficient. A cleaning company teaches the pre-treatment step; professional deep cleaning is step two. A marketing consultant teaches how to identify your target market; building the campaign is steps two through ten.

This type works because it demonstrates methodology. The prospect sees how you think, how thorough your approach is, and how much they don't know about steps 2-10. The first step also produces a small result that makes the full result feel achievable — which maps to Hormozi's Fast Wins Strategy from $100M Offers.

The one-step approach is the most versatile of the three because virtually every service or product can be broken into steps, and giving away step one is always safe. You've provided genuine value, demonstrated expertise, and created appetite for completion.

Combining Types With Delivery Methods

Hormozi pairs these three types with four delivery methods (software, information, services, physical products) to create a 3×4 matrix of 12 possible lead magnet configurations from a single narrow problem. This matrix is the innovation engine — when one lead magnet type underperforms, you don't abandon the narrow problem, you try a different type-delivery combination.

A real estate agent's "home value" narrow problem might produce: Type 1 + Software (automated valuation tool), Type 1 + Services (free comparative market analysis appointment), Type 2 + Information (guide to the first three steps of selling), or Type 3 + Services (free staging consultation covering just the living room). Each attracts a slightly different segment and converts through a different mechanism.

Cross-Library Connections

Dib's Results in Advance concept from Lean Marketing maps directly to Type 2 (samples): deliver meaningful results before purchase. Dib argues that giving away results seems counterintuitive but actually drives more revenue because it eliminates the buyer's primary objection — "what if it doesn't work for me?"

Cialdini's reciprocity principle from Influence powers all three types differently. Diagnostics create reciprocity through service ("they took the time to evaluate me"). Samples create reciprocity through experience ("they gave me something valuable"). Single steps create reciprocity through education ("they taught me something useful").

Voss's Behavioral Change Stairway Model from Never Split the Difference parallels Type 3: you build toward the full outcome (behavioral change) through progressive engagement (active listening → empathy → rapport → influence). Giving one step is the lead magnet version of building toward the close through sequential trust-building.

Implementation

Choose the type that best matches your core offer. If your offer is complex and hard to explain, use Type 2 (sample). If your audience doesn't know they have a problem, use Type 1 (diagnostic). If your offer is a multi-phase service, use Type 3 (single step).

Test at least two types for the same narrow problem. The matrix gives you 12 options — you won't know which converts best without testing.

Measure conversion to core offer, not lead magnet downloads. A diagnostic that produces 500 downloads and 20 customers beats a sample that produces 2,000 downloads and 5 customers.

Make the connection to your core offer explicit. The lead magnet must naturally surface the need that your paid offering addresses.

📚 From $100M Leads by Alex Hormozi — Get the book