25 Creative Opt-in Freebie Ideas That’ll Help You Create Your Own

What’s up, action taker?! If you’re getting ready to create an opt-in freebie to your website and you’re looking for some creative opt-in freebie ideas… You are exactly in the right place, right now! (Don’t you just love when that happens??)

I’m sure you know this, but growing your email list is one of the most important steps in getting your blog or business to the next level. Even if you are on every social media channel known to woman, you don’t own ANY of that information or those people! Instagram or Facebook could vanish from the interwebs tomorrow – and all of your followers would disappear along with it. Scary thought, huh?

That’s exactly why you need a high-converting opt-in freebie.

Looking for Opt-In Freebie Ideas?

We’re probably a lot alike. Whenever I get a new idea in my head or an itch to create something new, I ALWAYS do a good amount of research. Like you, I like to see what other people are already doing that is working. I don’t research to steal ideas or copy, but just to get that initial inspiration I need to get started working on my own projects.

And I have a feeling that is exactly what you are doing right this very second. Am I right?

So in this post, I’m going to answer some burning hot questions about opt-in freebies and share some of the best opt-in freebie ideas from around the web. We’re talking knock-your-socks-off, make you wanna hand your email address over kind of opt-in freebie ideas that you can use for your very own inspiration!

Alright, let’s dig in!

What is an Opt-in Freebie?

Opt-in freebie, lead magnet, content upgrade… whatever you want to call it, all of these things are very similar. They’re any piece of content that you give away in exchange for an email address. Your opt-in freebie could be a .pdf, checklist, guide, eBook, or any other digital product.

An opt-in freebie often leads your viewers to a paid product or service, but if you don’t have that yet, don’t fret. You can use your growing list to offer your audience valuable information and get them to trust you so that when you do have a product or service, you have a nice little bunch of dream customers primed and ready to buy.

Types of Opt-In Freebies

There are SO many unique ways that you can grow your email list with an opt-in freebie. Here are a few things to think about to help you narrow it down:

• What content do you plan to provide your viewer?
• What do you want your viewer’s experience to be like?
• What will be most feasible for you to create?
• What is the goal of the freebie? (Purchase product, sign up for service, etc.)

There is no one size fits all, and it really depends on what content you want to create, what your audience prefers, and what you feel is most feasible.

Here are 25 opt-in freebie ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

1. Audio transcript or file
2. Access to an exclusive Facebook group
3. Behind-the-scenes content
4. Checklist
5. Free challenge
6. Mini-course
7. Free Consultation
8. Resource Library
9. Webinar
10. Worksheet
11. Step-by-step or How to
12. Templates
13. Roadmap
14. PDF guide
15. Workshop
16. Email course
17. Live Training
18. Free trial
19. Discount
20. eBook
21. Swipe Files
22. Roundup of Resources
23. Bundle of things
24. Video Tutorial
25. Free review or coaching call

What Makes An Irresistible Opt-In Freebie?

Great content that provides your audience with value is key to an irresistible opt-in freebie. You also need to make sure that it is targeted to your dream customer and not too vague; you don’t want to attract the wrong people. It’s better to have a small email list of 250 ideal clients than an email list of 1000 people who don’t really need or care about what you have to offer.

But that’s not all! Just like with any type of marketing you do for your blog or online business, there is another VERY, VERY important piece of the puzzle that you need to make sure is on-point.

An irresistible opt-in-freebie will also be well-designed and visually pleasing to your audience.

The actual look and feel of any type of opt-in freebie will be one of the first things that your viewer will notice before they even decide if they want to learn more about what you have to offer.

Your opt-in freebie might be the very first impression someone gets of you and if you don’t nail it, you could risk them clicking away before digging into your awesome content.

HOLD UP! Free Design Training Alert!

If you’re ready to create your opt-in freebie yesterday,  and itching to learn more about branding your business, designing amazing graphics to market your content (aka your opt-in freebie!), and offers with a healthy dose of Canva know-how, tune into my free, on-demand graphic design training, Design Class 101: From Chaos to Canva Pro!

So go ahead and enroll and then you can pop right back over this article for inspiring opt-in freebie ideas!

Sweet, you’re back. Alright, now on to the show…

Opt-in Examples and Digital Freebie Ideas

So now that you know what an opt-in is, the different types of opt-ins you might want to create for your audience and what makes an irresistible opt-in, let’s dig into the goods! I’ve scoured the corners of the internet, reached out to my favorite influencers, and put together an EPIC collection of opt-in freebie ideas and examples just for you!

Take note: all of these opt-in freebies are targeted at a specific audience, and most importantly, LOOK PROFESSIONAL!

Branding & Design Quickstart Guide // kristinrappaport.com (my opt-in freebie!)

I couldn’t start this round-up without tooting my own horn a little. This little lady of mine brings me tons of email subscribers each and every day. These are all people who want better manage the design side of their business: bloggers, online business owners, digital product creators, Esty shop owners…the list goes on!

5 Day Postpartum Reset // earlyrootsnutrition.com

Krista from earlyrootsnutrition.com has been blogging for about a year.  Krista’s opt-in freebie grew her email list from 24 to nearly 200 in just two months. She uses Pinterest to promote her blog posts, and that method brings her anywhere from 1-4 subscribers a day without having to do much. Check out her 5 Day Postpartum Reset!

The Blog Plan // startamomblog.com

Suzi from startamomblog.com is indeed an inspiration when it comes to successful opt-ins! Suzi has multiple opt-ins and countless different printables on her blog, but she mainly promotes her 12 Month Blog Plan. These are the exact steps she used to grow her blog from $0 to over $9,000 per month in less than a year.  I nearly fell out of my seat when I found out how many email subscribers Suzi gets per month. Are you ready for it?

Keep scrolling!

Almost there! 🙂

3,000! Yes, you read that right! 3,000 email subscribers each month! She must be doing something right.

I love that Suzi’s blog plan uses eye-catching colors along with easy to read, bold fonts. I also admire her font choice and the playful way she handled the colors on the cover of her opt-in freebie. Check out her blog plan here.

If you’re wanting to start a blog but don’t know quite where to start, Suzi’s course, Blog by Number is a fantastic course you need to get your blog up and running in no time. With numbers like hers, you can be sure you’ll be learning from a pro!

The Blog Launch Checklist // themillennialsahm.com

Kermilia has only been blogging for a few months and writes about all things Motherhood, parenting, and blogging! She recently published her very first opt-in, and although she was extremely nervous to put it out there, she has successfully gotten over 150 subscribers since releasing it.

I love that Kermilia’s opt-in is simple and easy to follow. It makes implementing the must-dos on her Blog Launch Checklist that much easier! Check out her op-in here.

Is Your Brand Cool – Worksheet // sophiennewman.com

Sophie has been blogging for about a year but only recently started to level up her content by providing more freebies. Her niche is creatives and entrepreneurs who are trying to showcase their brand and reach their target audience online. She helps them understand their awesomeness and build a presence that connects with their market, which is super important for any online business who wants to get noticed! She uses about five opt-ins to see what people are most interested in; however, her marketing quiz that helps people figure out where to focus their marketing efforts is giving her the best results.

What I love about the designs of Sophies opt-in freebie is that her brand really shines through. She uses exciting stock photos with a blue overlay. The simple font is also a winner in my design eye! You can download this freebie, along with a few others here.

Website Worksheet // julesdesign.co

Julie has been blogging for a little over a year now. She creates content for female entrepreneurs and tends to work with businesses that have a holistic or natural component to them like health coaches, yoga studios, and green beauty companies. In regards to the success she has seen from her opt-in, the Website Worksheet, she shared this with me:

“My Website Worksheet is a really helpful tool for business owners who want to start improving their own website – and quick! I’m happy with the growth that I’ve seen since I started offering the Website Worksheet through these opt-in’s. Just since September, my list has grown by about 75%. I attribute this to my clear and effective opt-ins, as well, as promoting the worksheet.”

Grab a copy of her worksheet here.

Free Printable Library // thismomlife.co

My friend Bridget has been blogging since May 2017. She blogs about simple, actionable strategies that can enhance your every day. She has an adorable little boy as well who I am sure was the inspiration for her adorable printables. As a new blogger, Bridget understood the importance of investing in her blog and purchased some adorable clip art from Whimsy Clips. She then created a set of free printables and popped them into a printable library where readers have to supply their email addresses for access. These printables are something that my mom would hand over her email address for, Bridget also shares tips for maximizing results with the printables in her blog posts! Win-Win!

Visit Bridget’s resource library and download these adorable printables here.

Goal Planning for Busy Moms // redefiningmom.com

When I think of bloggers who are impacting and changing the lives of moms who want to build a business and crush their goals, Monica is one of the first that comes to mind. She’s been blogging for almost five years and to say that this woman knows what she is doing is an understatement! I have spent countless hours on her blog, Redefining Mom, and interacted with her in her Facebook group. Monica has a super successful opt-in, Goal Planning for Busy Moms (what mom isn’t busy?!) that she launched in 2016. Within two weeks, she had gotten over 1,000 sign-ups! She’s killing it again with a redesigned opt-in freebie that she is heavily promoting and has already reached over 500 signups in a single week. 

Monica’s opt-in is lengthy and contains tons of information, but has a ton of variance and use of different styles that keeps the reader engaged while guiding them through the plan. Her font choices are casual which makes you feel like you are talking with a friend, and I like that about her opt-in. Check out her opt-in freebie here.

Traffic Tactics // momsmakecents.com

McKinzie, founder of Moms Make Cents, offers a handful of different opt-ins, and every one of them is well designed and looks phenomenal! McKinzie has lots of success with her digital freebies, but her most successful opt-in one is her free Pinterest course which brings her 500-600 email subscribers a month. The course itself is video-based but she markets her Pinterest course with eye-catching graphics that lets you know she means business. Check out her well-designed resources page where you can check out what she’s got going on in her land of opt-ins!

2017 Holiday Planner // livingwellspendingless.com

Although I wasn’t able to get a hold of Ruth herself, (I am sure she is busy running her multi-million dollar online businesses) I still wanted to feature her opt-in freebie that I recently downloaded, the 2017 Holiday Planner. This is a perfect example of a seasonal opt-in that has the potential to bring you in hundreds of subscribers. All of Ruth’s freebies and products are fantastically (I may have just made that word up.) designed, and I think that has a lot to do with how successful she is. Ruth is a very successful blogger and is the person behind the well-known blogging course, Elite Blog Academy. Check out Ruth’s blog, where you can check out all kinds of fabulous opt-ins!

How Do You Make an Opt-In Freebie?

Once you know what format you’re going to use, you can get to the fun part of actually creating your opt-in freebie! This is the most important part of the whole process and it’s okay if it seems a little overwhelming.

If you need to create a digital product like a checklist, cheatsheet, workbook or printable type freebie, you can use free design software like Canva. Canva is perfect for DIY designers creating visual content since there isn’t a huge learning curve like there would be with more advanced design programs. With Canva, you can create worksheets, checklists, multi-page documents and even slide decks for webinar and video training opt-ins.

Here’s a 30-day trial of Canva Pro if you want to check it out.

I dig into the step-by-step opt-in design process for creating an opt-in freebie in this post.

If you choose to do a webinar or anything that involves video, my favorite easy-to-use tool is Screencast-O-Matic. You can record and even do small edits within the software. There’s a small charge but this is what has worked well for me.

Opt-In Freebie Promotional Graphics

Once your freebie is designed, you’ll need a few graphics to promote it! You’ll want them to have the same look and feel and overall aesthetic; ideally both with the same fonts, colors, and imagery. One thing I like to do is bring my opt-in freebie to life with mockups like tablet screens, and computer screens or just dropping in the .jpg of my final freebie. I think this helps any digital product feel more “real”and has a higher perceived value. Here are some promotional graphics you might want to create to market your opt-in:

• Horizontal in-post graphic
• Sidebar graphic
• Pinterest pins
• Facebook share graphic

Opt-In Freebie Templates

Canva has tons of opt-in freebie templates that you can use to get started. Once you are in Canva, click on “Create a New Design”. I usually just create a custom-sized document that is 8.5″ x 11″ – the standard letter size. Of course, this size will be different if you’re creating webinar slides or something totally unique for your audience.

You can work from scratch and create your own layout, which will be the best option since you’ll be in total control of what your opt-in freebie looks like. However, I do understand that the thought of designing something from scratch can be super intimidating. That’s where an opt-in template will come in handy.

If you’re ready to start creating, check out Launch Your List over in The Design Shop, which includes 40+ page layout templates AND design training! You’ll be able to create your lead magnet or opt-in freebie in NO time!

Whether you start from scratch or go the template route, you’ll still want to keep basic graphic design principles in mind and avoid making silly design mistakes.

I hope these opt-in freebie ideas give you the inspiration you need to create your own!

I can’t wait to see what you create!