A lead magnet is a Resource published publicly that asks for an email address before it opens. Someone who has never heard of you reads a post, follows a link, hands over an email, and gets what they came for. You get a contact.

This is the cheapest way to build an audience you can reach again, and it does not require the reader to create an account, join anything, or pay.

You probably already have your lead magnet. It is the document you keep sending to people one at a time: the checklist, the template, the calculator, the prep sheet. Turning it into a lead magnet means putting it somewhere that collects an email every time someone asks for it.

How to set up a lead magnet in Heartbeat

1. Create a Resource and add the thing worth downloading: the template, the checklist, the workbook, the first chapter.
2. At the top of the document, choose a hero: a downloadable file, a video, or an image.
3. Click Publish and choose the documents to include.
4. Choose visibility Public only, or Everywhere if members should see it too.
5. Choose public access Email access.
6. Set the Public URL slug. This is the link you will share, so make it short and readable.
7. Optionally switch on the banner inviting readers to join your community.
8. Review and publish, then copy the link.

If your material already exists as a PDF, you can upload it to Pulse and ask it to build the Resource for you. Pulse works best from content you already wrote. Asked to write a lead magnet from nothing, it produces something generic that nobody will trade an email for.

Ways to structure it

• One document, one file. The simplest version: a single page with the download in the hero.
• Several documents. One email unlocks every document in the Resource.
• A video library. Every video in the Resource opens once the email is entered.
• A mix. Documents with files, videos, and written pages can sit together in the same Resource.

If you sell something high-ticket, consider a paid Resource instead of an email gate. Even $10 to $20 tells you who is willing to pay, which an email address cannot.

What the visitor sees

The page shows your community logo and name, the Resource's hero image, its title, and its description. Beside it is a Get access panel: "Enter your email below to get access." One email field, and an Unlock button.

They enter their email, press Unlock, and they are in. No confirmation email to click, no code to enter, no account to create. Friction at this step costs you contacts, so there is none.

What they land on depends on what you built. A Resource with folders opens to a grid of folder cards, each with its image, description, document count and a View button. A single downloadable opens straight to the file: a card with the file type, the file name, its size, and a Download button.

Access is held in the visitor's browser, so if they come back later on the same browser the Resource is still open to them. If they return on a different device, they enter the same email again and are let straight back in.

How can I see the list of users that entered their email?

Every email capture creates a lead: someone you know the email address of, who is not a member. Leads collect under People → Leads, where you can search them, see which Resource brought each one in, and export the list as a CSV.

Follow up with a Workflow

1. Go to Settings > Workflows and create an automated workflow.
2. Choose the trigger On Lead Captured.
3. Under Lead Sources, choose the Resources, public Events or Sign Up Links that should start it.
4. Add one or more Send Email actions. Switch on Delay to space them out.

The workflow runs for new leads only. Someone who is already a member of your community and unlocks or buys the Resource will not receive these emails.

What makes a good lead magnet

The test is whether it is worth an email address on its own. A reader who never joins your community should still feel they got a fair trade.

Things that work:

• The specific artifact people in your field keep rebuilding by hand: the template, the spreadsheet, the checklist, the script.
• The first module of something longer, published in full rather than teased.
• The reference people bookmark: the glossary, the comparison, the calendar, the directory.

Things that do not work:

• A summary of something you sell. Readers can tell, and they resent the trade.
• Anything that needs your community's context to make sense. A lead has no context yet.

For examples of what other creators built, see Heartbeat Tips: Lead magnet ideas from creators.

Pair it with a public, ungated Resource

A gate works best when something free came first. Someone who has already read one useful thing of yours will trade an email for the second one; someone who has read nothing usually will not.

Publish at least one Resource fully public with no email gate, and link to the gated one from inside it. The open one does the convincing, and the gate collects.

Public Resources are not currently reachable through search engines, so every visitor arrives from a link you placed. Put it wherever your audience already is: social posts, your bio, your website, your email list, and DMs when someone asks for help. It works offline too. A QR code on a business card or a slide can point straight to it.