What are good lead magnet ideas for B2B SaaS?
Twenty-four ideas, sorted by how close the reader is to buying.
Why sort lead magnet ideas by buying stage?
A lead magnet is a free, useful thing you trade for an email address. The mistake most SaaS teams make is to pick a topic before picking a reader. "The ultimate guide to customer onboarding" is for everyone, so it is for no one. A reader who has just noticed a problem wants a quick way to size it. A reader comparing three vendors wants a scorecard. A customer wants to get more out of what they already pay for. Each of those readers signs up for different reasons, and each one needs a different second email.
So this list uses four stages: problem-aware (they feel the pain, they have not named a solution), solution-aware (they know what kind of tool or approach fixes it), vendor-comparing (they are choosing between named options, maybe including you), and customer (they already pay you). The pillar article on what lead magnets work for B2B companies explains the stages in more depth. Every idea below is invented as an illustration; none is attributed to a real company, and the people and company sizes in the titles are placeholders you should swap for your own market.
Ideas for problem-aware readers
These readers are not shopping. They want to know how bad the problem is and whether it is worth fixing now. The best ideas here are short, honest self-checks that produce a number or a list the reader can act on today. The follow-up email should interpret their likely result, not pitch.
| Idea | Format | Who it is for | The follow-up email it sets up |
|---|---|---|---|
| The SOC 2 readiness checklist for a 20-person startup Thirty-one controls, each marked do-it-yourself or needs-a-tool. | Two-page PDF checklist | Founders and ops leads selling to their first enterprise buyer | Which items are you missing? Reply with your count and I will say what to do first. |
| The trial drop-off audit: 12 questions to ask before you redesign onboarding A worksheet that finds where trial users actually stop. | Self-assessment worksheet | Product managers at free-trial SaaS companies | The two most common answers, and what each one usually means |
| How to tag 1,000 support tickets in one afternoon A spreadsheet with a ready tag set and a sampling method. | Spreadsheet template | Heads of support at 10 to 50 person SaaS companies | The three tags that usually point to a product bug, not a support problem |
| The 90-second sales-to-success handoff diagnostic Score your handoff on seven questions and see where deals go quiet. | Scorecard | RevOps and customer success leads | A worked example of a handoff that was fixed in two weeks |
| Nine pricing page mistakes, annotated on one mock page A marked-up example page showing each mistake in place. | Annotated PDF | Founders about to change pricing | The one mistake most readers find on their own page the same day |
| The CRM data-quality scorecard for a 50,000-contact database Ten checks that show how much of the database you can trust. | Spreadsheet scorecard | RevOps managers | How to pick the first field to clean, and why it is never the job title |
Ideas for solution-aware readers
These readers have decided to act and now want a plan. Templates and worksheets fit here because the reader is ready to do work. Keep the scope narrow: a rollout plan for one team size, a checklist for one setup. If you are unsure which format fits, our comparison of checklists, templates and assessments walks through the tradeoffs.
| Idea | Format | Who it is for | The follow-up email it sets up |
|---|---|---|---|
| The build-versus-buy worksheet for in-app analytics Costs both paths over three years, including the parts teams forget. | Worksheet | Engineering leads and product managers | The hidden costs on the build side, with a sample filled-in sheet |
| The 30-day rollout plan for a new helpdesk at a 40-agent support team Week-by-week tasks, owners and the one meeting that matters. | Timeline template (sheet) | Support directors | The week-two mistake that stalls most rollouts |
| Email deliverability setup in plain English: SPF, DKIM and DMARC A checklist for moving to a new sending platform without landing in spam. | Checklist | Marketing ops at companies switching email platforms | How to read your spam rate in Postmaster Tools and what to do if it climbs |
| The requirements document for choosing a data warehouse A fill-in-the-blanks doc with the questions buyers skip. | Document template | Data and analytics leads | The three requirements that get left out and cost the most later |
| An expense policy template for a 100-person remote company Plain-language policy with the gray areas already decided. | Document template | Finance leads at scaling startups | How to enforce a policy without software, and the point where a tool makes sense |
| The security questionnaire answer bank: 60 questions, pre-answered Draft answers to the questions that appear in almost every review. | Spreadsheet | Sales engineers and founders who answer security reviews | The questions you must never copy-paste, and how to answer them honestly |
Ideas for readers comparing vendors
Now the reader is choosing between named options, possibly including you. The useful move is to help them run a fair comparison, even when fair does not always favour you. Readers notice when a scorecard is rigged. These ideas can ask for a work email, because the reader already expects a conversation and the follow-up can be a direct offer to help.
| Idea | Format | Who it is for | The follow-up email it sets up |
|---|---|---|---|
| The weighted vendor scorecard for recruiting software: 14 criteria A sheet where each stakeholder weights the criteria before the demos. | Spreadsheet scorecard | Heads of people and talent | How to set weights so the loudest stakeholder does not decide |
| 25 questions to ask on a contract management demo Grouped by stage: setup, daily use, renewal, exit. | Checklist | Legal operations leads | The three answers that should end a demo early |
| The CRM migration cost calculator for a 50,000-contact database Estimates hours, downtime and cleanup for the switch. | Calculator (sheet) | RevOps leads planning a platform change | A sample migration timeline with the two weeks nobody budgets for |
| Sample implementation plan: what the first 60 days look like A realistic plan with milestones, owners and check-ins. | PDF document | Buyers at proposal stage | An offer of a 20-minute walkthrough with the person who would run it |
| The security review pack: SOC 2 summary, subprocessor list and DPA, in one download Everything procurement asks for, in the order they ask. | Document bundle | Security reviewers and procurement | An offer to complete their questionnaire directly, with a turnaround date |
| The internal business case for a new support tool A slide template that a champion can take to a CFO. | Slide template | Champions who need budget sign-off | A one-page summary version they can forward to finance |
Ideas for existing customers
Customers are the stage most SaaS teams forget. A lead magnet for a customer is not about capturing an email you already have. It is about reaching the next person on the account, the admin who just joined, or the champion who has to defend the renewal. The follow-up here leads to expansion, renewal or referral, and it is usually the cheapest revenue in the company.
| Idea | Format | Who it is for | The follow-up email it sets up |
|---|---|---|---|
| The advanced workflows cookbook: 12 automations most customers never turn on Each one with the trigger, the setup steps and who it saves time for. | PDF guide | Current admins | A one-click setup link for the most popular automation |
| The quarterly review template for your own leadership Slides a champion can present internally, with blanks for usage data. | Slide template | Customer champions | An offer to pre-fill it with their account data before the next quarter |
| The integration map: which tool to connect first in your first 90 days A one-page diagram ordered by payoff. | One-page diagram | New admins on existing accounts | A short setup call, timed for the end of their second week |
| The renewal prep checklist: what to show your CFO 60 days out The usage, outcomes and cost figures finance will ask for. | Checklist | Champions approaching renewal | A usage summary and a renewal call booked before the budget meeting |
| How teams your size use the product: the customer-only benchmark Anonymised usage patterns from accounts like theirs. | Short report | All customers, segmented by size | The features the most active accounts use, and an invitation to try one |
| The five-lesson admin course: become the person your team asks first One short email per lesson, each ending in a task. | Email course | Power users | Lesson five invites them into the customer community and the referral program |
How do you pick three ideas to test?
Do not build all twenty-four. Pick three using this checklist, then give each one a signup page and a follow-up email before you promote anything. Promotion is cheap compared with a second email you never wrote. Our guide to promoting a lead magnet on LinkedIn covers what to do once the three are live.
- One idea per stage you can actually reach. If your LinkedIn audience is mostly problem-aware, a vendor scorecard will sit unread. Match the idea to where your readers already are.
- You can make it in a week. A two-page checklist beats a 40-page ebook that ships next quarter. Length is a separate decision; see how long a lead magnet should be.
- The follow-up email writes itself. If you cannot say in one line what the second email will offer, the idea is too broad. Every row above has that line filled in on purpose.
- The title names the reader. "For a 20-person startup" or "for a 40-agent support team" filters out people you do not sell to. Narrower titles bring fewer, better signups.
- It can be previewed in public. Post the first pages as a LinkedIn document, within the 100MB and 300-page limit, so people see the value before the form. Keep the form short: LinkedIn's own Lead Gen Forms allow up to 12 fields, but the three pre-selected ones are usually enough.
What does "it worked" mean?
Raw downloads are the wrong score. A lead magnet worked when three things happen: the signups carry the job titles you sell to, some of them reply to the follow-up email, and a few of those replies become meetings. Judge each of your three tests on those counts after four to six weeks, and keep the winner. Page conversion rate matters, but it comes second. For context, Unbounce's 2024 benchmark across landing pages built on its platform reports a 3.8% median for SaaS, and a 16.9% median for visitors who arrive from email, which says more about the source of the traffic than about the page. Our guide to lead magnet conversion rates explains how to read those figures without over-trusting them.
One guardrail: the follow-up emails must be the ones people signed up for. Google's sender guidelines ask bulk senders to keep the spam rate in Postmaster Tools under 0.10% and never let it reach 0.30%, so a lead magnet that attracts the wrong readers, then pitches them, can hurt every email you send after it. This is the same reason Sawa treats the lead magnet and the follow-up as one piece of work inside the Grow stage, never as a download with a form attached.
About this guide and its sources
The four-stage grouping and the twenty-four ideas are Sawa's own framework and are illustrative, not drawn from real client work or attributed to any company. The numbers are platform limits from LinkedIn and Google's documentation and third-party medians from Unbounce's benchmark of pages built on its platform; they describe those datasets, not a prediction for your pages.
- Unbounce: Conversion Benchmark Report 2024, SaaS
Supports the SaaS median of 3.8%, the all-industry baseline of 6.6%, and the channel medians for email (16.9%), paid search (4.1%) and paid social (2.9%).
- Unbounce: Conversion Benchmark Report 2024, overview
States the 6.6% all-industry median that the SaaS figure is compared against.
- LinkedIn Help: Upload and share documents on LinkedIn
Supports the 100MB and 300-page limit, the supported file types, and that viewers can download the document as a PDF.
- LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Help: Lead Gen Form fields
Supports the 12-field maximum, the three custom questions limit, and the three pre-selected fields.
- Google Workspace Admin Help: Email sender guidelines
Supports the spam rate guidance of below 0.10% and never reaching 0.30% in Postmaster Tools.
Frequently asked questions
Outline one of these ideas in an hour
The lead magnet outline template turns a title and a reader into a page-by-page plan, with the follow-up email included.
Need help with this? See how Sawa handles lead magnets and audience growth, or book an intro call.