lead-magnets: Claude lead-magnet skill

"I'll make a lead magnet" — and then you stall on the blank page: what format, about what, why would anyone download it. The lead-magnets skill clears that block in minutes 🧲

What it is and who it's for

lead-magnets is one of the 45+ skills in the marketing repo coreyhaines31/marketingskills (open source under MIT, 39,079★ on GitHub as of 2026-07-14, repo created in January 2026, author — marketer Corey Haines). It's a strategist skill: it doesn't draw the PDF itself, it walks you through the decision of "what to offer in the first place". The flow: it digs into your business, audience and how you collect leads today → recommends a format for your funnel stage → lays out the structure and must-have blocks → thinks through the capture (gate, form, landing page), promo channels and success metrics.

An important correction to the viral hook "the skill makes lead magnets in 5 minutes": lead-magnets itself owns strategy and structure, not the finished file. "From idea to file" happens as a combo — lead-magnets plans, and the official Anthropic skills (pdf, docx, canvas-design) render the document. And the strategy part really does take minutes, not a couple of calls.

Who it's for: vibe coders, founders and marketers who need a lead magnet people actually download, not "one more PDF into the void".

Key capabilities

• Format selection by funnel stage: checklist, cheat sheet, template (doc/spreadsheet/Notion), swipe file, ebook/guide, email or video mini-course, quiz/assessment, webinar, resource library, trial or community access.
• Six phases of work: business and audience context → format choice → structure and key blocks → capture strategy (gating, form fields, landing page) → distribution channels → metrics and tests.
• Part of a bigger pack: 45+ marketing skills sit next to it in the same repo (CRO, copywriting, SEO, analytics) — you can immediately sharpen the lead magnet with copywriting and a landing page from neighboring skills.
• Model-invoked: the agent picks the skill up on its own when you ask "come up with a lead magnet" — no need to call a command by hand.
• Cross-platform: works in any agent that implements the Agent Skills spec — Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Windsurf.
• MIT license: adapt it to your niche and use it in commercial projects.

Get started in 5 minutes

1. Install through the skills installer: npx skills add coreyhaines31/marketingskills --skill lead-magnets (or drop the flag to get the whole pack). The installer detects your agents and asks where to put things; for Claude Code that's .claude/skills/.
2. Alternative — the native Claude Code plugin: /plugin marketplace add coreyhaines31/marketingskills, then /plugin install marketing-skills.
3. Tell the agent: "Come up with a lead magnet for <AUDIENCE/PRODUCT>" — the skill walks you through the strategy. To get the actual file, add: "produce a finished PDF" — and the pdf/canvas-design skill takes over the rendering.

When to use it, when not to

✅ Take it if you know you need a lead magnet but keep getting stuck on "which one and about what" — the skill gives you a format plus a structure for your funnel. ✅ Take it if you already vibe-code marketing in Claude Code: copywriting, landing pages and SEO live in the same repo, so you build the whole lead magnet in one place. ❌ Skip it if what you need is a nicely rendered file rather than strategy → use the official Anthropic skills canvas-design (poster/cover as .pdf) or pdf/docx (document). ❌ Don't take it expecting the "one button → branded PDF in 5 minutes" from paid promos (subscription MCP connectors by third parties) — that's not this; this is open-source strategy, and you assemble the file with a combo of skills. ❌ Skip it if you only live in a web chat without Agent Skills support — slash and agent skills don't work there (see the "Custom GPTs/Gems" section).

The honest price

Completely free, open source under MIT — no subscription, no signup, no API keys: you just need GitHub and an agent that supports Agent Skills. You only pay for tokens on your own Claude or Codex plan. Separately, there are paid "lead magnet in 5 minutes" products floating around the web (subscription MCP connectors from other authors) — that's a different thing; the lead-magnets skill itself costs nothing. Tag: free / oss.

Gotchas

• The skill plans, it doesn't lay out: a "finished file" is a different skill (pdf/docx/canvas-design) or manual design. Promises that "the skill made the PDF itself" refer to other, paid tools.
• It's strategy, not a conversion guarantee: numbers like "+340% conversion" from viral posts are someone else's marketing, they're not in the repo — don't repeat them.
• You need an agent with the Agent Skills spec (Claude Code / Codex / Cursor / Windsurf); it won't work in a plain Claude or ChatGPT web chat.
• Don't mix the two install methods: npx copies editable files into your project, the plugin installs a bundle — self-updating, but not editable.
• The repo is big and changes fast (45+ skills, last push 2026-07-13) — if you customized the skill, diff it after updates.
• Output quality = input quality: without honest context about your audience and product the skill gives generic advice rather than a working offer.

🤖 Prompt accelerator

"I have the lead-magnets skill installed (coreyhaines31/marketingskills). Product: . Audience: . Right now I collect leads via <CHANNEL / not at all>. Walk me through the skill: (1) suggest 2–3 lead-magnet formats for my funnel stage and explain the choice; (2) for the best one lay out the structure, must-have blocks and a working headline; (3) design the capture — gate, form fields, landing-page offer; (4) name the promo channels and the metrics that will tell us it landed. Don't invent conversion numbers. Once the structure is ready — produce the material as a PDF with the pdf/canvas-design skill and draft an announcement post."