The Lead Magnet Funnel: Free Download to Paid Course on One Storefront

How a lead magnet funnel works: the free download, the email it captures, the sequence that follows and the course it sells, all on one storefront.

A lead magnet funnel is a free download offered in exchange for an email address, followed by a short email sequence that offers a paid product. It is how a creator turns visitors, who mostly leave, into subscribers, who mostly stay, and then into buyers. On shopspace the lead magnet, the list, the sequence and the paid product are all on one storefront, so the funnel is four settings rather than four tools.

Why does a lead magnet beat "buy now" for a first-time visitor?

Because almost nobody buys from a stranger on the first visit, and almost everybody will take something useful for free. The visitor who leaves your page is gone. The visitor who leaves an email is on your list, and your list is the one audience no algorithm can take away. A good lead magnet turns a page that converts one visitor in a hundred into a page that converts ten, and then the emails do the selling over the following week.

If you want the free download, the list and the paid product on one page, shopspace has lead magnets as a product type, with email sequences and the course checkout on the same storefront, for a flat $19 a month billed yearly and 0% per sale.

What makes a good lead magnet?

Small, specific and immediately useful. A checklist the reader can use tonight beats a forty-page ebook they will never open. The best lead magnets are a piece of the paid product: the first worksheet from the course, the template from lesson three, the one-page summary of the method. The reader gets a real result, and they learn what the paid product is like.

Three shapes that work for most creators: a checklist or cheat sheet, a template or swipe file, and a short video lesson. Digital product creation tips covers making any of the three quickly.

How do you set up the funnel on shopspace?

1. Create a lead magnet product. Upload the file. It is free, and the price of it is an email address.
2. Put it on your storefront, first, above the paid products, and in your bio link.
3. Write the sequence. Three to five emails that start with the download and end with the offer. The one in the email sequence that sells a course is a good template.
4. Set the trigger. The sequence starts on the lead magnet download, an automation on the store event. Nobody presses send.
5. Point the offer email at the paid product on the same storefront. The click lands on a checkout that already knows the reader.

The whole thing takes an afternoon, and it runs for every future visitor without you touching it.

A page that captures ten emails in a hundred visits, followed by a sequence that sells to one in twenty, outsells a "buy now" page many times over on the same traffic. Start a 7-day free trial of shopspace and build the funnel on one storefront: lead magnet, sequence and checkout, 0% per sale, flat $19 a month billed yearly.

Where does the traffic come from?

The funnel does not bring visitors; it converts the ones you bring. Three sources that work for creators:

Your content. Every post, video or reel ends with the lead magnet, not the paid product. The free thing is the easy yes.

Instagram comments. A comment-to-DM automation sends the download link to anyone who comments a keyword on your post. It is built into shopspace on the Creator plan, and it is the highest-converting way to give away a lead magnet on Instagram, because the reader asked for it in public.

Other people's audiences. A guest post, a podcast appearance or a collaboration, each ending with the download. How to get your first 100 customers as a creator goes through where the first traffic actually comes from.

What do you sell at the end of the funnel?

Whatever the lead magnet was a piece of. A worksheet from the course sells the course. A template sells the template pack. A one-page summary sells the membership where the full method lives. The paid product should feel like the obvious next step, and the price should fit a person who has known you for a week: a course or a bundle, usually, rather than a high-ticket call. The call comes later, offered to buyers.

What does it cost?

The Creator plan is $19 a month billed yearly, or $29 month to month: lead magnets, email campaigns and sequences, automations, Instagram automations, courses, downloads, bookings, memberships and community, with 0% platform fee on every sale. Card processing by your own Stripe account is the only per-sale cost. There is a 7-day free trial on every plan; a card is required at signup and nothing is charged during the trial.

The verdict

Stop asking strangers to buy. Ask them for an email in exchange for something useful, then let the sequence make the offer over a week. On one storefront that is four settings, and it works on every visitor from now on.

Set up your lead magnet on shopspace and capture your first subscriber today. A card is required at signup, nothing is charged for 7 days, and you can cancel inside the trial and pay nothing.