Good alternatives to the flat 10% welcome discount are lead magnets that let people play, learn or get early access. Examples include spin the wheel and scratch card games, mystery boxes, quizzes with a personal result, product finders, launch waitlists, early sale access, loyalty club membership and prize draws with consolation prizes. The best choice depends on your audience and order value.
"Sign up and get 10% off your first order." Almost every webshop has some version of that pop-up, and almost every shopper has seen it a hundred times. If you are looking for lead magnet ideas that stand out, protect your margin and bring in subscribers who actually want to hear from you, this guide gives you 15 alternatives to the flat welcome discount, with real examples from brands that have tried them.
Why the flat 10% discount is a weak lead magnet
A welcome discount is easy to set up, so it is the default. But it comes with three problems.
It costs you on every order. You give the discount to everyone who signs up, including the people who would have bought at full price anyway.
It attracts discount hunters. When the only reason to subscribe is a code, some people sign up, use it once and never open another email.
It looks like everyone else. If every shop in your category offers the same thing, your sign-up form is wallpaper.
None of this means discounts are bad. It means the discount should not be the only reason to join your list. The ideas below either replace the discount, make it feel earned, or give people something more useful than a percentage.
Gamified lead magnet ideas: let people play for the reward
Games turn "give us your email" into "have a go". People get a short, fun moment and a chance to win, and you decide exactly how many prizes there are, so your budget stays under control. Every Scratcher game can run as a pop-up on your website, on a landing page or in your newsletter.
1. Spin the wheel instead of a fixed code
A spin the wheel shows every possible prize up front: free shipping, a small gift, a gift card, a bigger discount. Most people win something small, a few win something big. Lampeguru ran a Black Friday wheel with gift cards as the main prizes and a discount code as a consolation prize for everyone else. The campaign reached a 56% conversion rate and 4,582 unique leads.
2. A scratch card with a seasonal theme
A scratch card is fast and easy to theme: Easter eggs, Christmas presents, summer sun. Dansk Outlet ran a last-minute Easter scratch card for just under a week, with free shipping and gift cards as prizes, and shared it with nothing more than a webshop pop-up and one organic Facebook post.
3. A mystery box
A mystery box lets people pick one of a few closed boxes and see what is inside. The choice feels personal, even though the result is luck. Burger King used a mystery box to launch its new Whopper, with free burgers and discount coupons hidden in the boxes.
4. A daily game in a calendar
A Christmas or advent calendar gives people a reason to come back every day, not just once. Whiteaway ran a calendar with a wheel of fortune behind each door, and six months later 82% of the new subscribers were still on the list.
Content incentives: give people something useful
Not every audience wants to gamble. Some want help.
5. A quiz with a personal result
A quiz that ends with a result ("You're a weekend baker", "Your skin type is combination") is a lead magnet people want to finish. The result is the reward. Ask for the email just before the result page.
6. A product finder
If your range is large or technical, a product finder is a helpful shop assistant. Zapp asked visitors where their charger would be installed, what car they drove and how far they drove, then recommended the right charging box. The quiz brought in 834 leads in two months at €1.50 per lead, and 10% of them went on to buy.
7. A personality test that leads to a routine
Yuaia Haircare added a hair personality test to its webshop. Participants left their details to get a personal hair routine, and the brand used the answers to tailor its emails.
8. A small guide or checklist as a bonus
A care guide, a size guide or a recipe collection costs almost nothing to deliver. It works well as an "everyone gets this" reward at the end of a quiz, alongside a prize draw for something bigger.
Exclusive access and pre-registration
Sometimes the most valuable thing you can offer is being first.
9. A waitlist for a launch
A pre-registration page lets people sign up before something happens, with a countdown showing how long is left. Use it for a new collection, a product drop or a store opening.
10. Early access to a sale
"Get Black Friday deals a day before everyone else" costs you no margin at all, and it attracts exactly the people who plan to buy.
11. Membership of your loyalty club
If you have a club, make joining it the lead magnet. POWER ran a Black Friday wheel of fortune that brought in 60,000 new email permissions and 45,697 new MyPower club members in two weeks.
Prize draws and sweepstakes
12. One big prize everyone wants
A single prize with a clear value can pull in a lot of sign-ups. Jacobsen Møbler used a recognisable furniture piece from its own range as the prize for its birthday campaign. A prize from your own shop also tells people what kind of products they will hear about.
13. A draw with a consolation prize for everyone
Combine one grand prize with a small reward for everyone else. The online furniture store BOBO offered one large gift card as the main prize and 1,000 small gift cards as consolation prizes, so almost nobody left empty-handed.
14. Daily or weekly draws
Instead of one draw at the end, pick winners every day or every week. It gives people a reason to come back and keeps your campaign alive in social posts and newsletters. With Scratcher's prize handling the draws run automatically.
15. A product sample
Give away your new product. Free samples attract people who are curious about what you sell, which is exactly who you want on your list.
How to choose a lead magnet by audience and order value
There is no single best lead magnet. A few rules of thumb help.
- Low order value, many products (beauty, food, fashion): quick luck games work well. A wheel or scratch card with small prizes and free shipping keeps the cost per lead low.
- High order value, long decision (furniture, electronics, energy, cars): helpful content wins. A product finder or quiz attracts people who are actually researching, and the answers tell you what to send them next.
- Brands with a loyal base: make access the reward. Early access, a waitlist or club membership costs little and attracts your best customers.
- Seasonal peaks: use a calendar or a themed game and run it for a fixed period.
- New brands: a prize draw with one great prize builds a list quickly; follow up fast so people remember who you are.
Whatever you choose, keep the form short. Ask for an email and a newsletter permission first. You can always ask for more later.
How to test your lead magnet
Do not guess. Test.
- Pick one metric. Usually sign-up rate (sign-ups divided by visitors). Later, look at what those subscribers buy.
- Change one thing at a time. Test the incentive, not the incentive and the design and the trigger.
- Give it enough time. A weekend is rarely enough. Run each version for comparable periods.
- Look beyond the first number. A huge list of people who never open your emails is worth less than a smaller list of buyers. Whiteaway measured customer value six months later and found a 20% higher average order value among participants than among people who signed up another way.
- Use separate links per channel. In Scratcher you can follow visits, players and sign-ups per channel in near real time, so you know whether the pop-up, the newsletter or the social post did the work.
Try a new lead magnet this month
The 10% code is not going anywhere, and it does not have to. But adding a game, a quiz or an exclusive offer gives people a better reason to join, and gives you better data about who they are.
Pick a template, add your prizes and show it as a pop-up on your webshop. You can try Scratcher free for 14 days, no credit card required, or book a meeting and we will help you pick the right lead magnet for your shop.
