Let me tell you about the moment I decided to build this thing.
I was on a call with a founder. Smart person. Successful business. And they said:
“Everyone keeps telling me I need a lead magnet but honestly… I don’t really know what that means.”
And I thought: yeah, fair enough.
Because here’s the thing. We as marketers are absolutely terrible at explaining what we do.
We say “lead magnet” like everyone should know. We throw around “nurture sequence” and “top of funnel” and “gated content” like it’s normal human speech.
It’s not.
It’s jargon. And jargon is just a fancy way of making simple things sound complicated so we can charge more for them.
The Problem With How We Talk
I’ve been in marketing for over 15 years. Agencies, SaaS, e-commerce, B2B, social impact. And the one constant across all of it?
Marketers love to make things sound harder than they are.
“We need to optimise the conversion funnel through strategic lead capture mechanisms.”
Translation: we need to get people’s email addresses by offering them something useful.
That’s it. That’s the whole thing.
But we wrap it in so much nonsense that normal business owners – the people who actually need to understand this stuff – feel stupid for not getting it.
They’re not stupid. We’re just bad at explaining.
So I Built A Game
Not a course. Not a PDF. Not a webinar.
A game.
It’s called “What The Hell Is A Lead Magnet?” and yes, the name is intentional.
Because that’s the actual question people are afraid to ask. They nod along in meetings, Google it later, read three contradictory blog posts, and end up more confused than when they started.
The game teaches through doing. You swipe through scenarios. You make decisions. You get things wrong. And each wrong answer actually explains what you missed.
Four rounds:
- Is this a lead magnet? (Harder than you’d think)
- What type is it? (There are more than you realise)
- Would this actually work? (Most don’t)
- Should you gate it or give it away? (The answer has changed)
By the end, you actually understand it. Not because I lectured you, but because you figured it out yourself.
The Rules Have Changed
Here’s the other reason I built this.
The old lead magnet playbook is dying. And most people are still following it.
Old playbook:
- Gate everything
- Collect as many emails as possible
- Blast your list until they buy or unsubscribe
- Hope for the best
This worked when attention was cheap and inboxes weren’t overflowing.
That was 2015. It’s not 2015 anymore.
What’s actually happening now:
People are more protective of their email than ever. They’ve been burned too many times by “free guides” that were just sales pitches in disguise.
Algorithms reward engagement, not just existence. Posting content that gets ignored is worse than not posting at all.
And here’s the big one that most people haven’t caught up to yet:
AI tools are changing discovery.
When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity a question, those tools pull from content across the web to build an answer. If your content is gated behind an email wall, it’s invisible to them.
This is AEO – Answer Engine Optimisation. The evolution of SEO.
It’s not just about ranking on Google anymore. It’s about being the answer that AI tools cite.
Ungated content feeds the algorithms. Gated content doesn’t.
So the strategy has to change.
The New Model
I’m not saying don’t gate anything. I’m saying gate strategically.
Gate the substantial stuff – the 30-page guide, the detailed template, the comprehensive system. Things where an email feels like a fair exchange.
Give away the smaller stuff – the cheat sheets, the quick tips, the one-pagers. Use them as breadcrumbs. Build trust. Prove you’re worth paying attention to.
Breadcrumb constantly – show up consistently with value. LinkedIn posts, threads, carousels, short videos. The stuff that spreads, gets engagement, and keeps you visible.
The people who do this well understand something important:
Your best content IS the marketing.
The old thinking was “save the good stuff for paying customers.” The new thinking is “give your best stuff away and the right people will want more.”
Why A Game Though?
Because I’m tired of content that feels like homework.
Every “ultimate guide” that’s actually 47 pages of fluff. Every webinar that could’ve been a blog post. Every PDF that gets downloaded and never opened.
People don’t need more content. They need content that respects their time and actually teaches them something.
A game does that.
It’s interactive. It’s quick. It gives you feedback in real-time. And weirdly, getting things wrong is more memorable than reading the right answer.
Plus – and this is the bit I find funny – it’s a lead magnet about lead magnets.
But it’s not gated.
No email required. No sign-up wall. Just play.
Because sometimes the point isn’t to capture leads. Sometimes the point is to be useful, be memorable, and trust that the right people will find their way to you.
That’s breadcrumbing in action.
The Meta Bit
I built this game using AI tools. Claude helped me think through the structure and write the copy. Lovable helped me build it without needing to code everything from scratch.
A year ago this would’ve taken me months. Now it took days.
That’s not a flex. That’s the point.
The barrier to creating useful, interactive things has collapsed. Which means the old excuses don’t work anymore.
“I don’t have time to create content.” “I don’t have the budget for developers.” “I can’t build anything interactive.”
Yes you can. The tools exist. The question is whether you have something worth saying.
Go Play It
whatthehell.wearebeyondgreatness.co.uk
Four rounds. 28 questions. Takes a few minutes.
No email required. I’m not capturing anything. This is a brand piece – I just want people to learn something and remember who taught them.
If you score above 24, you actually know your stuff.
If you score below 20… well, now you know more than you did.
Either way, drop your score in the comments. I want to see how people do.
And if you find it useful, share it with someone who keeps nodding along when marketers talk but secretly has no idea what we’re on about.
They’ll thank you.
P.S. There’s another game coming. This one teaches you what a lead magnet is. The next one helps you figure out what yours should be. Keep your eyes open.