Freebies are a great way to build your email list, especially when done well
If you haven’t checked out my article on how to use consumer personas to start thinking about a relevant freebie, I suggest reading that first.
Deliver Value
First and foremost, when trying to grow your email list with a freebie, you need to make sure you’re delivering value. Don’t promise an “Ultimate Guide to Ditching Pesticides and Raising a Stellar Organic Garden!” but only offer your prospects a list of natural pesticides they could easily find on Google.
This is a bad idea for two reasons:
Your prospect will fancy you a liar and unsubscribe immediately
Bad reviews travel fast (especially on the internet!)
Underdelivering is a good way to get yourself consumer blacklisted, which makes the effort you put into setting your freebie up a complete waste of time, not to mention a net negative.
You want to neither overpromise nor underpromise.
While overpromising will leave a bad taste in people’s mouths, underpromising will leave no taste in their mouths at all. You’ll catch few prospects’ attention parading around a dull free product. Not only that, but you’ll come off looking cheap and lazy.
Make sure whatever freebie you’re offering delivers essential value for your specific audience. Ask yourself what sorts of knowledge your prospects would find invaluable. For example, if you’re a business that sells organic cleaning products, you might offer a freebie that tells people how they can “Make an All-Natural, Pet Safe Window Cleaner That’ll Leave Your Windows Sparkling Clean”.
Sure, some prospects might go off and use the knowledge you’ve given, them never to return again. But another portion of prospects might be so impressed and thankful with the tip you’ve given that they actually click open and read that email you send them a few days later. Then, maybe they read the email after that promoting your “Organic All Purpose Cleaner that Saves Your Home from Germs AND Saves the Planet” and decide to give it a try.
Bingo! Just like that, you’ve got a customer for life.
You only need to hook a portion of prospects to grow your business exponentially. The generosity of the value contained in your freebie will warm prospects up to being generous with their purse strings in return. It’s a general rule that if you can prove your knowledge before even asking people to pay you a cent, they’re more likely to think of you the next time they need a product or service.
Gaining just 10 new customers per week can bring you thousands of dollars in dividends over the course of a year.
Ask yourself these 3 essential questions to check if the freebie you’re creating will engender trust and respect in your brand:
1) Is this freebie relevant? (Does it offer the type of information or tools my audience
usually asks for?)
2) Is this freebie scarce? (Can my audience easily find this information or tool elsewhere?)
3) Is this freebie specialized? (Does this freebie display the USP [unique selling proposition] of my business and show off my expertise?)
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
That being said, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. The idea of freebies have been around for a while. (Think, those orange chicken samples you just can’t seem to walk past without trying in the food court.) There are online freebies aplenty for a reason. They work! Research the types of freebies being offered in your industry’s space; then, offer something even better.
“Don’t reinvent the wheel; just realign it.”
-Anthony J. D’Angelo
Here are some tried and true freebie ideas:
Templates
Checklists
Exclusive Videos
Lists of Insider Tips
Email Courses
Ebooks
Free Training or Consultations
Hefty Discounts
Access to Special Club Memberships
Don’t Forget to Optimize Your Copy
Going back to the point of underpromising, you want people to actually feel compelled to try your freebie. No one will click the “Send me my freebie now!” button if your copy is dull and unenticing.
“Click below for a free checklist”
doesn’t deliver the same impetus as
“Snag the master checklist that helped me earn $5,000 per month!”
Make sure to clearly let them know what kind of benefit they'll receive by grabbing your freebie. Most importantly, make it sound worth giving you access to their
email address and promise you won’t be sending them spam.
With these tips you’ll be well on your way to attracting prospects interested in what your business has to offer. In the end though, there’s nothing like a professional copywriter to make sure you’re getting the greatest possible value out of the landing page you create for your freebie.
Creating a freebie is merely the path to the promised land of the landing page. The freebie advertisement and landing page are what will allow you to finally collect the crucial consumer information you so desire. Don’t let the time spent developing your freebie go to waste.
Click below to get on the path to investing in the freebie service that keeps on giving: Landing Pages. Or, if you already have some copy but you want it reviewed and improved for efficacy, explore my Copy Critique Services.
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