What Can I Give Away for Free to Get Email Leads

February 16, 2022 Post a Comment

People beloved free stuff -- and free content is no exception. Follow these three steps to create free content that builds your audience and boosts your sales.

Take you ever been to a wholesale store on a Sat afternoon?

1 of my favorite (pre-pandemic) activities is making a meal out of gratis samples at my local Costco.

On busy days, every alley seems to take a different sample at the end. It'south a delicious way to get a free meal's worth of food — and I always seem to come away with a 48-pack of potstickers, a torso-sized bag of popcorn, and a large smiling.

Free stuff makes people happy. We're wired for it.

You can bring that same spark of joy to your audience by giving them free content. Offer up a platter of your near delicious content samples, and before yous know it, they'll be coming back for more — and ready to make a purchase.

In this article, we'll testify you lot how to plow free content into more sales in just three steps.

But first, let's dive a little deeper into the strategy behind giving abroad content for free.

Why give away free content?

Giving away gratis content works for ii reasons:

People dearest free stuff.
Content marketing works.

Allow's start with number i. Whether it's a pizza bagel sample at Costco or a free ebook download, freebies make united states of america happy.

Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University, researched the power of gratis offers for his book, Predictably Irrational. In one study, researchers asked people to choose between a one-cent Hershey Osculation or a 15-cent Lindt truffle (a fancier chocolate).

73% of people chose the Lindt truffle.

Next, they lowered both prices by a penny, so the Hershey Kiss was costless and the Lindt truffle price 14 cents.

The results of this tiny change?

69% of people chose the Kiss over the truffle.

In the second report, the Lindt truffle was all the same a college value, just the ability of "free" won out.

Here'south why:

Getting something for free makes people happy at a chemical level. "Getting something free gives that good spike of dopamine, one of four hormones that make us feel happy," says psychologist Dr. Linda Papadopolous.

And then, when you give your audience free content, you lot make them happy. They associate that happiness with your brand — and may even experience like they owe y'all something in return.

The rule of reciprocity is basic sales psychology: When y'all give someone something, they're more likely to render the favor.

Dr. Papadopolous explains: "Savvy brands rely on 'connectedness' with shoppers and use free goodies to make them experience like a friend. Humans are creatures of reciprocity."

In other words, free content helps you build a human relationship with prospective customers. And content marketing tin can be an affordable and effective manner to reach that audience.

80% of people read, watched, or listened to a piece of content from a brand in the last year.
Content marketing costs 62% less than and generates more than three times as many leads as traditional marketing.

When you brand free content a part of your content marketing strategy, you lot plant yourself and your brand as an skilful in your niche.

You besides build an audience of people who are interested in your topic and your unique take on it, and bring them into your marketing funnel.

A marketing funnel maps the journey that a potential customer (or "lead") takes from their starting time interaction with your business until they make a purchase.

Where someone is in the funnel depends on how familiar they are with your brand and how shut they are to making a purchase.

When new people encounter your free content — whether on social media, through a Google search, or via word of mouth — they enter the top of the funnel (TOFU), a.k.a. the awareness stage.

But you tin can't just offer up whatever ol' content. You demand to make your all-time content complimentary.

I know, it seems counterintuitive not to charge for your top-shelf content. Think of it this way: If you were a candymaker, you wouldn't desire to give out samples of your worst chocolate.

Content is the same way. If your gratis stuff isn't delicious (or valuable) at first bite, your audience probably won't bother with your paid stuff (like courses and workshops).

For example, vegan YouTube star Rose of Cheap Lazy Vegan publishes free advice and recipe videos every calendar week. With that gratis content, Rose has built a YouTube audience of over 750K subscribers.

Afterwards years of offering high-quality YouTube videos to her subscribers, Rose at present as well has three ebooks available for sale. Her fans already trust that Rose creates delicious vegan recipes, making it a no-brainer to buy her paid content.

Bottom line:

Whether you write weblog articles, publish gratis videos, or host a weekly podcast, free content builds relationships with your followers, listeners, and viewers. And with the correct tactics, you can plow those leads into loyal, happy, and paying customers.

Now that you know the "why", let'due south go into the "how", with three steps to create free content and boost your sales.

3 steps to turn gratuitous content into sales

1. Create once, publish everywhere

The average pocket-sized business organization possessor is responsible for 4.2 roles — only yous're but one person. And you may non have the budget to outsource content cosmos to a freelancer.

So how do you notice the time to create elevation-notch gratuitous content while building an online business?

Use the create once, publish everywhere (COPE) model.

Here's how this super-scalable system works:

Write a weblog post
Repurpose your weblog content for dissimilar channels.

To publish a blog mail, of form, you need a blog.

Your blog is your "best content publishing existent estate," says Julia McCoy, best-selling author, content marketer, and founder of Express Writers.

77% of internet users read blogs, and internet users in the U.Southward. spend 3X more than time on blogs than on e-mail. Plus, businesses with a blog generate virtually 67% more leads than those without 1.

Nosotros won't dive also deep into the details of getting your blog up and running here. For a full tutorial, check out this consummate pace-by-step guide on how to get-go a blog.

Your blog posts — like all of your complimentary content — need to provide real value. Create blog content that is related to your products, but make sure they're not merely longform written ads for your online form or membership site.

For example, if you're selling an online course on making bootleg pasta from scratch, yous might consider blogging about the pros and cons of dissimilar ravioli fillings.

(Struggling to start writing? Here are some tips for overcoming writers' block.)

To make the most of your blog content, make sure to optimize it for SEO, too. Marketers rank SEO equally the almost efficient content marketing technique. The 2nd most efficient is followed by updating and repurposing content, which is the second half of this step.

SEO can mean the difference betwixt a adept blog with but a few readers and an amazing weblog bringing in visitors by the thousands.

When you optimize your weblog content for search, you make it easier for your target audience to find you when they're searching for relevant keywords and phrases.

And grabbing the top spots on the results page matters. The start five results of a Google search account for 67.vi% of all clicks.

Here are some resources to help you get started with SEO:

A guide to DIY your blog SEO on a budget
Simple SEO tips, no technical skills required
A pace-by-footstep guide to SEO for online course creators
A list of 11 free SEO tools for creators

One time you publish your blog post, you lot tin can repurpose it into unlike content formats.

Repurposing content is ane of our favorite small business organization marketing strategies because it's cost- and time-efficient. Instead of creating content from scratch every time you want to publish something new, y'all tin go more than out of your existing content.

For example, you can plough a information-heavy weblog mail service into an infographic. Visuals make content easier for your audience to absorb — and 40% of marketers report that original graphics (including infographics) are the well-nigh impactful type of visual content.

Blogs aren't the only type of content yous tin can repurpose. Here are some more examples of free content:

Ingather an infographic into smaller social media graphics to postal service on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Infographics are liked and shared on social media three times more than whatever other type of content.
Turn a how-to blog post into a script for a video tutorial. (Yeah, y'all tin record high-quality videos at domicile.)
Create a series of related blog posts past repurposing an ebook.
Turn repurposed video content into sound for a podcast episode.

Y'all tin can also turn your meridian blog content into a costless digital download, similar a guide or checklist, and offer information technology in exchange for your audience'southward email info.

Keep reading to learn how.

two. Collect email addresses in substitution for gratuitous content

Once people discover your content, you accept the opportunity to guide them through a journey from casual reader to loyal customer.

To do that, yous need a way to reach them.

This is where lead generation — a.k.a. building your electronic mail list — comes into play. Blog traffic tin can be a great style to build your email list.

But before y'all can start sending them emails, subscribers need to sign up to hear from you lot. Otherwise, yous risk landing in the spam folder.

There are 2 ways you can use gratis content to collect email signups:

Add an opt-in form to your blog.
Offer a lead magnet in substitution for their contact info.

An opt-in form (also called a newsletter capture) asks visitors for their email address, usually in substitution for something of value.

Take programmer and trainer Reuven Lerner, for example. Reuven uses an opt-in form on his blog to bring in signups for his email newsletter.

"I've found that posting to my blog, and and so getting weblog posts repeated and re-posted by others, and and then having an opt-in widget on my blog, is a great way to get," Reuven told us.

By signing up for the newsletter, subscribers receive — y'all guessed it — more gratuitous content.

The costless weekly Python tutorials give Reuven'due south audience a preview of his expertise and teaching style. Then when it comes time for them to enroll in a Python training class, they know that Reuven's courses are an excellent choice.

On the flip side, Reuven knows that his email subscribers are interested in taking their Python skills to the adjacent level, and he tin confidently market his paid online courses to them.

Lead magnets are some other mode to collect email addresses by offering valuable content.

A atomic number 82 magnet is a gratuitous resource that people receive in commutation for subscribing to your email list.

People want actionable, informative content in commutation for their contact info.

Types of content that make not bad lead magnets include:

Ebooks and guides
Printables
Checklists and cheat sheets
Instance studies
Webinar recordings

Like all free content, the best lead magnets are tailored to your specific audience and their hurting points. Show potential customers why they should trust and eventually buy from yous.

For example, author and coach Sally Ann Miller offers a gratis Writer Resource Library that includes "tools, training, templates, and strategies that have been tested and proven to work".

Emerge offers her audience a free opportunity to learn from her experience as an author. All they need to do is sign up. Once they do, Emerge tin begin edifice relationships with them, eventually converting them to customers who buy her books.

For more lead magnet ideas, check out this guide on how to create a lead magnet of your own in xc minutes or less. You tin as well use Podia's digital download generator to create a lead magnet PDF in just a few minutes.

Alright, you've turned your blog company into an email subscriber. Next up: Turning email subscribers into customers.

3. Nurture and sell to leads with email marketing

Think that marketing funnel we talked most before?

Now that your weblog readers have turned into leads, we're moving into the middle of the funnel: the consideration stage.

In the consideration stage, prospects know what their problem is, and they know there are multiple options to solve it. Your job is to brand them realize that your production is the best option.

Information technology's fourth dimension to harness the power of electronic mail marketing to nurture your leads.

E-mail marketing has an ROI of $42 for every $1 spent.
59% of marketers cite electronic mail equally their meridian source of return on investment (ROI).
Email drives 174% more conversions than social media.
Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.

One important thing to think is that electronic mail marketing only works if you apply it correct.

fourscore% of new leads never translate into sales. Nurturing your leads doesn't hateful spamming your e-mail list with daily sales pitches. It means telling them more about you, your brand, and your products.

Thanks to your content marketing, you already know what your subscribers are interested in learning. And when they download a lead magnet, you can share info near products related to that content.

For instance, Lisa Downs of New Aspect Coaching offers a complimentary webinar on career transitions.

Lisa knows that leads who sign up for the free webinar are good candidates for 1 of her paid workshops on the same topic. She can send them a series of nurture emails encouraging them to enroll.

Ryan of Signature Edits uses e-mail segmentation to have those production recommendations one step further in his pb nurture emails.

Here'south how:

Ryan knows that different photographers see unlike pain points, and so he offers two atomic number 82 magnets: a sample of his candid posing guide and a costless pack of photo editing presets.

Signature Edits offers presets, templates, and training for photographers. When someone downloads one of the lead magnets, Ryan can send them follow-up emails based on which of the two freebies they download.

For example, if someone signs upwards for the photo editing presets, Ryan knows that they're interested in improving their editing skills. With that info in hand, he can confidently promote his editing products to that lead.

(Podia makes information technology piece of cake for creators similar Lisa and Ryan to sell webinars, digital downloads, and more. Attempt it out for free with a 14-day trial.)

The more than relevant and personalized your nurture emails are, the better. 72% of people just appoint with marketing messages that cater to their interests, and relevant emails bulldoze 18x more revenue than generalized broadcast emails.

When yous know your leads' pain points and interests, you tin can write a sales email that truly resonates with them — like in this email template:

How-do-you-do [first name],

Have you always struggled with [trouble]?

Yous know, in a manner that makes you experience [emotion].

If so, you lot're non alone.

Here'southward the fix:

[Step i]

[Step 2]

[Footstep 3]

Sure, there's a footling more than to information technology, but not much.

That's it - really.

Hallelujah for simple processes.

If y'all want to learn more, just caput over to our [link resource folio].

[signature]

Acquire more than about atomic number 82 nurture and turning subscribers into customers in this four-step guide to writing better sales emails. And for more electronic mail templates, cheque out these xiv digital marketing e-mail templates and eight sales email templates.

All in all, your lead nurture emails assist potential customers make the decision to move from free content to paid. These emails are an opportunity to build trust, introduce your products, and prove your leads how you tin aid them.

Create free content that'southward worth its weight in aureate

People love costless things, and free content is no exception.

When you requite abroad valuable free content, it makes your audience happy and shows them why they should learn more about you and your products.

You don't need a team of content marketers or unlimited hours in the twenty-four hours to create top-notch gratis content that brings in leads. To recap, here are iii steps to turning free content into sales:

Create once, publish everywhere. Start by writing blog posts that showcase your expertise and signal of view, then repurpose your content to achieve more than people.
Use a newsletter opt-in form or lead magnets to collect email addresses from your leads. Offer high-quality, exclusive content in commutation for their contact info.
Write nurture emails tailored to your subscribers' interests and pain points. Introduce your products and brand potential customers confident in their purchase conclusion.

You're well on your way to creating content your audience will love and watching your sales soar. May free content ever exist the gift that keeps on giving.

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Source: https://www.podia.com/articles/giving-away-free-content