I think you’ll agree that creating a quality freebie is hard…
If the freebie isn’t what the reader expected you could lose a new subscriber in an instant.
I had lots of little freebie ideas that I thought I could just throw together and gather a crowd. It turned out to be more complex than that. I did tons of research and finally found a resource I felt good about. I followed through all the steps and created something I am really proud of and ready to send out into the world.
In this post, I’ll share with you the most important tips I learned to create a quality freebie designed to pull in just the right subscribers.
This is the first post in a three-part series on getting started using quality freebies to grow an email list.
To be quality your Freebie Must Serve Others
Conventional wisdom says to not give away your best stuff. Save it to sell. But who is going to want to buy from you if you show them only the second-best?
You need to give away the good stuff. Not all at once, mind you, but enough to show people what you have to offer.
You have done tons of research and you are pretty sure you know your target audience. You have information that could help them with specific problems.
So help them.
Create a quality freebie that helps solve their problem. Show them you’re willing to help them for free. That helps build trust and sets a good tone for your future relationship.
Your Freebie Needs To Be Good enough to sell
When you are creating something to send out to the world and you want them to eventually buy from you, you don’t send out a draft…
Your freebie is your internet face. For some, it’s the very first time they will interact with you. Your internet face needs to smile at them and say “Hi, there! Let me help you!” not “Humph, I’m too tired today. Here’s what you get.”
Create something you would be proud of. Better yet, create something you might sell for about $10 and then give. it. away.
Your new subscriber will feel that the trade of their email address for your freebie is a good one and they will read your next email or two to see if the quality trend continues.
Your Quality Freebie Should Be Directly Related To Your End Goal
Your whole purpose for creating a freebie is to get people to give you their email address. You want their email address so that you can eventually sell them something.
It stands to reason that you want people on that email list who are going to be interested in that thing you want to sell, right?
The freebie that connects the world to your email list needs to attract exactly the right people. The people who need what you have to sell. Your freebie is the first step in leading them to your product. Make sure the path leads directly there.
You don’t want to create a misleading freebie.
Say you have a course to sell on how to create animal faces on humans with make-up. You create and post a freebie about how to sew fairy costumes to collect email addresses. Your audience will be slightly off the mark. Yes, the two are related in that they are both parts of costuming, but your course is very specific. A better freebie might be about creating various shadows with face paint. It is leading your new subscriber in the direction of your course.
About That Resource
Since I’m new to this internet marketing space, my learning curve is high. (Learn more about why I’m here.) I do a crazy amount of reading, listening to podcasts, and watching videos to learn about a single topic. Then I try to distill what I learned and share with you.
One of the resources I’ve found very helpful is KateDoster.com. I subscribe to her emails and listen to her podcast. I signed up for her free course Freebies that Serve and Sell and got so much good information out of it! You can find it on her Freebies page.
I have other resources I’m using for getting that freebie out into the wild, but that’s info for another post.
Subscribe to my emails if you don’t want to miss that post!
