5+ Reasons You Should Create a Freebie
It’s a basic economic principle all business owners are familiar with: In order to grow your business and revenue, you have to make money. And in order to make money, you have to sell something for a price. Sounds pretty straightforward, right?
So then why would we recommend creating a freebie? Doesn’t that go against the entire premise of, well, running a business?!?
Hear us out: Not everything you do should be about making money for your business. It’s a hot take, we know. Instead, a lot of your time and effort should be focused on building a solid strategic foundation for your brand — one that shows people you know your ish and you can help them.
But before we go down that rabbit hole, we want to focus on one small part of that strategic foundation – the part that we’re talking all about today: Creating a freebie for your business.
Let’s dive into the 5+ reasons you should create a freebie, and how it will ultimately help your business in the long run…including your bottom line.
To capture and nurture leads
First up, let’s talk about one of the most beneficial reasons you should create a freebie: to capture new leads.
Think about it: When audiences are signing up for a freebie, there’s virtually no risk involved on their end. They’re not making an investment decision; they’re simply seeing whether your freebie is of any value to them.
That said, with just a simple intake form attached to your freebie, you can grow your email lists super easily. But it’s what you do with that information afterward that’s crucial. Enter: nurturing your leads.
You never want to jump straight into sales tactics with your new subscribers. In general, it’s pretty offputting and can quickly turn them away. Instead, showcase your expertise and value through your regular cadence of emails, like recurring newsletters. Through this, you’re proving to audiences that your business is more than just growing your bottom line. It’s about sharing your knowledge – no strings attached.
To build brand trust and loyalty
All of that nurturing we just talked about? It’s also a great way to build brand trust and loyalty along the way. When you offer audiences a free resource, you’re subconsciously communicating your willingness to share your expertise without expecting anything in return.
With that in mind, you can develop specific nurturing sequences through your go-to email marketing tool (in addition to your newsletters) to drive that brand trust and loyalty even more. What could those emails look like, exactly? They can include things like:
- An introduction to you + your business
- What audiences can expect from your emails
- How your offers can help
- Pro tips + how-to’s
- Helpful resources + guides
- Upcoming events
- Promo codes + discounts for future use
- And so much more!
If you’ve been our Launch BFF for a while, you might see where we’re going with this. Through these nurturing sequences, you can start to incorporate a strategy we like to call email warmup sequences, during which you warm your audiences up before announcing an upcoming launch. By building some of that brand trust and loyalty ahead of time, audiences will be much more primed to invest in future offers. Speaking of…
To promote your offer year-round
Once you’ve successfully nurtured your leads and built brand loyalty and trust, you can start to confidently use your initial freebie to promote your offer. Whether it’s a digital product, online program, or something in between, a freebie is the perfect first step in leading up to your evergreen offer.
For example, say you’re a health and wellness coach who’s ramping up to launch a course about intuitive eating. Instead of jumping head-first into promotional emails, maybe you offer a freebie 6-8 weeks before your launch. And that freebie can include the five most common hunger cues audiences should be more aware of. See where we’re going with this?
The freebie is essentially laying the foundation for when you announce your intuitive eating course, part of which includes recognizing and understanding hunger cues. And by offering that freebie, you are:
- Showcasing your value and expertise
- Sharing your knowledge with no strings attached
- Building a foundation of brand trust and loyalty
- Bridging the gap between a free offer and a paid offer
Even better? If your offer is evergreen – meaning, it’s always relevant for audiences – you can promote your freebie and your course year-round! Essentially, you’re building loyalists and generating passive income. At the same time. Indefinitely. How amazing is that?!
Ready to create your own freebie? Use our freebie to help along the way!
Hopefully, by now, you see that creating and promoting a freebie is anything but a bad tactic. It’s not about wasting your quality time and energy just to give something away. It’s about creating a solid strategy for your business and providing value for your audiences. Sure, the road inevitably leads to growing your bottom line, but it’s everything that happens in between that will sustain your business far longer than those who care only about making money.
And, of course, it wouldn’t be true to form if we didn’t offer our own freebie! So, if you’re feeling invigorated by this blog and wondering, ‘Now what?!’ this is the perfect next step for you. From PDF guides and e-books to quizzes and challenges, we’ll help you nail down the perfect free offer (aka lead magnet) for your biz.