The Free Gift

Objective: To learn the importance of offering your subscribers a free gift – and what        an appropriate gift is. What You’ll Accompli...

Objective: To learn the importance of offering your subscribers a free gift – and what        an appropriate gift is.
What You’ll Accomplish: By the end of this lesson, you will know why you’re offering a freebie and what you should give away.
Estimated Time of Completion: 10 minutes
Before You Begin: Pull up a few of your favorite opt-in pages, because you’ll use them in the exercise at the end. Be ready to take notes.

The Power of FREE

If there is one universal thing that everyone likes, it is the word FREE.
You could offer anything from a free golf lesson with Tiger Woods to a free can of tuna for your cat… you’ll always get a similar response. People will jump at the opportunity to get something for FREE.
Why is that? Why are we so tickled to get a FREE anything?
It’s because we feel like we have won something. We feel like we have beaten the system just a little bit. We got what we wanted without having to pay for it—or so we think.
If we are given a free sample and like it, it gets us thinking, “If this is what they’re giving away for FREE, the paid stuff must really be awesome!”

Let me give you an example… Let’s say you need to lose 25 pounds by your wedding. If there was a paid program that promised to show you how to lose 25 pounds fast, you would probably THINK about buying it. But if you were offered a free guide to dropping the first 5 pounds in a week, you would JUMP on it! Even though you aren’t getting the entire program for free, the allure of getting part of it free is there… and it convinces you to give out your email address.

Why FREE is the Most Important Word

When people see the word FREE, some interesting psychology kicks in…

Consent

This is an old and true sales technique. Once someone consents to something – once they say “YES, I’d like to try that free sample” – they are more likely to say YES again.
This means once someone consents to accept something from you, they are likely to accept more… even if they have to pay. It establishes a business relationship.
This consent is very easy to obtain. In the mind of your audience, there’s no risk when something is FREE. If they don’t care for it, no harm done.
But if they DO like it, they are likely to want more. This makes them more attentive when you send promotional emails. They’ve had a “taste” of your expertise. They trust that you know what you’re talking about, so your recommendations carry weight.

Value

People are always looking for the best deal. They like to get plenty of value at the lowest possible cost. Well, there isn’t anything lower in price than FREE. If that FREE item also provides real value, they’re going to be impressed.
By offering a FREE report to your subscribers, you can prove to them that you provide great VALUE. It’s your chance to get them to trust you and like you.
Take this report for instance:

I guarantee you will not find all of the secrets to weight loss in it. But you WILL get quality information on 6 specific foods that can help you to lose weight.
Do you see how this works? You need to give away somevaluableinformation – not an exhaustive encyclopedia of weight loss.

Your FREE gift should provide a sample of the VALUE your newsletter offers. A modest but meaningful taste of your knowledge is the best kind of FREE item.

Throughout my 10+ years of email marketing, I have experimented with many types of free gifts. And here is what I have found works the best:

In your FREE first, promise the reader a few tricks or tips that provide QUICK, TANGIBLE RESULTS.

There is nothing more valuable to your visitors than getting what they want quickly. So offer them a FREE report that shows them how to get the quick results they want fast.
Look at these headlines:

• A full-proof pickup line you can use TONIGHT
• 3 sneaky tricks to cut your grocery bill by 40% IMMEDIATELY
• Discover the 5 ESSENTIAL supplements to start growing muscle TODAY

TONIGHT… IMMEDIATELY… TODAY… They all promise information that will get results fast. This is the best kind of information to give away. Your subscribers can taste the results, and one taste will make them eager to listen to anything else you recommend.

Trust

The FREE gift also shows the subscriber you are someone who can be trusted.

How does that FREE item establish a relationship of trust?

• First, you prove that you make good on your promises. When they receive the FREE gift, as promised, they know they can trust you in the future.
• Second, they will trust you as an expert. Your credibility is established. The FREE gift shows that you know what you’re talking about. It says, “Hey, if you buy what I recommend, it won’t be money wasted!”

I could do an entire course on the psychology and marketing wisdom of a FREE offer – it’s that important! But I think I’ve given you enough to see that offering a FREE gift is REQUIRED on your opt-in page.
Report, Video, or Audio?
I have found that offering free videos and free reports both work well. (I have not used audio downloads that much, so I won’t make a definitive statement about audio until I’ve done a lot more testing.) But…

My testing has shown without a doubt that “Free PDF” gets a higher response than a free video.

Therefore I STRONGLY recommend that you offer a free report.
How To Get Fast Free Reports
Writing a free report might sound terrifying to you. If so, fear not!
There are many places to get quality free reports written for you on the cheap.
One option is to use Private Label Rights (PLR)

PLR documents are documents other people have written that you have the right to use as your own.

Let’s say your niche is dieting, and you want to give away a free report on “10 foods to turn your body into a fat-burning furnace,” you could find a PLR Report on fat burning foods, make a few adjustments to make it your own, and give that away on your opt-in page.
My favorite site to get good PLR offers is plrassassin.com

On this site, you will find terrific PLR content on every niche imaginable. For example, when I type “dieting” into the search box, I get this…

These are all reports that have content you can use in any way that you want.

In general, you don’t want to just take a PLR report and use it yourself.

Instead, you should rewrite it to make it your own.
You can do these rewrites yourself OR you can pay somebody else to do them. If you really want, you can pay somebody else to write a report from scratch for you.
This is called outsourcing. It’s when you have somebody else do something for you.
Don’t worry, the Internet makes finding people to outsource stuff to easy.
A great site to find freelance writers for any budget is oDesk.
www.odesk.com

oDesk is a site that connects freelancers with employers. The projects on the site are for a wide range of things, from writing to programming to website design.
It doesn’t cost anything to create an account on oDesk or post a project. Posting a project is pretty straightforward. You just select the category of freelancer you’re looking for (in this case, a writer) and describe the project.
Here’s an example of a job posting for a writer to create your free report:

After putting up your job posting, freelancers will submit bids. You will be able to read the bids they submit and evaluate those freelancers’ profiles.
If you like a bid and the freelancer’s profile, you can award the project to the freelancer. Once you’ve done that, oDesk will allow you to communicate with the freelancer, manage the project and process all payments.
When it comes to hiring writers to create your free report, you have two options:
1. You can hire somebody to rewrite a PLR report for you 2. You can have a writer create a free report from scratch.
If you have somebody rewrite a PLR report, you can expect to pay less than somebody who creates a free report from scratch.
On the other hand, having the writer create the report from scratch gives you more control over the content.

Here are some quick hiring tips…

• You get what you pay for. The more you offer to pay writers, the higher quality work you will get.
• If you are having a report written from scratch, expect to pay $.02/word for average quality, $.03/word for good quality, and above that for exceptional quality.
• Do your research. Look through the writers’ profiles and read their reviews before selecting one for your project.
• Set a clear deadline. The best freelancers are usually juggling multiple projects. By stating the deadline up front, you will get bids from freelancers who can work with your schedule.
• Be VERY CLEAR with your directions and STAY ON TOP OF THINGS when you hire somebody. Get regular updates and review them promptly. That way you get what you want, and the writer doesn’t get frustrated doing rewrites.
• A good writer can be a terrific asset for your email marketing business. After all, you will need many things written. That means you should do things to make the writers you work with happy, such as paying promptly and communicating your needs with them in a respectful way.

I’ll close by having you do an exercise to figure out what YOU are going to offer your readers for FREE. And I’ll point you to some sources so you can get started on that FREE gift now.

Recap

• Everyone loves something free!
• Offering a free gift shows you are willing to give away something of value to establish a relationship.
• A no-risk business relationship, based on consent, is created when subscribers get the free gift.
• The best free gift offers a sample of information that provides QUICK RESULTS.
• You get to prove that you’re a credible expert whose opinions are worth listening to.
• And after subscribers receive the gift, they know you’ll deliver on your promises.
• Using PLR content from a site like plrassassin.com gives you a base to work from with your free reports.
• Using a freelancing website like oDesk, you can get good writers to create your reports for you at an affordable price.

EXERCISE

• Look over three of your favorite opt-in pages from the previous lessons.
• Look at what types of free gifts are being given away. Note what type of gift it is – free PDF, video, audio, etc.
• What are some of the promises of QUICK, TANGIBLE RESULTS? Write those down.
• Now come up with 3 gift ideas for your opt-in page. I recommend that you start out with a short PDF report of about 10-15 pages for best response.
• Get started on that report so it will be ready by the time you launch your opt-in page. You don’t have to write it yourself. You can get a report created very quickly by going to the Bonus section and checking out “Fast Free Reports.” In it you’ll find several low-cost, low-stress options.

THE WISE MARKETER KNOWS

A free gift should attract subscribers with a sample of valuable information that promises quick results.

Make sure your gift offers just enough to establish your credibility, show value and leverage trust for whatever you promote in the future.