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Excessive Freebies

Freebies have two down sides. While they can be a useful tool in marketing, they are not an instant solution, and may in fact be counterproductive.

Freebies are suggested as a means of doing two things: getting traffic to your site, and building an opt-in list.

Here's the problems:

1. In order for the freebie to attract people, you have to have a base to market it to. That means, instead of marketing your website, you'll have to market the freebie instead! Some people feel it is easier to market a freebie than an item for sale, and while that may be true, doing so may not get you sales.

2. When you promote a freebie, you are targeting a certain customer profile. We call them "freebie seekers". It's perfectly fine to promote freebies when you have an ad supported site that you just want to get traffic to so you get more ad income. But when you want to SELL things, then advertising free items can be very counterproductive. Your traffic may go up, but your sales may not. Freebie seekers are notoriously fickle. They rarely pay for something, they just scrounge free stuff. Will having a bunch of freebie seekers on your site be worth the promotional cost?

Free samples and bonuses have a long history of success in marketing. But you have to use them in ways that actually encourages an increase in your income.

Freebies are less risky when you are providing an electronic download, but they also have lower perceived value. Freebies that involve a physical item are far more costly for a business to produce, but have higher perceived value with potential customers.

Handing out free samples at a fair may be highly successful for one kind of business, and a failure for others. So do a bit of research, talk to people who have tried it, and make sure it actually attracts the right customer. If it doesn't, then find other ways to market, and give yourself permission to ignore the people telling you to give something away.