People love freebies. If you run a small business, you know that while free is nice, you also have to get paid and boost revenue to cover your operating and living costs.
Offering a freebie on your website is a great marketing tactic and can even help build your email list. It’s a way to generate leads and provide your customers or clients with value upfront before they even pay you anything. Typical freebies include product samples, books and ebooks, downloadable resources, free trials, and more.
If you’re going to offer a freebie for your business, be sure to do it strategically and set up your offer so you can generate revenue later down the line. Here are 5 ways to turn irresistible freebies for your business into legitimate payments for products and services.
1. Have a Clear Goal or Strategy
The biggest challenge any business faces is getting a potential customer to try its products or services and freebies make this task so much easier to accomplish. That does not mean that offering freebies will automatically translate to lots of sales.
When you offer freebies, do it with intention and a clear goal in mind. One such goal may be increasing sales by at least 10 percent. Maybe you are looking to raise consumer awareness of your business by offering a free small product on a holiday.
You can also use your freebie as a product testing technique to see how well it resonates with customers. Maybe you are testing to see if customers would be willing to purchase something similar or an updated version in the future.
Try to avoid offering freebies simply for the sake of it. It’s okay to do this sometimes if you’re trying to build rapport with customers.
Sometimes a freebie is merely to show your appreciation. For every other opportunity you have to offer a freebie, let your goal and strategy guide how you approach your offerings.
2. Upsell When the Time is Right
Once you’ve created a strategy, be sure to take advantage of your freebie by upselling customers when the time is right. You may be offering a free digital mini-course for example. At the end of the course, offer people an option to purchase your full course option.
If you offer a freebie that gets more people on your email list, you can market one of your services to this email list. This email list can then be used when you have a sale going on or if you have a new product release.
It’s important to create a freebie that provides value and will make the customer excited about your business. You want these customers to be willing to pay for your products or services the next time around.
When they have a positive experience with your business after receiving the freebie, it could be the perfect time to upsell them and make a profit by offering even more value.
Be sure to make it convenient for customers and clients to pay you by accepting credit card payments online and in person.
Due’s credit and debit card processing solutions for businesses make it easy for you to accept payments, ensure secure process and avoid paying unnecessary fees on your end.
3. Integrate Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn money through your business by recommending products and services. You will want to provide products you believe your audience will find useful.
With affiliate marketing online, you can sign up for various different programs and receive a unique link that will be tracked whenever someone clicks on it.
If someone clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you receive a commission of the sale. All affiliate programs are different.
Some affiliates will track your links for up to 30 days after someone uses them while others may not. Some will pay out 30%-40% of the purchase price while other programs may pay you a flat rate of $25 or $85 per sale for example.
The great thing is that you can choose which affiliate programs you want to sign up for and base your selection off what would best serve your own audience.
If you’re giving away a free how-to ebook, for example, you can include relevant affiliate links in your digital freebies or even referral codes for other physical products and earn money based on what you sell.
4. Offer a Freebie as an Add-on
If you’re selling a product or service, sometimes you can generate more sales by adding on an enticing freebie. Let’s say you provide social media management services for example. If you’re trying to sell a larger package to a client, you could add on a free week of social media management or a free 30-minute consultation call.
If it makes sense financially and doesn’t eat into your profits too much, offering freebies as add-ons can really help you get more sales and improve customer/client retention.
People love knowing that they’re getting something additional that’s “free” out of the deal. This is why BOGO deals do so well with retailers.
5. Have a Clear Call to Action
The final tactic you should use when you’re trying to turn freebies into payments and more revenue for your business is to simply add in a call to action after providing the freebie. If you want to make more sales, sometimes all you need to do is ask.
By providing a no strings attached freebie up front in good faith, you’re showing that you strongly believe in the value of your products and services and people should be willing to pay for a more advanced or specific service.
If you email someone a digital guide or checklist as a freebie, you can easily add a sentence or two toward the end of the email asking them to check out your products page or buy the full guide if they enjoy the freebie.
Telling people exactly what you want them to do is one of the best ways to start seeing more results.
Summary
While offering freebies is a nice gesture, don’t fall into the trap of offering too many freebies for your business without taking advantage of the opportunity to make a profit later on as well.
Use these 5 tactics to avoid undervaluing your business so you can accept more payments and keep customers happy.
