Whether you are a course creator, a writer, a coach or offer any other service or product, common consesus for good marketing at the moment is that you should give something away for free to attract new clients or in exchange for their e-mail address. In short, everyone should have freebies.
I learned about this marketing concept while I wrote my first stories and novels and I really struggled with it. Many authors, especially self-published ones, suggest that we should give away a novel for free or at least a short story. But I just couldn’t. The thought of giving away my fantasy mystery novella The Loop or worse still my first in series The First Mission was so depressing that I didn’t want to finish writing them anymore.
We all deserve to get paid for the work we do. Whether you work in an office, take care of customers in a store or are a creative, work is work and deserves to be rewarded with money. So I watched what other people did with their free offers, learned more about different kinds and came up with my personal guidelines for great freebies.
1. Create something new
When I wrote the first draft of my novella, I was already thinking about pricing. That’s when I learned that most authors suggest you give your first in series away for free. I hated that thought because I didn’t write this story to give it away. I wanted to sell it.
Once I allowed myself to charge for my novella, I felt so much relief! That’s why my first guideline for freebies is always create something from scratch with the intent of giving it away. So while I plan the story or the course, I know right from the start that it is going to be a free offer. I invest exactly as much time into it as I am comfortable doing.
2. Provide value
This does not mean that my free offers are less valuable than my paid ones. Instead, they are on the same level. For example, my free emotional intelligence courses that teach people how to embody peace, happiness and self-love, introduce the paid courses but they can absolutely be taken by themselves. Participants can reuse the techniques they learn forever.
Knowing that these courses would always be free also helped me decide on the content. I asked myself which techniques would benefit people the most, or which were the easiest to learn or which did I find most helpful. And then I picked 5 per course. These techniques are just as valuable as any other techniques I teach in the paid courses.
3. Introduce your work
Another important feature of a great freebie is that it introduces students, readers and clients to you and your work. My free courses, for example, have the same structure as their paid equivalents. People can get to know me, my teaching methods and teaching style before they pay.
It’s the same with my free short story “Judgement of Ursula“. It introduces themes I write about in all of my stories and novels, like overturning tropes and mixing fun with violence. The story also welcomes readers into my fantasy world Myrthe. When you create a freebie, you want to choose a product that showcases what people can expect from your paid work.
If you are a coach, for instance, a free video of your process would be much more helpful than a PDF because it introduces you and your work. If you are an author who normally writes thrillers, offer a short story or a novel that showcases your writing style and the themes you work with in the same genre.
4. Give them a cookie
Finally, my last guideline is to be as creative as possible with freebies. In her book Newsletter Ninja 2: If You Give Your Reader a Cookie the author Tammi Labrecque calls freebies cookies because they should be irresistibe. She wrote the book for writers but it is so full of out-of-the-box thinking and creative ideas that it might just inspire your next free offer too, no matter which industry you work in.
Think about your ideal client. What would they love? What would be as irresistible as a tripple chocolate cookie? Allow your creativity to flow and take your time. I noticed that many people who write and teach about freebies work with the assumption that the more people you attract the better. This is not my way.
Quality is more important than quantity. I am not just referring to the value you provide to future clients and readers. It is also about the quality of people who enter your work bubble. Do they actually use your freebie or is it just cluttering up their life? To me 1000 subscribers who engage with my content are much more valuable than 10.000 people who do not even open my e-mails.
My freebies are not for the masses. I carefully create them following my 4 guidelines to ensure that people get an irresistible product that introduces me and my work. I provide value to them in the manner I am most comfortable with. When freebies are done well, they are genuine win-win products. Great for you, great for you clients, great for everyone.