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How would you word a digital "Free plus shipping" offer... if you ain't gonna ship it?

by Marc Rodill
5 replies
Hey copywriters,

Quick question. You're all familiar with "free plus shipping" offers. You know, "It's free! Just help me with the cost of shipping..."

Customer: "Okay, that's logical."

And clearly marketers do it for two reasons. Because direct mail often outperforms online media, and paying the shipping weeds out people who wouldn't buy anything from you anyway.

But let's say logistically, you weren't going to ship anything. Because for this campaign you're not interested in shipping physical products, period. And that option was off the table.

How would you construct a "digital" "free plus shipping" offer?
  • Free, just pay the process and handling?
  • Free, just pay the cost of hosting?
  • Free, just pay the cost of sending an autoresponder?
  • Free, we just donate xyz to charity...
  • Practically free, except you pay $4.95... because... xyz?

That's about all I came up with. And personally, I think the verbage is sub par.

So here's the thing. You guys are out there in the trenches everyday. You know what's working. How have you seen this successfully done?

Thanks,

Marc
#digital #free plus shipping #gonna #offer #ship #word
  • Profile picture of the author RickDuris
    Focus on the massive discount. Not the price. So if the price is regularly $100, and the trial price is $1, focus on positioning the $99 discount.

    - Rick Duris
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  • Profile picture of the author Marc Rodill
    Thanks, Rick. That's perfect. I'll give it a good thorough test.

    Anyone else? How about an offer to split test it against?

    Marc
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  • Profile picture of the author Bruce Wedding
    Just this December Matt Bacak told me that a low price with "Free Shipping" was working better for him and he's a fanatical tester who ships a lot of CDs.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve The Copywriter
    Things do change.

    Years ago Dan Kennedy said "shipping prices don't matter, people don't mind, they expect to pay. And you can even make a profit on them"

    I always wondered about this.

    Thinking "wouldn't it just be better to give free shipping"

    As a "bonus" or a "thank you", "with our compliments" like "You pay the (special price) and enjoy the (name the big benefits) of the product, and let us pay the shipping" it can be a tipping point that gets the sale.

    But most importantly I've never seen anyone who is thrilled when they've just agreed to pay a chunk of money and bang on goes some extra costs no matter what they are.



    Steve


    P.S. I did do a promo where we said - "Free shipping (with a friendly reason why). But we can offer expedited at xxx - so you'll get the (benefit), (benefit), (benefit) even quicker"

    I haven't got the exact figures to hand - but a lot of people did pay the extra costs.

    Next time, again with a powerful "reason why" we might offer expedited shipping free. It could bump up the response even more.
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  • Profile picture of the author Curtis2011
    Well obviously I wouldn't use that specific wording if I was trying to sell something.

    Why do "free plus shipping" on a digital product at all? Why not just show the normal price, then put a line through it and say "special one time only sale" or "special low price for the first 50 customers" or something like that?

    You could sell it for the same exact price but in a way that doesn't confuse the customer.
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