Moving the FREE LINE? for your Customers? Does this still work?

by entry

Posted: 13 years ago 11 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

The top marketers began moving the Free line, so provided more free valuable stuff (eg stuff which was $200 for Free to them people on their list)

Does this still work these days? or do the list get soo used to the free valuable, and take them stategies

or they expect high items for free?

#customers #free #line #moving #work

fluffythewondercat 13 years ago

It's a good question, and in part I think it depends on the age of your prospects.

I'm in the middle of reading _Free_ by Chris Anderson and he talks a lot about generational expectations of free vs paid.

I find "free" business models rather exciting as a marketer but haven't figured out yet out to get people to pay a monthly membership to gain access to "free" stuff in my area of expertise.

fLufF
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- entry 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by fluffythewondercat
  
  I'm in the middle of reading _Free_ by Chris Anderson and he talks a lot about generational expectations of free vs paid.
  
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  is that an ebook ? where can i get it from
  
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Anonymous Affiliate 13 years ago

"Moving the free line" is nothing but making sure you establish a bond with your customers by allowing them having a free bite at what you've got to offer before charging them for your premium content. As such, the "moving the free line" thingy is not a strategy per se, but rather a communication tool and therefore it's not about whether it works or not: it's about doing it properly and if so it will certainly work.

Does saying "Hello, how are you today?" work as a friendly greeting sentence? yes it does if done properly. Well, "moving the free line" is pretty much the same thing.
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- fluffythewondercat 13 years ago
  
  To answer entry's question: _Free_ was a NYT bestseller a couple of years ago, I think. Interestingly enough, for a limited time _Free_ was offered free in some formats but I think that time is past.
  
  Anderson was coming off a high with the success of _The Long Tail_ and seems pretty full of himself in this book, which is short on successful Free examples and long on exposition, but I think it's worth a read if you can pick it up cheaply.
  
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Adam J Wagner

13 years ago

You can grow a list a bit faster by offering free products, but I'd rather have a list of 100 buyers then a list of 300 freebie seekers. My buyers lists are considerably smaller then my "free gift" lists and they make me more money every time I mail.

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Anonymous Affiliate

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Adam J Wagner

You can have both. Just because a freebie seeker didnt buy your product, it doesnt mean that they wont buy your next product.

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JohnMcCabe

13 years ago

The whole 'moving the free line' thing is a sampling strategy.

Giving away a 5-page pdf to sell a $17 ebook.

Giving away the $17 ebook to sell the $97 multimedia package.

Giving away the $97 MM package to sell the $697 course.

Giving away the $697 course to sell the $2000 + $97/mo program.

As the price and amount of content grows, you want to provide a bigger sample that implies the value of your 'real' offer.

Some marketers use products that have actually sold, some just offer free content that would otherwise be good enough to sell. The desired end result is a subscriber list that already believes in the value offered by the marketer, as shown in what that marketer has already provided.

Done properly, it results in serious numbers of people waiting for that obnoxious "go, go, go" email.

Done poorly, though, it often results in a list of people trained to expect an endless string of high-quality freebies. When the marketer breaks the pattern by actually asking people to pay for something, they get upset, scream "scam" or "spam" and either unsubscribe or stop paying attention.

Whether you decide to try 'moving the free line' or not, you have to keep in mind that the prime objective of building a list is to sell stuff.

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marciayudkin

13 years ago

Done properly, it results in serious numbers of people waiting for that obnoxious "go, go, go" email.

Done poorly, though, it often results in a list of people trained to expect an endless string of high-quality freebies. When the marketer breaks the pattern by actually asking people to pay for something, they get upset, scream "scam" or "spam" and either unsubscribe or stop paying attention.

I wonder if a key to doing this successfully is having a certain proportion of alternation (for example, free, free, paid, free, free, free, paid, etc.) instead of just free, free, free, free, free, free, free, paid - which can be more off-putting.

Marcia Yudkin

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JohnMcCabe

13 years ago

Originally Posted by marciayudkin

Marcia, most of what I've seen regarding 'moving the free line' had to do with product launches. It was a matter of free, free, free, launch.

Once past the launch point, I think it's a matter of training people what to expect. Looking at a few of my sequences, the ratio and order of free vs. paid almost seems random - by intention.

What I aim to do is get people out of their email boxes, which for most is a fairly intimate space, and onto the web. So just about every email has a link to click on. It might be to an offer, a free resource, a Youtube video, a download, etc. The only commonality is that the links add value to the email so that people look forward to them, read them and click the links.

Sometimes the link is just for fun - maybe a cartoon or funny video related to the subject of the list. There's a good example here on the forum, where someone linked to a Dilbert cartoon to make a point about using 'black chapeau' tactics.

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sscot

13 years ago

It works, don't forget that freebies aren't freebies forever. There's a day they would pay you. Feed the list with really useful contents and keep it in opt-in mode.

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entry

13 years ago

Originally Posted by sscot

It works, don't forget that freebies aren't freebies forever. There's a day they would pay you. Feed the list with really useful contents and keep it in opt-in mode.

Useful, in email articles? or Pdf Free reports?

or the PDF report information should be converted into email text format? and just sent as a 'content email' ?

what do you to sscot? what is your strategy ?

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Moving the FREE LINE? for your Customers? Does this still work?

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