Balancing giving away content, requiring list signup, and selling

5 replies
Hello,

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I work in professional services, and lately I have been ramping up my production of high-quality content for 2 reasons:
- To create brand leadership and marketing for my company and niche
- To be able to eventually sell the content and rely 100% on hourly billing

I've been blogging for years, and now I am about to release my first piece of *epic* content.
My mailing list only started a month ago, and its very small (around 80 people). My first priority is to use my epic content to drive more signups to my mailing list. This is where it gets confusing to me.

My epic content is a 7 chapter highly actionable ebook that will have worksheets, templates, and videos.
Should I

- Offer the first 2 chapters free, then put the rest behind an email signup form?
- Offer the whole book free, then put the worksheets and templates behind an email signup form?
- Offer the whole book as part of an email signup, then charge for the worksheets and videos?
- Offer the first chapter free, the second chapter after email signup, and the rest after they pay?
- Other options...?

The combination of free content, content available after signup, and paid content is what is confusing me. Any help anyone could offer to help me structure how I do this would be great. I plan to create 1 piece of epic content per month from here on out, and repurpose that content into different channels. I just want to have a structure and a strategy of how I leverage the content for interest, emails, and revenue.
#balancing #content #ebook #email list #giving #list #requiring #revenue #selling #signup #video
  • Profile picture of the author cianci1129
    Give the first two chapters away for free in exchange for an email address. Create a download page for those two chapters. At the bottom let people know that if they liked the free chapters that they can grab the full 7 chapter blueprint and provide a link to that. Promote your full 7 chapter blueprint to the list of emails you are collecting in addition to giving them free related content. For those who bought the full 7 chapter blueprint, offer your worksheets and videos as upsells. Once they buy, transition them over to a "buyers" list and remove them off your initial email list. Then promote your upsells to this buyers list in addition to giving them free content.

    Hope this helps
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    1. Try and stop using the word 'epic' to describe your product. People will hate that.

    2. Work out what your biggest secret is and give that away. It should be something that is very easy to digest for people. Something they can easily read or listen to in just 2-3 minutes. This should give them a big 'aha' moment and that is when you then offer them the rest of your content.
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    • Profile picture of the author dragonfly08
      I use epic in the literal sense, as in "long (multivolume), deep, and detailed content"
      Not epic as in "totally awesome"
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      • Profile picture of the author Pitchfork Marketing
        Banned
        I like to use this method a lot.

        >>Give them a bunch "EPIC" information for free - this information needs to vividly explain WHAT they need to do. IT's purpose is to ignite lots of curiosity.

        >>Then you sell them strategy - Basically, you've already told them what to do, now they are dying to know how to do it. And thats where purchasing your product comes into play.

        The most important piece is the information you give for free, it has to do a really good job explaining their problems and whats needed to overcome them.

        A trick that we found to boost the perceived value of this free info content is to give the strategies cool names.

        so if you have a strategy to get free traffic from stumbleupon, you could name the technique something like "The Stumbleupon, No Cash Needed" Method (you get the point)...

        It works because it boosts their curiosity even more, and they will literally go crazy over buying your product so that they will be able to learn the cool sounding strategies.

        This post might be worth looking at as well - http://www.warriorforum.com/copywrit...re-profit.html
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      • Profile picture of the author WillR
        Originally Posted by dragonfly08 View Post

        I use epic in the literal sense, as in "long (multivolume), deep, and detailed content"
        Not epic as in "totally awesome"
        Well I heard epic as in 'totally awesome'.

        And perception is reality online ;-)
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