Stop offering free things in emails...it de-values it.

Or just don't call it a freebie. I just made a $2 ebook (pretty much a freebie) and I am selling it as "Article Marketing Cheat Sheet"

Sometimes just coming up with something different is all it takes. We are training our brains to ignore (just as you are now) words like freebie or limited time offer.

I think many people try to use free gifts instead of talking to their audience.

I do think giving free stuff away can only help, but if you do that without
connecting with your reader, nobody will keep reading your emails.

I get emails from some bloke called Lone Wolf, or something silly, but they are
extremely interesting. I wouldn't be put off if I received something free from
him, or encourages, by the way. I read his stuff because it appeals to my
sense of adventure, and nobody else emails me pictures of lost Inca temples.

Yes, I am on some strange lists LOL

"Thanks for this bag of free bottle caps, wow you're a swell guy but. ... . . wtf do I need bottlecaps for?"

What if you were in a bottle cap collecting group?

If you have 65900 emails maybe the reason you can't find anything worthwhile is because of you signing up for too much worthless sh*t in the first place.

I reckon you're missing all kinds of phenomenal free info.

Strange. I sent a freebie today and had people thanking me. These people ALSO purchase items from me.

The thing is to find a good mix.

-g

There is nothing wrong with sending your list 'freebies' . Freebies can come in all shapes and forms and people react differently to what you're offering. You can't please everyone on your list and that's why you have the option of optin out at any time you please.

Your definitely signing up for too much crap. The point of freebies is to give them away every once in a while.. Not every email. You can give your self a rotation like 9 quality emails and 1 freebie or a special freebie at the same time as you releasing a new product..

There's also the since you purchased x i'm going to give you x off my new product located here type of deal not free but if you provided a quality paid product before a discount on your new one will be pretty enticing.

I think as in everything there is good freebie and bad freebies. The reason I feel people use freebie is because at the end of the day people LOVE FREE. No matter how insignificant it is if they dont have to pay for certain information then that is awesome.

And i believe us as marketers have a different mentality as we know what is going on behind the scenes with freebies. But someone who knows nothing about marketing will be interested if you are offering them a FREE product

Also its a way to prove yourself to your audience.

In actual fact, getting a freebie does not lead to a sale.

Believe me...I am the wolf.

Therefore, if I am one of many (sounds scary I think), then I believe you have a lot of people that are internet savvy, wise and have a lot of resources available to them.

A lot of people these days have the 'option' to buy what they need or want. Do you know the difference? I am sure you have heard of Maslow's hierachy of needs.

People will definitely purchase the essentials first and then spend on the luxury's (unless you count the amazing addicts that just can't help spending money on things that were never meant to be).

I need a warm jacket for winter in the UK or else I will freeze to death. Buying a red jacket lined with faux fur is a luxury though. It appeals to my 'female-ness'. (my made-up words and my rules).

Freebies are only worthwhile if they come with a specific purchase. A bonus so to speak. But in my mind I do question the validity of whether I would have taken the bonus or a reduction on the price of the item/service. I prefer the latter. Sometimes freebies can be useless and have no meaning and therefore people just accept it because it is 'free.'

However, let's get back to my generation of 'wolf-liness' ... there are endless opportunities to gain freebies just because it is free with no strings attached. If I do it, my next door neighbour does it and several other thousand do it, and even tell their families how to obtain this free item without spending money... do you think it achieved it's purpose?

Did it sell the item or service?

In some cases all it did was get people mentioning the brand, and that is all. Remember, real marketing is all about testing and perception by the consumers. But in reality, a lot of people hate the lame freebies that are offered to them.

Perhaps I wouldn't have felt so weird for mentioning all the freebies coming to my inbox... but the advantage is that I get to study a lot of people's (including warrior's) methods for communicating. Heck- a lot of people on this forum that are on Twitter put me to shame. All they do is spam messages in 3's or 5's and do it every half an hour.

Another added benefit is competition. What one guru doesn't sell, another does and vice versa. Imagine when someone tells me about their amazing product and how it will cost me $47 and not even a day or a few weeks later someone else is offering it free.

So what is the point.

Yes, you will get some of your friends and family to say 'thank you' for your beautiful ebook on 'How to dominate Twitter' that has the same message and content as about a dozen other ebooks (no originality, I tell you.)

Funny thing is I have read a lot of Warrior WSO's in the past/ or watched. Depending on the product. Most is utter rubbish. So where is the originality? Where is the information?

I think (maybe I am just that clever) I can also convince some noob that my ebook on 'how to make money' can just be what they need. Oops! I forget. I am already saturated with all these freebies and products and therefore know a lot of this information already.

How stupid do you take people to be? I am not that stupid. I read it and even keep a lot of it on my hard drive because I am bored and there are times, I see if it actually works on real people. (it never does!)

What happens if you buy articles from article writers that are not freelance journalists, and therefore do not have original content... because in the end... How can they? If they write on liver failure and the medication that can be bought, do you think he/she studied medicine and can accurately describe the correct medication or cure for it? Hell no. All you did was hire a writer that re-hashes the information.

So what does it make all the people that do that? Well cheap for one because you can't afford to hire real journalists or researchers to get you cutting edge information. Sorry. Had to break it to people. (some people actually believe they offer value by offering content that has already been written on the internet).

I am not the hypocrite here. In fact I am the wolf again because in the end when I have participated in projects, it was quite laughable. Sure I can provide copyscape passed articles, original in every way to con the search engines. But in the end, the people that use it... (ah well- no hope for them.) For me it is all about the money. Same like everyone else on the forum. Let's not pretend.

Heck some people on this forum make a lot of money of selling dreams to other internet marketers. But that is all it is. I have yet to see originality.

But hey... it still amuses me to read all the ebooks and see if someone can offer something great. In my opinion, the only things worth their while in the internet marketing arena is actual software that makes our lives easier.

I am all for accepting freebies in this area. Sadly, only the worst ones get circulated. Same goes for ebooks.

I think offering your list great value for free is a win-win situation. You are giving them value while at the same time you are nurturing a relationship with them. If you know what the people on your list are looking for and you can give them great free info then you stand a much better chance of selling them something of value down the road. It sounds to me like you have subscribed to way to many lists. I think I would sift through those emails and if the people are offering things you are no interested in just click unsubscribe. I have had to do this many times before. One thing to consider as you are getting these free reports is that depending on what niche you are going into you may be able to use these reports yourself for your own list. Of course be careful to read any disclaimers. But all in all giving away something of value is not bad. It is what marketers do.

There has to be a good balance between the amount of free stuff you give away and the amount of paid products you promote. The problem is a lot of people seem to think that giving away free stuff has to mean giving away some type of product or service. It's not the case. As others have mentioned if you give away too much information or too many different products, you risk confusing and/or overwhelming your prospects.

I run lists in several niches outside of IM and I do give away free stuff to those lists each week. However they are not products or services, they are things such as Youtube videos or blog posts related to the niche. This makes the job of follow-up drop dead easy for me and my lists love me for it. Sure, I am only sharing content that is already out there for them to find but you'd be surprised how many comments I get each week thanking me for sharing the content. Often it is not the person who created the content that people will remember but the person who shared that content with them.

I like to entertain my lists and give them a reason to keep opening the emails week after week. If all I did was pitch products then my open rates would suffer significantly. If all I did was give away free products week after week, I have a strong feeling my opening rates would also suffer. The fact my list does not know what to expect from me each week but do know they will get entertained is what keeps my emails getting opened.

I know PLENTY of things that are free, yet are "valuable" and "real".

What kind of product would you deem to be "valuable" and "real"?

Hi Sarah,

You obviously have strong feelings about email marketing and freebies--I can understand. I'm posting this a friend, a Warrior friend, in hope of helping not arguing who's right or wrong.

So I'm going to give you a freebie here, a freebie in the form of a couple tips that have value. But before I give you the free stuff I'm going to ask that you indulge me in listening to a story.

I live in Michigan. Right now it's colder than hell outside. Snow, cold, wind--it's bitter. But spring is coming before too long and I look forward to that. One reason is that every year around Mother's Day, things start popping up out of the ground and I eat them! Depending on the temperature, sunlight, and humidity morels start popping up. If you're not familiar with morels they look kind of like mushrooms but the have convoluted caps and a nutty taste.

Around here morels sell for about $40 a pound in the stores when you can get them. Anyway, frequently we we go morel hunting we will walk for an hour or more through the woods and sometimes we can't find a one. And then, magically, someone yells out that they found one. And low and behold we begin to find them all over right under our feet. We take them home, saute them in butter and pour them over a 1" thick rib eye steak and we are all in hog heaven for the next 30 mintues.

Well, Internet marketing can be kind of like that. Sometimes people buy thousands of dollars in ebooks, courses, seminars or coaching and still fail to make money online. And this can be due to the fact that the solution they were looking for was right beneath their feet--just like the morels in my story.

You say you have gigs of promotional emails and freebies clogging up your hard drive. Rather than opening them and complaining about the junk promotional offers and freebies inside, learn from them!

The guys in this business who are knocking down $500k or more a year in the IM niche are not idiot spammers. Most of them are very, very intelligent, creative, and motivated individuals. You might be surprised! The one thing I can tell you is that they didn't get to their level by chance. Moreover, the one thing they probably do better than the average or noob marketer is TESTING.

A good friend of mine (who makes ten times what I do) explained one time about the testing he does with his email marketing. He hits his list twice each and every day with offers. I know, you probably detest people who would do that. He also knows down to the minute what times of the day he gets maximum sales at.

He also knows that many of his customers come from the UK and they are usually five hours ahead of our time in the Eastern U.S. So he segments his mailings so that previous UK buyers get their emails at the optimum time in the UK, not the same time we get them in the U.S.

He has split tested subject lines, plain text vs HTML text, times of day, days of the week, and more. What people call "junk" from these marketers is actually the result of in-depth testing, testing, and more testing.

So Sarah, learn from what these guys do! Do you know the best days to send emails out to your subscribers? Do you know what times of day works best? Have you actually testing various subject lines to see which work best? Have you split tested different opt-in forms to learn which convert best? All these things can be learned from testing and from watching how the big dogs do this.

They use freebies as list builders because they work! They mail at least once a day because they know they make more money doing that. No, these guys filling your mailbox with "junk" aren't idiots. You can learn from them.

They make more money because they have tested and know what works. Most people don't test and don't learn from watching what the successful people do--that's why they don't make any money online.

I'm just saying, rather than complain that the big guys are all imbeciles why not learn from them? You can get a better education studying the emails they send you than from buying the stuff they promote inside them.

That's my freebie. File it as you see fit.

P.S. Sarah, you said... Heck some people on this forum make a lot of money of selling dreams to other internet marketers. But that is all it is.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Sell the sizzle, not the steak?"
--Mike

Create top landing optin site is so important with List Bulding. If you look at Google image, you see the fonts of it look so impressive. They impress and stimulate human mind? You can have more optins if you can make optin sites with fonts like experienced marketers do.Do Not Forget To Test It. Mike Chen's software is currently free at my site. These tips are useful?

I had to look up Morel. Mushrooms:p

I was thinking what is a morel and why would you saute it. LOL

You make some very valid points Jeremy.

The real marketers give away something of value that is what I was taught to do not something rehashed or useless.
I am unsure why it is that people are giving away junk. The purpose to get someone to buy off of you is to show them you are worth buying from.

Giving away junk you would think they would know only will give that impression of their own business as being junk and worthless unvaluable instead of invaluable.
Is this something that is being taught now? What is your opinion, you have been around longer than I have what is it that has caused this sudden influx of garbage men ?

-Will

Its very true that freebies have been regarded as annoying and undesirable.

Well Sarah... welcome to the club. At some point most people have gone
through the same thing. Some will boast they only ever read this or that
one person - so whatever, fine.

It's scaled up in recent years, I think, probably... maybe. But there was
junk back in the earlier days. I remember it, and lots of others probably
remember it, too.

Maybe you were embellishing about the number of emails in your inbox?

If not, then I would wonder about direction; sense or even presence of
it.

I have received incredible freebies over the years and even recently. I
mean things that put most of the stuff in the wso section to shame. (but
maybe that's not a good example!)

Maybe refine your filter, narrow down your subs to known achievers and
do whatever it is you do in business.


Ken

I like Free stuff. I like to give it and I like to get it. Somebody who is interested in what your are marketing enjoys a chance to check it out before buying. With Online business we no longer get to touch the merchandise. A free trial run is the next best thing. I've discovered some amazing junk that had some great sales copy. Glad I found out before I passed on a credit card number.
Jan

Yeah, you're definitely right Jeremy. I guess what I was saying is if you can follow the "right" people online you can learn a lot. It's a free education.

Tell me Jeremy and I'll remove this, but when I first came to the Warrior forum I remember reading one of your posts where you mentioned struggling to get through school. I was an inner city teacher for 14 years and to be honest I have a rather jaded view of public education. But there is one thing I can tell you about the kids who get all A's in school. Their common characteristics are that they have learned to 1. sit down, 2. shut up, and 3. never question authority and do exactly what they are told.

Those, unfortunately, are not the qualities that one needs in life to wildly succeed! I used to help kids learn how to think, not what to think. I don't think they do that anymore.

For all guru wanabees, don't be afraid to step outside your comfort zone. Don't be afraid to make mistakes--that's how you learn. Don't be afraid to step to the edge of chaos and poke your finger into existence--smell it. Even if it stinks it's real and exciting.

I've never met Jeremy, and it could well be he's a jackass--but I do know that he doesn't just think--he acts. And I've seen him give people lots of honest, albeit brutal on occasion, but nonetheless honest advice. It's do-ers that succeed, even if they don't succeed first time out. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and kick some butt. It's the action step where we all tend to falter.

OP Said...
"Stop offering free things in emails...it de-values it."

Craig Desorcy Said...
Very bad advice there unless you tested it over and over in a
market and you just can't make it work.

The keyword there is...
TESTED

By the way, don't anyone take too much stock in what Will said above... he had to look up what a morel was. Kidding Will !

Good for you!

Freebie can be good if you use them correctly. For example, when you opt in, your goal is to get the FREE report right? So it work!

I suspect what OP receive are emails via adswaps and not the freebies the authors really have.

Nothing comes for free I agree with you Sarah.

I don't think there's anything wrong with offering free stuff per se, BUT, when you consider the state of information overload so many of us contend with, *more stuff* often seems like more of a burden than a gift. I already have so many PDF files on my hard drive that I only want to add to this collection if I think it's something of real value. On a similar note, when I order an info product, I prefer shorter products rather than a 200 page e-book or 25 videos that I'll never have time to watch.

Isn't a freebie meant to entice users to opt-in to your list though?

Yeah freebies are there to entice people to opt in - the problem is that everyone is doing this and most of these people don't know how to follow up to opt-ins. Sending out promotion after promotion with hypy language is not effective anymore.

The original poster is right - people skim over hype and cheesy sales tactics and most emails do not get opened. What really works is providing hype free follow-ups (i.e. free information) - without an affilate link every single time. We have to gain trust and we earn that through free quality information.

In an ideal world we would charge a micro fee for all quality information - but unless every single internet marketer can agree on this then there will always be someone offering quality info for free... So we have to deal with that.

Provide quality free content and build a relationship with subscribers and affiliate commisions will follow...

The OP couldn't have been more true!

Thanks