If you’re trying to sell something online, giving away a free bonus can do several things for you. Let’s look at the marketing potential of a free report.
- Get the attention of subscribers to your mailing list. Then add them to your autoresponder series to see if they’ll buy something else from you in future
- The report can be written in a very helpful tone but be slanted toward pre-selling another product
- The report can have affiliate links listed in the report for several of your products giving you an opportunity to sell other products
People like getting stuff for free but can see right through a sales pitch so make sure you really do provide value. Reports can be 5 pages or more and all you need to do is write up a word document. You can distribute the report through your site’s server, manually or through an autoresponder program.
If you’re not sure how to write a special report, think of it as a very long article with an introduction and a conclusion and many points made. You can also find plenty of report templates available. Look to solve someone’s problem if you can or provide helpful information that people really want. Relate this to your niche so you’ll get targeted subscribers to your report. It doesn’t take a long time to research and if you have a blog about your niche you might even put something together from your existing blog posts and turn your blog into a short book (added extra info peole won’t simply see on your blog.) Do be sure to promote your free report through multiple sources including social media and maybe even through a friend’s mailing list (offering to do them the same favour in the future.)
About Sean Rasmussen
Hi Sean,
I’m not ready to implement this one just yet. But, as soon as I am I’ll know where to find the information I need.
Hi Sean,
I’m not ready for this yet, but when I am I know where to come for the information I need.
Thanks Sean
Good advice. I have dabbled with building a list and offered a free product which worked out not too bad. Unfortunately my mentor at the time gave me a bum steer. Suffice to say I have a new mentor I am very comfortable with.
Thanks for the link to the free resources. It will come in very handy.
Hello Sean,
Great blog about the benefits of giving away free reports. I love to give, and receiving a free report would be such a bonus. I need to remember this post for when we do our free report to go with a product, especially the fact that I could add affiliate links into the report. Putting together a book from the blog posts sounds interesting.
Has got my mind ticking over
Cheers
Lisa
Hi Sean,
I love receiving free things myself so I can see the attraction in that. I know there are lots of ebooks out there with private resell rights. By how far would you give something like that away for free on your site? I know it doesn’t have links back to my site, but would it better than not having anything (at the moment) to give away?
Hi Sean
Writing a report is a skill that can be learned given the right training. Like you say, you don’t want it to be a sales pitch, but it should be informative and to the point.
I had a look at the link to the report templates and that is a great bonus as it has a lot of examples so you really can’t go wrong, just need to practice and get someone to critique it.
Reports and reviews are popular as they give readers an idea of what is what etc.
Using the templates makes it that much easier to compile and write a succinct, informative report that doesn’t have hard sell. If done correctly it is pre-selling and that’s good.
I think I’m quite a ways away from accruing the benefits of giving away free reports. First I have to get active in the marketing of something.
However, the idea has been added to my Learn and Earn notebook with a prompt to add it to a future ToDo list.
I am conscious of what Sean wrote in another article that people don’t really value things given for free.
I think giving a free report can be an exception to the rule provided it is useful, addresses an issue and provides a solution or is a timely review of a product – especially something just launched (I’m thinking of the the Iphone 4, with its signal problems, but it could be anything)
I like getting the free stuff for bothering to sign up to a list, and are currently writing the free stuff to give away to people who join my list. I have been collecting PLR articles now for over a year with intention of gleaning information and alos really like using the article directories to add to my research in generating what I am going to give out. The autoresponders make it easier to manage!