One of the biggest fears people have about offering a free
course or free sample chapters of their online product is
that this will cannibalize their actual sales.
This was certainly our fear too when we first started
adopting this strategy. But we soon found that the free
course increased sales and signups by close to 100%!
The graph below shows signups and sales on a test site we
implemented for a client. We first attempted to go directly
for the sale.
This experiment lasted 6 weeks. Signups hovered around 200
per week while sales were around 100 units. People signed
up not to receive a free course but to get on a mailing
list for special offers.
We later started offering a free course. Visitors on the
main page of the site could no longer sign up for special
offers. Instead, they could sign up for a free online
course spanning 3 weeks.
At the end of the course they would receive an email
promoting a special offer. 8 weeks after offering the free
course, total signups had more than doubled!
The total increase was 105%. Sales too, shot up - by 96%.
Rather than cannibalizing sales, offering the free course
had actually doubled them.
So don't worry about losing sales by offering a free course
or free information. Anything you can do to put yourself in
further contact with your visitors can boost sales.
And if your product is good, a free course will inevitably
result in more sales.
So how to design your free course? Designing Your Free
Course When designing your free course, follow these 2
rules:
Rule 1: Give Away Just Enough to Create Desire The first
thing you need to do is decide what bits of information
you're going to give away.
You want to give away just enough to entice the reader to
purchase your full product. Try to craft your free offer so
that it allows you to email the subscriber with free
information at least 7 times.
Rule 2: Give it Away Slowly Second, you must spread out the
information over several days. Let's say you're selling a
book on competitive rock climbing. Your book contains 29
chapters. You decide to give out 7 chapters for free.
You DO NOT want to let the subscriber download ALL 7
chapters in one go.
Let them sign up to receive one chapter every 2 - 3 days.
By spreading it out this way, you allow yourself more time
to form a relationship with the reader.
You also make it easier for them to consume the 7 free
chapters by spreading them out rather than handing it to
them in one go. Remember, you need to contact the
subscriber around 7 times on average before generating a
sale.
If your free course is a software product, then you can let
the subscriber download a limited version of the product
(with some features turned off). You should always require
subscribers to provide an email address before downloading
and you should email them a friendly tip or suggestion
every few days.
The purpose of the email is to remind them to consume the
product and to create a bond with them. Simply allowing
your subscribers to download a software product and then
forgetting about them is not a smart thing to do.
Create a relationship! Setting Up the Course Your free
course should start with a welcome email followed by Lesson
1.
Every 2-3 days the subscriber should receive another lesson
or nugget of information. We recommend at least 7 lessons
in total. At the end of the 7th lesson, the subscriber
should receive a promotional email offering them a reason
to buy your product immediately.
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Bjorn Brands is a successfull enterprenuer who transitioned
from having his own building company to a great online
business. Check out his site and see for yourself how he
can help you do the same at http://www.moneyacces.com
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