When Kendra first approached me for my PR services, she knew that she needed help with getting her book out there but wasn't sure how to go about it. One of the first things that I did was talk to her about how important it is to have a media one-sheet and freebie. I then took it as my personal responsibility to help her avoid these 3 common mistakes that people make when creating freebies:
#1 Not starting with the end goal in mind
A lot of times people hear that an email list is "where the money resides" and then jump into the process of creating one.
What they fail to understand is that making your email list profitable takes planning. Specifically, it takes starting with the end goal in mind (making a greater impact in the area of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) through the sale of her book, in Kendra's case) and working backwards.
Question to consider: Do you know your end goal in terms of what you want your paid product to be?
#2 Not having a freebie that is compatible with your main offer
One of the most common mistakes when it comes to creating a freebie is not creating one that attracts your ideal audience. This is how you can end up with a thriving email list that is unprofitable (because it's full of the "wrong" people). As such, one of the ways that we worked backwards is by making sure that the freebie that I created for Kendra would attract the kind of people that would be interested in her book. I did this by copywriting The Culturally Conscious Resolution Roadmap based on her signature system which allows organisations (and the individuals within it) to foster a culturally aware and conscious environment so that they can navigate conflict and differences in 4 simple steps. This tool is literally repurposed content from her soon to be released book, meaning that her freebie and main offer are:
Perfectly compatible
Will attract the right people
and will therefore lead to an email list that she will be able to monetise.
Question to consider: Is my current freebie/the one I have in mind compatible with my paid offer?
#3 Not having a nurture sequence in place
Another common mistake that people make when it comes to freebies is doing all of the work to create them and get people on their email list with no plan to follow-up afterwards. It's like when a guy puts in lots of effort to pursue you and get your number in the beginning only to go cold and disappear shortly after- confusing, pointless and a waste of time!
As I've stated many times before, people only do business with people that they know, like and trust. While providing value through a freebie does create some good will, it's typically nowhere near enough to get a potential lead to buy from you. No...like the guy from our previous analogy, you need to woo them. You do that by creating a nurture sequence (which is essentially 3-5 emails that are drip fed to your new lead on a daily basis, for example). Like the dating process, these emails deepen the relationship by creating multiple touch points and telling your new lead:
More about you
What makes you tick and why you do what you do in terms of your business
What they can expect from you in terms of how you plan to add value
What they can expect from you in terms of frequency of contact (after the nurture sequence e.g. whether you will be emailing them weekly, biweekly or monthly)
And more
Question to consider: What is your long-term plan for building a relationship (know, like and trust) with your leads?
Want more PR tips?
Click here to access my free Media Attraction Audit- the checklist that helps you to make sure that your website proves your expertise, credibility and authority so that you can be a #mediamagnet, attracting PR (and therefore clients and collaborations) on autopilot!