How Much Should You Give Away?

I use the phrase “Create Value or Die”. Your online business must give value at every opportunity. But how much do you give away and how much to "reserve" for paying products or services? The answer is… give everything you can think of, and only hold back premium information.

Look at it this way… if the information on your site doesn’t change why would someone come back? But if you give away value – they come… they stay… they come back… they buy… they buy again.

Better yet, send them interesting information via an e-letter and you keep up the relationship on your terms. Plus, if this means you need to come up with new ideas or services or products – good! It will only improve your business. It will make you develop a deep and profitable “back-end”.

Why is FREE important?

It’s a vehicle to maintain contact and build a relationship. You're developing a customer base where you can continue to promote your products and services. As those on your list get to know you and the value of the information you provide, they start to trust you. Your recommendations and suggestions will mean something to them. So when you return with a suggestion for a great product or service, chances are they will purchase from you instead of from someone else.

“Give them more than they asked for. Give them more than they expected.”

Should you really give away your content?

Yes. But under the Free Content Model are you really giving it away? Or are you simply creating value for your business?

If you’re not familiar with the Free Content Model here it is in a nutshell:

Step One: Create Value
Step Two: Give It Away
Step Three: Build An Email Opt-In List
Step Four: Build a Community
Step Five: Convert names to Buyers

So are we really giving away value with no expectation of something in return? No. We give up something of value and what we get is something of value - an email address. An extremely valuable business asset that we use to build an email list.

Deep Fried Turkey

It's Thanksgiving week... after a long drive we made it to Charleston, SC. Alive but sleepy. This week we concentrate on food, family and football. I'll be back in touch on the 28th.

Till then, Happy Thanksgiving and bon affairs!

Andrew

Give Away Your Content - Free!

“Free” is a great and powerful word. It will bring you leads faster than any other offer. Not only will it get you noticed, but it will keep potential customers/readers coming back.

When you give away information or products, you are attracting your targeted market to you. With what you give them, you have the chance to do personal or company branding and also to establish yourself as a trusted expert in your industry.

But the question every keeps asking is “Should you really give away your content?”

Hmmm...

If you build it… and you…

Build a Community with a clear purpose that is Entertaining, Interactive, Informative, Current and FREE…

They will come… AND they will stay AND they will buy AND buy more!

“Give them more than they asked for. Give them more than they expected.”

Now that you understand the importance of value, let's discuss in more detail the free content model of Internet marketing.

Don’t just build a business - build a community!

Reach your readers on a personal level. Keep them reading... build trust. Treat them like a neighbor…

Don’t lecture, share ideas… give and take.

If you can do this... creating an exchange of ideas, opinions and facts, you’ll have a solid relationship built on trust. That’s when they read your eletter everyday, read the ads everyday and buy when you ask them to. You’ll have something special. You can convert the free name to a paid “front end” buyer and the more involved the community the higher the conversion rate.

What will your readers say?

“The first thing I hear when I come up from my office downstairs every morning is, did The Daily Reckoning arrive yet? My wife thinks it's the best thing since the Internet, me too!” - Jack

Isn't that the response you want for you business?

COPY IS KING!

You MUST put an emphasis on copy. Test and review all copy – E-letter copy, Website copy, Sales copy, Marketing Copy… A high traffic site with bad copy goes out of business fast.

Conversion testing is the key. A page converting at .05% vs. 1.00% can mean doubling your money with the same audience.

Advantages of Direct Mail Are The Same On The Web

Targeting & Personalization – Email can be tailored to a customer’s needs based on previous transactions and other data gathered historically. (also for prospects)

Optimization - Because of its direct accountability, direct mail methods can be tested to find the best online list; the best offer; the best creative; with the winning tests rolled out to a wider audience for optimal results.

Accumulation - Responses (and non-responses) can be added to the database, allowing future mailings to be better targeted.

“Direct Mail on the Web”

Get (in the mail) with an e-letter - build your list, create DM promotions and TEST EVERYTHING! It's the same as DM only faster results online!

Continual Testing & Tracking – Your copy is the worst it will ever be when you launch your site. Don’t stay static – track it, test it, Improve it.

Strategy: Traffic and/or email list

Build an audience that will read your content, click on your links, and then do something… (Take Action: buy, complete a form, etc.) But How?

Build a list... and have a dynamic site that people want to visit each day.

How?

Here’s the secret to building traffic and a productive email list... Do something. See how it works. Do something else. See how that works. And then, try something else again. See how that works. I call it “Direct Mail on the Web”.

Free, Free, Set them FREE!

As they say, the only marketing word better than “Sale” is “FREE”! Giving away free content attracts customers and keeps them coming back. It provides credibility. Provide samples of your work, a database of contacts for complementary services, free reports, and software downloads, etc.

The FREE e-letter is the most successful model to acquire and monetize an audience. (more to come on this later)

Be informative and stay current

The incremental cost of providing more information for your customers is approximately zero, so don't be shy. The more information, education, and opinion the better!

Information that your customers want is great content that builds repeat traffic. The Search Engines love relevant content too!

Also keep in mind that the Internet is not a static medium. It's dynamic and so should be your business. Provide fresh content, new links, new information, redesign your site periodically, and ALWAYS think of new ways to create additional value on your site.

IF the information on your site doesn’t change why would someone come back?

Better yet, send them interesting information via an e-letter and you keep up the relationship on your terms. (more on that later)

Be Entertaining and Interactive

The Internet has certain advantages that other mediums can't match, so use them. Music, games, humor, and contests are all easy to provide given today's technology, and are popular forms of entertainment. Include Blogs, podcasts and Discussion Boards to provide interactive content. Push your readers to be active.

How do you know what they are interested in? Ask them... use surveys; ask for their likes, wants, needs. Ask for opinions on your niche... ask for testimonials... ask for help defining your content. Give and take is valuable. Remember it's a community you are trying to build.

Have a clear purpose

To create a successful online business you need to do the following:

• Decide on and stick to a single clear purpose.
• You can't be all things to all people. Find A Niche - Separate out a small portion of a large market with a need for a specialized product or service. (more on this with future posts)
• Since you defined the market, you’re the expert. You set the agenda.
• Sell to people you are familiar with, who share common likes, needs and wants.
• Not every niche market is profitable. Some niches are too small and others are too big.

5 tips to create value

Create Value for your Internet Business

1. Have a clear purpose & niche
2. Be entertaining and interactive
3. Be informative and stay current
4. Most importantly - Give it away FREE
5. Have a strategy to get traffic & create an email list.

The concept is to “Build a Community – not just a business”.

I'll explain more tomorrow...

Questions to ask...

The Web is filled with thousands of websites that are little more than advertisements, drawing little or no traffic, and do not generate revenue.

•How can you make yours different?
•How do you get visitors to stay?
•How can you get them to return?
•How can you close sales?

Create Value for your Internet Business

Create Vaule or Die

Andrew Palmer is available to answer all of your questions regarding building a successful online business. I'm ready... Are you?