I’m a pretty old dog. I’ve been in the branding and marketing business for over 30 years, so I tend to think I’ve seen most everything. But it’s been impossible for a while now not to notice a phenomenon that I really thought I’d never see — working for free. We’re surrounded with free access to really complex services. Facebook is free. Twitter is free. Even hosting has become practically free.
Don’t get me wrong. I love what I do and I love helping clients. But do I want to work for free? It goes against my business survival instincts, not to mention my need to do simple things like eat and keep a roof over my head. So how can we reconcile the expectation that things should be available for free?
If you’re an advisory business, like we are, and like so many of our clients, your main product is a service or a level of expertise in a subject matter. And solving your customer’s problem or providing a service that solves their problem is where you make your money. You really can’t give that away for free. At least not completely — and that is a key distinction. You may not be able to give your expertise away for free, but you might be able to give part of your expertise away so they can essentially try you on for size and fit.
Access to free information is the solution and the problem at the same time.
One of the key things you can offer for free is advice that helps clients distinguish between the free information that’s available out there that’s NOT worth anything, and the free information that’s out there that IS worth something. Help them learn the difference. It will help them see the value in your experience and expertise and get them passed a critical step in solving whatever their problem is — weeding out the distracting information that really won’t serve them well.
Shift your thinking to the second and third steps, not the first.
Give up the expectation that your first advisory service with a customer will be paid. Dissect your services and see if you can identify something they need as a first step that you can offer easily for free. Then offer your other services at a slightly higher premium to compensate for the free first step. Yes, you’ll have a reasonable percentage of customers that will never move deeper than the first step. But statistically more will move deeper after they’ve experienced firsthand the benefit of the first step. The process creates a sense of relief that makes a further commitment feel less scary and uncertain.
Market your free service.
Focus your marketing efforts on getting customers to act on what you offer for free. Send a postcard and emailer about it. Talk it up or make a presentation about it at networking events. Run an ad about it in a publication or online. Keep your focus on the free part of your service. Make sure what you’re offering for free is not just a ploy or a trick to get them to respond. If you don’t really deliver something of value at your entry point, it will backfire. There are lots of examples of that online. Everyone offers free this and free that. But a lot of it is just a tease. We don’t recommend that approach. Be sure your free service is of real value.
It’s a matter of volume and speed. By offering something for free you will attract more people that are interested in what you offer, faster, and it will take less marketing to get there.
Almost free works, too. Sometimes even better. Give thought to the option of offering an entry point service for a next-to-nothing cost instead. It can sometimes weed out the true looky-loos who might just tie up your resources.
Avoid dramatic claims. The central way that you can distinguish what you offer from all the waste-of-time offers out there is to avoid dramatic claims. Temper your claims to be good ones but not ridiculous ones. Prospects will turn away if your claim is too extreme to be credible.
Common service freebies.
So, you might ask, what could I offer as an entry point service? Well, it’s different for every advisory business and you should use your imagination and be creative about what you can offer. But there are some obvious options to consider, like:
• free workshops and educational programs
• free webinars and recorded how-to demos
• free review with 3 recommendations
• free half-hour or one-hour one-on-one
• free trial period of your service
• free add-on services that will make the offer more tempting
• free report on research relevant to them
• free diagnostic that helps identify a problem (sometimes)
• specific instructions on things they can do themselves
• free information on insider secrets they can benefit from knowing about
You might expect free assessments to be on the list, But free assessments don’t usually work well. They’re used too often as a way to get in the door to sell something. Yours might really offer value, but you’ll have a hard time convincing someone of it. Instead, try converting an assessment to a first step task that can be completed, rather than an assessment that results in a list of what else has to be done.
Good luck.
— Chris Quinn, principal and brand strategist
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