You’ve heard about them. You’ve seen them. You’ve probably downloaded a bunch of them.
I’m talking about freebies. Those lovely, bite-sized free resources that give you the taste of what a business or service provider is all about.
And if you’ve landed on this blog post, chances are, you’re ready to create a freebie for your own business.
I’m going to cut to the chase: the most important thing you can take away from this blog post is to simply get the freebie done, made, and in front of your audience.
As a chronic overthinker myself, I know how it feels to labor over a resource for your audience and tweak it until it’s absolutely perfect. Or maybe you don’t even start bringing your idea to life because you think you have to do x,y,z beforehand.
The most important thing is that you get your freebie made and start using it to generate leads. This post will help get you out of analysis paralysis and start leveraging a freebie to grow your business.
Why do businesses need freebies?
Simply put, freebies, or lead magnets, are a way to attract and nurture leads.
You do this by getting the lead (potential client or customer) on to your email list.
Email is key here! There is literally no point in having a freebie if you’re not going to be collecting people’s email addresses at the same time.
You provide some value or information that they want, they give you their email address. That’s the exchange.
Once you have their email address, you can market to them using your newsletter or other sales emails, but that’s a post for another tab.
Do freebies still work?
Yes. Freebies/lead magnets still work.
(So do popups, annoying as they seem, but we’ll get to that soon.)
You might think that there’s a freebie for everything out there. Someone has probably thought of a similar idea to you, but they haven’t given YOUR unique take.
Also, your audience is not shopping around for freebies (usually.) They’re more of an impulse grab more than anything, so people who are already in your audience will be likely to sign up to receive them.
Think of freebies or lead magnets like the snacks, funky mugs, or candles they have in the TJ Maxx checkout lane. You’re already there, you might as well get it! And you don’t even have to pay for it! All you need to give is your email address.
So yes, freebies still work. You just have to create one that works for you.
How to create a freebie that grows your email list
Chances are, you’ve seen a lot of freebies out there. It can be overwhelming to decide on the right one that works for you, so here’s a simple process you can follow to bring your freebie from idea to reality.
1. Pick the kind of freebie you’d like to make
You’ve got options. Here are some freebies that tend to work:
- Checklists
- Templates
- A PDF guide
- Quizzes
- Shopping lists
- Recipes
- Calendar or timeline
- Printables
- Light versions of digital products
- Mini email or text courses
- Workbook
Personally, I love a PDF freebie that includes a checklist, copywriting templates, or a guide to improving your website. PDFs are really easy to make in Canva, and don’t require much technical expertise for sending to people who opt-in for them.
And guess what? You can download a perfect example of what I’m talking about here:
Download: 13 Headline Templates That Convert
2. Pick a topic that you’re an expert in AND your audience wants to know about
The topic you make your freebie about should be at the intersection of what you’re an expert on and what your audience is looking for.
As in, if you’re an interior designer, you shouldn’t be making a freebie about how to market your business on Instagram (even though you might know a lot about that topic) because your audience is looking for design tips from you.
It would be much more beneficial for you to make a freebie about picking paint colors, arranging furniture, creating a gallery wall, or DIYing one design aspect of your home.
3. Keep it simple, short, and actionable
Your freebie should not be a FULL rollout of all the information you have on a topic.
This isn’t about gatekeeping your expertise. It’s about making sure people will actually USE the information you give them in the freebie.
Think about it: how many times have you downloaded a freebie and never actually used all the information in it.
Exactly.
This exchange of value is not drastic. Unless you’re going the whole “make your free content better than someone else’s paid content” but that’s another topic for another day…
The price of someone giving their email address isn’t big. Don’t give them too much information or too many directions in your freebie because 1) your best advice should be paid for and 2) people won’t want to follow it.
Seriously, people know they’re getting free content. It should still be valuable, but don’t overwhelm them with it.
This also makes it easier for you, because your freebie only needs to help them with one small task.
Generally, if you’re doing a PDF freebie, keep it short. I’d recommend around 5 pages max.
4. Create your freebie!
This doesn’t have to be a Big Task™. It’s something that can be done in a couple hours.
Open Canva and use one of their templates to get started. You can easily do this in an hour or less, depending on the topic you pick.
If you want to do a quiz for your audience (which tend to convert extremely well, by the way!) I recommend using Interact.
5. Pick a way to deliver your freebie and collect emails
Now, you need a way to collect emails and deliver your freebie to people who want to download it.
I use Flodesk for mine, and I recommend it based on its user experience and adorable design capabilities.
You can easily create a landing page or opt-in form in Flodesk in a couple minutes.
Also, you can use my link for a discount. Double win, right?
6. Start promoting your freebie!
Now that you’ve made your freebie, and it’s set up to start growing your email list, you need to start promoting it!
Get your freebie in front of your audience. You’ve got a lot of options here too:
- Add an opt-in to your freebie on your homepage
- Include it in relevant blog posts
- Post it on Pinterest
- Add it to your Instagram links page
- Add it to your LinkedIn featured section
- Reply to relevant facebook and threads comments with your freebie link
- Post it on your Instagram stories
People are not going to opt in to your freebie if they don’t know about it, so bring it up often!
I would HIGHLY recommend having an email nurture sequence that fires off after people download your freebie
If your goal with your freebie is to generate leads (which I’m assuming it is) I would highly recommend automating an email nurture sequence.
Basically, this is a series of emails that fires off every couple days after someone has downloaded your freebie. The purpose is to help the reader get to know you and your expertise. When they know more about how awesome you are at solving this problem for them, they’re much more likely to inquire with you.
As for how to write that email nurture sequence? That’s a blog post for another day.
There! Now you have a freebie that will help bring more leads to your business
Like I said, getting people on your email list is the ultimate win here.
Once they have agreed to get emails from you, you can show up and share your expertise in a much more reliable way than social media or organic content.
Take a look at this post for creative ideas you can send to your email list to keep them engaged.
Need help growing your email list, your website, or your brand? I can help you sound like yourself, only better
Honestly, the biggest reason why business owners don’t make a freebie and start growing their email list is because they don’t know where to get started. It’s always hard to do something for the first time, especially when you care a lot about the results!
Luckily for you, I help my clients with copy, lead magnets, and email sequences all the time! I can help you grow your business and nurture dreamy leads through conversational copywriting.
Check out my copywriting services: Need some conversational copy that is optimized to grow your business and connect with your people? Check out my services here.
