How to Use Free Reports To Build An Opt-In Subscribers Email List

Effective Lead Generation Strategies Using Free Reports As Lead Magnets

Have you ever wondered aloud “Do free gifts work to increase sales”? That includes free samples, test kits, free reports, free eBooks and every kind of fee giveaways that marketers and businesses offer their target audience. In this post, you’ll discover the answers to that question.

Are you giving away small free reports yet, in your blogging/ online business (even offline business)? If not, you’re missing tons and leaving a lot of money on the table. You’re losing a lot of customers to your competitors who are using this eBook/ free reports giveaway method. The “freebies model” is one that has proven successful for small and big business alike. It is an attraction marketing strategy of extending the free line in order to give your target customers a peek into the quality of your contents, capability and competence.

What are you giving away for free? The grocery stores give away free samples of their stuff. Free car diagnostics, free tips, free shipping, free moview preview etc. Big brands are doing this because it works. Some known freebie strategies include Buy One Get Free, Free Trials, Free samples, Free Bonus if you purchase etc..

Before we go further, here are two posts that are related to this, in case you’re in a hurry:

• How to create an Opt-in report or eBook in just 1 day, from scratch – simple, proven steps
• How to build a list of buyers, subscribers, customers and leads – from scratch

Free Reports Are “The New Business Cards”

You may be asking: how is it possible to profit from ebook giveaway? You’ll soon discover the many benefits of free eBook/ report giveaway.

Small and unknown brands are using this model of giving away short free reports, to quickly get in the doorway of their prospective customers. If they know you and trust that you can solve their problems, they will buy from you. Think of free eBooks and reports as promotional tools – they are the new business cards. When you write a free giveaway report, you’ll insert your blog URL and links to some of your best affiliate products, or your company’s products or services, if you are in a corporate organisation.

Imagine, your business contact details are in the free reports just as in any business card but in this case people can hardly misplace a report ot eBook that teaches them something, unlike the business cards that they perceive as your ‘selfish tool’ to sell them something. They will be more willing to share free reports with others, further spreading the reach of your free promotion.

While buyers are not outrightly looking to patronize a new face in the market, they can hardly say no to freebies – as long as the free item is similar to something they desire and is being sold somewhere else.  Everyone loves free! Buyers cannot resist free (if it’s as good as paid-for).

Lesson: Create a free report or eBook that is as good as “paid for” such that any reader would feel guilty they did not pay for it.

Free Reports Are Silent, No-Cost Publicity And Advertising Tools

Here’s what Tucker Max says about how he he used the freemium strategy to become a New York Times Best Seller:  “giving content away works really well. It allows you to find an audience at no cost to you, and allows huge numbers of people to test your material out for no cost to them. Everyone wins. … But how will anyone know they want to buy your book or magazine or whatever until they have tried it and liked it? Not only that, but giving things away for free doesn’t indelibly stain them with worthlessness forever”.  You can read the rest of his success story with giving away free content, on Tim Ferriss’ Blog.

Next, I’ll go over the benefits of giving away something of value (reports, eBooks, software etc) to your prospective customers in order to get your foot in the door, have them sample your offer at no expense to them, so that they can get to know, like and trust you enough to buy from you.  Read on.

How Giving Away Short Free Reports Can Bring More Sales

• Free Advertising: It’s an easy way to get many people notice your business brand (You Inc.) or your products/ services, without paying any advertising costs – like the free newspapers that some press give away? Why free? Because the main thing is that every reader gets to see your business name, your blog name which you advertised subtly in the eBook. A free traffic getting strategy.
• Fast Brand exposure. Using free reports giveaway to drive branding and brand exposure
• Other people advertise for you, for free: When they also give away free reports (containing your business information in one of the report pages), if the readers found them valuable they’ll share them – along with your advertisements. Talk about viral advertisement from a short report going viral.

Different Things You Can Do With Your Free Report, Apart From Lead Generation

• List Building: Use short, free reports to build your list – more people are likely to subscribe to your list if you offer them something free in exchange for their email addresses. People (including your prospective customers) get your free reports, you get their email addresses as permission to send them updates (and tell them about your affiliate products – remember the no-salesy approach is best);

• Branding and Viral Promotions: As your free reports get into the hands of more people, so is your blog or website address, and your name. Use them to increase your brand (You Inc.) fans by offering your free reports download without any opt-in restriction and encourage people who download your free reports to share them at will. Tweet about it, tell about it on Facebook and other social media platforms and encourage others to retweet and that your free report requires no opt-in.

• Increase Opt-In List: You can use your free reports, as bonus, to make it irresistible for your readers to subscribe to your newsletter. That is assuming your eBook is about how to solve a problem or remove a pain or increase pleasure that your target audience are experiencing. If you write on a topic that appeals to them, you’ll see a surge in your opt-ins.

• Traffic and Lead Generation: If people read and like your free reports contents, they are likely to come back again 9and again) to your blog URL and become readers. Of these, some will join your list, and of those who join your list, some will buy your recommendations. So, in essence your report would also be generating sales leads for you.

• Social Proof: When some of the people who read your free report leave some testimonials on your blog, the comments become social proof for you – a proof to others that you’ve got some value up your sleeve. You know that human beings just love the “me too” thing and belief in wisdom of the crowd – that alone would get others curious to get closer to you – download your eBooks, opt-in to your lists etc.

Your Next Steps: Getting Past the Challenge of Creating Your Own Lead Magnet (Free Report)

A day in the life of an online solo-entrepreneur,  business owner or marketer can get too jam-packed and overwhelming to fit any new itinerary such as creating a freebie eBook. Even though almost every online business owner and entrepreneur knows it’s a “must do”, creating a free eBook is in the “To Do” list of many internet marketers.

The idea of creating new free reports kind of scares new and even existing entrepreneur who are building their business online with blogging. In this post, I am going to show you a quick fix to creating a quality eBook that your readers would find useful and you can use to attract more subscribers to your opt-in form.

• The truth is that you can actually create your own freebie giveaway lead magnet (eBook) in just 1 day.  If you want to learn how to quickly create your own giveaway free report within the next 24 hours, read this post for the steps: how to create a traffic pulling giveaway free report in just 1 day.

Did You Like this Post?

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Thanks for reading and I’ll meet you up in the comments side below.

Yours in small business success,

Stella

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