Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I was recently reading a blog called the O`Reily Radar and there was a post about gaining business by giving it away as a sales tactic. The quote within the article that really caught my attention was:

"If I have awareness with .01% of the target market, giving copies away to raise awareness to 10% of the market, where 10% of those might convert (1% total) is a good deal. "

I really was curious what the members here at SuN think about this sales/promotion tactic.

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I believe that same theory is true about about marketing. The goal is to have a hook. People tend to respond better to time limits of a sales promotion. That could increase your marketing awareness.

There are many things I "give away".

For example, a lot of web design is transparent. You can view source on it and there you go. It still doesn`t mean you`re going to be able to replicate it. So that`s why you hire me.

I "give away" that which I can not quantify enough to charge for it. For example, I give away small business tips on my blog 3 times a week.  These things include common sense, a bit of my experiences, general suggestion, etc. I haven`t promoted it enough to make it a good sales tool ... I only have a handful of subscribers.

I also give away a lot of copywriting, because I don`t charge to write the page or edit your text - only to put it up.

And heck, I give away a whole lot of my "secrets" every day here on SUN. What a deal!

Many people use the giving away to gain more sales tactic. They do it here, they do it on other networking sites, they do it in their blogs. It`s very common. For example, you could make your site into the go-to place for the insider tips on admissions offices. It would drive traffic for sure. And some portion of that population would decide they`d rather hire a pro. So there`s your sales.
Oh, look, I just gave away more!

We had a discussion a few months back, about freebies. It involved an accounting package that`s purportedly as easy to use as Quickbooks, but with something useful. The problem for the owner was how come nobody is buying that package.

In the conversation, it turned out he`s offering a free trial, 30-days, just like most software and that got us talking about freebies, free trials, giveaways, and the like.

I`m forming the opinion that maybe 70 years ago, when a "work ethic" was easier to see, and moral principles were readily apparent, "free" carried with it one kind of sense. People felt a little badly about taking something for free. They felt they should do something in return.

Nowadays, so many people believe the world owes them a living, everything should be free, and they haven`t the slightest interest in whether or not free implies some sort of return. Look at the growing generation of Web "kids" who just assume you can get whatever music, video, art, content, or anything else for free. They`re astonished that anyone would mention "intellectual property rights."

So too, the discussion included Kregg, who owns a software application. He tested the idea of the freebies and giveaways and found almost no noticeable increase in sales. Instead, the secondary headaches of answering support questions, handling complaints when people couldn`t get their free copy, and things like that, caused even more problems.

Kathy and I tried offering a free gift with any purchase. It was like the prize in a CrakerJacks box. We found people mostly wanted the product, and didn`t much care if it came with a freebie. For a few people, the word "free" might have been an attraction, but it didn`t really do all that much.

I`d say that advertising and marketing materials are already "free," in that they`re giveaways. That would include offers like free shipping, or buy one get one free.

But what really do you gain by giving away the actual product? I think it`s six of one, half-a-dozen of the other, where if you offer a limited product, then "If you like this, pay the money for the remainder," people just get mad. Those you might gain in the tempting offer would be offset by those you`d anger with the missing final piece.

I believe the trick is to give away something of sufficient value to attract people`s attention while retaining something of greater value that you offer for sale. E-books seem to be popular. Can you come up with enough content to make something worth reading and sharing? The key is that what you give away has to be so well done that it`s evident that your paid services will be equally so.

How are your sales? I`ve read your posts from time to time but haven`t kept up with all you`ve written. Have you tried press releases? That seems to me like a huge opportunity to become known as the expert in your field. Increasing your visibility with articles published or radio interviews would work wonders.

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here are a couple of helpful links within StartupNation.com:

an article about giving things away free:

a feature on a company that became very successful using this strategy:

hope one/both of these are helpful.


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Rich Sloan , Co-Founder, Chief Startupologist, StartupNation