Tips To Better Serving Your Customers When You
Give Things For Free
by Molly Gordon, MCC
Should you be giving things away?
Nona Parry, a reader of my ezine, raises
a juicy question: do people need to pay for something to appreciate
it?
Nona wrote, "I cannot stress enough how very much I disagree
that people must pay for something in order to value it. I first
ran into that attitude in the 1970s with the Transcendental Meditation
people and have been avoiding its proponents ever since."
She has a point, and if I have given the impression that people
don't appreciate what they get for free, allow me to set the record
straight.
Give-aways are important means of serving your customers: inviting
them in, introducing them to your work, building trust, and expressing
appreciation. They can also be part of a strategy of giving back,
contributing some part of your work to benefit your community.
Still, there are two factors to keep in mind when you offer something
for free.
The relationship between cost and commitment
If you offer a free teleclass, you can expect fewer than half of
the people who register to show up. But when you charge for a
teleclass, almost everyone shows up, even when it is the same
class that had 50% no-shows when you gave it at not cost.
What's going on here?
No matter how valuable your product or service, it has
to compete with myriad other things for your customer's time
and attention. Coffee with a friend. A headache. Even
-- heaven forfend -- television. Not to mention work, doctor's
appointments, and showing up for the kids' soccer games.
Think about it. It's Saturday morning and your choices are:
- Do your homework for the marketing course you received
as a door prize.
- Weed the vegetable garden.
- Finish the project that was due Thursday.
- Have coffee with your sister who is in town for the
day.
- Do the grocery shopping.
- Work the crossword puzzle.
- ...
- ...
Do you see? The list could go on and on, and no matter how valuable
the marketing course might be, you are probably going to choose
one of the other options.
Of course, you could have paid for the course and still put your
homework off in favor of other things. God knows, I have paid for
plenty of programs I never finished. But I promise you, I gave
them a better shot than I've given the umpteen free reports I've
received for subscribing to different ezines.
Everything free has a cost
If you are in business, your ability to give free content away
depends on your ability to generate revenue. Ideally, you will
arrive at a balance of giving that serves
your customers and contributes to the well being of your
business. Otherwise, you are like a parent who starves her children
to take care of the neighborhood.
So how do you know what to give away?
It's about them
Whether you are selling your work or giving it away, you absolutely,
positively, must know whom you are serving. The more narrowly
you can specify your "just right" customer, the more
appropriately you can design your give-aways.
It needs to solve a problem
Forget about mouse pads, chocolate bars, and calendars. Your first
free offer should identify and solve a problem for your customer.
There are a couple of reasons for this. First, pain signals danger
and urgency; it is a call to action. That is, it motivates people
to use what you give them and that is good for them and good for
you.
It's got to be simple
Your freebie should be like Google search results: relevant, easily
accessible, and easy to use.
It needs to give them a next step
When your prospective customer uses what you give them, they will
be in one of two situations: they will want more or they will
want out. (Believe it or not, either is fine -- you aren't taking
hostages, you're building relationships.)
Your gift should include a clearly identified next step clearly
identified. That step could be visiting your Web site, completing
a survey, or buying a product. Without this step, you are asking
your customer to figure out what to do next. If they knew that,
they wouldn't need you.
It's a path, not a forced march
By offering gifts and helping your prospects and customers use
them, you make a path to your door. The point isn't to force
people along the path, but to make the path easy enough to find
that those who want to make the journey can do so.
Far from reducing the relationship with customers to one purely
based on profit, this approach to giving serves
your customers by inviting them into an intentional community
where new value will be created with every step.
I just want you to know that you don't have to get everything
right all the time to succeed. Just keep an open mind and a playful
spirit; you'll get there one step at a time.
Talk Back: love to hear from you, and I read every
letter personally. Send your thoughts to letters@authenticpromotion.com.
And be sure to let me know if you prefer not to be quoted. |
