Having researched various marketing strategies recently I decided to test one out for size. The test was to email two lists of potential customers, I was going to try and sell to one list straight off, and I was going to offer something for free to the other list to see which generated the most responses.
I was astonished by the result.
Basically I had purchased two lists of email addresses of Schools in the UK, each list contained approx 1000 email addresses.
I searched the internet for something of real interest for schools and found a ‘free guide to health and safety, for schools’. I then contacted the owners of the guide and sought permission to offer it to the schools on my list.
As I was already offering Safety Signs to Schools in general this ‘free guide’ seemed to compliment my existing products.
So, I sent an email to one list just offering my Safety Signs and got 3 responses.
I then sent an email to my other list offering my ‘free product’ as a way of getting my foot in the door and received a whopping 92 responses. By my calculator that is an increase in response of over 3000%
This proved one thing to me without doubt, if you offer something for free that is relevant to your potential customers you will get a significant increase in the amount of responses you receive. What’s more, if you ask for a name and an email address in return for the free information/product you will find it a lot easier to sell to them later on.
This is not just theory, I am talking from experience.
The internet full of useful information, reports, e-books etc that you could get for free and redistribute them as a way of beginning a relationship with your potential customers.
You just need to be a bit imaginative, what are your potential customers into? And what would they find of interest or value?
If you can compile several items of interest for your lists and send them every couple of weeks this will make a massive difference when you start offering your products for sale. You will come across as a great source of information, and your potential customers will start to trust in you and your products.
Business is built on trust, and one of the greatest assets your business has is the relationship between you and your customers. Offering something for free is a great way to begin a relationship with your potential customers at no risk to them.
Try offering something for free in all of your marketing; you may be amazed at the response you get.
Good Luck & Happy Marketing
Leonardo Wood
Signs Made Easy
PS. For more marketing info visit Signs Clacton
