Grow your Email List with a Freebie Offer

social marketing freebie

Creating a freebie for your blog is not just a fun add-on to include on your site, but a tactical move. The purpose of an opt-in freebie is to offer your readers something of value in exchange for their email address. By creating an amazing freebie offer, you can grow your email list and build a relationship with your audience.

 

Now that all sounds well and good, but you might be asking yourself why you should care about growing your email list. The answer is monetization. A large, loyal fan base allows you to move from having a fun writing hobby to becoming an entrepreneur who makes money blogging.

 

If the thought of creating a freebie seems overwhelming, don’t stress. Follow these helpful tips to create your own amazing freebie.

 

Step 1 – What’s the Word on the Street?

The first step in creating a freebie is coming up with the offer. Now you need to be very careful when brainstorming ideas. You need to create something that your audience actually needs or wants, not what you think they want.

 

This is an important distinction. You might feel that you know your audience inside and out, but until you ask what they want or need, you can’t know for sure. By making sure that you offer your audience something they want rather than something you think they want, you are increasing the odds that readers will accept your freebie offer.

 

So how do you find out what your readers need or want? You need to go to them. Review the comments section of your blog or visit forums in your niche to see if there are common questions or frustrations expressed. If you are looking for more definitive answers, try sending out a poll to your audience and ask specific questions about their frustrations. A poll will allow you to feel the pulse of your audience and get a good feel for their opinions.

 

Step 2 – What does the feedback mean?

Now that you have a list of the common questions or frustrations, try grouping the responses into different categories and look for trends. This will allow you to prioritize and to determine your top one to three question areas. Once you have your top categories, decide which category you feel you have the most knowledge and use that as the foundation for your freebie offer.

In doing these crucial first two steps, you not only know what it is your audience wants but you also know what you are the most comfortable in creating.

 

Step 3 – Decide on a freebie format

Now that you know your topic, you need to decide on the best way to provide that information to the reader. In looking at the topic, you can determine the best format to use, be it a list format, a written information guide or a video guide. Some common freebie offer formats are as follows:

  • Free reports
  • Checklist
  • Planner
  • Mini Course

 

Step 4 – Create an eye-catching title for the freebie

You might have the best freebie ever offered on a blog, but if you give it a bland name very few people are going to opt-in to read it. Since most readers skim articles nowadays, you need something to grab their attention immediately.

In coming up with your title, make sure you include the format style in the name. For example, “The Ultimate Freebie Workbook”, tells the reader that the information will be provided in a workbook format while, “The Essential Freebie Checklist” tells readers the information will be in a checklist format. Readers appreciate this information as it tells them upfront what they will be getting in the freebie offer.

 

Step 5 – Create the freebie content

Now comes the fun part. You know what your topic will be, the format for your information and a great title so all you need now is the content.

It’s important at this stage to make sure you create something that readers will value. If you do a great job promoting the freebie only for readers to find out that it’s just a fluff piece, you will lose the readers trust. Therefore, make sure your information is valuable and well researched.

That being said, it’s also important not to give too much away for free. Creating a two to four-page guide on your topic is fair and reasonable. However, creating a free 80-page ultimate guide on the same topic is a bad business practice. The latter would be something that you can offer your readers for a price, but don’t give away the farm for free.

 

Step 6 – Give your freebie some pizzazz

Readers are visual and equate a quality product with looking good. Therefore, spend some time making your freebie visually appealing with clean lines and eye-catching graphics. If you are comfortable with using design software, programs such as Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Publisher will allow you to create a unique product.

If you are looking for design inspiration, try using Canva. While you can pay for the upgraded version, the free option is more than robust enough to meet your design needs.

In designing your freebie, it’s important to use the same fonts and colors as your website. This helps build brand recognition and create uniformity in all the resources you create. Make sure you also add your logo to the freebie, so the reader can reference where they got the information from in the first place.

 

Step 7 – Automate your freebie delivery

Once you have the finished product, you need to upload the freebie into your email subscription service. You can decide whether to attach the document to the Welcome email, provide a link for the subscriber to download the information, or send a password to the subscriber to your protected resource library.

 

Step 8 – Promotion, Promotion, Promotion

Now that you have a great product and have your delivery methods nailed down, it’s time to tell the world. The goal of your freebie offer is to grow your email list, so you want to tell as many people about your offer as possible to help convert your readers into subscribers.

The goal of your freebie offer is to grow your email list Click To Tweet

Here are some ideas on where to promote your freebie offer:

  • In your blog post
  • Sidebar on your website
  • In a guest post on another website
  • Facebook groups
  • Create a pin for Pinterest
  • Create a header on your blog

 

Ready to Create a Freebie?

Creating a freebie to offer on your blog is a great way to build a relationship with your readers and to build your list of subscribers. While it may seem daunting at first, by following these eight steps, you will be able to create an amazing freebie in no time. Happy blogging!

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