How to Use Freebies to Optimize Your Lead Generation – InstantFollowerz

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I’ll never forget the first free program I made and put online: a free guide to help you grow your instagram followers. I wrote all the copy in a word document and even hired a graphic design student to make it pretty. I threw it out to my audience and within hours I had several hundred new subscribers on my email list. It was an exciting feeling to see people jump on my list in exchange for the free value I was offering. After that, I was hooked. Over the years I’ve built over 75 different freebies that have helped me grow my email list and in the process I’ve learned what makes a freebie successful at generating leads.

Effective freeware deserves a new update

Building a corner of the internet for our business means we’re creating within an ever-changing landscape with ever-changing rules. We have to adapt and update regularlyotherwise our work can quickly seem outdated and irrelevant, and sometimes overnight! So like any other aspect of running an online business, free lead generation programs that work for you must play the same game.

Freebies have the opportunity to pave the way for lifelong customers. Regardless of the type, they work overtime to bring new faces into your ecosystem and ultimately drive subscribers to your paid offers. Even just one an irresistible free gift can turn a curious lurker into someone who follows you through every iteration of your business.

A common mistake people make is to create a free offer, then set it up and forget about it. It’s a consistent practice for us to rework and refresh our best performing freebies that generate leads. They’re on autopilot, scattered across the web, linked in blog posts, and popping up on Pinterest to target new customers and serve people. for free. This means we need to schedule regular check-ins to see which ones are doing well and how we can keep them fresh and effective! So what does that entail?

How to use free services to optimize your lead generation

1. Browse your top performing free games

Before you start the editing process, take a look at your numbers so you can set yourself up to use your time efficiently. I always recommend having at least two free programs so you can see what your audience likes and what they are excited to exchange their email address for.

Take inventory. Which freeware gets the most action? Which ones are effectively generating subscribers for you? Which ones truly generate leads and achieve their goals? Start there.

It might seem counterintuitive at first, especially if you’re a problem solver because freebies will grab your attention. There is absolutely time to evaluate their poor performance, but giving time to your best freebies first means they can stay out there and work hard on your behalf while you update the rest. Over time, you may not even need the less effective free programs if the best performing ones actually get you results!

My business had some obvious outstanding results that were the best of my entire free service offering! Frome free 5 day email list building challenge to sayThe Ultimate Pinterest Guide“our”How to start a podcast from scratch” free download, we quickly saw which options move the needle the most and directed our focus and attention to those first.

Depending on how many lead generation offers you have, choose the best few. You don’t want this to be an overwhelming project, especially if you know you could get stuck in a loop of editing, designing, or rewriting. The focus here is on improvement, not perfection.

2. Optimize your free services

What does process mean “optimizing” you mean free? When it’s time to dive into the editing process, we start by going through a series of questions to create our to-do list. This helps modify our optimization process for each individual offer as some may need more work than others.

Is free still consistent with our brand and messaging style?

The focus of my brand is that all my offers really look like they are coming with because they are! The way I spoke to my audience 4-5 years ago is not exactly the way I write or appear today, so I like to make sure that Voice ceremony seems right. We read the freeware from cover to cover making sure nothing is too fluffy. We also indicate where we need to update the design.

Does free content still provide high-quality and valuable guidance?

I want my free content to be so good that people think to themselves, “If she’s giving this away for free, I can’t imagine what I’d get if I paid for the offer.” You don’t have to give everything away for free, but you want to make sure there’s real value in your guide.

Your “exact process” may have gone through 5-10 new iterations since you created your last free version. While your free plugin doesn’t have to change every time you want, you want to make sure the tips in it are still something you stand by and know your audience will find practical value.

Think about how your readers work each one the step you recommend — would they still be able to get through it without a problem? Is it clear and concise? Are there any missing steps you need to add or outdated links you need to remove? It could be what keeps your reader from turning into a paying customer!

Does the free language have time-sensitive language or outdated pop-culture references?

Sometimes, when we’re in the middle of creating a new lead-generating free product, we might miss the fact that we put something in there that looks more timely and less timeless. This mistake can make your readers feel like they’ve opted for guidelines that are no longer relevant.

3. Translate your optimization into the supporting content of your Freebie

Once you’ve put your freebie through the editing process, it’s time to dive into the supporting copy that helps your freebie successfully land on your new leads. Doing the free edit first will help the rest of the process go much faster because you’re mentally fresh about what someone will be getting when they receive your free offer.

Think about everything that hosts your free, especially yours evergreen content.

Here’s a quick checklist to help you through the review process.

• Landing page
• Thank you site
• Delivery or confirmation emails
• Ads (social networks, Google, Pinterest and other websites)
• Pop-up websites
• Pillar blog posts (i.e. blog posts that have your free plugin as their MAIN call to action)
• Automated recurring SOCIAL MEDIA posts
• Evergreen mentioned in the table of contents

This is also a good time to think of new ways to get your lead generating offer in front of fresh eyes! I love thinking of fun ways to talk about our freebies in a podcast episode, and more recently I’ve been loving planning ways to bring them up organically through our weekly emails.

4. Restart your Freebie

This process may seem like a done deal behind the scenesbut you don’t have to hide the update and let the same old system run as usual. While your evergreen and automated process will continue to work for you, a little concentrated reinforcement of you could help drive a new wave of leads that an automated process simply cannot provide. You probably have tons of people in your audience who have never downloaded this particular free version (or who aren’t paying clients yet!). They may not even know you are offering this particular guidance, and they are desire to get hold of this process!

So, I recommend restarting your free program with excitement and intention! You don’t have to post a link to your freebie in the PS of your next email or feel like you have to keep it low key just because this freebie isn’t technically brand new. You can skip all the bells and whistles, but give your refreshed freebie a mini-spotlight wherever it suits you.

Send an email or two to your entire email list (or a segment that would appreciate this offer over your entire list). Create a dedicated in-feed post or Reel about its core values. Write a new blog post that expands on ONE point within the free content and link to it as a call to action.

Here’s a good reminder to always talk much less about our offerings than we think we are. It’s the nature of your business behind the boundaries of algorithms and their ever-changing rules. I remember launching my book and feeling like I was generating annoying levels of hype, then being shocked to find out that there were so many people on launch day who had no idea I’d even written a book! So don’t be afraid to be loud and proud of your offer and its value!

5. Schedule your next free update check-in

How often you should update your freebies is entirely up to you and, frankly, how much your business and processes have changed! Sometimes you’re going through a season where your brand, voice, and internet have gone through massive changes, which means your offerings have been affected as well. Sometimes you have a year or two when everything stays relatively the same.

But if you want to make sure this doesn’t slide into the background for long, put the date on your calendar for a year from now to double check all your free plugins for another potential round of optimization. You can save and duplicate this process for next time, making it even easier and saving you time and creative energy (which is very valuable for business owners and content creators!).

Making optimization a habit

The ultimate goal here is not only to update the best performing freebies that generate leads, but also get even better at optimization. Online business doesn’t come with ‘check engine’ lights (and even a grammar bot can’t be sure our copy is exactly what it needs to be!) which means we have to constantly get under the hood to make sure everything is running smoothly .

Schedule these little reviews as often as feels right for you and your business, but don’t skip booking them. It makes larger repairs much easier because you have so many quality, relevant, effective pieces to work with! Optimizing as a consistent habit is a skill that rewards you with work that flows well while you sleep, adventure, live, and feel the itch to chart your next a big goal.