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To offer FREE or not to offer FREE?

Before we dive into this episode I am officially starting to pick reviews of the week and reading them at the beginning of each episode! This is low key super exciting for me because it still baffles me that there are human beings who listen to me week after week. I’ll receive DM’s from people who find the podcast, binge listen to it and then tell me how much it’s helping their coaching, biz or life and I just can’t even with myself.

So, review of the week comes from Lindsey580

That means you have been entered to be the listener of the month, which will receive a non-membership program of choice for 50% off.

Noooowww for today’s topic.

This has been an ongoing conversation since the beginning of business I am sure.

To offer free things or not to offer free things

I’ll start out with a giant spoiler alert…YES. You need to offer things FO FREE. But we can’t say that without discussing the spectrum. Because there is definitely a spectrum.

What I mean by that, is that there are different types of free content and that free content does different things for your biz.

Lucky for you, we are diving into ALL of them today.

Free content to establish trust

Social media content – high volume + no upsell (typically).

This is not directly related to your offer. But still adds value to your audience. You’re providing tips, tricks and truths that your warmer leads will take, apply and see value in. These humans will likely purchase from you down the line.

Email newsletters – a step up from social media.

Again this content is free. But these people have done more than hit the follow button. You’re not just a part of their daily scroll, where they’re seeing hundreds of other accounts. The humans said, yes Tina, I want more from you. I never want to miss what you’re layin’ down. So Imma put my name on your email list. This human knows they are your people, and are likely interested in your offers.

Blogs, YouTube videos, Podcasts – similar to social media. Free – not directly related to up-sell or specific offer of any kind.

Yes some blogs, emails or podcasts will be directly mentioning or offering something if someone joins your program, but that is not the purpose of the content most of the time.

These are just another way to provide deeper value than an Instagram post. Same topics you probably discuss on insta, but with more depth.

Everything above is free and you should at least be doing one of these on a consistent basis.

Those were free content not attached to any specific offer. Meaning there’s not a direct up-sell to your program.

Freebie to upsell

Now we get into your freebie, as I call it.

This is your intentional free content meant to give a potential client a taste of your offer, and then up-sell them. The goal is to get them to sign up for your program from the freebie.

Now, this could be anywhere from a PDF download to an hour long webinar or 5 day challenge.

You’ve got options here.

We can use a freebie from social media or your site such as my Free 3 Day Mobility + Core (this is pulled directly from BBA).

You get to choose how soon after the downloadable PDF you attempt to up-sell to your program. Mine is a 3 week email drip system that gets people to purchase Big Lift Audit or join the BBA waitlist. Now, I am always playing with this to see how we can get higher conversions. But I share just as an example of what can be done. And why you’d have a downloadable PDF.

A webinar is something I use for selling Fitspro Foundations. I have my free three mistakes online health and fitness coaches make in their biz and how to fix them in one week. This is an hour-long intensive life webinar. The three mistakes are pulled directly from FitsPro Foundations. This is super valuable whether someone enrolls in Fitspro or not. But if someone is on the fence, or considering Fitspro, it is a perfect way to spend one hour sharing the value of just 1/20th of the program with them. It makes it way easier for them to enroll. I could even make this an evergreen webinar if I wanted, but that’s not my desire right now.

Again, free content directly leading to sales of an offer.

Then we have free challenges. This is something I used and was EXTREMELY effective for the launch of Movement101 back in March of 2018.

Let me make something clear in case you’re missing this…

Any free thing you offer needs to be in direct relationship to whatever you sell if the point is to up-sell to your actual offer or program.

That seems fairly obvious but I wanted to pause to make sure it is indeed clear.

This is also why I discourage people creating freebies before they’ve established an offer that they know get’s people results.

It’s a waste of time in my opinion. Create your offer, gain some experience, see what works, then make your freebie. Check out Episode 32, Building Your Offer Pyramid for more info on that.

Now, for the challenges.

Like expected, I did a #educatedmovement challenge for one week. Each day they received an email with an exercise or practice directly pulled from Movement 101 (which I hadn’t launched yet).

Movement 101 is my 75 page PDF with coaching cues for the set up, movement and breakdown of over 100 exercises from bodyweight to barbell. It also includes video coaching tutorials and demos for every exercise.

It’s a one time purchase and I used the free challenge as the pre-launch.

This was my first time doing a challenge and I honestly just did what I saw another professional doing – give them value each day that builds on one another, offer prizes for people sharing on Instagram, share those shares in my stories to drive more humans to join the challenge. Then on day 3 or 4 mention that something big is coming and they’ll get first dibs – in this case that was Movement 101.

Keep giving value each day and building momentum – mention at the bottom of each email that they get access to said offer in ___ days.

Announce winners + mention NEW OFFER coming tomorrow! Mark your calendars, you’re getting early access.

Make sales the next day from your free challengers.

Then launch two days later to the public and share how many humans have already made the jump from your free challenge to the new offer!

If you didn’t know how challenges work, that is the most simplified breakdown you’ll ever get.

There is so much that goes into making, planning and executing a free challenge but man do they convert well if the free content and actual offer make sense.

I will say with any of these free content to up-sell options – if you aren’t confident in what you’re selling, you won’t have success. Just as a side note. You’ve go to be confident in your offer and how it will change someone’s life.

Lastly I want to mention free consultations. This applies to in person or online with a zoom call. In person this would be an assessment, then you’d layout how you plan to proceed with that client if they sign up. Offer them an incentive for signing up that day and so on.

Also, with the freebie to up-sell options – you’ll have more success if scarcity or urgency is involved. Limited time, limited spots, price increases after ___ days. Something along those lines. Simply marketing.

Back to free consultations.

Online this is commonly referred to as a discovery call or free coaching call.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I don’t use these. That does not however mean that I am against them AT ALL. They work if you understand human psychology and actually care about the person on the other end of that call.

You can go in endless directions with free calls but the point is that they end in a sale. So feel free to use your own twist and flavor for these. Just know, like the other freebie up-sells, the call needs to make sense for the up-sell program. A movement screen doesn’t make sense if your coaching isn’t based on that movement screen.

So, if you were thinking free was about coaching for free, or offering your highest ticket offer for free, no, that’s not what this was about.

But yes, when you offer something for free, especially something that will be used to up-sell to a higher end offer, you NEED to effectively provide value. If a person doesn’t feel that the freebie provided applicable value, or what it was promised to provide, they certainly aren’t laying down their credit card for anything you’re selling next.

And as usual. Be open to trial and error friends.

The challenge for Movement101 was SUPER DUPER effective. I hated doing it so I said, cool, glad it worked, never doing that again. And I haven’t. But, I share because maybe it’s an amazing fit for you. My girl Doc Jen fit kills the challenge game on the fitness side. And Megan Dealy kills them on the entrepreneur side.

Either way, no matter what you choose, CHOOSE SOMETHING. You will need at some point to offer up content for free. It expedites the know, like and trust factor of buyer’s decision making.

They’ll know you have already provided them value for FREE, and that will make them much more confident when they exchange their hard-earned money for your program or offer.

That’s it fam. YES. The answer is yes, offer things for free. In fact offer valuable things for free. After you have an offer that will provide results and make you money.

Go make some content or a killer offer now.

If you find value here, on The FitsPRO Podcast, then pretty please head over to iTunes, subscribe, rate and review the show. It means the world to me when you spread my message to more humans.

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