Re: Free Information

From: Janet Attard <attard_at_businessknowhow.com>
Date: Sat 11 Dec 1999 07:05:54 -0500

MARK MONTGOMERY WROTE:
> Almost every Web consultant out there will tell you
> that giving away free information is good for your
> consulting business. Unfortunately we tested this
> theory at length and found this wonderful free advice
> to be false. I've found that in certain circumstances,
> giving away a small amount of whatever the product or
> service is logical.

The "secret" to profiting by giving away anything free
is to start out with a plan and target your freebies.

You have to determine in advance what you will give
away, what you want to accomplish by giving something
away, how much of it you'll give away and to whom.
Choose those targets/giveaways on the basis of where
your profits come from (winning a few big clients or
making lots of little sales to consumers, for instance)
, or what you need to do to position yourself for
future profits.

Understand, too, that if you are going to give away
something to the masses without any accompanying direct
mail advertising- type pitches, you can pretty much
figure you are doing it for name recognition or, on the
web, traffic building.

If you want giveaways to directly produce income, you
have to target specific prospects or specific, narrow
markets, and give away just enough to establish
yourself as an expert and/or to get others to refer to
you as an expert when anyone asks them "do you know
anyone who..?" Or "Do you know a source for.."

Big companies bring in customers by the millions with
tactics like these (coupons for free samples, for
instance, or by distributing trial-sized packages).
Very small businesses that learn to play the game right
land customers worth hundreds of thousands of dollars -
or more- in sales.

--Janet Attard
Author of Business Know-How:An Operational Guide for Home-Based and
Microsized Businesses on Limited Budgets
http://www.businessknowhow.com
http://www.businessknowhow.net
AOL Keyword: Business Know-How





Received on Sat Dec 11 1999 - 06:05:54 CST