Photography studios attract customers with free sittings. Many accounting and professional services offer free consultations. Free quotes for insurance are common. Obviously in these cases, the free portion is the lead. Nobody needs a photographic sitting, they need family photos. Nobody needs just a quote or a consultation, they need tax preparation or insurance or whatever.
Is there anything in your business that you could offer for free that would help to build long-term relationships? I’ve mentioned Seth’s Unleashing the Ideavirus many times. It’s a book that you can download for free or you can buy in paperback. Guess what?! It’s a bestseller.
My good friend Spencer has created several Star Wars themed sketch cards on his web site: here, here and here. Why would he do that when people are selling his other sketch cards on eBay for as much as $250?* Simple, he’s building his fan base.
One of my most successful sites right now (in terms of traffic) is GlobeTrackr.com. It’s ugly and highly outdated, but it works. It’s a free service for tracking the location of your web visitors. I give it away because it leads traffic to other sites that are relevant to me.
There are many ways to use free creatively. Go for it!
* The eBay auctions listings for Spencer Brinkerhoff were valid on March 12, 2009. They may not be available when you read this post.
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