I did an experiment a couple of times last week. I put out a link to a post offering some free coaching. I think it was the least clicked link of the week.
I thought that might be the case.
You see ‘FREE’ doesn’t have the same ’selling’ power that it used to. We’re more savvy than that.
People are looking at value rather than price. Of course, if the price of what we value is free then bonus!
It is not that offering free items is off the cards. (The offer of free coaching is still available on my site.) The issue is that saying that something is free is no longer a guarantee of anything.
It makes more sense to build or create something that is valuable and remarkable in and of itself.
If Seth Godin had offered 30 minutes of free coaching it would have been snapped up in seconds. But I’m a newbie. I’m building a new site from scratch. I’m slowing growing trust and, ultimately, doing everything I can to show that this site is valuable. If and when I manage to do that, should I send out a link highlighting something that is free again, the link will be jumped on with abandon.
Point: free only sells when there is proven value.
WHAT NEXT?
What might be the significance of this for your own area of work? Are you spending more time promoting your products and services with gimmicks or developing something truly valuable?
Do you have experiences you can share with the rest of us?
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I guess I’m a bit too skeptical with free things. My first thought, is ALWAYS, where’s the fine print, and what’s the catch? Nothing is really ever free anymore.