Internet Income
Step 3: Give Something Away
Step 3: Give Something Away
Basic Concepts
Your next step is to create what is often called an IFO, or Irresistable Free Offer.
The IFO is a critcal step in your online success. It’s where you first grab the attention of your visitors and turn them into fans of your work – from cold leads into warm leads.
The IFO makes a promised to the visitor. It says, “If you grab my free gift (and get onto my mailing list), I’ll give you a special taste of my work that you’re going to love… and you can decide if you want to take another step.”
- It’s where you make your first impression.
- It’s the beginning of your long-term, profitable relationship.
- It’s where you begin to establish trust.
So many entrepreneurs under-estimate the imporatnce of this step and make one of these common mistakes when setting up their IFOs:
- They offer a sample chaper or some other existing material excerpted from another product – something that makes it easy for the author — instead of carefully crafting give the visitor exactly the right impression.
- They make the free gift into a sales brochure, without giving the visitor anyting of value. The visitor jus goes away feeling they got the “bait and switch” and scammed into joining your list.
- They give too much value in the IFO and don’t leave the visitor wanting to know more.
Your free gift should be so good, you want everyone you talk to to get one before they do anything else.
Step 3: Give Something Away
Helpful Resources
Joint Venture CO-OP
List Building Network
Accelerate your list building efforts using the Joint Venture CO-OP. It’s a network of like-minded entrepreneurs who build their business by cross promotions and joint ventures. And it’s all accelerated by the CO-OP’s unique approach. It’s an easy and inexpensive way to start building your list and your business.
Mini-eBook Publishing
The Perfect IFO
MIni-eBooks make the perfect Irresistible Free Offers. They give great content, while always maintaining your image and prestige. But they also leave the reader wanting to know more. Check out the mini-ebook production and publishing opportunities from the Condensified publishing program.
Get Ready for Online Success
Coaching Package
This startup coaching package is especially designed for those needing help with their product strategy, brand distinction and free gift optin strategy. It’s a reasonably priced coaching package that gets you started in online product marketing with live 1-on-1 mentoring.
Mailchimp provides optin forms for capturing people’s email addresses for your optin gift. It also lets you send emails out to your mailing list in a simple, bulk mail effort.
LeadPages gives you several optin page templates for your free gift offer. Just be aware that they don’t help you drive any traffic to the page — that’s still up to you.
Step 3: Give Something Away
Live Examples
Emotional Alchemy
Free Mini-eBook
This optin offer is a perfect example of how to use a free mini-ebook to WOW your audience and engage them in your message. Optin to this offer to follow all the steps in the process and to see the mini-ebook and how it delivers just enough information.
Cafe of Dreams
Multi-Media Mini-eBook
If your work lends itself to video or audio, then take a look at this multi-media mini-ebook gift and decide if it would work for your free gift offer.
How Old Is Your Soul?
Online Quiz
Online quizzes can be the most engaging freebies around, and this one is one of our highest converting optins of all time. However, you have to be careful that you design the quiz to give real value, or people will sense that you are just setting them up.
Frequency Activation
Audio and PDFs
Here’s a great example of an audio gift. It’s an example of Victor’s frequency activation and he offers many more beyond this one. By giving people a taste of his work, they become interested in knowing what else he offers.
5 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make
Email Drip Sequence
This free gift offers 5 informative emails over 5 days in an automatic drip sequence. This is a good example of how you can break up your free gift content into a daily drip. Check this out, not only for the example of an email drip, but also for the content!
Step 3: Give Something Away
Exercises
Test Your IFO Against These…
Before you create your free gift — run it through these four points and see how it stacks up. Rank your idea on a scale from 1 to 5 for each of these four.
Your free gift offer MUST…
- Interest and engage people and make them WANT to get the gift.
- It must deliver some value, so people feel they got what they were promised.
- It must NOT deliver too much, so people are left wanting to know more.
- It must leave them wanting more of the right thing – moving them toward your next solution or offer.
If your gift does not hit 3 or better on ALL FOUR of those point, then it’s probably not the best one to use.
The How Test
Go through your free gift idea and look to see if it tells people HOW to do what you are suggesting. If so, then bag it and start over. Your free gift should tell people WHY they should do something and WHAT they should do, but not HOW to do it. That’s what your upsell program is going to teach them.