This just hit me like the proverbial brick. Problem with free downloads is the amount of bandwidth they take - and there isn't usually any return for these. Not monetarily, anyway. And let's face it, we are in the business of offering valuable solutions to problems that they will give something valuable in return... Usually, this is money, but it can also be something like - an email address.
Now a person will usually give away something to get an email address, and then will spend extra to deliver an email series to that address, with the idea of offering them materials which they will then purchase.
While writing a new small business marketing series, I found myself with a ton of great ebooks which can only be given away. Now if I just put these on my website, I'd probably have that link given away to all sorts of people - who I don't know and can't contact except by the IP address they used.
The simple solution is to put them on your ecommerce engine as a free download. My ZenCart installation requires they give their email address in order to login. Voila! Exchange has occurred. And I'd really like them to give that address away to any of their friends, wouldn't I? Meanwhile, they are also ableto simply look around and see if there is anything else they like.
Of course, even a free ebook will get a review on my blog - and that review also return links to that product page, doesn't it? Linklove - can't beat it.
And now you have, in those short paragraphs above, a simple way to invest in free downloads.
(ZenCart also has a nice newsletter email function, though I have to check it out more... One complaint about email could shut down your server. So I'll stick to exporting these addresses and offering them an opt-in via my GetResponse autoresponder.)
- - - -
Any better ideas? Let me know. The comment space is open to all (who register, of course.) ;P
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment