If you are marketing on the internet you know you have to provide “content.” Problem is if you do it long enough, in such a way that you are actually engaging people, you eventually give away all your secrets.
All someone has to do is look at a year or two of your free stuff and they know what you are teaching in the paid program. In 3 sentences I just laid out the problem information marketers have been struggling with for a long time. I say it is not a problem at all. There is no difference between your paid and free content.
There may be a small difference in volume and early access but even that is not why people buy. They are buying for many other reasons besides the content itself. They want to belong, first of all.
They want a means (their money) to demonstrate that they are actually in the game. They want something to add to their concept of their own identity. They want to hold themselves accountable with weird logic, as in ‘well I’m paying for it, might as well use it.’ They want the combination of insider status and the knowledge that there are people who don’t have what they are paying for.
They want the feeling of superiority that comes with buying something. They want the status and the perceived sense of power that comes with having something others don’t. Long-term the free versus paid content argument is something that doesn’t matter. And it often trips people up.
Point is, write your free stuff, or perform it, and do your paid stuff. Yes you should make your paid stuff meatier, more in-depth and so on. You should put extra effort into it. But since we know creating something is 10% of the battle and marketing it is 90% of the game, where does that leave you? You should be doing great content all the time.
If you put out great free content, that promises all the above benefits, plus makes you someone people want to hang out with, you are going to get paid customers. There are famous anecdotes from direct marketing where the magalog was 80 pages and the book was 160 pages. If you read that stuff long enough you basically know what’s in the book.
But they buy, for the reasons above and many more. Don’t be afraid to put out free content. If you do it right you will not only get paid customers but you will push yourself to create new and even better paid content over time. If you hold back your content, on the other hand, you are not going to get any paid customers at all and you will get stuck at the level you were when you created your first book or course.
So creating robust free content, and charging money for paid stuff is actually part of your commitment to the customer. They know you are vibrant, and working and are coming up with new, better stuff all the time. People buy for many emotional reasons besides your “stuff.”
To learn how to package your drive to create a business into a form that works, check out our book, How to Create Million Dollar Products.
This is for the Kindle: Amazon.com: How to Create Million Dollar Products eBook : Giovinazzi, Frank: Kindle Store
This will take you to the paperback: How to Create Million Dollar Products: The hidden formula behind the legendary best sellers of the last 100 years!: Giovinazzi, Frank: 9798843922030: Amazon.com: Books