Everyone loves a freebie/lead magnet! And who can blame them? When you’re trying to build a business, every penny counts.

But the sad truth is, almost everyone gets disappointed by freebies at some point. You get what you pay for more often than not, but that isn’t really an excuse to give away something that’s basically worthless as part of your business strategy. Especially to people that you’re trying to turn into clients or subscribers.

Business is all about building trust, and many of your potential clients will base their trust level with you on their first encounter, which is often in the form of your freebie. They’ll trust that anything they get from you in the future will be on the same level of value as the freebie they got.

If they felt like they got essentially nothing, they probably won’t be ordering or coming back anytime soon.

Here are a couple of key elements to take into account when determining how to create a freebie that will fill your sales funnel:

1. Easy to Consume

A freebie is a teaser designed to convert sales or grow your email list. It should be easy to read, use and understand. It’s the ten­-second sound bite that should get someone to listen to the whole song or show. That means it needs to be accessible and “catchy” but still deliver something of outstanding value. Now is not the time to skimp or be stingy.

2. Actionable

What is the point of the lead magnet? It’s to get you sales. If there’s no incentive or nudging towards that sale then the freebie is ineffective. You want them to do something. Tell them what you want them to do. Just do it in a pleasant and subtle ­ but firm ­way. Every freebie should have some sort of actionable follow up suggested, to make the follow­-through within your sales funnel. A simple example would be to sign up to your free webinar, book a free consultation or buy a smaller ticket item.

3. Valuable

Does your lead magnet hold any value to potential clients? What is that value? You should be able to clearly define it. If they see that the information, service, or product that you give away for free is valuable, they’ll believe that your paid products, services, or information are even more valuable. And they’ll be more willing to buy them.

4. Enticing

This is where the previous three elements come together. When your lead magnet is easy to consume, tells them clearly what you want them to do (sign up, buy the full product, etc.), and holds value for them, they’ll be enticed to move to the next level of your sales funnel.

If you run your ideas for a freebie through these requirements before you launch them, you will definitely see better opt-in and conversion results with all of your campaigns.

Now I’d like to hear from you : what is your current freebie offer? Leave a comment with a link to your lead magnet so that we can check it out!