One of my clients had unfortunately sunk his teeth into the wrong gurus. Guys like Hormozi, Gary Vee, and Noah Kagan. I have no personal beef with any of these gurus (except mayhap Gary Vee for popularizing hustle pron).
But each one commits a fatal flaw, especially when it comes to email:
Besides feeling a wee bit better about yourself for not “selling” (and let your bank account be damned because of it), offering everything for free means a couple o’ other things:
1. That nobody will appreciate your content as much as they’d appreciate paid content because when you pay, you pay attention.
For example, how many free PDFs do you have lurking on your harddrive right now? Mesuspects it's at least 10. But the real number is probably closer to 50 or 100. That’s just the nature of free stuff: You don’t value stuff you get for free.
But the second thing offering everything for free does is much more lethal to your business, psyche, and willingness to sell than even having nobody value your stuff, which is deadly in and of itself, just to a much smaller degree than my next point…
2. People will feel insulted when you finally try and actually sell your stuff to, y’know, keep the lights of your business on.
The problem with these freebie gurus is the entire point of offering “your best stuff for free” is to create this mystical form of good will that will make those same freebie seekers be happy to pay for your “not-as-good” stuff.
But this ain't how it plays out in reality. Instead, they got a bone to pick with you for actually selling them. They speak all your biggest selling insecurities into existence. Call you a dirty capitalist pig, wish harm on your loved ones, and vow to never send you a single shekel.
And so, many innocent but gullible business owners give up.
Not because selling doesn’t work (even though this is what they think), but because giving away free stuff doesn't work (and they just don’t put two and two together).
There’s a systemic marketing problem also happening here under the surface:
Offering free stuff also attracts the worst “customers” if’n you can even call them that, my brothers. Instead of attracting the type of customers who are ready and eager to buy, you attract freebie seekers. Freebie seekers who will never fork over even a single shekel to you—and who project their nasty emotions onto you. The insults they hurl say more about them than they do about you. But it doesn’t feel that way when they’re bombarding your inbox with insults for gasp trying to make money.
And that’s the real problem with these freebie seekers. Sure, catering to freebie seekers might be a good way to trick yourself into thinking your business is bigger than it is. Nothing makes your email list fill up to the gills quite like freebie seekers. But the problem is, freebie seekers would rather die than become customers.
I’ve seen this play out whenever I’ve ever been involved in Facebook Lead Ad campaigns. It doesn't matter how persuasive your copy is, a band of Facebook Lead Ad leads ain’t ever gonna buy.
Anyway, back to my client…
My client has fallen for this faulty marketing strategy for far too long. But after a few recent talks (and a few changes to his leadership team), methinks I’ve finally gotten him to see the light.
In fact, just yesterday on a call we had, he uttered something along these lines:
(Obv paraphrasing)
“I’d much rather send emails that give people an opportunity to buy than offering them something for free.”
Ahhhh. Music to my ears.
Which brings me to the point:
If you’re ready to start taking your business seriously, which means using your email as the final funnel step (aka the last part of the funnel before leads become customers), instead of vice versa which many gurus and even more innocent business owners foolishly do, hit reply and let’s set up a discovery call.
Who knows… it might just be the single most profitable call you’re ever on.
John
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