The best way to convince someone to give you their email address is to create something that you can give away in exchange.
Lots of people use this concept. Chalene Johnson talks about giving away a “freemium” in exchange for an email address. LeadPages calls it a lead magnet.
So how much should you give away for free? How much is too much?
When I first started my business last year and began building my list, I created a series of five one-hour long WordPress tutorials that I give away in exchange for an email address.
I would get emails from people saying, “I can't believe this is free. You should be charging for this. I got so much value out of it.”
So I would think, “Geez, should I only be giving away the first video and charging for the rest? Or should I just give away the top ten steps you need to take and then make the rest a paid course?”
I struggled with that for quite a long time because I was hearing that it was so valuable and I thought I might be missing out on a ton of money. But then a funny thing happened, and I really don't even know how to explain it, but when I stopped focusing on serving people and started focusing on what I would get out of it then people stopped signing up for my challenge. Every time! Whenever I focused on money or missing out on money my subscribers slowed way down and my income dipped.
Fast forward to yesterday. I got three emails from three different people telling me about how life changing it is for them to go through my 5 day website challenge. They told me how they have been struggling and haven't been able to start their business because they couldn't afford to hire a web designer and couldn't figure out the website process. They were just so thankful and grateful. They told me that they were sharing my challenge everywhere.
Do I make money from that? Hell yes! Not from the Challenge, but from the BFF Academy and MailChimp Master Class and the Done For You Package. Not to mention what I'm saving on advertising.
That's the kind of thing you should be aiming for with your freebie. Don't do just ten steps to whatever that anyone could have figured out when they download it. They won't open up any of the rest of your emails. Give them some real, true value.
I know that it seems like the 30 Day List Building Challenge is going really slow. You're literally doing just a teeny, tiny bit every day, but you're building a foundation to really find out what is the problem that you can solve for people so that you deliver true value to them. That way, they will want more of what you have to offer.
If you put the time in to come up with that thing then you won't be giving away too much for free. I have hundreds of people out there telling all of their friends about me because of the value that I've delivered through the 5 Day Website challenge. Those people will tell other people. Do you know how much Facebook Ads or Google AdWords cost? I'm building relationships – which are invaluable. I'm getting free marketing which you can totally put a dollar amount on (freakin' expensive)! I'm helping a ton of people which just makes me super happy. If you're feeling uncomfortable about how much you're giving away then that's probably the right amount.
Day 7 of Nathalie Lussier's 30 Day List Building Challenge is about adding your opt-in to your site. You're probably not there yet. If you're like anyone in my WP+BFFs Facebook group, they're like, “Oh, I'm saving it all up to do it this weekend.”
But please, go through and do the challenge in order. Follow the steps to lay the foundation to deliver true value to the group that you're serving. Don't skip out on any of it. Don't rush through the part where what you figure out what problem to solve then what format to deliver it in because that's going to be an investment in building a relationship with you future customers. It's an investment in marketing. It's an investment in helping other people do better things in their lives.
Over-promise, over-deliver and it will come back to you.
