Business Strategy Types

So you want to boost your internet marketing strategy, huh? Have you tried giving away freebies to supercharge your online marketing plan? This method is tried and tested. There are countless startups and other web-based companies who have enjoyed massive success by creating valuable free products to give away to their visitors.

One of the most important things to keep in mind when creating freebies is that you must not sacrifice quality simply because you intend to give away the product. In order for this strategy to be implemented correctly, you must be sure that your free products offer value to your leads and users. If your free products fail to help solve a real problem, it will only do one thing for your business: give you a bad reputation. We’re trying to achieve the opposite!

The type of freebies you offer your visitors will depend on what type of business you are. But you can get as creative as you’d like with some of the following examples. In most cases, you can find a way to leverage each type of freebie to best fit with your company and the products or services you offer.

The following list will cover some of the more popular types of free stuff that you can start working on today.

Free eBooks – These are among the most popular types of freebies in the online world. Don’t forget their close relatives, the free PDF report, case studies and whitepapers as well. These can be a great free giveaway item to offer your visitors, fans or potential customers. Create a free eBook of tips related to the services you offer, or create a specific “how to” eBook to help your users accomplish a specific task on their own. There are endless possibilities here!

Free Templates – These are awesome freebies to offer, whether you create free website design templates or perhaps detailed spreadsheet templates for budgeting or other important tasks. This can be a good choice for companies or individuals who are just starting out and who don’t have a lot of money to invest in creating their first freebies. For example, you can publish free templates in Google Docs’ public gallery for others to use, and promote them on your site as well as others!

Free Consultation – Although this technically doesn’t qualify as a product, offering a free fifteen or thirty minute professional consultation to assess the needs of your users is a great freebie to consider offering. Just be sure you can keep up with the demand!

Free Online Generator – This is another hugely popular idea for a freebie. A couple of great examples from HubSpot are their incredibly useful Website Grader and Press Release Grader, both of which I use on a regular basis. Can you think of a way to create a freebie product that can help your users automate an important aspect of their work? Bingo!

Free Icons or Graphics Set – If you’re savvy with Photoshop or GIMP and offer custom graphic design services, this is a must have freebie to offer your users! Create a free icon set with a specific theme and offer it to your users. Sit back and count the downloads!

Free Video Tutorial Course – This type of freebie requires a serious time investment and some equally as serious effort, but it can certainly end up paying off! Spend some time identifying an important task for a large number of your users and create a video tutorial course or series to walk them through the steps they need to take in order to accomplish it themselves.

Free Webinar – Offer a free webinar with exclusive interviews you have snagged with other industry leaders, to create an attractive freebie for your users. Limit seating in each of your webinars to increase the perceived exclusivity and value of the information you are presenting them with. Be sure that the webinar covers topics that matter to your users and helps them solve a real problem they are faced with.

Coupon Codes & Promotional Discounts – Although this type of freebie isn’t 100% free, it’s still a great way to spark interest among your users and you may be surprised at how many of your customers take advantage of the limited time discounts and promotional deals you offer them. Try occasionally posting a coupon code for a product or service you sell in order to test the results you can achieve using this idea. Just make sure you offer discounts and deals that are worth the time and effort on your part!

Free Book Giveaways – Don’t forget about the world of print! If you review new book releases that cover topics within your industry (like many sites and blogs do), then try to work with the author in order to offer a free book giveaway contest for readers who comment on reviews or engage in some other way. Be sure to implement a strong call to action to get the buzz going, and limit the number of copies for winners.

Free Invites to New Startups – Remember when Gmail accounts could only be opened if you were invited by someone who already had one? Even more recently, Google Voice was also by invite only. Tons of new sites and startups launch in beta status, offering new user accounts using an invitation system. If you get early access to a startup that has generated lots of online buzz, offering invites as a freebie can be an explosive way to promote your own site or blog using freebies. Experiment and have fun!

As you can see, these are just a few examples of how creative you can get with freebie marketing. There is no limit to the possibilities. My best advice is to experiment with some of these ideas and find out which of them work best for your business!