How to Profit by Giving Away Your Products!

by Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian

Published on this site: October 3rd, 2005 - See more articles from this month

FREE!

It's one of the most powerful words in advertising and marketing. Grabs your attention. Gets you curious. Stimulates your desire.

Even if you were Not interested to start with!

Just think about it. How many pieces of software, ebooks and reports clutter up your hard drive. And you only ever downloaded it because it came at no cost - as a gift.

So why do marketers give away stuff? And how can you profit from giving away things too? You'll learn exactly why, how and when to use gift give-aways to grow your business - and make new friends.

Always Give Value - Always

We live in a cynical world - especially on the Internet. People are critical. They demand high value.

Offer it - and you become their trusted friend, ally, go-to person. Fail to, and you'll do yourself great harm.

So if you plan to give something away as a gift, make sure it has high value. A simple rule of thumb is - If you can't sell it, don't try gifting it away.

Why does this matter? Look, one of the major reasons for gift-giving as a business building and marketing tactic is to lay the foundation for a trusting, lasting relationship with your prospects.

Their perception of you, your business and your brand begins with your gift. You don't get a second chance to make a good first impression. So make it your best - by giving high quality gifts.

Sell Them - Even If You're Giving It Away

A big mistake beginners make is to assume that just because you're giving it away, folks will fall over themselves to grab it.

Wrong.

You need to sell them on the value... and then let them have it at no cost.

Highlight the effort you put into creating it. How many hours of research went into it? How much money did you spend? How many people were involved? What were their skills, qualifications, efforts?

Tell them how they will benefit from it. What will the product do for your prospects? How will their lives be better by using/reading/applying what you're giving away?

Show them just how valuable it is - and then give it away. That packs a powerful punch!

But why give stuff away in the first place?

Profit Strategies From Gift Giving

There are many ways you, as the gift-giver, can profit from your efforts apart from the intangible benefits like gaining goodwill and building positive buzz around your brand.

• Make the gift a pre-selling tool for your main product. It can educate your prospect about the value of your primary product or service. It can offer a sample, a trial or a glimpse of the power of what you are selling. It can raise hopes, open avenues of possibility, reveal potential advantages - and bring prospects back to do business with you.
  
• Make 'in-context' offers. A short report about avoiding the pitfalls of cheap web hosting can recommend a specific web host. A guide explaining how a particular tactic is executed can mention a software or service that makes the process simple or faster.
  
• Build in 'back-ends'. You could give away a complete product - and sell them more of it, for a longer period, or another related product that enhances the value of what you gave them. Or you could give away a basic version - and offer to sell a deluxe or premium.
  
• Make it viral. By giving away high quality gifts - and offering recipients an incentive to pass it along - you'll grow a monstrous marketing machine that will explode your business and profits as it keeps growing and growing.
  
• Go wide and far. Recruit others to help you give away stuff. Find affiliates and joint venture partners. Make it attractive for them to participate in giving away Your gifts.

As long as you have a mechanism in place to identify and follow up with recipients of your gift, you can expand your efforts extensively - and the more you give away, the more you will benefit in the long run.

I hope this short article has given you some ideas to use when you plan the next give-away. And please let me know about it - I LOVE gifts

Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian is webmaster of Opti-Biz.com Join his 'Early Christmas' gift give-away and get FIVE cool products that currently sell on his websites for $156.38. You get it all free - no strings attached! Download them from: http://www.Opti-Biz.com/early-christmas.htm Or send any email to: mailto:[email protected]