Return to Archive More Clients - the Online Marketing Newsletter for Independent Professionals from Action Plan Marketing and Robert Middleton In This Week's Issue: You can't just give stuff away. You have to trade it for something valuable.   Selling the Free Offer Central to InfoGuru Marketing is giving stuff away. In fact all your marketing should revolve around this simple principle and action: Create valuable information to give away and give it away in vast quantities. Sounds simple, but like everything, it's not really. It actually takes some thought and effort to give away valuable information so that it's truly appreciated. I recommend that you follow the law of Marketing Syntax - the order in which you communicate your marketing message: Problem - Outcome - Value - Proof - Offer. First is the Problem or pressing issue - Why do your clients need you in the first place? When prospects hear this they want to know more - how can you help them? Second is the Ultimate Outcome - This is what your clients get when they work with you. It's your big promise. It's the difference you make. Now they're interested. Third is Value - This is simply an expansion of your Ultimate Outcome. What are all the other benefits clients receive when they work with you? They want to know in detail. Fourth is Proof - Who have you worked with and what kind of results have you produced in the real world? What's the low down and are you on the up and up? Finally is the Offer - This is when you get your prospect to take action. And if you don't make an offer that they can easily take advantage of, the marketing game comes to a dead stop. But what is the offer? Is is the offer for your services? Is it a proposal? Is it the close for a contract? Alas no. This will all come later. The offer is for the Free Stuff. Yes, you have to sell your free offer. You first need to get attention and interest. Then you need to build your case and prove you are credible and successful. And only then are they going to check out your free stuff. In other words, you can't expect great results if you just throw free stuff at prospects. They won't pay any attention to it. They won't value it. They won't go any further. Is there anything more pathetic than begging people to take your free stuff? Studies have proven that you can't give dollar bills away on a street corner. People won't even take them! But when you take the time, effort and focus to get someone's attention and build your case and credibility, then your free stuff becomes interesting, intriguing, desirable and valuable. And this is why free stuff should never be completely free. There's a small and important price for free stuff. If they want it, they need to give you something valuable in return. Take a look at the many ways you can give away free stuff: On your web site Offer a valuable report. They are free to have it if they also subscribe to your eZine and give you their email address and name. You can now send more valuable information in addition to your next offer. At a talk The same report will do. But don't just hand it out to everyone who comes. They won't value it (or even read it). Trade it for their business card and let them know you'll add them to your eZine list as well. Again, you can now follow-up. When you network That good old report can do triple duty and more. When you connect with someone you think you might be able to help, get their card and offer to send the report. And then follow up to answer any questions. Giving something away is the final step in this initial marketing process, but another way of looking at it is that it's also the first step of the selling process. The More Clients Bottom Line: When you realize that you have to sell your free offer for the permission to follow up in some way, you have grasped the essence of InfoGuru Marketing.   Your primary tool for giving away free stuff There is no more efficient, effective tool for giving away free stuff than a web site. But not any web site will do. You need to make a positive impression and build a case before anyone will request the free stuff on your site. The Web Site ToolKit is designed to help Independent Professionals create powerful web sites that lead people to taking action. If you don't have a web site or are not happy with the results your current site is getting you, learn more about the Web Site ToolKit today at the link below. http://www.actionplan.com/wstk.html Note: We're offering the Web Site ToolKit for $39 until we have sold 1,000 copies and then the price goes up to $49. We are currently at about 800 copies.   What's the best thing about the InfoGuru Manual? Let Kathy Mallory tell you in this short audio clip: http://www.actionplan.com/mp3files/KMForum.mp3 This will open up as a short mp3 file. Find out more about the manual here: http://www.actionplan.com/infoguru.html   Until next week, all the best, Robert Middleton ACTION PLAN MARKETING Cracking the Marketing Code for Independent Professionals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ www.actionplan.com 210 Riverside Drive Boulder Creek, CA 95006 831-338-7790 Contact by email © 2005 Robert Middleton, All rights reserved. You are free to use material from the More Clients eZine in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read: "By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit Robert's web site at http://www.actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional service businesses." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *