Duct Tape Marketing - Latest Comments in Upping the Price of Free

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Dan — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:56:29 -0000

Great article! I feel that using the “free strategy” has not only been around for years but it has worked for years. Everyone knows how food and gas prices have gone up. Why not offer your customers gas and food gift certificates or rebates from http://upyourprofits.net/ when they make a purchase? I strongly believe that offering your customers something for free is a great way to boost your sales and find loyal customers.

Re: Upping the Price of Free

SuperLottoCalifornia — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:40:43 -0000

i agree with you, very interesting article.

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Andrew — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:21:47 -0000

John,

I'm no expert in marketing, but when I look at my own personal behavior as a consumer, I can certainly see that what you are saying makes a great deal of sense.

Personally, when I get something which I have not either earned or paid for, I rarely make much use of it unless it is a genuine gift, and I tend to ascribe significantly higher value to things which I earn over those which I do not.

On the flip side, there are occasions where consumers should be vary about 'free' offerings. You mentioned seminars in your first paragraph. I don't know what the situation is like in other parts of the world, but in my home country of Australia, people would do very well to treat 'free' property or investment seminars with extreme caution.

Promoters do not typically put on 'free' seminars simply out of the goodness of their hearts, and these types of seminars typically resemble little more than a promotion tool for either: (a)property or investments which the company is selling; or (b)further seminars for which the promoters intend to charge several thousand dollars.

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Sheila Atwood — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:29:15 -0000

I had to come back and share a give away one of my twitter friends is doing. Very clever and you have to do something to win.

Check him out. http://techxav.com/

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Martin — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 05:35:49 -0000

Sheila, you have excellent point about "building trust". Maybe "free" is just one of ways to build a trust but not the only one.

Building trust have always one large problem there will be always people who are just takers and never givers so you always risk to give something to these people.

Re: Upping the Price of Free

SHEILA ATWOOD — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 03:11:53 -0000

I loved the term "free fatigue". I am to the point that I don't even look at the "free stuff" any more. When I see a whole bucket load of free products when I sign in it makes me think it is all hype.

If you think about it, when ever we read a blog like yours we are getting free information and advice.

I like the idea of rewards for playing, to build trust.

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Dan — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:35:24 -0000

I'm considering "free" as part of our product mix as well, but it still raises the challenge of marketing to let people know about the "free" services. I think that publicity may actually make more sense for this given the nature of the "free" service rather than spending on ad dollars.

I'd be curious to hear what you think about PR agencies that only charge per article placed? Places like Publicity Guaranteed

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Sweaty palms — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:13:12 -0000

The first time I heard about this concept was from one of the Eben Pagans seminars. It made a lot of sense and I'm trying to implement it as much in my marketing as possible.

Andy

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Dr Wright — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:29:09 -0000

I agree free has lost its appeal, also, I am not sure I want to build a list of people who just want freebies, how do you turn someone who is used to getting something for free into a buyer?

the money in the chair idea is good, although, I would have handed them the money, not left it in the chair for someone to scoop up.

Dr. Wright
The Wright Place TV Show
www.wrightplacetv.com
www.twitter.com/drwright1

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Atniz — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:27:13 -0000

This is the marketing technique used for decades. We can see a lot of "free" marketing strategies. Handing over credit card details will let us know the real "free" meaning at the end of the month statement.

Re: Upping the Price of Free

SEO Software — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:49:23 -0000

Timely post. I'm contemplating the role of "free" with our product. It's a powerful tool, but finding the right application is the tricky part.

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Angie A. Swartz — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:45:42 -0000

This post is brilliant! And so is the approach! Charge someone $99 and then give them a $100 spot when they walk in the door....why didn't I think of that! The perfect example of undercommit and overperform. I have an entrepreneurial friend who just left the corporate world. She's been studying, attending seminars and trying to determine what she wants to do next. We're always talking about everyone's offering and how everyone's selling something. Your post is spot on for those of us that are tired of being sold to all the time. Thanks again John for another great lesson!

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Kris Bovay — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:21:30 -0000

On a personal level, I don't like the word 'free' because free of course is not really free - there is, at minimum, an expectation cost.

John, in your example of the $100 on the chair, Bill wanted to reward attendance and participation in the expectation that the money give-away would create a buzz. (He was right.)

Free can be effective - if used with care.

Re: Upping the Price of Free

David Moore — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:57:03 -0000

I am listening to Seth Godin's Meatball Sundae and this applies to the bundling strategy as well. I call it my "YOU CAN'T DO THAT" strategy. Creating a FREE offer that is so compelling and creates so much buzz that people can't help but talk about it. While my competitors are thinking "You can't do that". As business owners, we have to be careful not to shoot ourselves in the foot and be sure to recognize all the Free costs involved.

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Modassic Internet Marketing Da — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:16:51 -0000

Hey John... I posted on that WSJ article last week as it got me thinking... why didn't they make a Field of Dreams Part Two?

Check it out... MODassic blog

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Denny — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:37:52 -0000

I think there's a big difference between free products and free services. I think people are very skeptical when it comes to free products (physical or software) but not as much with free services (such as counseling or webinars/seminars).

If you to jump through several hoops, such as leaving contact data, in order to get a free product (which might turn out to be trash), people will get annoyed and probably won't do it. However, if they know that there is a real person behind a free service things look much better in terms of trust.

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Donny Gamble — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 11:12:23 -0000

Most items that are free always come with some sort of price attached. Whether that price happens on the backend or sometime in the future. If it is free, it has a reason behind it.

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Craig Swanson — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:44:26 -0000

John, you mentioned offering free webinars as an example. At my company, we just launched a big experiment. We're giving away a free 10-week Photoshop training course in a weekly webinar format:

http://creativetechs.com/fr...

From a business-side, we’re testing a theory. I believe that over the long-run we’ll end up generating more income by giving classes like these away for free, than we have made so far selling one workshop at a time. The live webinars themselves are free. We’ll charge a small fee for recorded copies of previous classes and other downloads. We’ll see how that works out.

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Martin — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:38:59 -0000

Depends, e.g. popular internet service called "rapidshare" is very limited free in extremely competitive market and customers are basically software pirates not willing to pay for anything but this company works well.

If you analyze competitors you will see that they have less limited free services but quality is much worse.

I would say if you want to offer something free if it would be extremely limited in excellent quality I would take it. If you offer something for free just because it is some trash nobody would buy - it wont help :)

Re: Upping the Price of Free

Paul Simister — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:26:34 -0000

I have mused about the proliferation of free as well John.

It's definitely a double edged sword as people find it so easy to collect stuff that they get no value from. My hard disk is full of reports and audios downloaded but never listened to.

Grabbed because it sounds good at the time but it never works up the priority list.

But I also see the reciprocation desired is diminishing. The zero marginal cost of digital products means the receiver realises that the giver hasn't given anything with a cost.

Not sure where it is all leading.