FREE GIVEAWAYS MAKE GOOD SENSE

Guest blog post by Gennavieve Lyons

Many people and businesses all over the world, myself included, have discovered the ways social media can contribute to success and growth in all areas of their companies, with one of those options being free content.

From a business standpoint, “free” can be a daunting word; after all the goal of every business is to make money.

However when done correctly, it is easy to see the benefits that free samples and giveaways offer.

If you are still new to the idea, here are several ways freebies strengthen your social media presence and overall results.

(1) Increase Website Traffic

One of the best benefits of social media for businesses is using it to increase your website traffic.

Not only can social media help you direct people to your website, but the more social media shares you receive, the higher your search ranking will be.

One of the primary benefits of offering something of value for free is that it increases that flow of traffic by attracting customers that otherwise might have passed right by the social media page and therefore never make it to your official website.

(2) Generate Leads For Less

Social media is an easy way to generate leads.

There are two main ways of doing this with free content: ungated content (requires no email address) and gated content (requires an email for access).

Sharing gated content is a fruitful way for any company to generate leads and build a database.

Free giveaways are therefore used to generate buzz around your brand and produce leads.

This is why you will often hear of giveaways and contests when a company has a new product launch or something similar.

They’ll offer a free product (or discounted one) to a limited number of customers to generate interest and publicity.

It’s a simple, yet effective use of social media.

(3) Brand Awareness

Social media has allowed companies to increase awareness and reach of their brand at little to no cost.

The costs related to these strategies are a lot higher with traditional marketing methods.

I personally use social media as my number one market strategy in my business.

When you give something away for free, you’re in essence investing in positive brand recognition.

People love to get something of value with no strings attached; it makes them feel like they have come out ahead.

People perceive free as better, and that has a positive impact on how they regard your brand and often a positive linkage exceeds the cost of the ‘freebie’.

(4) Build Meaningful Relationships With Customers

Social media is fantastic for creating meaningful relationships with your customers.

For instance, social media lets your company create conversation with your audience, therefore forming relationships with customers before, during, and after a transaction.

This kind of social media dialogue between your brand and customers is something that traditional advertising will never achieve.

By incorporating free content, you have the ability to catch customers and boost impulse purchases.

In cases like this, the free product or sample introduces itself and hooks likely buyers.

In my own business, these relationships are formed through information packed videos around property investing and mindset training, supplied to my audience obligation free, every single week.

When a business is confident in its product, it understands that a free sample will lure more patrons to make a purchase.

(5) Receive Instant Feedback

Freebies on social media give your business instant access to positive or negative feedback, which delivers you valuable insights on the consumer perspective.

For instance, if you promote a new product and share it across social media platforms, you will immediately learn what your audience thinks of it.

Another way to gain a customer’s viewpoint with social media is by learning how they use your product.

Brands often base new products or services on their customers’ innovative ideas.

Freebies can be used to encourage such feedback.

Though many free-giveaway strategies are employed without requesting anything in return, sometimes it’s fitting to ask for feedback in some shape or form.

Often, companies will give away goods to a small group of first-time clients and then ask them to fill out a short review, poll or encourage discussion.

The idea is that the free item makes people more enthusiastic about giving something in return, which in this case is information that the business wouldn’t otherwise have.

In addition, businesses will often give away free eBooks or something along those lines in return for contact information, as mentioned earlier.

This is the same concept.

You also receive feedback indirectly in the way of likes, dislikes, and shares received on the free content distributed.

Everyone loves the word “free.”

There’s something about the word that triggers impulses in the brain and gets most people’s heart racing.

That’s why you see people do senseless things to get something for free.

If they were honest with themselves, most shoppers would have to admit that, majority of the time, the free item isn’t worth the time or effort they went through to get it, yet they do it any way.

It is more so the fact that an item happened to be available for free - not that the actual product or service was so valuable in itself.

So if you can produce an item to give away and the client doesn’t need to jump through hoops to get, why wouldn’t you want to tap into that impulsive market?

From a business viewpoint, giving away something for free often results in value in the back end.

Sure, there may be upfront costs involved, but if done correctly the investment can easily pay off in some financial form a little further down the track.

MEET GENNAVIEVE LYONS

Gennavieve is known for her passion around property investment.

Buying her first Australian property at 18, first International property at 21, and retiring from the workforce at 25, Gennavieve now lives location free, educating & mentoring others to grow their own property portfolios and achieve financial freedom through her completely online company Lyons Property Mentoring.