5 Ways to Attract Customers with Freebies

Giving away goodies is a great way to attract new customers. However, it’s easy to give away free stuff if you’re a bricks and mortar store, but what if your business is primarily online? Even if you have a physical presence, your budget may not be up for giveaways.

Enter the awesome world of free content! Online content isn’t expensive to develop, and giving it away costs nothing. In addition, you can ask customers to enter an email address or other information in exchange for downloading your free content. Here are a few ideas to get you started, whether you write content yourself or hire copywriters to help you.

1. Top Ten Lists. Everyone loves “top ten lists,” and you can write one for just about anything. For example, if you’re a nail salon, you might develop “Top Ten Ways to Keep Your Nails Beautiful.” Add a few sketches or photos and, voilà! You have a handy chart your customers will love to print out, and they’ll think about your business every time they look at it.
2. How-to Information. People are always looking for directions on how to do something. If you sell craft supplies, give away free directions on how to make a stuffed animal. If you sell insurance, create a brochure on how to prepare for winter storms.
3. Checklists. Nothing says “organized” better than a checklist. If you have a health-related business, develop a checklist for a hospital stay or specific type of visit to the doctor. Or try checklists for camping, moving, running a marathon . . . you get the idea.
4. White Papers. These short papers introduce a subject and usually end with some sort of advice. For example, if you’re a financial planner, you could develop a white paper on retirement planning that includes a worksheet for people to fill out that evaluates the health of their existing retirement plan.
5. Infographics. Infographics provide statistical information in diagrams that are easy to interpret, and you may be able to make one related to your business. For example, if you run a fitness website, you could include statistics about the nutritional content of various foods and a chart of calories burned for different activities.

When you develop free content, always include your business name and contact information to entice customers to visit your website or business often.

With a little creative thinking, any small business can develop free content that rocks and turns customers into fans! If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas, or if you’ve got some great ideas but aren’t sure how to make them work on paper, you can hire copywriters to help you. A copywriter will assess your needs and ideas and write lively content that delights your customers and keeps them coming back.