How to give away free things and still become the market leader?
We love our product so much that we don’t want to give it for free.
Obviously, if we give for free then we are not doing business and people don’t value what we give. But there is a way to give free things and still, you will not only make money but also become a market leader.
However, you need to have certain objectives in mind when you give things for free. In this podcast, you will know the ways to give things for free and still grow your business profitably?
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Have you heard of Vistaprint.com?
It was found by Robert Keane. He started this printing and graphic designing company in 1995. He wanted to give small business owners access to the same high-quality, custom-printed products at a lower cost. Robert and his team developed patented technology that delivers professional-quality printing in small quantities at an affordable price.
They have transformed the printing industry.
Then they took a process that was traditionally only available offline and made it possible for both business owners and individuals to conveniently create and order their custom materials online. 20-25 years later, Vistaprint is still dominating the market.
How did he make it possible?
He jumped into this business where many companies offer the same service. It is easy to enter the printing business because of the computer revolution. So, surviving and making a profit in this business is very difficult.
But Robert did something interesting.
He made a decision of investing at least one-third of his revenue into promoting his company. Thus the company grew faster than most of its competition. The company became the market leader. How did he revolutionise the industry? Let’s find out.
Robert had a fantastic idea after 5 years in his business.
If you know the early history of email services, you know how Hotmail.com was a highly used email service. He noticed that Hotmail.com was adding a tagline that says “Free email provided by Hotmail.com” to all the outgoing emails. And he wondered how he can use the same idea. He decided to give free business cards to people who were ready to allow him to add a small tagline on the back of each of the business cards.
And he started implementing the idea.
His company Vistaprint.com was giving business cards for free and people were paying for shipping and handling. They added the tagline “Business card for free at vistaprint.com” at the back of all cards. It turned out to be an incredible idea and it started generating a continuous flow of customers on autopilot. In just 10 years, mean by 2005, Vistaprint did the business of more than $90 million. It has millions of customers. They are adding 1,00,000 new customers every month. How is it happening? It’s because their free business cards are pulling more and more customers. Not just ordinary customers but loyal customers.
How can you use a similar idea for your business?
Honestly, it’s not easy to get customers to pull customers as Vistaprint did. But you can give something for free to your prospects or customers. I know it’s not easy to give something for free. However, When we have to give something for free, it is confusing what to give away for free or what not to. Let’s find out.
While giving a freebie, you should keep these three objectives.
First of all, the freebie has to be useful. People should be able to apply somewhere or be able to use it. Secondly, people should see free things. And thirdly, most importantly, your company’s name must be on it.
Your clients should be able to use it and they can also share it with their friends.
You can give anything that you want keeping the objectives in mind which are they are useful, they can be seen by your customers and your company’s name is on it. So, think of what free things you can give that people see and use them. You can give Coffee mugs, bags, T-shirts, caps or a pen-stand.
You don’t have to create or print the freebies.
The best example is to give away a sample of your product to people. They should see and use it. If they like it, they look at the name on it and they will buy from you. Just like I share ideas and knowledge via my podcasts on the ‘Love Your Business’ podcast or on my website www.mayurbardolia.com for free. People try these free samples and they love it and they sooner or later end up buying from me or hiring me for their next training workshop or consultancy. Let me know what you wish to give away for free. Send your answers to mayur@mayurbardolia.com
Read next: We hate failure and don’t take a chance towards success.
Find out, Why people don’t like to fail and how to fail without losing motivation?
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