Some time ago I was talking to one of our e-commerce clients about pay-per-click marketing and Primordium’s Google AdWords campaign management services. They were quick to end the conversation, saying PPC would never work for them because the keywords are too expensive and their margins are too thin. “You can’t do PPC on $3.00 products, the math just doesn’t work.” I suppose that’s true in most cases – but that doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t do it, you might just have to change your pitch.
Have you ever seen those Video Professor commercials, where they say you can pick out any lesson for free and “just pay shipping & handling”, because they’re convinced you’ll love it so much that you’ll buy another one? I’ll let you in on a secret… they don’t care if you buy another one. You just paid them $6.95, and they just mailed you a $0.25 disc and paid $1.70 for postage, netting them a cool five spot. And according to their website, they did that about 10 million times.
Let that math sink in.
Suddenly those $2.00 items are looking a lot more attractive… who knew giving your products away could be so profitable? But the benefits don’t end there, there’s more to this strategy than what’s on the surface. First, inbound links will be through the roof – a Google search for “free stuff” returns 408 million results, displaying website after website with nothing but links to sites offering free items. Visit as many as you can and get listed.
Next, the branding aspect. With all of those “free stuff sites” driving visitors to you, you’re getting exposure like you’ve never had, putting your brand in front of people who would otherwise never have found it. Before you list on the free stuff sites, set up a Google Alert so you’ll see whenever someone links to you. When someone offers real, physical goods for free – not advice, not e-books, but something you can hold in your hand – news travels fast.
And last but not least, with that much inbound traffic you’re bound to get a few who browse your site and buy something else too. But if they don’t, who cares? You’re still coming out ahead with your freebie. One word of advice though, go easy on the handling. If you’re going to market it as free, it has to “feel” free. Your customers aren’t dumb, they know it doesn’t cost $9.00 to ship a DVD. As long as you’re making a buck or two, you’re doing fine, and who knows – the increased sales you get from the free stuff sites might just give you the budget you need for that PPC campaign.
This is certainly something I must find more information about, i appreciate you for the publish.
Ron, I have been reading many of your articles on this site. You really have some good ideas here. You have got me thinking now about offering something free and I can’t wait to try it out. I am going to bookmark this site and look forward to seeing more articles.
Now I’m thinking – what can I list for free? Uh…