I’m a little bit obsessed with freebies. Ok make that a lot. The psychology of giving someone a freebie and then seeing what you can get in return is fascinating to watch. People will fall at your feet for a free gift, and sometimes the results are better than any traditional marketing tactic could ever be. In this article I look at why freebies are so powerful, and how they can be turned in to link building gold.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch
If you give something away for free it’s only natural to expect something in return. From coverage in the media, to gathering public opinion, or even just hoping someone will buy your product later. You should always have a payoff in mind. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, even if someone buys you lunch they will be expecting something in return.
Whether they want to talk business, impress you, or get you to come to an event a free lunch is in invitation for you to attend and Belgium Business Fax List for that person to have your attention. If you eat a free lunch at a conference, it’s because someone paid for that lunch so they could expose you to that branding. Later you’ll then hopefully have that brand in mind and will choose to write about them. Chances are if you’re writing about something you’ll then naturally link to it.
Seomoz at pub con
If you went to pubcon in 2010, did you notice the seomoz branding? It was there helping subsidise the cost of the day, and here’s one article of Email Lists many that gave seomoz a link afterwards. They also compiled the photo above and many more, all with seomoz branding that other bloggers could read and then talk about.
What’s in it for people?
So psychologically we can see that freebies = coverage = links, but that’s no good if we can’t offer something to people that they really want. If I send an ironing board cover to a tech blog they probably won’t be interested. So you need to consider what the people that receive your free product will get in return. Here’s some examples.