How to Give, Give, Give without Giving It All Away
Episode 094: Show Notes
You all know by now that we have built Think Creative Collective on the “free-free-free marry me” model. We talk about it all the time. It is basically built on a foundation of giving a whole bunch of content, knowledge and strategy away for free so we can build a community of addicted and raving fans. People often think that if they give too much away it is going to decrease the number of sales they are ultimately going to get, but we have seen literally the opposite effect. It has only helped us grow our audience and our sales. It has also enabled us to create a community where our audience can be sure to find the answers they need instead of a dead-end, and people really value that.
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So what we want to talk about today is why we decided to use that model and how you can structure your own business to do the same. We also want to go over why it is very important to bust the myths behind giving away content for free. Inside this episode, we will focus on answering all of y’all’s questions surrounding the topic. We’ll give you the inside scoop about the actual effects to our business that this model has created for us so you can be more confident in what you are providing your audience, for free.
Blogging Without Holding Back Value
The first place to truly give your audience free knowledge and strategy is on your blog. However, oftentimes when you are afraid of giving away too much on your blog posts they become short and lack that extra bit of value. Instead of trying to think about it for your business, think about the content that you enjoy reading and engaging with. If you read a blog post that it is a “how-to” and it does not actually tell you how to solve your problem, then you will be very disappointed. But if the post is complete with photographs and step-by-step formulas, you will be completely satisfied to the point of being willing to pay more for a full guide as well!
Two Types of People: Those Who DIY, and Those Who Don’t
There are two kinds of people in this world. The first are those who are constantly Googling how-to’s to find out how they can do everything themselves. They were never, ever going to buy from you anyways. If they are the DIY’ers, that is them no matter what. You can’t change them. However, you can be an amazing knowledge base for them to give you their traffic and their email address, or recommend you to their friends who are not necessarily the DIY-type. Then there are also the people who search for the DIY blog post, but then are so grateful for the help that they are all too happy to purchase something else that you have to offer.
Using Your Podcast As a Platform to Build Trust
There are some things that we could strategize better by simply talking it out, so that’s exactly what we end up doing on this podcast for the majority of the time. Could we have turned around and made that content into a program or a course? Sure, but that’s not what this platform is used for and we know that it is working for us in so many other ways. Using our podcast to build trust and community serves us better in the long run and so we might as well just give it all away. There is no point in us hiding our valuable launch strategies or vital business knowledge when we know how well it will fuel our business in the future. When you gain your audience’s trust on one platform, the likelihood of them going ahead and interacting with your content on a different platform is so much higher.
Making Your Opt-In Over-the-Top Valuable
Every time someone asks us how much to hide away when creating their opt-in, we give them the same answer; give it all away. All of it! We are all about making that free opt-in so freaking valuable that our audience absolutely loses their bananas over how amazing and life-changing it is. That fuel creates so much chatter and so much social proof for your business. When your people are able to take your free thing and actually get results, they are going to talk about it. So it is in that sharing that you are getting the social proof that your opt-in is actually valuable. If you are afraid that you are going to give all of it away and have nothing left, then you need to spend more time hashing out that content before you package it up to sell. So we want to encourage you to go above and beyond with your opt-in and see the positive effect it has on your business!
Getting Others to See the Value of What You Do
In order to get people to really understand the value of what we were doing, we did two things. The first thing we did was create a free course. It was 100% free, but we spent the same amount of time and energy creating it as we would have for a paid product. Now, this does not mean that we didn’t leave any room for growth, but it was still a course. It wasn’t a one-page PDF document. It took us weeks to put together, and we saw thousands of new subscribers from that opt-in and continue to see new subscribers all the time. It also gave our audience a substantial preview of what it would be like to go through a course with us, so when we asked them to buy, they already knew what they would be getting. Their account was set up, and they were familiar with both the content and the delivery system before they even made their purchase.
Our second strategy was to take a rather inexpensive product and pack it with as much value as we possibly could. People would be so blown away that they would go from buying this $29 product to spending thousands of dollars on their next purchase from us. The results that people get from these products are so amazing that it is easy for them to authentically share with others, which in turn brings us more value and even more of that social proof we are after.
Quote This
When you really think about the opt-in, I want to encourage you to go above and beyond.
Highlights
Learning how to provide value through your blog without being scared of giving it all away [0:05:02.1]
Understand the two types of people; those who DIY and those who don’t. [0:07:03.1]
Using your podcast as a platform to give away content for free and build trust with your audience. [0:09:42.1]
Designing a free opt-in that creates the social proof that proves that what you have to offer is valuable. [0:12:10.1]
Getting others to really understand the value of what you can provide. [0:18:35.1]
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Abagail & Emylee
The Strategy Hour Podcast
We help overwhelmed and creative entrepreneurs break down their Oprah-sized dreams to create a functioning command center to tame the chaos of their business. Basically, we think you’re totally bomb diggity, we’re about to uplevel the shiz out of your business.
KEY TOPICS
Creating a valuable blog, Understanding a DIY audience, Using your podcast to build trust, Creating valuable opt-ins, Proving your value
