We’ve been exploring 12-year-old Daniel Franklin’s 10 Marketing lessons and today we’re Marketing Tipsgoing to expand on lesson # 3: Building a customer base by giving away product. While the idea isn’t new, it’s recently hit pop culture in a major way.

In Rainbows by RadioheadRadiohead received a massive amount of media exposure when they offered a limited time, “pay as much (or little) as you want” for their album, In Rainbows.

Women and Money by Suze OrmanMore recently Suze Orman offered a limited time, free download of her new book, Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny. (It’s since hit the bestseller list.) And these are just two examples.

Giving away a free album or book might seem counterintuitive, but it made it extremely easy for a potential paying customer to sample their product. Daniel gave his pens away to teachers for Christmas presents. Do you think those teachers talked about it? Are you kidding?

442752_584102231.jpgMarketers like Daniel know giving away free product can lead to powerful, positive word of mouth. Marketers call this a gravity well, or marketing funnel.

The top of the funnel is wide; it’s easy to get into. As you go deeper the funnel narrows, and once you reach a certain point, the product(s) is no longer free. Can you stop once there are costs attached? Of course. But if you like what you’ve seen and sampled so far, you’re much more likely to pull out your credit card than if you’d never entered the Gravity Well in the first place.

Laura and I have a friend, Randy Ingermanson, who developed a brilliant method for developing novels called the Snowflake Method. Thousands of fiction writers have downloaded Randy’s pdf file for free. What does Randy get? Names. Randy teaches fiction writing and markets to those thousands of people who were enticed by his Snowflake Method. Simple? Yes. Strong results? Yes.

Does this mean we’ll be giving away free resources here at He Blogs, She Blogs? Absolutely. Not only through our blogs, but with downloadable content (which will appear soon.) Does this work for any product? Just about. No, car dealers can’t be giving away free cars, but what about free oil changes? Or car washes?

So brainstorm. What can you give away to get people entering your Gravity Well? All ideas welcome.

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