If you make one change to your online business today make sure you start using free reports to act as lead magnets.
Free reports or “white papers” are great ways to attract customers to your business and there are many other side benefits that we look at below.
1. They Reduce The Bounce!
Most people visiting a website will give it a few seconds to see if something captures their attention and, if not, bounce away to somewhere else.
A free white paper with a good title, an attractive graphic and an easy-to-fill form on your page will attract their attention and may be the difference to make them stay a while longer on your page to absorb your message.
2. They Build A Database
Of course, capturing email addresses is a great way to build a database – and a database is a great fulcrum for future marketing campaigns: you compile a list of people already interested in what you do and you can use them for surveys, to shape new products and services around and to sell other products to.
3. They Build Trust And Rapport
Credibility and trust are two very important qualities for any business anywhere; building this online can take a while but writing and offering free educational material is a superb way to help the process along.
The more that people trust you and can see that you provide relevant, quality information for them, the more they will feel good about communicating with you – and this also helps to build rapport.
In a world where people buy from people they trust and like, how important is this to your business?
You’ll be seen as an expert when you give free reports.
4. They Position You As An Expert
As soon as you publish anything of value anywhere – offline or online – your perceived level of authority on a subject goes up. Think about writers and the automatic credibility they get from saying they are a published author.
You can tap into some of the “aura” that surrounds writers when they publish something – and this will help you to position yourself as an expert on your subject.
If you have already done your “homework” on your target market then you will know what type of people will be landing on your pages, what they are interested in, what their problems are and what they want to know. This will help you to shape your report as the solution to their problems and provide the value that will help your expert status.
5. Sales Conversions Will Improve
You’ll be amazed by your improved sales conversion rate after providing free educational content to your audience.
Why? Well, it’s partly because you have earned their trust and respect; it is also because they have made a small commitment to you already in downloading one or more of your white papers and providing their email address.
Psychologically, they now want to prove that they made the right decision in trusting you and are more likely to follow this up with a purchase rather than if you try selling to them as soon as they land on your website.
You really can kick-start your online business using free reports to achieve the benefits described above. You can also visit our YouTube channel and watch our free videos on getting your business to the next level. Just click here to watch.