Saturday morning I was at the farmer’s market and ran into an old friend. We stopped to chat in front of the peach vendor. When his both cleared of customers, he came over to us, cut up a peach and offered us a taste. It was delicious and I ended up buying a basket.
If he hadn’t brought us that taste, I wouldn’t have purchased from him, even though I love peaches. I’d assumed it was too late in the season for tasty peaches. His free taste showed me I was wrong. He got a purchase and I got a basket of juicy peaches to enjoy.
This simple act wasn’t pushy, didn’t cost him much and led to a purchase. So what is your free taste? When people come to your website, you need to give them some reason to keep coming back or to stay in touch.
An email newsletter isn’t enough of an incentive anymore. If you want people to give up their email addresses, you need to give them something, even to get them to sign up for a free email newsletter. It can be a free report, a free teleseminar, a free e-course – the choice is up to you.
If you already have a free taste, is it still fresh? If the peach vendor had given us a stale peach, I wouldn’t have purchased a basket. He made sure I had something fresh and tasty. If you’ve had your free taste up on your site for a long time, perhaps it’s time to freshen it up.
How often should you freshen up your free taste? If you’re opt-in rate is still good and hasn’t dropped, then you’re probably okay for now. However, if you’ve noticed you’re getting fewer new subscribers, maybe it’s time for a change. One expert suggests you should have something new every quarter. Certainly if it’s been more than a year, you should seriously think about doing something new.
If you have a blog, check to see which posts get the most traffic. Create a free taste around that topic. Look back at questions or problems your customers have been having over the past year. Create a free taste on that topic. The key is to make sure your free taste is tasty enough to compel someone to take action to get it.
Just like the peach vendor at the market, if your free taste is juicy enough, you just might land a new customer.
Andrea J. Stenberg
