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So How The Heck Do You Build True Customer Loyalty By Giving Your Best Stuff Away For Free?

So How The Heck Do You Build True Customer Loyalty By Giving Your Best Stuff Away For Free?

Are you struggling with trying to find some proven ways (creative) and or otherwise to consistently build that all important repeat (long term) customer loyalty? 

We all keep constantly hearing about.

Yes that can be quite a challenge,(would you not agree?)

Especially given the fact that no matter what industry and or products or services you currently promote and or promote as an affiliate.

You always have to constantly be mindful of the ever present and never ending current and potentially newer and much better financed competition, right?

And if you’re  the typical type of under funded, (starting) from less than ground zero type of serial entrepreneur.

You probably already know all too well just how hard and challenging it is to try and constantly compete against some of your extremely well funded major competitors, with monster connections, correct? After all, if they’ve got more access to readily available capital.

They can easily afford to hire more (not to mention) better engineers and or programmers or sales reps or, various IT talent and really ramp up their traditional on and offline advertising/marketing campaigns, correct?

And they can also readily afford to get the best ongoing CPA and or legal advice, before plowing ahead. They can afford the best copywriters and or hire expert Pay Per Click (PPC) ad campaign creation specialist and on and on, right?

But within that very same thought; (meaning) while your major competitors are busily going about hiring the very best talent, at every stage of their business venture’s development, in order to successfully compete against you!

How in the world are you expected to build a solid (long term) repeat customer/client base, when in order for you to successfully compete, you whined up giving away  some of your best products and services for free as well?…

 So How The Heck Can You Build True Long Term Repeat Customer Loyalty Especially If You Give Away Some Of Your Best Products And Services For Free?

Truth told: the short and brutally honest answer is, you probably won’t be around long enough to enjoy any type of long term success, if you’re not generating positive revenue from somewhere!

Because otherwise, how can you (or anybody else for that matter) possibly afford to continually give away some of your best products and services for free indefinitely, in order to build (or at least) initially stimulate a new customer/client base.

However, there is a proven business model of initially allowing your ideal new first time potential customer/client base to “try before you buy” that has been around in  many forms.

And it has constantly proven to be (both) an incredibly profitable marketing tool and a great way to compete against your major competitors as well!

Extremely Successful Entrepreneurs Are Pretty Good At Boot Strapping!

For ex: in a previous two part series about “how” extremely cash strapped (in essence) start up entrepreneurs were (and or ) are able to successfully boost strap themselves using the enormous power of the Internet.

And actually market and promote themselves, even with virtually little up front out of pocket cash!

And one of the resources that was mentioned was the paid autoresponder service provided by Mailchimp. (And no, just in case you’re wondering, yours truly is not any type of paid affiliate and is not currently being compensated by them in any form or fashion.)

It’s just that they’ve found an extremely successful and creative way to successfully compete against some of the major competitors in their field.

Have You Ever Noticed How Some Of the Most Effective Marketing Strategies Focus Of The Apparent Short Comings Of Your Major Competitors Campaigns!

(Names like Aweber, (my current paid email service provider of choice), and yes that is my affiliate link.) And there’s also many others like Infusion soft, Get response or Icontact and or Constant Contact etc.

And even in spite of those major respected competitors, they’ve still managed to carve out a very unique niche for themselves, and make a go of it!

Case in point; currently (as of this writing anyway), MailChimps free trial account service (which does have) certain limitations mind you!

You get to add up to an amazing 2,000 opt in subscribers and send (get this!) up to a staggering 12,000 separate email messages (per month!) for free, before they ever start charging you!

By Understanding The True Lifetime Value Of A Potential New First Time Customer And Or Client You Can Create A Much More Effective Marketing Plan!

That’s a pretty awesome marketing tool, wouldn’t you say? And it’s a great benefit to use to target extremely cash strapped start up entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes, don’t you agree?

After all, they can (and more than likely!) probably already do point out to new cash strapped start ups, “how” most of their major competitors offer some sort of free (initial) 30 -45 day free trial service.

But, as soon the thirty day trial period is up, they immediately start charging a monthly fee of anywhere from $9.95 – $19.95 per month, that is until your opt in list exceeds 500.

And then you pay anywhere from $29.95 – $39.95 per month and then once your opt in list exceeds 1,500 – 2,500 subscribers (guess what?), you guessed it, your monthly rates go up again!

Extremely Successful Entrepreneurs Understand How To Leverage Giving Away Certain Extremely Valuable Products Or Services Free!

(BTW, please don’t quote me on these ongoing rates and or when your actual rates per month go up! But that’s the overall basic pricing model and concept for the vast majority of the major paid autoresponder services online today. With your occasional exceptions of course!)

Here’s the main point, in lieu of all those big name and not to mention (extremely well established) , major competitors within their market, MailChimp has still succeeded in emerging as one of the major players with a robust and ever growing satisfied customer base.

And they (no doubt) are able to both create and maintain some extreme repeat customer loyalty to this point, as a direct result of their extremely generous free trial service offers!

Isn’t It Past Time You Started Generating And Or Maintaining Some Long Term Customer Loyalty?

Which is proof positive (entrepreneur) that when you go about meticulously and relentlessly testing and tweaking and tentatively listening to your customer/client base needs and adjust accordingly!

You can (initially) anyway, do extremely well in terms of systematically building long term repeat customer loyalty.

 Even if you do temporarily give away some of your best products and services! Don’t you agree?

Please share your extremely valuable comments (in the comments section below) that you can apply to your business, product or service in the next 30 days or less!

As always, if you got any value out of this post, please Google Plus or tweet this.Thanks!

And be sure you grab your explosive free 22 step small business marketing idea kit series, because it will
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And help you master your effective communication in marketing skills.(No matter what your particular niche market is.) It’s a $97 dollar value and it’s free!

10 Responses to So How The Heck Do You Build True Customer Loyalty By Giving Your Best Stuff Away For Free?
  1. Hi Mark

    I think the concept of giving a trial first started in pet-shops, where the canny shop-keeper would give the little girl (me!) a puppy to hold, and then of course I wouldn’t give him back.

    In case anyone is worried, that little puppy probably went on to be the most loved and best looked after doggie in the town.

    But aside from that, it is a concept that works – because people can forget to cancel subscriptions etc etc.

    Joy

    • Now that’s a really great example Joy!
      Because what kid (once) they get their hands on the pet (or bicycle of their choice
      is going to want to give it up!LOL!

      Once made, that sales all but final! And what parent wants to tell their child after
      at least 30 days of bonding, they have to return the pet!

      It ain’t gonna happen to often!Thanks for sharing such a great example Joy!

      Continued success!
      days
      Mark Newsome recently posted…Seven Proven Ways To Increase Profits For Under $50 Dollars!My Profile

  2. Hi Mark,

    I am a huge fan of creating customer loyalty. Business owners can always invest in some marketing program to reach new people OR they can invest in giving their existing customers the best service possible, and let THEM find new people for us. I suspect that the investment in existing customer experience is 1/10 the cost of any marketing program; however, I do not believe that this type of outreach is even on a marketing team’s mind.

    Thanks for a great post!

  3. Hey Mark,

    Customer Loyalty isn’t talk about as much. At least from what I noticed.

    Although there’s a lot of competition out there between the big dogs and us little guys, it isn’t impossible to gain customer loyalty.

    The one thing I learned from doing network marketing and blogging is you are known by the company you keep! You can have the best products, services, etc., but it works to our advantage to be networking with the right people. As a result, the right people who have a trusted audience will share our content. Since they’re already their trusted audience, it shows social proof which works out for you.

    With that said, you can still benefit from giving away something that will be of value for free. I have done this, and I give my audience the opportunity to buy from me if they run into too many limitations of the free stuff.

    I believe this lays out the foundation of customer loyalty. This is something that you did here in this post. Although you have an affiliate link to AWeber, you also went into detail about another email autoresponder by the name of MailChimp that allows you to build up to 2,000 subscribers for free!

    Although this is a great offer, but it gets to a point where you want to do more than what a free product or service. I had a friend of mine that was using MailChimp and it wasn’t enough for her to do the things she really wanted to do. So she invested in another system.

    But I think using free tools like this is a great start for beginners who really don’t have a clue just yet as to what they need. But once they get some experience, then it would definitely be great to give them another option to purchase something with more features as you’re still giving them free value!

    Thanks for the share Mark! I hope you’re having a great weekend!

    • That’s a really great point Sherman!

      It’s certainly not just about what you can get for free and or little
      or no upfront cost!

      As you mentioned, here you have friend that found in spite of all the benefits of being
      allowed to build an opt in list up to 2,000 subscribers, overall the functionality of
      the service still wasn’t what she needed!

      So that’s where (as you pointed out) that all important take no prisoners sort of customer
      service can and will make a world of difference!

      you’ve (as usual) some excellent real world wisdom here my friend!

      And it’s definitely appreciated!

      All the best and continued success! and again welcome to the B3 family!
      Mark Newsome recently posted…Seven Proven Ways To Increase Profits For Under $50 Dollars!My Profile

  4. Hi Mark,

    Good point using Mail Chimp. I see this all the time …even with my cable TV. Get this free for 30 days. OK now we have to know that after that prices do go up.

    I have nothing against giving stuff away for free, so much so, I’ve given out some free stuff in the past but there was no catch to it.

    The only time I do give free stuff out is when I can do a launch. Then put in all that free stuff.

    Even my products (as you know) comes along with a free one to one call. That’s giving value. Clear cut…up front and that’s it.

    Well that’s my two cents!

    -Donna

    • And you’re two cents is extremely valuable Donna!LOL!

      In fact, I can still remember (A) just how much I both enjoyed
      and (B) learned from you and David on my free strategy session, when I invested
      in your excellent (and extremely easy to follow and implement) blogging magic course!

      In fact, I’m still using and profiting from some of what you and David shared and taught me in that
      extremely helpful and educational consulting session!

      And I’m definitely in your camp when it comes to how you go about (long term) strategically
      positing yourself, and your business, product or service with regards to how you go about using
      the marketing buzz word free!

      We both agree it definitely has it’s place, but it nor any other marketing strategy and or tactic
      should be used to infer and or temporarily mislead!

      And your free session was most definitely jammed packed with tons of real evergreen value!

      In fact, that’s why you and David can very easily sell your paid one on one consulting time,
      because it’s loaded with value as I can and do personally attest to!

      Thanks -as always- for adding nicely to the conversation Coach and for your continued support
      and oh so extremely kind words of encouragement!

      It’s all so greatly appreciated!
      Mark Newsome recently posted…Seven Proven Ways To Increase Profits For Under $50 Dollars!My Profile

  5. Well said as always Mark. Your examples are spot on, and I have one more for you – Amazon’s KDP Select. While this program is no where near the cash cow it used to be, it is still by far the best promo opportunity around for writers of any genre – including business books.

    The concept is pretty basic – when you enroll in the program you can schedule a book for a free day(s) promotion on Amazon. There are dozens of book marketing/promotion websites eager to promote these sales – most at no cost.

    The benefit for the first time author is that they get exposure to people who have no clue who they are, but if they like what they read may well become a fan. The benefits for those of us who have multiple titles is also exposure, not only for the free book but all of our books available on Amazon. Say for example I have a 2 day free sale for one of my books – if I do my job marketing the sale – that will translate into a healthy spike in sales for all of my books. What I normally do to extend that momentum out cross promote by setting up a “bargain” sale for one or more of my other books that backs up to the free sale, which means I’m getting a much bigger bang for my buck.

    Finally, to add even more value, the savvy writer will include a link for readers to join their mail list for updates or maybe a newsletter. Subscribers to these lists LOVE getting advance notice of sales, so this is another way of maximizing sales and promotions.

    Anyway, obviously I agree with you, my point being that regardless of the niche the benefit for the entrepreneur willing to do the work to become an expert in their industry is learning how to take advantage of creative opportunities to ramp up the ROI on a freebie. Thanks so much Mark, you always inspire me!

    • Too awesome M!

      Just tell me (make that!) assure me that you’re not
      going into the marketing consultant end of this deal anytime
      soon,right!LOL!

      My dear that is absolutely some fabulous (add on sale) marketing strategies,
      that you’re revealing here!

      And I had no idea such a formal (and proactive)promotion program existed with Amazon and anybody else
      for that matter!

      This is really an incredibly power and creative program. Thanks so much for sharing it.

      You’ve really sparked a few creative spin offs! Thanks as always for your continuous support
      and for sharing some extremely helpful insights!

      Both are so very appreciated!
      Mark Newsome recently posted…Seven Proven Ways To Increase Profits For Under $50 Dollars!My Profile


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