Do this to figure out what your best freebie would be to grow your email list

You’ve probably heard, freebies are an effective way to grow an email list and get leads in your business. However, it can be difficult to figure out which freebie will work best for you.

This post will tell you everything you need to know about creating a freebie and how to use it to grow your email list!

Here are a few tips for creating your best freebie:

First, What is a freebie?

A freebie is a product (or service) that you give away for free and is often referred to as a lead magnet. The idea behind this strategy is that once people use your freebie, they will be more likely to buy from you in the future. People are required to enter an email address in order to get access to the freebie, which is a great way to gather a list of eager potential customers.

For example, my most effective freebie are my 500+ Free Stock Photos and Canva Templates

Are freebies still relevant?

Yes! Despite social media taking front stage when it comes to marketing, freebies are still an excellent way to attract new customers and build loyalty in existing ones. You just have to make sure that your freebie is high-quality and provides value for the user before asking for their email address.

The reason it’s still relevant is because content keeps getting shorter but your audience will always need a way to go deeper on a goal to solve a problem. If you’re already writing blog posts, creating YouTube videos, or making content on social media, then it’s likely your audience is looking for an easy way to learn more from you.

Growing your email list with a freebie would be an easy next step for your audience because it’s free and low commitment. Many content creators can easily create content that solves a problem for people, but then give away a freebie that offers an even more effective solution in the longer and larger form of an ebook, template or PDF to get it done.

For example, here’s a snapshot of my email list growth compared to my social media growth from just last month.

Looking at data like this helps me see that there’s a clear winner when it comes to my marketing. Although social media may be the way people discover Ivory Mix, emailing my subscribers is one of the best ways I can communicate with followers of all types and the best way I’ve found to get email subscribers is to offer freebies and create valuable content in my emails.

Examples of freebies you can make to grow your email list

Freebies are often simple downloads that are easy to make. They can be a simple PDF with a few pages of content, an ebook or even a template that your audience can use.

There are many forms a freebie can take:

• eBook
• checklist
• guide
• template
• worksheet
• stock photo(s)
• journal page(s)
• Coupon Code
• Chapter 1 of a book
• Case Study
• Video(s) Lesson
• Audio(s) Lesson
• Canva Tempalte
• Trello Board / Notion Template
• Google Doc
• Free Sample
• etc

Want an easy way to create a lead magnet? I’ve put together a done-for-you lead magnet template with 65 lead magnet ideas so you can get started right away.

Want to learn how to make a lead magnet? You can create these different types of lead magnets in Canva using this tutorial below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvP0YvQNEU8

How do you figure out what your best freebie would be to grow your email list?

The biggest hurdle faced by content creators is not usually the form their content will take, but what to offer as a freebie.

The first step in determining what your best freebie would be to grow your email list is knowing what your audience needs. You need to know what they want and how they want it, too.

To do this, you’ll need to ask yourself some questions:

• What does my audience struggle with?
• What kind of information does my audience find valuable?
• What do they need right now?
• What are the hottest topics in my niche right now?
• What is my audience likely to share with others after reading it?
• What would make my audience feel like they’re stealing from me? (too good to be free?)

By answering these questions and seeing what their answers are likely to be, you can determine which offers will appeal most to them.

What would your ideal email subscriber be looking for?

• When a visitor lands on your website, what are they looking for?
• Why are they there?
• What do they need help with?
• What is their goal in coming to your site and interacting with you, and how can you help them achieve it?

These questions may help lead you in the right direction towards a winning freebie idea!

What would be the easiest freebie your audience can use right away?

Make it easy on them. The easier your freebie is to use, the more likely people will be to give it a try. You want to make it as simple and painless as possible for them. Your freebie offer should be something they can easily use and enjoy. It should be something that doesn’t require a lot of work on their part.

If it takes too much effort for them to use your freebie, they probably won’t bother with it—and therefore won’t convert into a subscriber.

What would a simple freebie version of your paid offer look like?

This might sound counter-intuitive, but giving away your best stuff for free can actually help you sell more in the long run.

You can use your paid products as a template for your freebie.

For example, if your paid offer is a video course, then perhaps the freebie version could be your first lesson transcribed into text and given away as an guide or ebook. Or, if your paid product is set of 30 Canva templates, then maybe the freebie version could be one of the templates in that set.

These options are like samples of your product. But you could go further with it and give more than a sample. It really depends on what your paid product is.

For me, when I started giving away 500 stock photos from our stock photo collections in exchange for email addresses. Five hundred stock photos might sound like a lot but you’d be surprised how quickly a content creator or social media agency can use that many photos before needing more. Because I know how quickly my audience uses photos and because I have 10,000 stock photos in our membership and add 100 more every month, I’ve never felt that 500 was too much. I always knew it wasn’t enough. But, giving away 500 photos in exchange for emails opened up a whole new channel of communication with my audience outside of social media. It meant I no longer had to wait for a social algorithm to cooperate and show my content to followers, when I could just email them! As a result, I was making more sales of the membership and reaching more of my revenue goals. Giving away free samples was a small price to pay for that opportunity and it hasn’t once negatively impacted my ability to sell.

When you’re trying to figure out what your freebie should look like, ask yourself these questions:

• What is the most important benefit of my paid offer?
• What is the easiest way I could give that benefit away for free?

What types of freebies are out there in your niche, and how can you do it better?

You may also want to think about what you could do for your audience that no one else is doing.

Let’s say you’re a fitness coach and see that many other fitness coaches like you give away free samples of their workout plans. One to stand out is to ask yourself how can you do it better?

What if, instead of just sending the sample workout plans out, you also included recipes for meals that people could make with their families after their workouts?

How about including some motivational quotes from famous athletes or coaches along with the freebie?

Or maybe even some before-and-after photos of people who have used your program.

These types of ideas will help you stand out.

If you’re have trouble deciding which freebie to create, try a poll on social media to see which one gets more votes.

If you’re still not sure which freebie to create, a poll on social media is a good way to get feedback from your audience. This is also an easy way to find out what people want from you. If more people vote for one offer over the other, then you know that’s the one more people want.

An easy wat to make a poll on platforms like Instagram is to post a poll graphic in your stories or create a graphic like these in our essential Instagram bundle

Once you pick a freebie idea, check if it passes the 5-second test

In a basic 5 second test, you can test any of your freebie or lead magnet ideas in as little as 5-seconds.

What’s a 5-second test?

This five-second test is a way to assess the effectiveness of your freebie idea. You can use it to see if your audience understands what your freebie is and who it helps.

Here’s how to do it:

Once you decide on a freebie, make a landing page and mockup for it.

Then ask a few people you know to look at the page for 5 seconds and answer the following questions about your lead magnet landing page:

• Where am I?
• What can I do here?
• Why should I do it?

By doing this quick test, you’ll be able to quickly see if your idea was easily translated into a winning lead magnet design and if you should continue creating it.

If it passes the test and people are answering the right way, finish making your lead magnet and start promoting it in your content.

Once you’ve created your freebie, don’t forget to promote it!

There are several ways you can promote a freebie in your content:

• Put the link to your freebie in your social media / Instagram bio
• Make content about your freebie and the problems it solves
• Create Pinterest Pins that link to your freebie landing page
• Mention and Link to your freebie in blog posts
• Mention and Link to your freebie in YouTube Videos and Descriptions
• Post a link to your freebie in your website menu (Main Menu / Footer Menu)
• Add a link to your freebie in your email signature
• Use social media ads to reach more people.

What Next? Start Creating Content that Converts into Email Subscribers!

Check out the Ivory Mix Content membership when you’re ready to save time creating content that converts into leads!

• Access to our gallery of 10,000+ stunning images and Canva templates For Female Owned Businesses & Content Creators
• 100+ New Fresh Images Added Monthly
• 30+ New Graphic Templates, Pinterest Pins, & Social Quotes Added Monthly
• 30 New Customizable Caption Templates & Instagram Reel Prompts Added Monthly
• Monthly LIVE marketing workshops
• Plus, access to Products your can rebrand and resell! (PLR)

Conclusion

I hope this post has helped you to determine what your best freebie is. If you follow the advice above, you can start creating a freebie that will help you grow your email list and drive sales. You might even be able to create several freebies that can each serve a different purpose!

Now that you know more what about the next step?

I’ve put together a done-for-you lead magnet template with 65 lead magnet ideas so you can get started right away.

Read More

• 8 Ways to grow your email list on Instgram
• Get your simple email list building plan
• How to create a Lead Magnet in Canva
• How to nurture your email list so they’re ready to buy
• How to sell your first digital products with a tripwire and welcome sequence