Hesitant buyers

Not all customers will buy from you outright. Some will want a little preview of what you offer, others will need a few nudges, and some may not be absolutely convinced about you just yet. When building your digital product portfolio, keep this part of your audience in mind and have something for them, too. This is where lead magnets or freebies come in.

Freebies

Freebies are products that you give away completely for free. The goal is to create a deeper connection with the customer who will read or use something you made, demonstrate the expertise and value you can provide, and eventually lead the customer to purchase your paid product or session. Here are some examples of how the freebies can look like:

Free eBook

A simple free eBook that your customers can download and read. It will include mentions of your paid digital products and the opportunity to book a paid session with you.

Free eBook preview

You will take the first two chapters from your paid eBook and make them available for free so your potential customers can get a taste of what the book they’ll pay for will be like.

Redacted eBook

Have you ever seen a picture of a redacted file from an intelligence agency? You can do the same for your paid eBook. Deliberately black out certain words, information, or paragraphs - ideally those with the most important information and make it available for free. It’s likely this won’t sit well with some portion of your audience, so think twice whether it’s something you want to do. Regardless of people’s preferences, it’s one of the best ways to give the audience a preview of the entire product without giving out so much essential information that it’s not worth it for the reader to purchase the full version.

Lead magnets

As the name suggests, lead magnets are meant to attract leads that you can later convert into customers. Lead magnet is a resource that you give away for free in exchange for the person’s contact information, which you later use to send newsletters or special offers. This contact information can be only their name and email address, but some advanced creators ask for more detailed information like company size or position to send these contacts customized offers based on these criteria.

Once you have someone’s contact information, you can play a longer game. You don’t have 

to swarm them with offers right after receiving their email. Approach this as an opportunity to build trust and further demonstrate your expertise. Opt for a more patient approach where you will keep sending them valuable stuff with subtle mentions of your paid products or services. You can offer more aggressive discounts during Black Friday and similar events where people are in the buying mood. Avoid being too pushy or sending emails too often because there’s nothing easier for your contacts than hitting the “unsubscribe” button.

And what lead magnets are there? 

eBooks, checklists, templates

Instead of giving away your eBook as a freebie, you can exchange it for the person’s email address. The same goes for various checklists and templates that you can create. These are the most basic lead magnets, as they don’t require much technical work. After the customer gives you his email, he will either have the option to download it from your website or you can send it to the specified email address.

Quiz

If you can integrate the logic of your expertise into a quiz that will generate some assessment for the user, it’s a fun option to consider. Think of personality tests from psychologists that automatically generate your personality profile. These quizzes look really good, but depending on how complex you want to make them, it can be quite a lot of work.

If you’re looking for an easier-to-make and personalized alternative, you can treat the quiz like a contact form where the user chooses from a few options, maybe even answers some questions with text answers, and sends it to you. You will then evaluate this manually and send him the results over the provided email address. It can get very time-consuming, though, and it will probably only work for creators offering very pricey sessions or digital products that will compensate for the time spent manually evaluating these quizzes.

Free webinars

Another way to get emails from people interested in what you do is hosting a free webinar they have to register for using their email address. You will be able to introduce them to a topic you cover more closely in your paid materials. Make the viewers a part of the webinar - interact with them and allow them to ask questions. Be careful, though: only host a webinar when you’re certain you will have at least 20 people who will join you. Having seven viewers won’t really foster people’s confidence in the value of your expertise.