Offering a freebie or contest entry for a Facebook Page “like” has been part of the digital scrapbook landscape for quite some time now. When this option was first made available, it was a useful way to encourage fans to like your page. Then your fans could receive your updates for your regular products and promotions… and hopefully buy something! But changes in how Facebook delivered news from pages had an adverse effect on how many fans would see subsequent posts from a page after that first LIKE. It is now common to see marketing articles and actual page analytics with dismal delivery and engagement on Facebook (less than 5%) – even while designers and stores are actively making strides to offer engaging content, optimizing graphics for viewing, etc.
Case in point, I have a screenshot in my social marketing file on Evernote with a week of stats on Facebook where the reach was so incredibly pitiful that I made myself a note to seriously consider eliminating the CUDigitals Facebook presence all together. It gets so tiring to keep up with the cover photo rules, optimum ad size, position & size of custom tabs, blah blah blah.
Last week, Facebook made a new policy announcement that it will no longer allow pages to “like-gate” – in other words, there will no longer be an option to install a tab that says
LIKE OUR PAGE and GET THIS FREE DOWNLOAD
You an read all the techy stuff about this change HERE.
So digi blog trains on Facebook will no longer be able to offer a freebie to fans only – they will be made available to anyone who visits the page. Likewise, individual designers can still offer freebies on Facebook but they must be available without a “like.”
It’s not that big of a reach for me to guess that Facebook may be positioning itself to capture some of the revenue that outside apps are making now. I feel kinda bad for the companies that have built their business by offering ready-to-use tabs and plugins for Facebook pages but it is a huge lesson in Don’t Build Your House on Rented Property.
And I think there is a lesson there for digi designers and store owners who are putting a lot of effort into Facebook marketing with very little return. Facebook can and DOES change the rules of the game often enough that it makes it tricky to keep up. Meanwhile, they are moving constantly toward a total “pay to play” model – if you want more of “your” fans to see your content, you need to pay for that. The 50-55% reach you used get for free would likely cost you more than $40-$50 with a medium sized fan base – and that’s PER POST. Ummmmmmm … I don’t think the majority of hobby level designers are making enough income to spend $40 to advertise every one of their new releases! Besides that, if a lot of their “fans” have only come for freebies, the exposure will not even pay off in sales!!
It has been my recommendation for a long time to have a newsletter and a blog if you want to have marketing success in this business. But even offering freebies to newsletter subscribers but can become very costly too, in terms of monthly mailing list costs. Well-meaning designers have unwittingly increased their mailing list costs by $50 per month because of a good freebie going viral. Unfortunately, the signup rush is NOT always followed by a subsequent wave of new customers: many people simply want the freebie and then move on to some other designer with a freebie. This has also been a part of the digi landscape since I began designing and selling digital downloads in Jan 2006.
So what is a good place for freebies in marketing??
Here are some of my current recommendations for using free download offers wisely in marketing your business.
1. Whatever place you offer a freebie, ALWAYS make sure there is an accompanying offer to look at your products, perhaps buy a discounted coordinating item and sign up to follow your blog or newsletter. See THIS ARTICLE for setting up a good blog train freebie.
2. Limit the size of your freebie. If you give away an entire kit, there is very little incentive for someone to pay full price for something else.
3. Make your freebie is unique and interesting – something that represents YOUR style. Digi scrappers have access to an unlimited stream of paper packs with some flowers and embellies thrown in. This doesn’t get your work noticed.
4. Understand that a significant percentage of people who download your freebie have no intention to buy anything else. And be aware that few people will say thank you. I think this is unfortunate but it is the reality of this industry.
5. If possible, offer a direct download of your freebie. If people have to go to another page or login to something to get it, you are less likely to keep their attention long enough to have them sign up for your newsletter or buy something else.
What do YOU think?
Do you have a method to your madness in using freebies? Or has it been a little hit or miss for you?
Share your thoughts below!
To be honest I wish there was a way that all digital designers could band together and do away with freebies all together, just say NO and get these customers to actually make purchases again. Why would anyone buy anything anymore when there are freebies around every corner? We are in a saturated market with digital designers opening stores EVERYWHERE and all of those designers are giving away things for free so there is no reason to buy anything anymore. If you got enough product to scrap for free for a month each month would you buy anything?
ReplyDeleteI agree that there are certainly enough freebies for a person to scrap the rest of their life without every buying anything! However, I believe there is plenty of room for *unique, quality* kits to be sold at whatever price the market will bear. This is likely less than the kits are worth, but that's how the market works. I also think it's important to be aware that there will always be people creating digital freebies purely for the fun and positive feedback, not the income. Some will even buy paid CU items to create freebies ONLY and bear the cost of web hosting themselves, again just for the fun of giving things away. Freebies are not going to go away. They will always be a part of the digiscrap landscape so I believe the best strategy is to coexist with them, use them wisely and always make sure that the designs you are putting up for sale truly have value for the customer.
ReplyDeleteWhen I got into digital scrapbooking, I got started ONLY because there were freebies available. I couldn't afford even $4-$5 for a kit at the time. But having freebies helped me get started and fall in love with digiscrapping. Downloading a variety of styles from a bunch of different designers helped me narrow down my own scrapping style and discover which designers I really loved. Then, when I did have funds available, I knew where I wanted to spend my money. We are, unfortunately, back to a place where $4-$5 is a strain on our budget. Seeing all the gorgeous new kits all the time without being able to download ANYTHING would probably make me unsubscribe from all the newsletters. But because there are freebies available from time to time, it's worth staying subscribed through this famine. Eventually we'll be able to splurge a little again and I'll know right where I want to spend my funds. And you can bet the designers who offer freebies (even only on rare occasions) will have more of my business, because I've been able to utilize and discover their products during this time.
ReplyDeleteGreat comment, Rebekah! Thanks for taking the time to share it here.
ReplyDeleteI´m relative new at the world´s designer, and sometimes i get frustate, and don´t see what´s the point to sell something, if you can find a lot of free and good stuffs around you? I start to sell, and make free stuffs to people know my style better (and i get free CU stuffs to know other designer´s styles better too). But, as the months passed, i think it´s not so good anymore. I mean, i will continues to give something for free, but less than i do when i start...
ReplyDeleteI think you have it right, Claudya - the size of the freebies needs to go down when you are selling - think samplers and add-ons to products you sell
ReplyDeleteHello, I am not a designer at all. I am a photographer. I discovered digiscraping last year only to add some fun to my photography. Such as cards or announcements, things like that. I do love the freebies, but I will tell you that if someone's work in particular really stands out to me (while going through freebies), I do go back and look at their work further. There are a few designers in particular that I repeat buy from. The work is wonderful and I can't even help myself. As designers, trends are always changing and evolving, so there is of course always room to create and sell new things. I think facebook is becoming ridiculous and overstepping their bounds making you give freebies to NON-Fans. I do appreciate all the creative things you all make. And of course, remember customers always love good sales too :)
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