by Penny Sansevieri
From a business standpoint, giving something away for free to get a sale may seem counterintuitive. How can giving something away for free help you make money in the long run? Think of offering those freebies as a marketing expense: the cost of exposure. Free promotions are a great way to get you exposure in front of your target audience. This exposure can help expand your following, and eventually this will lead to sales down the line. The key is to know how to take advantage of free.
Let me give you an example: One author I worked with held a freebie promotion that lead to 37,000 downloads of her ebook. The following day, when the promotion was over, she sold 1,300 ebooks. While 37,000 seems like a lot of lost sales, it’s actually a conversion number. You can’t get all of the 37,000 downloaders to become fans. Within that group are your fans and readers, perhaps around 1,000 or so. They are the people who take the time to read the book and who may even write a review. You’ll gain enough of a following to start building a fan base, and you’ll continue to market to these people in order to keep the connection strong. Don’t worry about the freeloaders. Instead, focus on those downloaders who will take the time to read your book and become fans.
How can you make this work for your book? Below are the first few benefits of free and ways to use free promotions effectively to get more fans and sales.
Make Your Book Attractive
Being discovered by readers is a real challenge for authors these days; an estimated 350,000 books are published each year. Readers are inundated with choices. By making your book free, you make your title attractive and make it easy for readers to choose your book over another author’s book. Freebies introduce readers to you in a risk-free way, and there’s a good chance that they’ll want more. By offering a risk-free introduction to you and your books, you gain fans that will pay for your books in the future.
Promotion
As mentioned above, offering something for free now can turn into a potential sale in the future. To make the most of free promotion and to make sure you reach the highest number of potential readers, spread the word about your promotion. Share it with your email list, in your newsletter, with social media fans, etc. For instance, take advantage of Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing program, which allows you to offer your book for free through KDP Select. You will have to sell your book exclusively on Amazon during this period, but it can be one of the most effective ways to get your book seen by a large number of readers at once. There are other free giveaway opportunities available on sites like Library Thing and Goodreads. Both of these sites allow members to give away copies of their books. Again, for these freebies to work, you do need to promote your giveaway, both on the site you use and to your own network.
Price Competitively
So how should you price your book once your free promotion is over? As mentioned above, readers are inundated with choices, and pricing can make a huge difference in which books readers will choose. If you want to build a fan base, you’ve got to price your book competitively within your genre or niche. How do you determine pricing? Look at books in your market and find the average price. Amazon is a good place to do this research, but keep in mind you may see a lot of ebooks listed for free as part of a promotion or Kindle Unlimited. Look at regularly priced books.
How to Use Free Promotions Effectively to Grow Fans and Sales
Give away more than your book: The concept of free extends beyond your books. Think of all of the additional freebies you can share with your fans, such as tips, videos, webinars, and content. All of that material will bring people back to visit your website, read your blog, and buy your other products.
Stay relevant: As you grow your fan base, keep people’s attention by checking in with them on a regular basis. You can start to grow this relationship by using the last page of your book to thank them for their purchase (let a free download fall under this category), encourage them to send you feedback, and ask them for a review. Let your fans know that you are interested in them and that you appreciate them. Once you have gained followers, cultivate this relationship by sharing ideas, posting great content, and making connections on social media. The more you reach out, the more effective you’ll be at building and growing your fan base.
Invite fans into your world: Use your blog, social media, videos, etc., to draw readers into your world. Be informative and entertaining by providing additional fun, free content. For fiction authors, share tidbits about your characters, blog in character, ask fans to help you select music for the characters, or post fun quizzes. Nonfiction authors can use their expertise to create tip sheets, informational videos, and mini ebooks. Identify how you can connect with fans in different ways and be sure to offer variety.
It’s important for you to remember that no one marketing strategy will help attract and retain fans. Instead, marketing is a series of actions and consistent engagement over time that will help you to grow your following and keep them engaged. Freebies are only one marketing tool, but you now have the understanding and tools to use freebies effectively to get more exposure, fans, credibility, and sales in the long term.
Penny Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. (AME) and an adjunct professor at NYU, is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns.