You would think you do, but then imagine, for example, taking a class that you "always kind of" wanted to take. You have a chance to take it for free, or with a very large discount. You receive the information given during it, you are happy to have gotten it practically for free, but when it comes to applying it in the real life, you discount that information as well.
Did you ever find yourself in that kind of situation? I have definitely been there more than once. See, I need to work on something in order for the results to be valuable to me. If I don't pay for it - it's just an experience. When I do - it's a lesson already..
Why all the story-telling?
Every once in a while I announce a headshot package giveaway. I gave one away last winter season, I gave away another in spring for some holiday, gave them away in bunches at my studio birthday party. Guess what? Not one of the winners actually showed up to claim it. And this season, I don't have a winner at all. Of course, my promotion of the matter was weak also, but... nobody interested? :) That just can't be true... must be bad promotional strategy.
Returning to the idea of a "Freebie": all in all I come to a conclusion that free stuff is not only unnecessary, it's bad for you! It spends your valuable time without you actually realizing whether you need the experience, whether you'd pay for it or not. If you are not willing to pay for it - you don't need it, right?
But I'm not giving away my headshots for free, I'm exchanging them for some word of mouth promotion. See, every time someone posts my link on their page or wall, I get more views. And this is why the whole thing is worthwhile for everyone involved.
And I'm actually serious. Of course, after you win it it's up to you whether to follow through with it.
I'm sticking to trying it though, I want to see the full potential of such marketing strategy, because I believe in it making perfect sense.
Next giveaway will be announced not only on my facebook page, but also by e-mail, here in the blog, on linkedIn, ASW, Twitter and there will be follow ups on it every day too. I promise to myself to actually invest enough time in it to make sure people are aware of it happening. Because this time it simply did not work. My bad...
Any ideas on how to improve the candidate tracking? I figured out how to track responses on Facebook and Twitter, will think on how to track them through e-mail versus other programs (oh, that reminds me, I wanted to write about all kinds of affiliate programs!)
That's it about the business for today. Some photos to accompany the season...
Did you go trick-or-treating this Sunday? Was quite chilly/windy and my son started coughing, so we had to retire quickly, but he still had fun and a bunch of cool candy. I like seeing how people get creative with everyday things. We've got things that I didn't imagine existed, nice little candy toys and candy packages and candy pistol and a lot of other interesting stuff. When we came back I almost felt bad that all we were giving away was just... candy. Interesting lesson, you know? I'd think I'm a creative person, but when it comes to everyday stuff... not so much. That's probably true for a lot of us. We just don't let ourselves be free enough to "play".
Enough talking :) have a miraculously wonderful Monday, and I hope the rest of the week will follow.
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