How Giving Services Away Makes Me More Money

If you've hesitated about giving away your company secrets, I understand. It can be hard to part with knowledge and skills you've spent years cultivating.

But here's the thing: giving stuff away for free is a great way to increase your bottom line.

When I say that, I'm mainly speaking to the service providers out there. And here's how this has worked for me.

Workshops

I recently gave a series of workshops for one of the country's largest broker-dealers. During each workshop, we focused on creating messaging for the advisors' websites, content, and social media profiles. Now, these are services I offer and I get paid for. So, why was I teaching people how to do this for free?

By the end of the workshops, they could see the benefits of what we were doing. They also realized that, while they could do this themselves because I'd given them the tools they needed (again - for free), they ultimately didn't want to do it.

As a result of all of that free information, I've gotten new clients that will bring in thousands to my business. Not only that, but by the end of the workshops, they were asking me about my pricing before I even had an opportunity to pitch my services to them.

Opt-Ins

Opt-ins are great lead generators, but you have to give away something of value. No one is going to give you their information if they can find what they're looking for in a simple Google search. In one of my opt-ins, I give away something that is very valuable to any potential client: my Ideal Client Profile.

I cannot move forward with a client until I know the information they give me on that questionnaire. And they really can't do any effective marketing themselves until they know the answers to those questions.

Why do I give it away for free?

If they fill it out, they'll likely realize that digital marketing is more complicated than they initially thought and they need help.
If they contact me for additional services, one of the main onboarding tasks we have to do is already DONE!

Training

This actually isn't entirely free, but it's a great value.

I have an extensive training course that I created to teach support staff in financial planning practices how to do exactly what I do. For a flat fee, the practice can purchase the course so they don't have to spend money on ongoing services if they have someone already in their office who can help them with their marketing.

Why am I giving away all my secrets?

It builds trust with the advisor because they know I have their best interests (and their budget) at heart.
There's a good chance that the person who is handling the marketing won't be able to do it all. Maybe they can write content, but they don't like creating graphics. Maybe they don't have time to edit videos. In any case, they can hire us on an a-la-carte basis to help them wherever they feel like they're falling short.

I cannot emphasize this enough: You might feel weird about giving away free information, but the more you give it's more likely the receiver will realize that they don't want to take on all that you can do for them. They'll realize it's more time-consuming than they initially thought and contact you anyway. Aside from that, it's helping you build your audience and plant the seed of trust that we all need before we invest in a company.