April 25
The Problem With FREE (And Cheap)
BY Natural TimON Branding, Marketing, Philosophy
- Buddha
A fantastic piece of marketing strategy you should include in your arsenal is giving away free stuff so your potential customers can trial and connect with you before they buy.
Guys like Gary Vaynerchuk (who I actually really like and think he has some fantastic, innovative marketing ideas) are constantly telling you to pour yourself out there FREE FREE FREE.
It’s great – but I feel it can all be taken WAY too far.
The FREE is designed as a TASTE.
If they like the taste, great – then you GIVE THEM THE PLEASURE OF BUYING SOMETHING FROM YOU.
Let me say that in another way…
Do NOT deny your customer the PLEASURE in buying stuff from you.
Here’s the thing…
Buying stuff is FUN. It releases happy chemicals in the brain. You are INVESTING in something that you feel worthy of your hard earned cash.
Heck. That’s why we work so hard – to afford things that give us a little pleasure in life.
I bought a new camera a week ago. It was expensive but I thought – hey – it’s going to allow me to shoot awesome videos for my blog and Secret Society crew.
So I enjoyed buying it and using it.
It’s ABSURD to deny your customers this pleasure.
It’s a great feeling when you have the money to buy something you really want and something you enjoy or is going to benefit you in the future.
The other thing is your customers will VALUE YOUR PRODUCT more if they pay for it.
Quick Human Psychology Lesson:
Say you pick up 2 widgets in a store. They are both the same technically but one is a lot more expensive.
If you buy the cheap one, deep down you go home knowing that there is a better one out there.
So if it fails, you’ll kick yourself for not getting the “higher quality” one.
Even though the widgets are identical, the more expensive one will have a higher perceived value.
What’s the real problem?
The REAL underlying problem here is that business owners aren’t superheros.
Business owners have the same self doubt, negative talk and resistance as any other person.
So they sell themselves short.
Now am I saying take any crap product and put a higher price on it and watch the money rain in?
Hell no.
What i’m saying is if you create something of REAL quality and of real value – make sure you charge for it.
In my early business years I sold myself way too short. Working my guts out for customers and clients for well below what I was worth. I’d see other businesses charging WAY more money for inferior services and products. It was a hard pill to swallow. Please don’t make this mistake yourself.
To summarise:
1. Build amazing stuff that REALLY adds value and delivers what your customers want
2. Give them a taste for free, so they trust you and connect with you
3. Give them the pleasure of buying your product
4. Nurture, love and support those customers so they refer you to others
WARNING: Once you go cheap it’s HARD to then go “premium”. Don’t get stuck!
Be the best.
Here’s the scary thing though: You’re going to have to actually be the best. It’s a scary big responsibility and risk that many people aren’t willing to take. So most businesses be the same as every other business.
Step out. Take the risk. Make it happen and don’t forget: Deliver AWESOME stuff.
Here’s a neat video on this:
Hope this helps in you pricing your own Freedom Business product.
Let’s open up the discussion! Leave a comment or question below…
(and don’t forget to like/tweet/stumble)
T
Oleg
April 25, 2012 at 11:34 amFirst!
One of your best posts actually! I like Psychology Lessons (Customer Mind)
Alvaro
April 25, 2012 at 11:41 amHi Tim!
I also think that is true, sometimes I i have “chode” feelings inside that make me feel like I´m not enough to do the things I really know I deserve. But is our choice to kick those ones out of our waY! Isnt it! xD
Very cool post, this are the little things that make me wanna get out there and own better every day in my life. Thanks Tim
Natural Tim
April 25, 2012 at 11:44 amYep. I think on a general level, people sell themselves way too short. Especially in their own minds. I’ve met so many amazing people who don’t realise how amazing they are!
J Celestie
April 25, 2012 at 12:03 pmDude this is awesome, I love how you turned my expectations on me. I thought you were just going to make the statement of it sucks to sell yourself short and its hard to go back, but you even went as far as to mention a very interesting psychology phenomenon, the excitement for the client to build up confidence and take a leap by buying the product! And as you say if it is a real quality product – then you want it to be expensive so the customer values and exploits it to its fullest potential instead of being distracted cuz it was for free and instead looking for something else TO BUY so he can ‘experience those happy chemicals’. On point, thanks Tim.
Rafael
April 25, 2012 at 2:09 pmAwesome Tim !
You can use social media to do this.
It will create pre sales and take care of post sales.
Lucaxxx
April 25, 2012 at 2:44 pmYeah, it`s the same with expensive games that dudes buys and play till the end and the pirated ones, that you get bored soon coz you didn`t had paid for ;o
Fred Robinson
April 25, 2012 at 5:15 pmThis is going to be the biggest and weirdest lesson for me to learn in SSM. I have always gone through my life selling my self short and not believing that I deserve the best. I am overcoming that everyday a little at a time, and SSM has helped me out tremendously.
I can’t wait to get to this point where my business is up and I’m selling my shit for premium prices!
Apurv
April 25, 2012 at 5:45 pmAwesome as always!!! I’m smiling right now cos of the irony – this post is too valuable to be given freely
sam
April 25, 2012 at 6:45 pmbrilliant, I’m always making sure to check with the articles on here before I make any business decisions!
hopefully the product is of such value to the one key fan that they wont need any discounts to convince them to buy it!
Mrnace
April 27, 2012 at 9:32 pmyeah barry!!!
Nice to know we can make a little more than we think we can.
Keep it coming Tim.
Boss
May 9, 2012 at 10:46 amJust realising this on a concious level.Really people sell themselves short because of fear to loose people or things and the reality is that when u place value on ur self u live up to that expectation and pple will pick up on that. Am posting this as a self reminder.
Mike
May 22, 2012 at 7:27 pmTim, what do you think of affiliate marketing? Isn’t it a great way for newbies to get their foot in the door by first marketing other products they believe in and then use those commissions to build their own Freedom Business products? what do you think?
Natural Tim
May 24, 2012 at 6:11 amI think it’s best to create your own product not piggy back off someone elses. The time you put in learning how to create something amazing will pay off forever.
Tommy
July 4, 2012 at 9:24 pmI like this post, because it’s so spot on. In my experience – if I cheap out and buy the less expensive gadget, I often have to throw it away and buy the more expensive version eventually, because it is of higher quality. And this keeps getting reinforced every time this happens, until eventually I’m on auto-pilot – just avoiding the cheaper alternatives all together. It’s very rare for a product to be the best of its kind and still be the cheapest, eventhough it does happen (perhaps more so with very simple gadgets or software).
To sum it up, in my experience if you have a quality product, never price your product too low. Spend time experimenting with price points, before you decide on the final price.
Lorii Abela
July 12, 2012 at 4:02 pmThis post is truly awesome. Thanks for sharing.
danny
July 18, 2012 at 4:59 amWow, The inspirational video reminds me exactly of what I went through with my dad.