In the marketing world there is a line. They (marketers) call it the free line. Many marketers pontificate about “moving the free line” That is, providing some fabulous stuff free up first to encourage people to either sign up for something more expensive, or something that will have a recurring cost that will eventually end up to be more expensive,or have a higher profit margin for the provider.

These campaign methods can run off the rails and end up damaging reputations and bank balances

1. The FREE stuff being offered is attractive but the ongoing content is not.

This is what seemed to strike the Mike Filsaime campaign earlier this year, and the first cab off the rank in the major launches that focused in signing up as many punters as possible for a content continuity subscription.

Let me be totally transparent here; I signed up with NO intention of continuing into the paid subscription. Having brushed with Mike’s stuff before I know how his email lists worked and I was not willing to be voluntarily bombarded by a gazillion continuing emails. Some people might like that, I do not. I wanted to see what this campaign was all about, how it worked, and what could be learned from it.

When the free (well for the cost of postage and handling) stuff came it was pretty obvious that the “printed content” was of inferior quality. It looked cheap and shoddy. When you are used to seeing flashy shiny websites, a matt printed thin newsletter type publication is NOT going to excite your subscribers. If you are conditioned that the magazines you subscribe to have decent quality paper, glossy photographs and professional typesetting, then you will expect the same from something more expensive.

Couple that with the obvious delivery issues that Mike was having and I think some valuable lessons were learned by high-end marketers by this initial campaign. With the mastermind group of marketers out there that revolve in the same circle I wonder if the decision for Mike to go first was a strategic one…if there is nothing to compare to, maybe you can get away with delivering crap?

Compare that to the Frank Kern Mass Control 2 launch where opening the “box” was a carefully orchestrated “experience” combining the luxury-colour black, the exciting/dangerous colour of red, piece on piece of top quality “stuff” all topped by the icing yellow sales letter (to stand out like dog’s balls I bet!).  But for all of that Frank’s stuff ended up with

2. Great free stuff but ongoing subscription not worth the ongoing cost.

Transparency statement, I was prepared to go on with the subscription IF the cost was worth it, so i was up at 4am to sign on the dotted line.

I like Frank’s stuff. He is a pretty smart dude and I can see where he is coming from. Why wouldn’t you want to attract affluent cashed up customers who can afford $300 a month, month after month? If there is one thing I have learned in the last two months is this.

Some people are really, really “generous” in how much they will spend to …… [insert burning ambition here].

So Frank is looking at these people as a source of income and he will continue to get them too. I just don’t think I can afford to be that “generous” with what I spend without getting the content I need. This is not a case of not implementing and sitting on my hands while there is great information…. it’s just not $300 a month worth to me. (Still love Frank and his stuff though!)

Another free line pitfall is

3. Free stuff attracts people who have no idea whether they are in the right place or not

I am contemplating leaving a paid site I have been around for a couple of years because the “free trial” has brought in a group of people that really should NOT be there.

Pitched at a certain level of expertise, i have always looked at this site as a place where you don’t muck around, you get down and dirty with like minded and experienced people and do productive stuff. It would never occur to me that there would be people who would sign up for something and have NO IDEA what on earth they signed up for. Can you say “membership level miss-match”

Sure if that kind of person keeps paying it is all well and good for the owner of the site. Especially if the experienced paying membership decide to help these people out (free employees yay!). For the other experienced members the choice is to disappear for a month and hope that the people there for the freebies disappear, or cancel membership. At this stage I am sitting out for a month (and slowly gritting my teeth I am paying for the privilige) and if things do not improve with people leaving then I will be clicking the cancel subscription button in Paypal.

I can appreciate that getting the balance right between free + ongoing income is going to be a difficult one.  As soon as someone gets it “right” I hope they stick to it like glue and reproduce over and over because great freebies + value for money ongoing subscription + some form of membership gatekeeping, will earn more money and reputation points for that person than going for the big bang greed slam.