Offering a free report to people who visit your site can do a great deal for your credibility as an expert in your niche. Chances are that while many visitors to your site are looking for specific information, they are reluctant to buy anything right away. Providing them with a free report that’s filled with information they find valuable increases the chances they will return and actually purchase one of your products or services.
Building Trust
Giving your site visitors the option to download a free report usually causes them to view you in a more positive light. Many will see you as an expert who is genuinely interested in providing valuable information to others. And instead of thinking of your site as being run by a faceless company that’s only interested in making money, offering a report at no cost will also make many people feel more comfortable returning to your site and interacting with your business.
Creating Loyalty
Customers who download and read your free report are more likely to recommend it to their friends who share the same interest in your area of expertise. This strategy can also be quite effective at building a following of subscribers to your business website. A tactic to make sharing easy for your readers is to add a Tweet or Facebook Like button to the download page for your report.
Standing Out From the Rest
Running a successful business blog or website takes a good deal of time and dedication. Many online entrepreneurs find the idea of writing a full report overwhelming because of the perceived time commitment. The good news is you can actually use their frame of mind to your advantage. Investing the time or resources necessary to complete this endeavor will make you more memorable in the minds of people searching for what you have to offer. Many business owners find that creating such a report is not as daunting as it first appears once they break the whole project into smaller steps.
The most challenging aspect of creating a free report for your site visitors is often just getting started. Many writers find that prior to doing any actual writing, mind-mapping helps them brainstorm and organize their thoughts.
The second part of the process simply involves taking that organized information and creating chapters or sections around it. A final recommended step is to create realistic goals for finishing a certain number of pages per day until the entire report is complete. After this process, the only remaining tasks are converting the report to a PDF and making it available to download.
If you’ve already implemented this strategy, what impact did it have on your conversion rate?