When I first started working with a top producing real estate agent, we were mailing out the standard “Just Listed/Just Sold” postcards you see every other agent sending out (well, the one’s who actually market). And, like all the other agents, we offered a free CMA (Comparative Market Analysis).
Pretty boring right? Our prospects knew it was just a sales tactic to get our foot in the door so we’d get them to sign on the dotted line. And, guess what… we never got any calls. Surprise-surprise.
Well, that all changed when I learned about Lead Generation Magnets and offering a FREE Report.
I didn’t really know how to go about creating a free report, but I soon learned it was just about offering free USEFUL information. And it was a way to get prospects to raise their hands and collect their contact info so we could follow up with them.
So, I took all of our brochures we had and the information we gave to our sellers, and I put it all together into a Home Seller’s Guide (re: Free Report).
We gave it a very appealing title, “The Ultimate Home Seller’s Guide: How to Prepare Your Home For Sale in Today’s Challenging Economy.” We used this free Home Seller’s Guide as a Lead Generation Magnet on all of our postcards, instead of the CMA, and all of a sudden prospects started reaching out asking for a copy.
We went from getting ZERO response, to getting 1-5 prospects reaching out to us every time we sent out this offer.
Here’s an example of one of our postcards offering the Home Seller’s Guide (Notice this is a “Just Sold” postcard with the Lead Generation Magnet):
We offered the Home Seller’s Guide in a PDF format or a printed copy. Surprisingly, we had quite a few people request the printed copy.
The main reason we offer a free report is because it has a low-threshold barrier. Meaning, the prospects know they can just give us an email address and we’d send them the report without having to ever meet with them. This gives them peace-of-mind knowing some pushy salesman “ain’t gonna be knockin’ on their front door.”
Now, here’s the important part… After your prospects raises their hand you need to play the follow up game! Just be sure you have a follow up system in place… be it email, direct mail, phone call, etc.
So, what are some other purposes of your Free Report?
According to Dan Kennedy’s Magnetic Marketing Tool Kit*, the Free Report’s purpose is to:
- Work as a powerful Lead-Generation Magnet, to attract response from the right prospects
- Boost response to all advertising
- Get prospects to willingly give complete contact information when responding to ads, mail, visiting web sites, etc.
- On arrival: differentiate you from others, by appearing differently
- Intrigue the reader by its title, unusual appearance, and content
- Position you as an EXPERT dispensing information (not “another salesman”)
- Create an opportunity to sell in a vacuum with you as only choice – often by providing comparative information about other choices, invalidating them for one reason or another, leaving yours as last/best standing
- Develop authority, by being knowledgeable and informative
- Develop believability, by presenting “proof,” such as scientific data, factual proof, quotes or article reprints from media, and your own testimonials and case histories
- Wind up with the prospect calling you for appointment or otherwise taking whatever next step you present, so he feels he is choosing you and taking initiative, rather than being pursued and sold
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As you can see, there are many purposes of the free report. Also, there are many ways to offer a free report. You could turn it into a book, online e-course, DVDs, report (yep, free report for a report, ha), etc.
What are you currently offering as a Lead Generation Magnet to get your prospects to raise their hands and give you their contact information?
If you don’t currently have a free report a great place to start is with a questions sheet. Write down all the questions you hear over and over from your prospects. From there you’ll be able to create a quick and easy FREE Report by answering the questions. Just be sure to give it a catchy title.
Now go take action!