Free Report Marketing (FRM) is a great way to position your business to your target market. FRM is simply offering a free report on typical problems your potential clients may have and providing effective solutions. As you will see there are many benefits to creating awareness about your company with this great marketing strategy.
When you offer a free report on your area of expertise, Interior Design, you begin a campaign with your target market that builds loyalty because you are educating rather then selling. You can actually convince the buyer that your product is the best because you understand their problem and your company is able to provide the best solution.
Traditional marketing, such as advertising is product orientated and therefore gets stuck in the price-sensitive category. FRM is solutions based and focuses on educating and not selling. You offer solutions to common decorating problems with your company being the answer.
With a FRM program you not only educate your prospects but you build your mailing list through the requests for the free reports. In exchange for you sending the reports out, you receive permission to remain in contact with the prospect via email or direct mail. You can build a list very quickly with a “bait” marketing program by using such vehicles as Google Pay-Per-Click, with your free report being the call to action.
Examples of a Google ad:
The Designer’s Coach
Free Report on Referral Marketing,
Your Source for Business Growth
http://www.thedesignerscoach.com/
Home Staging Free Report
Great for Designers and Decorators
Learn ways to network with Realtors
http://www.thedesignerscoach.com/
You can also view an example on my website on how I capture names offering free reports. You can go to: http://thedesignerscoach.com/free_reports.html
Let’s return to the educational benefits of FRM. There are great reasons to offer this strategy: You build client loyalty by becoming a trusted advisor. Those that request educational reports from you will view you as the expert. Additionally, you actually “set the specs” for the standards in your solutions. You establish the guidelines and since you are writing the report, you provide the exact solution to the common problems they are experiencing.
Here are 7 reasons why a FRM program is so effective:
- 1) You begin the relationship on a positive note.
- 2) You acknowledge to the prospect a level of respect in wanting to help rather then sell.
- 3) When you educate, you project a better relationship.
- 4) Prospects will buy from companies that put their clients first.
- 5) You “set the specs” and this makes you the perfect solution.
- 6) You are recognized as the expert in the field
- 7) People love free stuff, it works!
Prospects have both immediate and future needs. When you reach out to your target market, only 10% will have an immediate need, while the other 90% will have a future need. Prospects are like submarines, they spend most of their time underwater, not in a buying mode. They surface when they are ready. Your goal is to keep them thinking about your company while they are beneath the surface.
You can keep your name in your prospects mind with a FRM program. People will accumulate helpful solutions to their problems for future reference. There is a big difference when you are informing and positioning rather then interrupting and prospecting.
It is important to remember, that we still need to sell. This is not a one-way relationship. We hope to make it evident that we have more to offer then just a free report. That is why you need to include a message at the end of each report that makes an offer to move the client along the path to hiring you. Maybe it’s an offer for a free home consultation and the up selling begins.
FRM is effective and it is a great way to build your business. Start using it today! By the way, if you need help in implementing this concept, feel free to contact me. I am here to help.