So you created your first freebie to grow your email list. You added it to the sign-up form on your homepage, maybe you even created a popup, and then…
Crickets. Nobody’s signing up for it. Nobody’s interested!
You’re convinced that this online business thing and list building stuff, it just ain’t working for you…
Okay, time to take a deep breath.
First, if this happened to you, you’re not alone.
Secondly, it’s probably not the quality of your work that’s the issue here. You are amazing and doing a great job. There are other things at play, like how many people are actually seeing your freebie? How many visitors do you get? What’s your conversion rate?
Let’s look at all that and troubleshoot.
I want to help you really get the best possible results out of your freebie, so let’s get started:
Step #1: Look at your numbers
The first thing to look at is your website visitors and how many people actually see your freebie. If you only have a handful of visitors a day on your website, it’s no wonder nobody is signing up.
Go into your Google Analytics and look at your audience. Next, let’s look at page views. If you have a landing page for your freebie (which you should have), look up the page views for that page.
If you don’t have a landing page then look at the page views for your homepage if this is where you’re currently promoting it. You want to know how many people actually saw your freebie and then signed up – this is your conversion rate.
Obviously, a higher conversion rate is better. But if your overall visitor numbers are really, really low, a high conversion rate won’t matter because not enough people see your offer.
I recommend that you start tracking your visitor numbers and conversion rates every month, and for every freebie you create, so you can compare your results and see what works and what doesn’t!
Before we can do anything with your numbers and truly see if your freebie is working or not, you should have gotten views from at least 100 people. If 100 people visited your freebie landing page and nobody signed up for it, yes, there might be a problem.
On the other hand, if only 10 people saw it and nobody signed up for it, that might be just bad luck, or if 2 people signed up that doesn’t mean that your conversion rate is going to be 20% forever, that could just be coincidence and it’s actually statistically irrelevant because your numbers are too low.
>>> Check out the post “Top 5 Google Analytics You Need to track”
How to get your freebie in front of more people
A freebie landing page is a great way of getting your freebie in front of more people. This is a page where you promote your freebie and nothing else. All you do is tell people what your freebie is, the title, what’s included, the results that people can expect, and a signup form or button.
One freebie page that converts very highly for me is my financial planner. This freebie landing page converts at over 47%, which means that nearly every second person who visits that page signs up for the freebie!
This is a very high conversion rate, not all of my freebies do as well, but I want to share this example because the landing page is super, super simple. It’s just a title, a small blurb that describes what people get, an image that shows the actual spreadsheet, and the signup form.
It really can be this simple and the thing about a landing page is that you want to make it as simple as possible for people to take action and sign up. Don’t confuse your audience by adding any other links or information.
How to create your landing page
I build my landing pages in WordPress, and if you’re a student in my Blissful Websites course, there’s also a freebie landing page template in the course that you can use.
Another option is creating a landing page with ConvertKit, (you can do this on their free plan) or using a tool like Leadpages.
Once you have your freebie landing page, share it everywhere, repeatedly. Put it in your Instagram bio, share it on Facebook, in the descriptions of your YouTube videos, in your email signature.
Share it in your content by adding it to blog posts, talking about it on Instagram stories, and adding them to your highlights. You could even create Pinterest pins using multiple images and linking them all back to your freebie landing page.
Your 4-week action plan
Now that we’ve talked about getting your freebie in front of more people, I want to give you actionable steps to implement after reading this so that you can start seeing results. Here is a 4-week action plan to follow, step by step!
1. Create your landing page – whether that’s in WordPress, your email marketing platform, or another third-party platform like Leadpages.
2. Commit to going live on Instagram or Facebook once a week for the next 4 weeks. Talk about something that’s related to what you do and mention your freebie and the link to your landing page at the end.
3. Create a weekly blog post where you embed your live video. Add text underneath where you summarise what you’ve talked about in your video, mention your freebie, and add the signup form or link to your landing page.
4. Share that blog post everywhere, share it in a newsletter, ask your readers to share it, and really talk it up.
If you only have a tiny following on social media it will take longer to get more traffic, but hopefully, after 4 weeks, you should see the first results.
Step #2: Increase your conversion rate
Now you know how to get more traffic, but what if your visitor numbers actually weren’t that bad, and the problem is your conversion rate?
If 100 people visited your landing page and only 5 signed up, we need to look at your landing page and especially at your messaging.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
- Is your landing page easy to understand?
- Does it work well on a mobile phone?
- Does the form work – have you actually tested it and tried to sign up?
- Is the title clear and enticing?
- Is it clear what people are getting?
- Do you have a picture that shows what people are getting, like a hero shot?
Optimize your freebie title
Your freebie’s title is one of the first things people will see before they decide if they want it. If the title doesn’t get more than a split-second glance, then your freebie sinks.
To create an attention-grabbing title for your download, check out the headlines competing for attention on magazine shelves or on Pinterest, then try adapting them to your own topic.
Your title should create a hook of concern, pleasure, or curiosity in your readers and keep them interested long enough to read further. You want visitors to your landing page to read beyond the title to the rest of the copy, and keep reading until they decide to download.
Your freebie itself could be totally amazing and helpful and you really only need a new title. That would be easy to change, right? So do that, and then do all the work to share it again, and track your numbers to see if that change helped you improve your conversion rate.
This whole process can take a while and take some experimenting until you have a freebie that works, that’s helping you grow your list.
It’s not easy, and neither is getting traffic, getting it seen by new people consistently. It’s always a lot of work and effort, even if you’ve been in business for a while.
I’m a strong believer in creating content to grow your business because it worked so well for me. I started my business from zero – I didn’t have a blog, a social media following, or an email list. I built it up slowly by sharing original free content every single week, showing up consistently, and providing value.
So, don’t give up and watch your freebie die. Look at your numbers and then take action. All you need to do is put your best foot forward, one step at a time.
