The Free Content Death Spiral part 1 (and why it strangles your sales)

A lot of brands I’ve worked with embraced what you might call the Free Content Death Spiral. 

But for the longest time, I didn’t think about it that way.

I was still a newbie.

Still wet behind the ears when it came to results.

So monkey see, monkey do…

I thought the Free Content Death Spiral was just what you did if you had an email list.

But then I got more clients and started to notice the difference between those who struggled and those who made money.

That’s when it clicked.

The Free Content Death Spiral was, as its name implies, killing sales.

But the entrepreneurs and brands who followed this demented strategy seemed addicted to the same process that was stopping them from growing.

Why?

Because ‘free’ feels like a plan. 

‘Free’ allows us to wear the superman cape. 

‘Free’ feels safe.

You get to put emotional credit in the bank.

Except… 

Except you don’t. 

Because the Free Content Death Spiral is a specific form of ‘free.’

People have learned that anything worth having has a price. 

It’s kept under lock and key… 

Potentially with a pair of silver-chained fire-breathing gorgons for good measure if the value is really high.

So.

Free is fun. 

But it has no value. 

And if you share CONTENT… 

Then guess what?

You are not giving anything away for free. 

You are making an exchange. 

You are asking for clicks, and views, or reads, or whatever. 

Maybe hoping to boost an algorithm here or there on Youtube or whatever.

So we come back to something we have spoken about before:

Having a hidden agenda.

Your leads can sniff it out. 

And they will.

So you’d better sniff it out first, and correct your ways.

Then there is this:

If you give free advice and someone fails to act on that advice, then why on God’s earth would they give you actual money they worked hard to earn in exchange for advice/programs/coaching they might also not use?

I’m not saying free does not ever work. 

It does. 

When used strategically. 

For example, I used to write funnels for docuseries launches. 

People would get 1 day to watch each episode.

If the content was good, people would buy so they could watch on their own schedule.

But notice in that case, the free content had value. 

Because it was only available for a limited time. 

And it was used in a way that demonstrated value, instead of removing it.

Strategically, free can be powerful.

But in the meantime, start redefining what you mean by value. 

I got this message from a client who I’ve been coaching through all this recently:

“I think we have to break the belief that putting an offer in front of them is somehow not providing value”

He’s got the message.

What about you?

Tomorrow I’ll post more about the Free-Content Death Spiral.

Just in case this was not clear enough. 

Until then, on a not-so-unrelated note:

The reticular activating system is the part of the brain that decides what they pay attention to or ignore.

So if you can “jam” your reader’s reticular activating system, your emails will, in my experience anyway, get you more status, attention, and potentially, results.

Free intro guide on how to do that here:

https://empireofemail.berserkermail.com/optin_(reddit_jamming_the_r.a.s._leads)