I was recently on a coaching call with a small group of remarkable businesswomen from my Make It Work Online program, and one woman brought up a concern that I hear all the time:
“I’m worried about giving away too much for free on my blog and on social media.”
She was in the process of marketing her new business and her bite-sized offer, and I was helping her come up with ideas for blog posts and how to use social media effectively.
She said she was afraid of not having enough additional value to offer her paying clients – or even that people might not hire her at all – if she gave away her best stuff for free. As it turns out, this fear was keeping her from fully engaging with her audience and getting new clients.
And guess what? She isn’t alone in this! Many new business owners struggle with this very same dilemma. As soon as she brought it up, I just knew I had to write a blog post about it.
Why? Because I don’t want you to spend one more minute letting fear keep you from reaching your business goals!
Today I’m going to explain why giving away your best stuff for free is actually a great idea. Plus, I’ll offer you some of the same advice I give my paying clients in my coaching sessions and courses.
How’s that for practicing what I preach?
Time for Some Myth Busting
If there’s one business strategy I’ve championed over and over on this forum and with the hundreds of women I’ve personally helped get online businesses up and running, it’s be of service.
Nothing will grow your business faster and more authentically than sharing your expertise, facilitating connections, or lending a helping hand when you can.
But how do you know where to draw the line? How much sharing is too much?
While the logical thing is to assume that making too much information available on your blog or social media accounts for free will lead to reduced sales and disappointed clients, nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, let’s just bust these two myths right here and now.
Myth 1: If I share too much, my prospects won’t have a reason to hire me.
A lot of my clients come to me through my social media channels or after following this blog. Even though I’ve offered up countless insights, tips, and bits of practical advice for free, and even though that information is available at their fingertips, they still hire me.
It’s not until a client participates in a coaching session or paid program that the lessons sink in and they get the full value of the training I offer.
Why? Because people simply do not internalize information that they’re not paying for and that isn’t delivered or intended for them personally.
When you place a monetary value on the product you’re offering (whether a session, workshop, course, or whatever), your client has to evaluate whether the purchase is worth it to them. If they decide to buy, it means they’ve agreed to its value and are invested in taking full advantage of it.
People who browse through blogs and social media – heck, even your own list of subscribers – just don’t invest that much in what you’re posting, so they can’t possibly get as much out of it.
Consider also that blog and social media posts are written for a larger, general audience, while your paying clients will get a personalized approach and much more specialized packaging of that same information.
The use of a different delivery system or container actually changes the energy surrounding the information and encourages more engagement with it. Pretty cool, huh?
The fact is, hiring you is the only way your potential clients will gain the full benefit of your expertise.
Myth 1: Busted.
My Personal Recommendation for YouThe Thing You Must Do to Grow Your BusinessMyth #2: My paying clients will be disappointed if I repeat stuff that I offer freely online.
I post to this blog every week, so I cover a lot of ground here. And you’d better believe I offer the same great business tips and practical advice to my coaching clients and in my paid programs.
Besides, in my experience clients generally don’t realize what information you have or haven’t previously given away for free online.
Click to TweetThis is primarily because people just don’t pay as much attention to your content as you’d like to think – and certainly not as much as you do.(Note: This is not an excuse to slack off in the content department!)
But also, the way you deliver information to your paying clients will likely be very different from the way you presented that same information online (see myth #1), so much so that they probably won’t even recognize it.
Myths: 0 Jenny: 2
Giving Generously Will Make You More Money – Not Less!
We’ve all had the experience of being on a free call or in a free introductory session where the coach tells you all of the amazing things you should know or be doing for x, y, or z … but you walk out feeling irritated because you didn’t actually learn a damn thing.
That’s because they made the shortsighted and misguided decision to withhold their expertise in favor of the hard sell.
I guarantee you, with a strategy like that, prospects aren’t walking away thinking: “Wow, she was so great at pointing out my shortcomings and describing her own services. I should hire her to find out if she has any valuable insights that might help me!”
No way.
More like: “What a colossal waste of time. I can’t believe she had the nerve to mislead me into thinking I’d be learning something in this session, only to hit me with a sales pitch.”
Being of service and offering your genius generously builds trust and loyalty, and it makes people see that your primary goal is to help them. Tweet that!
When you hold back, people can feel it, and withholding your expertise will erode their trust in you. This is not the way to get clients.
I promise you this: The more you freely you give of yourself on your blog, the more people will want to hire you. I see it all the time. Tweet that!
My Personal Recommendation for YouHow to Effortlessly & Authentically Grow Your BusinessGo Ahead and Give Away Your Best Stuff for Free!
Put stuff out there in a way that feels right and fun and generous, and the clients will come.
If going all in seems scary at first (and I don’t blame you!), grant yourself permission to give away a little in the beginning — maybe just one core idea at a time. Play around with how you present the information, and see how your audience responds.
You might even find yourself venturing into other areas of interest and expertise that are related, but not really part of your core business — and that’s okay!
Here’s the thing to remember: when you give away information on your blog, you’re giving away pieces to the puzzle. You’re letting prospects know that you have expertise and experience, that you understand their challenges, and that you can provide solutions.
It’s only when they come on board with you as a client that you’ll help them assemble those pieces in a way that is meaningful and valuable to them and their unique situation.
Because the heart of the service you offer is you — and only you can guide them through the process of overcoming whatever hurdles they face. That’s when everything clicks.
Your Turn!
Interested in making the lessons learned from my blog really click for you?
Registration is now open for my Make It Work Online program, a three-month intensive coaching experience for those who are to ready to up their game in their online businesses. Join us!
And, as always, I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments:
Have you experimented with some of these ideas in your business?
What’s your approach to sharing your genius freely?
What’s your favorite insight that you’ve shared with your audience?
My Personal Recommendation for YouTurn Your Opt-in Offer into a Client Magnet
HEY jENNY ,I was on the call ,last night and was it freaking awesome. i just wrote two fresh blog posts today and i also started creating my first offer.can’t wait to finish work on it and share it with the world.I love the humanness with which you teach and i appreciate ,you so much .THANKYOU FOR BEING YOU .Encountering you has re-enforced my belief that you don’t have to sound or be like any other person to get your message out in the world .
Thank you, Amaka! I’m so glad you enjoyed the free training. I had a blast sharing it. I love that you’re already taking action and ready to get moving in your business. I wish you the best of luck getting your work out into the world!
I recently heard that people will pay more for something that they see as a strategic investment than they will for a discretionary purchase. Your coaching, for example , is clearly a strategic investment (a few thousand bucks seems like a great investment for a six figure income.) But in my experience, most people view health or nutrition coaching as a discretionary purchase. It might improve their life but it’s not going to make them any money (or at least it’s a less direct connection). So it’s harder for them to justify an investment…especially when there is so much information available for free. Just thinking out loud here.
P.S. a friend and fellow online entrepreneur recommended you to me. I’m so glad she did!!
I couldn’t agree more Monica. Health and wellness seem to be low in priority and thus it makes our job harder trying to connect improved health to whatever they truly desire. Maybe – and just thinking aloud here – we do connect it to making money. Your improved health will allow you to sleep better allowing you to be more productive at work….??
I agree with you on this Monica. And I continue to struggle to understand why so many of us are prepared to forgo an investment in our wellbeing. What is it in human nature that does that? I am a therapist specialising in craniosacral, reiki and meditation work as well as really on the ball on nutrition, tonnes of personal experience and really able to show people how to improve their general health and, importantly, unhealthy lifestyle. But it seems like most people can not relate to how important it is to be living a balanced life until they are well out of balance. And at that point, many soft approaches (such as mine) that would have paved the way to sustained general wellbeing, start to seem weak an inadequate to provide a complete and urgently needed turn-around. I am not trying to be negative, but indeed in the field of healing and wellbeing, it is harder to offer your clients a tangible and clearly measurable objective.
I’d love any imput and advice on this from others in the same field who have worked it out and are happy to share some wisdom. :0)
As I mentioned to Monica above, I totally agree. I find it really difficult in this field of health and wellness to connect those dots and I agree part of it is how health and wellness is viewed as optional or unimportant unless you’re having a health crisis.
Jenny this post is awesome and is definitely something I’ve thought about a lot. Sometimes I give away stuff for free and it feels great. And sometimes I do it because I know I should for my business but in my head I’m freaking out going “ahhh that’s some of my best content! there go any potential clients….” I’ve also noticed a pattern that I can provide the health advocacy information freely and easily but the emotional piece is so hard to provide for free to a general audience and have it click.
Ladies! I couldn’t DISAGREE with you more! I have so much to say on this. In fact, I’m going to get lovingly blunt with you this morning because you are getting in your own way of success here, and I don’t want that to happen!
First off, I am someone who personally values health and wellness above almost everything. I have spent money I barley had on my health and well-being and continue to put that part of my personal budget higher than anything else. Higher than vacations, clothes,… you name it! I also put my health and wellness before my business, meaning I work less and make less because I want to make sure I take care of my health. Does everyone value health? Of course not! But not everyone values business investments, either.
Second, you are doing yourselves a HUGE disservice by saying that people don’t value your work (you’re not literally saying that but you are implying it!). As long as you believe that your work isn’t valuable, how can you expect others to value it and pay for it? I’m totally serious on this point. YOU MUST believe in the value of your work and the services you provide!
I’m totally serious on this last point. If you walk around with the energy of “people don’t value the work I provide,” then what kind of clients (or not clients!) do you think you’ll attract? The energy and confidence and attitude you bring to business is a HUGE part of the success you create. As long as you stay in this place of thinking you provide a service that people don’t value, you will be shown over and over again that you have a service people don’t value — and that will only attract to you people who say that you’re too expensive or crap like that.
It is your job — starting RIGHT NOW — to value your work and believe in the value of your work and KNOW that there are people out there who value it too. However, you have to be the one who values it first. People won’t prove you wrong; you must believe in yourself first.
Does this make sense? This is so so so important!!
(Plus I have a post for you next week that takes this to the next level, so you’ve got work to do before next Wednesday so you can get the most out of what I’ve got for you there!)
Yup. That’s a line that goes through my head frequently. “People don’t value what I have to offer.” I know it’s awesome. I know it’s super needed and I KNOW I can change someone’s life. But in the back of my head there’s always the feeling that it’s just not a priority for most people so I’ll just take what I can get and hope people prove me wrong. But I hear you on the mindset shift. If I were to put out the energy that I have in my mind about the work I do out into the world, who knows what awesome things could happen? Challenge accepted.
I can’t wait for you to see what would happen if you do that… 🙂 It’s bound to be good!
I second exactly what Jenny said. I value my health and wellness above anything else and pay for complementary services WAY, WAY before I consider using my government mandated health insurance.
And furthermore, if you were giving the good stuff away it would attract me as a client. It would help me to discern if you were a good fit for my specific circumstances. It would make me confident up front that you would be able to be a really great partner in resolving whatever issue I was facing. No matter how revolutionary the free advice – implementing it, monitoring whether it worked, tweaking the tip to be applicable to the billions of special circumstances, trying something else in combination – these all become so much more possible when you have someone supporting you on the journey.
You have so much value to offer as health and wellness coaches, despite all the various media flaunting flashy products, health is each person’s absolutely most valuable commodity. I know you can focus on bringing that to the front of people’s minds when they visit your sites!
Here’s my issue around giving away free content:
The raison d’etre for my business is that I believe that there is too much free information floating around the internet and that in my niche — person-to-person interviews — the only way to get better is to practice one-on-one with a skilled listener who can provide real-time verbal coaching. Since I feel that the free content avalanche is detrimental to my clients, I don’t want to necessarily add to that burden in order to establish myself as an expert.
Anyone have any thoughts on how to provide great content when you think that the millions of existing bits of content are creating the problem you are out to help your clients solve?
I’m going to challenge you on this today, Deb. (I’m in that kind of mood!) I think you’re getting in what Byron Katie would call “other people’s business” by deciding what they are capable of or not capable of consuming. Like I teach my clients when we talk about sales and pricing (and is the topic I’m covering in next week’s blog), we need to get our nose out of other people’s finances and let them be adults. I’m wondering if you’re deciding for them what’s appropriate or not appropriate for them in terms of quantity of consumption?
That said, I still think you can make smart, strategic decisions about what you choose to share as a biz owner — and you don’t need to overshare — but withholding from someone else and not letting them be an adult doesn’t serve them either.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding or jumping too quickly to a conclusion on this, so correct me!
First of all, Jenny, that was a great free webinar; it was priceless! And I appreciate being challenged!
I will admit that part of this is “my stuff” around wanting quality over quantity; and being overwhelmed by the soundbite approach to knowledge. I see people becoming paralyzed by consuming all kinds of well-meaning but generic advice in my niche, and I want to provide an antidote. So offering lots of generic advice seemed hypocritical.
But then I hear you in my mind stating that I need to create my website offerings for my clients (not for me & my quirks), and the only way they will ever become my clients is if I put out enough advice on a consistent basis so that my service can be found by the people who need the specific sort of help that I offer.
So you’ve helped me see that I was turning a personal preference into a false roadblock!!!
BRAVO! BRAVO! You are SO brave and honest, and I love that! It takes guts to speak your mind and even bigger guts to publicly own your “stuff”. You, woman, are amazing!!
Like we talked about on the webinar today, fear is a tricky, sneaky SOB that will totally make you think that you have logical, well-founded reasons for doing or not doing X…. but it’s totally not true! And you just hit that one head-on, Deb. Nice work. I’m so proud of you. And now you can take real action. Way to go!
My new coaching site isn’t up yet but I have no problem giving away my “best stuff” and here’s why: Whatever my best stuff is this week, I will have tons more next week! I am always learning so much: from clients, books, other coaches, I couldn’t give it all away if I wanted to! I’m careful to give attribution and happy to refer. I’ve had two previous coaching practices and this abundance mind set really does give back to you many-fold. I love Jenny’s points as well, more good stuff!
I love your energy and enthusiasm and generosity here, Kathryn!! Wishing you so much success!
I love that too, Kathryn!!!
I know it works. I have seen six figure coaches do it and watch people turn around and pay for a course because they need/want someone to walk them through it and hold them accountable.
I have literally walked people through the mental and emotional aspect of what it took to finally and completely get rid of 80 pounds and walked away with clients.
A closed hand cannot receive new blessings, so you give it away. The person who was on the receiving end may not work with you, but they may know others who will and will sing your praises because you gave up the goods.
Love this, TaVona! Thanks for chiming in with your experiences — and evidence — that this approach works!
I couldn’t agree more! Giving value has to come BEFORE trying to sell anything. That’s why I like writing content – it gives all of my tips for free and draws people to read more / contact me / whatever. I’ll be sharing this post for sure.
P.S. Wish some people would stop being so stingy with their knowledge.
Hi Jenny,
I recently came across your website and am working my way through Your First 1000 Subscribers.
I just wanted to tell you that I love your content and your vibe! I have had so many a-ha’s already.
Thank you!
Yay! So glad to hear it, Jen! Thanks for saying so! <3