Will People Still Buy The Cow If The Milk Is Free?
So what about the old axiom that you need to “Give away all your BEST Information” for free because they say, “Well if they give away this much value, what else do they have? and I’ll be a paying customer for that!” Real or BS?
I got this question the other day, and it really made me think. I’m sure you’ve heard sayings like:
“Move the free line.”
“Always lead with your best stuff.”
“You get what you give.”
… and more.
I don’t believe those sayings are true anymore, especially when it comes to content marketing, info-sales, and selling just about anything else.
Why? How can I have the unmitigated temerity (balls 😉) to say such a thing that flies in the face of conventional wisdom on the internet.
In fact, I was one of the people actively and loudly pushing this strategy online for the last 20 years, but not anymore.
Side note: Unlike most politicians, I’m going to admit my position on this has changed. I have seen the light. 😊
What changed?
Here’s the thing…
Times change. Circumstances change.
People’s willingness and ability to pay attention to anything for very long has changed.
The bottom line is, 20 years ago, things were different than they are now. In fact, things are different from even five years ago.
We live in a “Tik Tok” mentality now, where people are making instant decisions as to whether they’re going to pay attention, follow, or bail.
In some way it’s easier to grab people’s attention, but it’s a lot harder to keep them paying attention long enough to get a result (let alone pay you money).
The strategy now is to get a commitment out of them as fast as you can.
Get them to commit (in this order):
- Money
- Time
- Attention
Bottom line: We want them to make a payment as fast as possible.
So we can make money, right? Nope! (Well, yeah, in the long run we want to make money… but that’s not the reason we want to get that up-front money as fast as possible.)
When you get a payment… even a small one… you can peel them off from the herd.
Visualize a herd of cattle stampeding by; thundering across the prairie shaking the very ground under your feet.
They are NOT wandering peacefully where you can casually walk up and rope them in (calling “Get along little doggies!” like Hoss on Bonanza).
It’s a crazy, wild, dangerous stampede! And you gotta get them to come down your little cattle chute without getting run over.
If you do it right… you capture a steer. Do it wrong and they are GONE (never to be seen again)!
Bottom line: stop giving away so much “how to” content and start using other content that makes people MORE thirsty for what you have to sell.
Giving away the milk really DOES prevent someone from buying the cow (and they’ll probably get mad if you give the milk away for free and then decide to charge for it later once they got use to getting free milk)!
And if you’d like to discover HOW to put out AMAZING content that makes people want to run down your cattle shoot AND gladly pay you for the milk you’re selling, check out the free training at ContentMarketingScripts.com
We’ll show you how to split them doggies off from the stampede and build up a profitable tribe of loyal fans who hang on your every word!
