Who doesn't like free?
When I worked at Columbia House, the music club company, our best offer was "Buy 1, Get 1 Free," not "2 for the Price of 1" or "Get 2 at half price."
Why did we use "Buy 1, Get 1 Free"? Because it was more enticing to our customers, even though it's the same as "2 for the price of 1" or "Get 2 at half price." We always used this offer. Because it worked! It was our base offer for retaining customers, to which we often added other deals.
We tested this offer over and over and it always yielded the best results in terms of customer lifetime value (CLV): i.e., the amount of revenue that a customer yields over time; minus the cost of product, fulfillment, and shipping; plus the cost to market to that customer. CLV also adjusts for the time value of money.
The reality is that free is never free for the marketer. There's always an expense that has to be paid, even if it's not paid by the customer. Moreover, that cost is often higher than marketer anticipates.
At Columbia House we were lucky to have a very high product margin: Our cost was significantly less than the fully loaded cost of the product. We covered the CD cost by charging additional shipping. It was still a great deal for our customers, because they got a full-price CD for free. From our perspective, the offer worked because we covered our product costs.
By contrast, even though customers thought that our shipping and handling charges were high, those charges never fully covered the cost of getting the CD from our warehouse to their homes—which included the costs for order processing and fulfillment, in addition to the postage.
Our finance team spent a lot of time each year figuring out those various costs, since they were used in every aspect of our marketing promotions.
Four Types of Free
Free offerings generally fall into one of four categories. Before making a free offer, it's critical to ensure that it appeals to your target audience.
Then calculate the costs associated with your "free" offer. Each option has specific costs associated with it.
1. Product
Free products are the easiest free offers to understand. Each giveaway is a tangible item, such as a small sample of your product or a related product.
- The marketing goal is to get customers to buy more from your firm in the form of new or related product.
- Free-product costs include product and packaging, and fulfillment and shipping to get it to the customer. Note: when the sample is included with an existing product, the incremental packaging and shipping costs are lower.
- Negatives: Many prospects just want the freebie and aren't loyal. Also, if you give prospects too much of a freebie, they may not need to purchase as much of the product.
2. Content
Content is a less tangible free offering. It's often used to entice customers to purchase from B2B organizations. The information is delivered in the form of a research report, e-book, or webinar.
- The marketing goal is to acquire prospect contact details, especially for B2B companies, where more information is needed attract customers for high-priced, high-consideration products.
- Free-content costs include the cost of content creation (including the design) and distribution via online or offline channels, as well as related marketing.
- Negatives: Many prospects seek only information that's available for free.
3. Time
Time is another intangible offering, since it can be difficult to show its value to a prospect. It often takes the form of a free consultation to persuade a prospect to use your services or to reduce risk by providing help via an 800 number.
- The marketing goal is to acquire prospect contact details, especially for B2B.
- Free-time costs include the cost of your time and that of your employees. If you use time as your free giveaway, be very clear about the amount of time you're giving. Don't be afraid to set boundaries. Ironically, time is the most scarce resource any person has. Unfortunately, it's difficult to measure. Without having a timer and putting a hard stop, many solopreneurs tend to giveaway their time in the form of free advice.
- Negatives: Many prospects are not willing or able to pay, and the supplier of the time may be enticed to contribute more free time in hopes of a bigger project.
4. Shipping and handling
Customers tend to prefer free shipping and handling to other "free" giveaways. In part, free shipping and handling is an enticement, since customers know what a product will cost them. Of course, this offer makes no sense if you're selling heavy products or ones that require special treatment.
- The marketing goal is to get prospects to buy. This approach is particularly important if prospects are checking prices from a competitor's retail establishment.
- Free-shipping-and-handling costs include order fulfillment (getting from the order through to the shipping) and the price of postage or shipping.
- Negatives: Once you start to offer free shipping and handling, customers tend to expect it. They will wait for you to offer it again.
As you can see, each of those "free" offerings has costs.
How Do You Calculate the Cost of Free?
When you offer customers something for free, there's a real cost to you. It's critical to calculate that expense in advance to determine whether you can afford to make the offer.
Once you're sure that you can afford your giveaway, you need to determine how many prospects or customers you are willing to accommodate. (For some offerings, such as content, the number of prospects isn't limited.)
Here's the formula for determining the cost of free (note: not all of the variables apply to every offering):
- Total Cost of Free = (Sum of the free costs, including product, packaging, product consultation, content creation, fulfillment, shipping, and handling) + (Related marketing costs, where appropriate)
- Cost of Free per Unit = (Total cost of free) / (Number of units given away)
Components:
- Free costs depend on the giveaway being offered. Include all of the costs that apply to your specific offering. When time is involved, calculate the number of hours and multiply that by the person's hourly rate.
- Marketing costs consist of the cost of the marketing related to your giveaway, including content and related communications.
- Number of units is the number of people who get a free item or free shipping or those who download a whitepaper, etc.
A Final Word
Many firms think that it's necessary to give away free stuff to attract and build an audience. Before you make that assumption, check what your competitors are doing.
When choosing a free giveaway, make sure that it's appropriate relative to your audience and the profitability of your offering. Then determine what it'll actually cost you before you run your campaign!
When using products or free shipping as giveaways, it's relatively easy to calculate the costs, since they're tangible. With less-tangible offerings, it's easy to underestimate the true cost of free.
What has your experience been with offering free giveaways?
