A Crazy Idea That Worked: FreeReport.net and the Lead Generating Machine
It’s hard to predict what will work in the real world and what won’t.
Case in point: a few years ago, I sat down with my wife at dinner and brainstormed a crazy idea to generate leads.
I called it “freereport.net”. No, it had nothing to do with free credit reports. Instead, it was designed to be a “web version” of a lead generating strategy I’d been using for years: offering “free reports” to create inbound leads for my business.
Here’s how it worked in the offline world:
Step One: I’d place an ad in a woodworking magazine. The ad would read “Want more information? Call for a free report”.
Step Two: The people reading the magazine would call my 800 number and request the report be mailed to them.
Step Three: We’d mail out the free reports to people via snail mail.
Step Four: Once prospects had received my reports, a small percentage of them would call and place orders.
It was a tested, proven formula I discovered by studying the masters of direct marketing: Gary Halbert, Dan Kennedy and Jeff Paul.
And it’s not a new concept, either. Free reports, free books and other free “widgets” have been used for years to generate leads and get people to step forward and identify themselves as prospects. To this day, I believe it’s the safest, most conservative way to generate new sales from prospects and convert them into customers.
Driving People Online To Generate Leads
Anyway, taking that idea a step further, I wanted to see if I could drive “offline” leads onto the web to download the free report themselves and print them out.
Would people really see an ad in a magazine, go to a non-descript website, enter their info and request a report? And even more important – would they pick up the phone and ORDER from that report?
I didn’t think it would work. I really didn’t think the website would have enough credibility. I didn’t think the average prospect would TRUST and order from freereport.net.
But they did. In droves.
Not only that, but I sold high-end expensive marketing courses this way – courses that cost $1000-$1,500 per person.
What is the lesson here? The answer is simple:
You Cannot Predict What the Market Will Want or Respond To!
I’m serious. The things I know in my gut will work usually fall flat. Bombs.
On the other hand, many of the crazy ideas I come up with (like freereport.net) and I never think will work – actually BLOW UP.
The Market Is Hard to Predict
The moral here is simple: People are hard to predict. Hollywood has been trying to predict the public’s tastes for years without success. From what I’ve heard, about eight out of ten movies released in Hollywood lose money, one out of ten breaks even and one of ten is a blockbuster.
And that blockbuster makes up for all those other losses.
The bottom line is this: You don’t know if you have a winner on your hands until you test your idea in the real world.
Chances are, it won’t work. But it’s worth a try.
As for freereport.net, I’ve used it for the last five years or so to generate almost all of our leads.
I’ve used it in many different markets: vets, woodworkers and cabinetmakers, physical therapists and of course, martial arts. It’s a great way to get information to interested prospects.
Lately, we’re even using postcards to feed leads into freereport. That works, too.
I wish I had a magic crystal ball and could tell you what was going to work before you launched it and what wouldn’t. Nobody can. The more I market, the more I realize that successful marketing actually works like this:
A.) You start with a successful formula that worked for somebody else in the past. This reduces your risk.
B.) You then put your own “twist” on that formula and see if it works. If so, you roll it out. If not, chalk it up to experience and try something else.
As long as your tests are small, when you do hit a winner, it’ll make up for all your unsuccessful tests.