Your Free Taste Promo Checklist


One of the most effective ways of getting people to discover and try your products or services is by offering a Free Taste – which is just that, a taste of what it is that you offer.

Free Tastes come in many forms: an ezine, an ecourse, an audio program, a special report, etc., and they are obviously free. It’s a tried and true marketing strategy that if you offer someone a free taste of what it is that you do, they are much more likely to become a paying client or customer down the road.

Once you’ve created your Free Taste, the next step is to market it to encourage people to sign up for your list. The following are 15 proven ways to promote your Free Taste:

__1. Your email signature

In your email signature (your name and contact info that you put at the bottom of every email you send out), include a link that goes directly to the sign-up page for your Free Taste or to its respective autoresponder. Entice people to click through with a compelling question, followed by the link.

__2. Your website

Make sure your sign-up form for your Free Taste is prominently placed on the home page of your website, as well as on every other page of your site. This way, no matter what page your visitor lands on, you’re giving them an opportunity to opt-in to receive your Free Taste.

__3. Other people’s ezines

Ask to be mentioned and recommended in other people’s ezines within your niche. Offer to do the same in return.

__4. Other people’s websites

Offer your Free Taste as a bonus to colleagues’ in complementary niches to offer to their lists.

__5. Testimonials you write

Write results-oriented testimonials for products or services you use and love. Give permission to the owner to post your testimonial to their website, including the URL to sign up for your Free Taste.

__6. Articles

Write and submit articles within your niche. In the author’s resource box at the end, promote your Free Taste by including the URL to your sign-up page or the email link to your autoresponder.

__7. Discussion lists

Participate in discussion lists where your target market hangs out and offer your Free Taste, following the list’s guidelines for promotions.

__8. Thank you pages

On your thank you pages for purchases, offer your Free Taste. Your customer may not have signed up before buying your product or service and you want to give them an opportunity to do so before they leave your website.

__9. Your sales copy

Peppered throughout your sales copy, give the opt-in form to sign up for your Free Taste. Most people don’t buy on the first pass, but they will likely sign up for your free offering.

__10. Your business card

On the back of your business card, tell people where to go to sign-up for your Free Taste.

__11. Teleseminars

Offer content-rich free teleseminars and make it clear that your desired outcome is to have the registered guests sign up for your Free Taste, not to sell them anything.

__12. Directories

List your Free Taste in the directories that are available to you via your membership in associations or organizations, and any directories specific to the packaging of your Free Taste.

__13. Swap ads with others

Offer to promote a colleagues’ Free Taste in return for promoting yours as ads within each other’s ezines. Run your ad for a minimum of three consecutive issues for the best results.

__14. Tell everyone

Don’t forget to tell everyone on your contact list about your Free Taste. Send them the link to your sign-up page, and ask that if they cannot benefit from it themselves to please pass it along to someone who would.

__15. Offer a free bonus

Offer a bonus or gift as an added incentive to sign-up for your Free Taste. A special report, an audio program, or something similar that is in a different form than your Free Taste. For example, I offer my ezine as a bonus for signing up for my free audio interview.

Remember: Never add anyone to your list without their permission.

These 15 tactics will help you promote your Free Taste and add significantly to your list numbers. Just implement them consistently, and you will grow an audience quickly and easily.

I’d love to know your thoughts on this – please leave your comments below.

Getting Started Online the Easy Way


A question I get asked by entrepreneurs all the time is…

“Where do I start? With an ezine, a website, a blog, or what?”

The answer is – it depends. It depends on where you are at in your business building efforts. But after hearing this question asked often enough, I think there’s something else going on ~ a request for a simple way to understand how all the pieces fit together. So, here goes:

First, you want to have a clearly defined target market, and be offering solutions to the problems that market wants solved. Then follow the steps below to leverage your time in reaching them with your offers.

1. Create an Invite Site

The first step is to create what I call an Invite Site. An Invite Site is a simple one page website where the only thing you do is invite your visitor to sign up for your email list by offering them something of value for free in exchange for their email address. For the record, the ONLY website I had for the first three years in my business was an Invite Site and I’ve built a 6-figure just from that.

2. Write and send an ezine

As you build your list, you’ll want to stay in touch with your subscribers. The easiest way to do this is through an ezine, or online newsletter. If you’re just starting out, know it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. A short article in text format sent to your list on a consistent basis is enough to get you in the habit of writing and sending an ezine, and for staying on your reader’s radar screen.

3. Post your ezine article to your blog

Create a simple blog for free at WordPress.com, give it a name that incorporates what it is that you offer (for example, advice about marketing, dog grooming, real estate, etc.), and cut and paste your ezine article as a post to your blog. The search engines love blogs because of their text-based format. They also love fresh content and with a blog you can post new articles consistently, keeping the content fresh, whereas on a static website, the information doesn’t change very often.

BONUS: Record a podcast from your ezine article.

Give your audience another way to get to know you (and take advantage of the millions of people who are downloading and listening to information on their MP3 players) by offering a podcast. Simply take the content from the article you wrote for your ezine and use that as your script for your podcast.

I know this seems simple, but that’s because it really can be this easy. If you put just the first three steps into action, your business will start to grow. As it does, you can start adding more bells and whistles, like graphics or different sections to your ezine, or jazz up your blog. In the meantime, keep pointing people to your Invite Site to grow your list, stay in touch with them via your ezine, and post your articles online so more people will find you.

I’d love to know your thoughts on this – please leave your comments below.