A look into launching a freebie.

I'm not following the Joker's Advice

You’ll see a new tab on my Substack. One that says ‘Free Website Audit’.

Get a Free 5-Minute Copy Website Audit

No, I’m no longer (for the most part), giving away my entire one-hour website audit for free, like I’ve been doing for the last fifteen months (I talked about that here).

But I still did not want to alienate the people who do ask, something I’ll expand on in a bit.

What do you get in the free audit?

For every new subscriber, I’m giving a free five minute loom recording with 1-3 suggestions to instantly improve your conversions.

I’m dead serious when I say it’s free (for anyone who hasn’t gotten an audit before. And I know previous clients are subscribed to this newsletter and yes, you are more than welcome to take it up).

Now, you might ask.

Why are you offering it for free?

I had a lot of thinking to do when I sat down to create my first ever offer.

The new offer being a website audit was a no-brainer. I’d already been doing this for so long - I haven’t met a single person who hasn’t gotten immense value out of it. It’s why I can make the bold claims I am on my pages.

But there was also a little bit of guilt. I know, I know. Like the joker says, “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.”

I don’t entirely agree. Here’s my point.

1. If people don’t know you’re good at something, how are they going to find out?
   Thankfully, I’ve worked up my ego after client feedback to know I’m really good at copywriting.
   But I’m also tired of being that hole-in-wall restaurant only the locals know about and won’t tell people because they don’t want people overcrowding it. You will not believe how many clients don’t give me testimonials - and I know it’s not because they don’t like the work. Thankfully, the few clients who do otherwise are wonderful.

2. The way they’re going to find out I’m good? If these 1-3 suggestions (that are SO easy for me to provide) work out for them!
   The point here is not for them to buy a full audit or a website copy project (although that would be amazing scenarios). The point here is that the next time someone asks them about a copywriter, they’ll remember that copywriter who gave them incredible suggestions that worked for the conversions on their website.

3. I’m going on my first podcast episode (two actually), in the next two weeks and I wanted to provide a freebie that was more ‘freemium’ than a boring PDF filled with a long template of resources that read like ChatGPT wrote it. Not that there’s anything wrong with those, it’s just not my style. And besides, I would much rather release a product like that on the blog or as a paid product.

4. While I’m giving these away for free, at the expense of my time and resources - I’ll also get to see this newsletter grow. I did these audits out of the goodness of my heart for fifteen months but someone kicked my ass into gear about this, so let me get their emails in exchange.

5. I’d like to offer the kindness that was passed on to me by a lot of designers who were so helpful teaching me about Showit and design. It’s why my website no longer looks like it’s designed by someone learning design for the first time (well, to an extent).

6. Only the people who are actually serious about the audits will sign up for the free audit. Yeah, sure. I’m definitely going to get a ton of unsubscribes once they receive their audit and then pull out their email off my list like they pulled off some heist and go, “Haha, you didn’t realize it but I was just here for the free audit.”
   I don’t care. You did all those steps to get a free audit - like, good for you.
   I’d just rather stop doing these for people who want me to continue devoting so much of my energy to this because you will not believe how many people have asked me for an audit, say it’s the best thing ever and then ghost me when I ask for a testimonial ha.ha.ha.

I told you - I meant it when I said I want to be more raw and honest with this newsletter, even the unpretty parts.

To my current subscribers.

Now, I know you might be thinking. “Maria, how DARE you? I’ve been subscribed for a while so how on earth am i supposed to get the free audit?”

Don’t worry. I gotchu. Just reply to this email with the word ‘audit’ and the webpage or section you want me to look over and I’ll get right back to you.

*Applicable until 13th September, 2024 (otherwise you’re a dead subscriber or leave it unread and forget or you’re just going to keep postponing it until 2065 and you’ll respond to a random email with ‘hey lady, give me my free audit’ when I’m hobbling around trying to find my reading glasses and racking my brain for what this free audit even is.”)

More about the Website Copy Audit and why I priced it the way I did.

I still wanted the copy audit to be affordable.These usually run $650-999. The least I’ve seen is 350.

But the thing is - the people who would benefit most from the audit?

People who diy or try to do it themselves before they’re too far in and realize they should’ve just gotten professional help (that was me with my website design before launching so I feel you).

And they’re diy’ing because they cant afford a copywriter. And I figured 5% was a good number to factor in, essentially being 5% of my total project fees being $165.

I know. Pricing is a very important factor of your marketing and i’m breaking SO many rules and advice set by people better at it than I am.

But when I thought about when I started the business and how much I would have benefited from a reasonably priced audit.

I know I’ve said I look down on freebies.

I don’t necessarily look down on freebies. I look down on bad ones. The ones where it was obvious that no thought or effort was put into it.

That the only person benefiting was the service provider who raises their hand with joy at a new person being added to their list.

Without thinking about the other person receiving their Canva-designed and Chat-GPT stuffed (I’m repeating the phrase for a reason) PDF that will only convince their new sign up, “Wow, I never want to work with this person ever.”

I mentioned a little bit about this in my first newsletter, but as you’ll notice, my newsletter has changed.

I’m not sure how long I’ll keep this free audit for - until I run out of the energy to keep up with them, I guess.

And between you and me, I really enjoy doing these.

End Notes

I didn’t mean for this entire edition to be about launching this but I don’t see anyone really sharing this stuff, especially about deciding on freebies and offers and I wanted to.

And come on, it’s the first thing I’ve ever launched.

Deciding to launch something apart from your main service can be hard to decide on. I hope this experience gives you something to think about. Perhaps it’s not the most professional approach but I’ve always been about being open about these experiences.

You can have a look here. Writing the sales page for this was really fun. Previous clients from 3 years ago have also been reaching out and saying this looks good, which I appreciate.

On another note, I appeared on my first podcast! I talked about the experience in this LinkedIn post.

I’m not sure how to end this because this week has been full of many things happening and if I continue writing about it, it’ll become a little too long.

So with that, I’ll leave you.

Happy marketing,
Maria

Ps: If you don’t remember, hi - I’m a website copywriter who positions creatives as go-to experts.

You’ve subscribed to my weekly newsletter, ‘Room for Marketing’ where I help creative entrepreneurs learn how to make room for marketing in their business by making the idea of it less overwhelming.

These usually run for 1k words+ (this one’s 1.6k words), so please excuse the grammatical errors. If you’d like to connect, here’s my Website & LinkedIn.