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- 💡 Create Free Tools Or Micro-Sites
💡 Create Free Tools Or Micro-Sites
Create tools relevant to your business that are designed to help and bring value to users whilst also being a strong mechanism for top-of-funnel growth.
Create a Free Tool or Micro-Site
💡 Overview
Offer free tools and/or micro-sites to increase traffic, generate leads, build trust/awareness, and gain valuable insights into your customers.
This shouldn’t be confused with the Freemium model - these tools/sites are generally separate from your core offering and instead are complimentary to it. I’ve included some examples below from the likes of Shopify & HubSpot.
These tools are also a great way to give value to your customers before ever asking anything from them in return (think Jab Jab Jab, Right Hook). They also allow you to build a relationship with your customers at an earlier stage in the purchase lifecycle.
Create tools relevant to your business that are designed to help and bring value to users whilst also being a strong mechanism for top-of-funnel growth.
⭐️ Examples
HubSpot
HubSpot created a lead generation machine with their free website grader. This tool quickly became one of their key growth-driving mechanisms and helped turn them into a lead-generation machine.
Even if the users don't use the HubSpot services, they'll likely learn more about the services you offer, read more of your content, join your email list, and are more likely to view your business as a trusted source.
The founder of HubSpot, Dharmesh Shah said: "A simple little tool that helped millions of people improve their website - and in the process helped HubSpot become a publicly-traded company with over 15,000 customers and a market value of over $1.6 billion."
Other Examples:
📝 Things to Note
Understanding Your Audience
Before you create a tool or a micro-site, it's essential to understand who your audience is. What are their pain points? What kind of tool would they find useful? By answering these questions, you can ensure that your free offering aligns with your audience's needs.
Aligning with Your Brand
Your free tool or micro-site should be a reflection of your brand. This means it should align with your brand's voice, values, and aesthetic. It should also complement your other offerings.
Promoting Your Free Tool or Micro-Site
Once you have created your tool or micro-site, you need to get eyeballs on it. This can be done through your main website, social media channels, email marketing, and even paid advertising.
Why Offer Free Stuff?
Free has always been a powerful word in marketing. Offering something free, like a tool or a micro-site, gives you a unique opportunity to demonstrate the value of your products/services without any financial risk from the potential customer's side. Not only does this strategy help in lead generation, but it also builds trust and brand awareness.
🛠 Tools
Typeform or Paperform - Create lead gen forms and connect to ChatGPT for AI output. For example, if you’re in the marketing niche you could build a marketing plan generator (or maybe something more useful) and use Typeform to collect the lead’s business information and have ChatGPT output a response.
Zapier or Make - Automation software you can connect to pretty much anything.
RapidAPI - Browse and connect with millions of APIs to power your tool.
Botpress - Build ChatGPT like bots. Allows you to train your own model. You can build similar lead gen forms like Typeform and Paperform but make it more like a chatbot.
📚 Resources
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