Do free offers work in lead generation?

When I got started in direct marketing, the free offer was king. If you wanted to boost your response rate, you'd throw in a free gift.

This approach pre-dates the Internet, and back then those 'free' gifts had a physical existence that carried an intrinsic value (and cost the advertiser money). As long as the freebie related to the offer, and genuinely added to the overall value of the offer, it was a sure-fire method of generating more leads.

Oh how times have changed. Thanks to the Internet, the number of freebies on offer has risen to the point where their intrinsic value is almost zero (over-supply reduces demand). And of course, most of those 'free' gifts are digital in nature. As digital products carry little or no intrinsic value, their value essentially reduces to zero.

In other words, there's a very good chance that nobody cares about your free report, subscription or download. You're one among millions offering some variation on the same thing.

So what do you do when the free offer stops working?

The answer lies with the strength of the main offer. If you find yourself tempted to throw in a give-away, it may pay to revisit the original offer and take a critical look at how it's constructed. Ask yourself these questions...

Can I state the offer using more powerful language?
Does the offer explain how it solves the major problems experienced by the target market?
Does the offer explain how the product delivers the lifestyle expectations of the target market?
Does the offer invite people to respond? Is it clear why responding is a good idea?
Does the response invitation lack context? For example, have you established your ability (and credibility) to deliver the promised benefits?
Is the problem the response rate? What is the daily visitor count? Don't know? You better find out before assuming the offer is the problem

Chances are, the underlying cause of a low response rate will be found in the answer to one of these questions. And once you know the cause, you're half way to the solution. If you still can't find a definite cause, run split tests against several scenarios and see if one variation outperforms the others. That's what professional lead generation experts do.