Free-mium Actually Works for Media
It has been a bone of content that the word ‘premium’ is often brandished with exclusivity that comes with certain price.
In this era of information overload, pretty sure you can find a good handful of resources online by simply Googling the keywords. Everything seems to be easy to access and free. So, why on earth would people pay for content? Unfortunately, the truth is that if you want some trustworthy quality work, the receipt may just scare you away.
This is well-justified by the robust growth of those research companies, like Nielsen in market research sector, Gartner in I.T. sector, or Euromonitor in financial sector. These companies are especially good at telling stories and analysis in a statistical way. One thing in common of these costly studies is that their executive summary and table of content are usually free of charge, but not the detailed content. Surprise, surprise, free-mium model has actually been long existed and workable!
That being said, adopting this pricing model is never easy. First, you need to make sure your content is worth the price even if what you ask is as low as $1. There must be something truly innovative and unique from other free materials online.
Second, bear in mind that there is always a possibility that your readership may drop drastically because of the charge. Don’t worry, it happens to everyone, but the slight barrier helps you identify who and where your die-hard readers are. Most importantly, it brutally and honestly tells you if your content is innovative enough.
Third, the pricing model helps position your brand as an innovator instead of some random content farms. Viewers clearly know the content is original even if it doesn’t cost much. As such, setting a barrier for readership is an efficient marketing strategy.
As a result, setting price works like a double-edge sword. On one hand, it helps brands to build image and possibly generate extra income. On the other hand, if your content isn’t good enough, paid readers will definitely walk away with the dissatisfaction of being ripped off. And you know how it works. Angry customers don’t just tell 5 of their friends. They will tell 500!
