Don’t Lose Your Focus!

Traditionally, the sales funnel for subscription services starts with something free. A public blog with “valuable content” sprinkled with ads for paid subscriptions. “Free tools” that entice users to purchase additional features. A free version of the service that can be upgraded to a paid plan.

The problem is, “freeloader” is a real diagnosis. Even in a normal scenario, 95% of people who happily consume your free stuff will never pay you a dime. Either because they think paying for anything online is unnecessary, or because they don’t really need the paid version, or simply because they don’t have the money.

But whether you like it or not, the initial width of your funnel can start to cloud your judgment. You begin chasing after subscriber numbers for your free blog, downloads for your free tools, and free registrations for your service.

You advertise freebies to attract more traffic — because, let’s face it, most people love free stuff 😉 But in doing so, you shift your marketing focus further and further away from serious folks who are actually able and willing to pay — attracting them requires a completely different approach.

The “free stuff” (or “get rich quick”) approach works for “one-shot hustlers” — those who know how to quickly sell something to a user on an emotional impulse or aggressively push them through a sequence of increasingly expensive products.

But you won’t get long-term subscribers that way. Users who have been subjected to express lobotomy will either come to their senses and unsubscribe soon, or they’ll simply run out of money. And you’ll end up thinking you have a product problem. When in reality, the problem is that you shifted your marketing focus to those who will never pay you.

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