The best way to grow your email list and keep your current subscribers engaged is to regularly offer freebies to them. It is important that you simplify the process for actually delivering the freebies to them so you are better able to keep track of everything. Here are 3 easy ways that you can deliver freebies to your audience.
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How to Deliver Freebies to Your Readers
Freebies are a great way to both get subscribers and keep them happy and engaged.
- Build your email list – Creating a really great free download is a great way to entice readers into subscribing to your blog. These freebies should be something specific to your audience and be something that adds value to their life.
- Keep your current subscribers engaged – While most bloggers think that offering a freebie is just for trying to get readers to subscribe, creating additional free stuff is a great way to thank your current subscribers and keep them engaged and looking forward to your next email. In addition to my weekly Christian blogging tips email that goes out on Tuesdays, I also send a “Friday Freebies” email each week. Sometimes this will simply be free resources from other places – but it also includes digital files that I’ve created specifically for my audience.
Delivering a Single Freebie to a Subscriber
There are a couple of ways to deliver your optin freebie once a reader subscribes. Be sure that you have Double Optin enabled for all of your signup forms. This will reduce the number of spam subscribers.
- Automatic Download – With this method, they are given the file to download as soon as they confirm their subscription
- Redirect to a Cloud Folder – With this method, they are redirected to a folder in your cloud drive that houses all of the downloadable files.
- Redirect to a Resource Page – With this method, they are redirected to a page on your blog where the freebies are stored.
Automatic Download
When double optin is enabled, your reader will need to go check their email to “confirm” that they wish to subscribe. In ConvertKit, you can set it where they are automatically redirected to the file once they click “confirm.” This method works great if what you are offering is a single file for them to download.
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Redirect to a Cloud File
This method is used when you are offering access to a library of content. I have a Printables Library that has a collection of Bible verse coloring pages and printable Scripture cards. All of these files are stored in my Google (cloud) drive. Instead of choosing “download” you can choose “URL” and insert the shareable link for the file in your cloud drive. This way they’ll be automatically redirected to the folder upon confirming.
Let’s say, for example, that you create a graphic to go along with each blog post (or maybe a set of Scripture cards). It would be a hot mess trying to connect each individual file to each individual post. Instead, you can save all of them to a single folder in your cloud drive and simply give them the link to the shared folder. This makes it so much easier to continue creating new stuff but not have to create new delivery methods.
** As a backup, just in case they don’t get redirected, be sure you also include the download or shareable link in your Welcome Email.
Delivering Goods to Your Current Subscribers
Most likely, you’ve created additional freebies to use as optins since first starting your email list. And even though they were created to get a new subscriber, you’ll want to offer these goodies to your current subscribers as well. Often times, you might struggle with “what do I send my subscribers this week” so simply sending them an email to let them know about the new goodie that you’ve added to your library is a great idea.
Create a Password-Protected Resource Page
My main optin (that gets the most subscribers on the faith side of Kingdom Bloggers) is my Bible Verse Coloring Pages. I initially created about 5 different printable pages to begin building my email list. Some days, I just don’t want to “blog” but want to do something productive for the blog. I found that I really enjoy creating the coloring pages so I started saving them to a folder in my Google Drive.
Related: How to Create a Resource Page
Each time I create a new set of them, I’ll add them directly to the folder and send out an email to let my current subscribers know there are some new ones for them to download. Since I’ve added them to the folder on my cloud drive, I only need to send them the shareable link to the folder. I also include a link to this folder at the end of my regular weekly emails and just say something like “Don’t forget to check out the newest addition to the printables library!”.
Delivering Files to Readers without Subscribing
While most bloggers will create freebies for the sole purpose of enticing readers to join their email list, some simply offer goodies within individual blog posts as a nice gesture. If you aren’t concerned with building an email list, you can simply give the file to your reader as a direct download without having to go through the steps of subscribing to your blog.
- You can upload the file to your media library, then hyperlink text in the post to link to the media file URL.
- You can upload your freebie files into a cloud drive and hyperlink the text in the blog post to the shareable link for the file.
- You can create a Resource Page that houses all of your freebies and hyperlink the text in the blog post to that Resource Page.
I actually prefer the 3rd option because by directing them to a resource page where they can click to download the files, you can increase the page views for your site.
Deliver Your Subscriber Freebies with Ease
Delivering the freebies to your readers should be a seamless and simple process – both for you and for them. If you plan to create multiple downloadable files for your readers then you’ll definitely want to create folders in a cloud drive and simply share the link to the folder with them. This is the most effective and method and requires the least amount of work on your part.
Be sure to visit my Resource Pages and enjoy some of the freebies I have stored there for you to enjoy!
