thanks for your response. It was great to get your views on this.

thanks

I’m really glad you asked that question.

The difference between your free offering and the logic behind the ROI of Free (which is what WIRED seems to be preaching as well) is that, with your offer, you’re using something “free” as a value-add to something that’s already being purchased.

By giving something away for “free” if (and only if) a purchase is made, customers have a harder time viewing it as being really and truly Free-with-a-capital-”F”. That’s very different from just giving something away for free, then introducing buying opportunities later, once you’ve already convinced the market you’re worth it.

Of course, I don’t know your business metrics, so I’ll tread lightly. But here’s one possibility: Perhaps you would sell more if, instead of telling people that you will give them the DVD with a purchase, that you offer the DVD for free instead. Then the DVD itself — not the scarf or the promise of the DVD — is used to bait sales. If you are proven to be a trusted authority on scarves, it may be easier to buy from you.

Alternately, you might want to try not telling the customer that they will receive the DVD at all! Then, when they do receive it with their order, you offer it as a gift (”Our gift to you.
Thank you for choosing UniqLooks, where there’s a scarf for every season”).

But that’s a slightly different approach; something known as lagniappe. A close cousin of The ROI of Free, lagniappe exists to spread brand affinity, encourage long-term customer value, and stimulate word-of-mouth. (”Where’d you learn to tie a scarf like that,” they’ll ask. “I bought this from UniqLooks.com and they gave me a free DVD on how to tie them just so,” they’ll answer.)

Again, the ROI-of-Free concept is different. And actually, this blog post and my personal response to you is a good example. FutureNow gives away free advice because one day you, or someone else reading this, will want to hire us.

As Mike says above, “free” should have real business metrics behind it. But that’s the business’s concern, not the customer’s.

Wanted to e-mail you but can’t find a link on here. Anyway, since you had referenced my earlier post on the Elves, wanted to let you know I updated today with their Q4 financials. OfficeMax dropped $50 mil in retail sales this year compared to last Q4. hah!

Also – this Free thing is crap. I took a run at the Long Tail the other day just to get myself warmed up for this next round!
cheers,
Kevin