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the-master-cylinder · 5 years ago

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SUMMARY Freebie and Bean are a pair of maverick detectives with the SFPD Intelligence Squad. The volatile, gratuity-seeking Freebie is trying to get promoted to the vice squad to garner perks for his retirement while the neurotic and fastidious Bean has ambitions to make lieutenant. Against a backdrop of Super Bowl weekend in San Francisco, the partners are trying to conclude a 14-month investigation, digging through garbage to gather evidence against well-connected racketeer Red Meyers, when they discover that a hit man from Detroit is after Meyers as well. After rejecting their pretext arrest of Meyers to protect him, the district attorney orders them to keep him alive until Monday.

After locating and shooting the primary hit man, and distracted by Bean’s suspicions that his wife is having an affair with the landscaper, they continue their investigation seeking a key witness against Meyers who can explain and corroborate the evidence. In the midst of this, they foil a second hit on Meyers by a backup team, leading to a destructive vehicle and foot pursuit through the city, after which they learn that Meyers is planning to fly to Miami before Monday. Tailing him, they receive word that their witness has been located and a warrant issued for Meyers’ arrest. Unbeknownst to them, a woman Red Meyers picked up at a local park is actually a female impersonator looking to rob Meyers.

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During the arrest attempt Bean is shot by the thief, who flees with Meyers into the stadium where the Super Bowl is underway. Freebie corners the hit man in a women’s restroom. Despite being shot himself, he rescues a hostage and kills the hit man who nearly bests Freebie with his unexpected martial arts skills. The D.A. arrives after the shootings and tells Freebie that the warrant is canceled because the witness was assassinated on the way to the station. Freebie goes nuts and demands to be allowed to arrest Meyers, which is granted by the lieutenant in command of his squad, only to find that Meyers has died of a heart attack. Freebie is further demoralized to learn that the evidence they gathered was planted by Meyers’ wife in an extra-marital conspiracy with his lieutenant.

Bean is not dead after all, however, and in the ambulance the two wounded partners engage in a free-for-all when Freebie thinks Bean has been playing a joke on him, causing yet another accident.

When Jimmy Caan and Alan Arkin interrogate me, they did that little scene about the pliers, I didn’t know what they were talking about, because they just threw that in there! What am I gonna say “Hold guys, this isn’t in the script? Who am I 1o cut the scene? I just went along with, and a realy worked out well, Jimmy was selling the pliers, and my finger was in there already So when he tried them out, he really squeezed my finger. I said “owww!” and he was like “Awww, did that hurt? That was real. He didn’t want to stop the scene either. – Paul Koslo as Whitey

PRODUCTION Filming took eleven weeks in 1973. It was a difficult shoot, in part because Arkin and Caan felt their characters were being made secondary to stunts and action sequences.

Arkin said his relationship was Caan “was great. There is a very exciting interaction between us. Jimmy pushes me and forces me to change.. But a lot of the time we’ve taken a back seat to the action.”

There were difficulties between Rush and Arkin/Caan. Rush says “the main factor was Arkin. Caan was a copycat. He was Arkin’s buddy and would do anything Arkin did… Arkin needed conflict as part of his method, and it was horribly disruptive, but it didn’t show in his work.”

Key scenes were shot on location in San Francisco at Candlestick Park, then home of the Major League Baseball San Francisco Giants, and later the home of the National Football League’s San Francisco 49ers. Dealing with local authorities was reportedly very difficult for the crew.

The plot includes the protagonists’ repeated “totaling” of a series of their own unmarked police vehicles during three different chase-crash sequences. One sequence was filmed on an elevated portion of the since-demolished Embarcadero Freeway, ending with their police vehicle car crashing into an apartment building. After the car lands in an elderly couple’s bedroom as they are watching television, Arkin’s character collapses from nervous shock against the wall as Caan’s character calls for a tow truck, adding that their location is “on the third floor”. The couple retains their aplomb throughout.

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Rush said he “shot the film partly in a Tom and Jerry style, with lots of car chases and car crashes, and the heroes are being indestructible. The audience is laughing and enjoying themselves and suddenly Freebie would drive around the corner into a marching band of kids, and just sloughed through them. The audience thought Wait a minute. What am I laughing at?, and the style of the film had changed to stark realism. There was a lot of game-playing in the picture.”

“I never actually knew what Rush wanted,” said Arkin at the end of filming. “He [Rush] is so uncertain it’s hard to handle,” said Caan.

The city really got behind us, except for Herb Caen, who was the big columnist in San Francisco, since we were closing down three or four major streets every morning doing those car chases. Traffic was rerouted and somehow it bothered him on his way to work. So every morning we’d run to buy the Chronicle to see what nasty thing he said about us that morning. The film was very funny. I thought that the timing that Jimmy Caan and Alan Arkin had was incredible. – Gary Kent (Stuntman)

Director Richard Rush going through a street fight

Interview with Director Richard Rush You refer to Freebie and the Bean as kind of a job for hire that you did for the money. Do you really think of it that way? Because your style is all over it. I also didn’t realize until re-watching Freebie that it was based on a story and exec produced by Floyd Mutrux, whose film Dusty and Sweets McGee I love as well. What was the working relationship like with Mutrux? Richard Rush: Floyd Mutrix and I got along famously, but we did not have much, if any, contact with each other on Freebie and the Bean. He had submitted a screenplay to Warner Brothers which they offered to me. It wasn’t really a screenplay. It was a treatment, an idea for a movie that dealt with two cops, one moral and one not, who rode around together in a police car and quarreled with each other like an old married couple. It was a good idea. It was a new one, never done before, regardless of how many times you have seen it since, through the franchises it has spawned. It started the genre of ‘The Buddy Cop Picture’. I turned it down at first, but John Calley, the smartest executive I have ever met, talked me into it: “Do it and write it the way you want, turn it into a Richard Rush picture. We really want this movie, he said.” I wrote a long treatment, flushing out the violent but funny characters, creating the ironic love story for Bean and the esoteric one for Freebie. Allan Arkin had turned down the project, but the studio gave him my treatment, and he approved. Then I brought my collaborator, Bobby Kaufman, in to write the screenplay with me, which was approved and we made it.

Meanwhile, my earlier financiers were doing another project with Floyd Mutrux, entitled, “PINBALL”, and they brought me in with his permission to unofficially supervise it..Floyd and I had a lot of interesting, successful interaction on that. And, Freebie and the Bean turned out to be Warner Bros. top Grossing film of that year.

What excited you the most about the opportunity to make FREEBIE AND THE BEAN? Richard Rush: Well, actually, at the time it was offered to me it didn’t intrigue me. I turned it down several times. It was a treatment written by Floyd Mutrux that the studio had about two corrupt cops who ride around in a police car, quarreling with each other like an old married couple. You were never sure which one was the wife and which one was the husband. They became interchangeable. There was also the somewhat clumsy, rough skeleton of the plot concerning a criminal that they must keep alive to testify while assassins are contracted to kill him, which survived through our final film screenplay. I liked these ideas idea but there was nothing else there to make a movie work. John Calley, who was the head of the studio and was the only great executive that I have ever met in my life, asked me ”Why don’t you want to do the movie?” I said ”I want to make a Dick Rush picture. ” He said ”Why don’t you turn this into a Dick Rush picture?” He was very generous and promised the studio would be very agreeable. It was the kind of offer that you can’t refuse.

So I called my writing partner and we wrote a new screenplay about two bickering cops that became a prototype of the buddy cop movie. I put a lot of meat on the bones, with the unstereotypical wife of Freebie tormenting him with jealousy and the comic relief of their relationship. I also enjoyed holding a Funhouse Mirror up to the audience to let them examine their own attitudes towards violence. I shot the film partly in a Tom and Jerry style, with lots of car chases and car crashes, and the heroes are being indestructible. The audience is laughing and enjoying themselves and suddenly Freebie would drive around the corner into a marching band of kids, and just sloughed through them. The audience thought ”Wait a minute. What am I laughing at?”, and the style of the film had changed to stark realism. There was a lot of game-playing in the picture. At the time, we were in the middle of the Vietnam War, and we were watching villages being napalmed at dinner time on the TV set. Violence was engulfing our culture and it impacted upon our morality. At the same time, we were human beings with families and pets. It seemed to me that it was the time to play some games with the audience in a way that would help the picture and not hurt it.

Did Floyd Mutrux have any other involvement in the film? Richard Rush: No. He did not participate in any further writing or production or post-production work, just the original piece of material that the studio handed me. I was later hired by the financier of THE STUNT MAN, Mel Simon, to supervise the filming of a film Mutrux was directing entitled Pinball, but I got busy directing THE STUNT MAN, so I hired a young director named John Theile to supervise the film instead.

Freebie came out the same year as Jack Starrett`s The Gravy Train (aka The Dion Brothers) and I often think of them as films that really complement each other. Did you and Jack Starrett talk about production on your respective films while you were making them? Richard Rush: Jack Starrett and I never got a chance to talk about films when we were making them, except when we were working together on Hell’s Angeles on Wheels. I think he was fascinated by the fact that I was departing from the screenplay, then working my way back to it pages later. It was the first time I started seriously improvising on film – and I never stopped. We discussed that at the time.

There was friction between Alan Arkin, James Caan and yourself during the shooting of the film. Do you think it helped the film in any way? Richard Rush: No, but thank God it didn’t hurt the film too much. I had never had trouble with actors in my life before that film and I have never had problems since. The main factor was Arkin. Caan was a copycat. He was Arkin’s buddy and would do anything Arkin did. When I told John Calley I wanted Arkin for the role he warned me”Arkin is a director killer. We just did CATCH-22 with him and he put Mike Nichols in the hospital. ” I said ”Hell, I’ve never had any troubles with actors. I’ll take my chances. ” It was kind of a stupid mistake on my part. Arkin needed conflict as part of his method, and it was horribly disruptive, but it didn’t show in his work. I found myself having to erase my own laughter from the soundtrack because the work Arkin and Caan were doing was so funny.

Is it true that Alan Arkin and James Caan made your life harder than it needed to be on that set? Richard Rush: I definitely had some problems with Arkin and Caan. Arkin had made it part of his routine, part of his method, to irritate all of the directors he’d work with. It was just his thing. He found creative energy and inspiration out of being combative. And it was the only time in my 50 year career I had a problem with an actor. Warner Brothers approached me to direct the film, and they had a treatment that had been written by Floyd Muturx and Caan was attached and already part of the package. I ended up rewriting most of the script with Robert Kaufmann but I didn’t take credit. And the studio said I could cast the other cop, so I immediately said I wanted Arkin. And John Calley, who was the greatest executive that I’ve ever met in my life, casually warned me not to hire Arkin. He told me he’d driven Mike Nichols into the hospital while they’d been making Catch-22. But I said I didn’t care, and that I’d take my chances. And Calley told me I’d regret it.

Did you? Richard Rush: Yes and no. Arkin just had this thing about him as an actor where he needed confrontation, and it got malicious at points. And Caan was a follower, he’d do whatever he saw Arkin doing. It turned into a living hell for a while, but they did everything I wanted them to do as professional actors and the results were brilliant. Arkin wouldn’t take direction very well at times, though, which became challenging, but he’s a great talent and that was just his process. They had such terrific chemistry on-screen that the off-screen antics, while frustrating, were worth it in the end in terms of the final product. I had to edit out a lot of my own laughter from the set. What I needed out of those two main characters in Freebie was for them to create a four-armed, four-legged, two-headed monster, and they did! It wasn’t easy at times but the movie has a sense of manic energy that I’m not sure we’d have achieved with anyone else in those roles. I just became their common enemy.

I love the scene where Alan Arkin confronts Valerie Harper. How was it working with her? Richard Rush: That’s my favorite scene. It’s a wonderful scene, beautifully written. She was the perfect person for that role, and we specifically wrote it for Valerie. I had to get the studio moving to get her cast, because she was up for another film at the same time that Freebie was going to shoot, and the studio, for whatever reason, was stalling. Arkin had approved her but they were just being lazy. So I got on the phone and demanded that she be cast before we lost her! She was gorgeous and so much fun to work with, and I really loved what she did in the film, because her role elevates the movie a bit more from just being a buddy-cop film, there’s an extra dimension because of her.

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How much of the film was re-written on the day or improvised? Did you devise any new action sequences during filming? Richard Rush: The film was thoroughly written on paper, including all the action and the dialogue, but of course Arkin and Caan kept up a habitual banter talking over each other, arguing and contradicting each other, which I strongly urged. The adjusted dialogue somehow emerged through this banter and therefore sounded completely hilarious and spontaneous. Of course there was spontaneous action. I had never seen the location or equipment when I wrote the stunts. It’s all generated from what you have on hand. Getting a studio to approve a car off a freeway into a building involves a monumental campaign.

Do you think there’s an element of repressed homosexuality at all in the relationship between Freebie and Bean? Richard Rush: Of course. And since Arkin and Caan are such rugged, masculine characters in reality and in their own minds, it makes their dependence on each other more poignant and funnier.

FREEBIE AND THE BEAN inspired so many other buddy cop movies, but few if any had parts for women like your film did. Richard Rush: No, they didn’t. Most of the copycats never ‘got’ what made the movie work, except for a few, like Dick Donner with LETHAL WEAPON (1987) or BEVERLY HILLS COP (1984).

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FREEBIE AND THE BEAN is outlandish at times, but it still stays grounded. Richard Rush: The film shows how life can resemble a cartoon at times, but it’s still very real and actions have consequences. I consider my major value as a filmmaker to be my ability to walk the tightrope between comedy and drama and deliver without falling off.

Is there anything you’d have done differently on Freebie? Richard Rush: You always think of things in retrospect, and there are a few silly things in there I’d probably lose today. Those giant dominoes falling over would be one thing.

Did you have anything to do with the Freebie and the Bean TV series? Richard Rush: Nothing! They had asked me to do one, I said, ‘No, I already did that movie”. When the pilot for Starsky and Hutch was finished, they asked me to look at it, to see if Warner’s could sue for plagiarism. I said, “No, I don’t think they got it”

Freebie and the Bean (TV series) The show ran opposite the very popular series Love Boat, which overshadowed it in viewer polls. In their book The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present, authors Tim Brooks and Earle F. Marsh write, “Unfortunately this series was such as mishmash of comedy and drama, slapstick and reality, that it soon sank without a trace. The fact that it was scheduled opposite ABC’s The Love Boat-which had no trouble defining what it wanted to be-probably didn’t help.”

Freebie and the Bean was a short-lived nine-episode American action-comedy film television series about two off-beat plainclothes police detectives in San Francisco. Based on the 1974 film of the same name, it starred Tom Mason and Héctor Elizondo in the title roles and was broadcast on CBS on Saturday nights at 9:00 PM[5] in December 1980 and January 1981

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CAST/CREW Directed Richard Rush

Produced Richard Rush

Written Robert Kaufman Floyd Mutrux

James Caan as Det. Sgt. Tim “Freebie” Walker Alan Arkin as Det. Sgt. Dan “Bean” Delgado Loretta Swit as Mildred Meyers Jack Kruschen as Red Meyers Alex Rocco as D.A. Walter W. Cruikshank Mike Kellin as Lt. Rosen Paul Koslo as Whitey Valerie Harper as Consuelo Delgado Linda Marsh as Barbara Christopher Morley as Transvestite Maurice Argent as Tailor

CREDITS/REFERENCES/SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY money-into-light Shock Cinema#36 Spectacularoptical

Freebie and the Bean (1974) Retrospective SUMMARY Freebie and Bean are a pair of maverick detectives with the SFPD Intelligence Squad. The volatile, gratuity-seeking Freebie is trying to get promoted to the vice squad to garner perks for his retirement while the neurotic and fastidious Bean has ambitions to make lieutenant.

#70scops #70sFilms

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my-job-is-to-fangirl · 5 years ago

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I went for my first ever concert this April in Bangkok with two of my best friends (Nabi and Bunky, as mentioned in my other Bangkok posts). I am still not over the fact that we actually went, and it’s been four months. I just thought I’d make a blog post because I think I can handle looking back at the videos now without hyperventilating. (edit- I couldn’t.)

Anyway, I will talk about everything in detail- the ticketing process, the days leading up to the concert, and the day of. Also, my ‘favourite moments’ list went on and on so I stopped after a while. Let’s begin! I hope this is slightly helpful at least, and if not, enjoy the video! xD

TICKETING We found out that they were having a concert in BKK in October and began the process of badgering our respective parents to let us go, and in my case, to come with us on the trip. Everything worked out pretty soon and we couldn’t handle our excitement. Then we remembered how hard it would be to get the actual tickets. We prepared ourselves for the worst, obviously, and I had my mom tell me practically everyday ‘don’t be disappointed if you don’t get tickets okay, you can try later’.

The tickets were going on sale in December, and I think we religiously prepared for the ticketing process for a good week before ‘the day’. I don’t think we slept the previous night, I have butterflies in my stomach even as I’m typing this that’s the sheer amount of anxiety we had about it. We all had notebooks with seating charts and which seats to aim for and everything ready.

The morning of the ticketing, we were up by 6:30, ready with laptops and the webpage open (thaiticketmajor.com). And of course, our notebooks, a pen, and water to last us the hours ahead. Oh, most importantly, we had credit card details written down too. There would be a very tiny window to finish payment, assuming we got tickets. We were on a conference call, dying in anticipation. I had my aunt, mom, dad, and grandfather all walking around the house, probably thinking ‘these kids are mad’. They all helped though, they were my hype-people, giving me food and saying ‘have hope’ xD

It took forEVER to enter the damn website, and once we did, we had to wait in line. We also had other friends on the conference call to help us out- THANK YOU ALL, and all we said for hours was ‘my man moved!!’ (you’ll see in the picture below what I mean). We all used multiple browsers, and for me, Safari worked magic. I got in line at about 8 I think, and finally got into the website at around 9:45. We were on the website from 7 though, refreshing and waiting for it to open. I don’t know how mine was fast, we all got in line at the same time.

Once I reached the end of the line and entered the website properly, there was a lot of screaming in my earphones. ‘STAY CALM YOU CAN DO THIS WE NEED THESE TICKETS.’ I went through, picked seats that were close enough (after about a minute of deliberation, we didn’t have more time than that), and waited to see if it would go through. I think I had to change seats thrice because they were booked by the time I clicked on ‘select’, but we unknowingly got great seats (more on that later). My aunt was sitting ready with card details so we went ahead and paid!! Again, there was a lot of screaming. I think we all went silent for a few seconds just taking it in.

This is what it looked like in the beginning. The man kept walking and taking the green line with him.

Now, the next three months, we kept counting down and planning our trip, it was so much fun researching where to go and what to eat at the 7/11’s (okay that was mainly me). Buying and figuring out what to wear at the concert, listing places to shop there, what to do on the day of the concert- our priorities.

THE MORNING OF 7.4.19 My parents obviously didn’t come for the concert, but they spent that day taking care of us and giving us food because we were so excited, it was like having an out-of-body experience, I swear. We got up by 6:30, got ready (not in concert wear, because the concert was in the evening, and we were going to come back to the hotel after collecting the tickets because it was quite close by to the venue), ate breakfast and went to the venue. We walked around a little bit to find the stalls for tickets. We were greeted by posters of each of the members and a HUGE one of all of them with the concert details.

This is the clearest one I have.

We were sitting in line in the sweltering heat, but thankfully it didn’t take too long, we were early and there weren’t that many people.

We didn’t know it would be that hot, we didn’t have anything to cover our heads with. Anyway, we got our tickets pretty quickly and then stood in line for army bombs. They give you a sheet with all the merch and you have to select everything you want so it becomes easier. We just got those, got them synced to our respective seats, and then got Fanta xD they were selling giant cups of ice with whatever flavour of Fanta, we all got strawberry. I don’t know why, but I felt the need to include that detail. We then went and got small fans outside on the street. We saw 90% of the people holding fans and we thought ‘oh we can take the heat we’re from India’, but god no we needed them. [Random shoutout to the really sweet girl from Indonesia I stood in front of in line for the army bombs :D] While leaving, a random girl was coming to each of us and saying ‘sorry, please take this’, and I thought it was a pamphlet or something, but it was a cute Hobi sticker ㅠㅠ The concert experience had officially begun xD

EVENING We left at around 4 to go to the venue, the concert was at 7. Adventure time (not the show)- We were in the cab on the way, and the cab driver stopped somewhere and started to talk to us in Thai. We kept telling him we needed him to speak in English and finally, he told us we had to get down there. Google maps showed that we were almost 2 km away from the venue, we thought we could walk, but there was traffic for as far as the eye could see, and we’d get all sweaty and disgusting. While we were contemplating what to do, there were a lot of guys wearing traffic vests (I am so sorry I don’t know what they’re called) and one guy spoke into his phone and showed us google translate, it said we had to get out here and cars weren’t allowed past the point because of traffic. They said they’d drop us on bikes to the venue, and after seeing a lot of other girls going, we decided to go too. This was honestly one of my highlights of the trip, it was so much fun, and such a good initiative.

ANYWAY. We went in and were ogling all the people there, MAN they dressed so well. We saw a queue in the middle somewhere and thought we had to go for the bag check so we joined in. IT TURNED OUT TO BE A GIRL GIVING OUT A FREEBIE. We were so happy with it. We walked around, joined a lot more queues, we couldn’t be stopped, it was too good to be true. We collected so many freebies, and the quality of the photocards and whatever they gave was so so so good, it was unbelievable that people were just giving them out for free. That’s how nice Army’s are :’))))) Here are all the freebies I got.

the first freebie we got, its a sticker :’)

this was for us to place our ticket in the centre, we didn’t :p

love this one.

the other side of the card above. the quality of this card is amazing

kook postcard!

the girl who gave this to us is friends with honeyjoonie94 we were so excited!

this girl told everyone to take two Jin pictures each I love them

the Jikook and Vkook ones were literally packaged in plastic covering, look at the dedication :’)

all together now, lets say thank you armyyyyyy.

Where all the queues were happening.

our beautiful tickets :’)

Army time :’) We were so lucky to get a banner with lyrics from Moonchild, it made it extra special ㅠㅠ

Standing around for a little more, we finally went inside the stadium. I’m not kidding, we all almost cried just entering the place.

LOOK AT IT I MEAN CAN YOU BELIEVE IT

There’s not much to say about the actual concert other than they were amazing, we’re still not fully convinced they’re human, anyone who says they’re not good live, please show this to them for proof that they exist on a meal of their own CD’s. That’s how good they are. BTS has been such a huge part of my life for the past two and a half years, only armys will understand how happy we get when we see them or listen to them. They really are something else, and something so different from usual artists, they never, ever fail to make me smile.

Best moments (in no particular order) in bullet points because otherwise, this will get way too long:

1- Love. Screaming 사랑 사랑 사랑 was the best thing ever, I will never forget the army bombs making purple hearts in the crowd. 2- Yoongi in the glorious red suit for Seesaw + his choker later on. 3- Serendipity- Jimin sitting on the stage like a baby. My friend who isn’t even army watched the clip and said it made her so happy :’) 4- I DON’T KNOW NAN MOLLA. 5- Them walking towards our side. We were shocked by how close our seats were, we had no idea. And we could see them up so close ㅠㅠ 6- Tear. That’s all. 7- Chanting Jhope for Just Dance. We screamed it for a long time and you could see the surprise on Hobi’s face, it was adorable. 8- The fact that we actually got to see Run and I Need U live is insane. 9- Baepsaeeee. We wanted this medley solely for Baepsae. If you know, you know. 10- Euphoria. I feel like Koo and yellow army bombs together were perfect :’) 11- Singularity. Unreal ethereal out of this world beauty of Kim Taehyung cannot be explained. 12- Epiphany. Singing ‘I’m the one I should love’ felt cathartic. I put a nice long clip in the video. 13- Ours being the last concert of the Love Yourself tour was a blessing. 14- Jimin’s adlibs in The Truth Untold. 15- Mic Drop red cult+dance break+Yoongi. 16- Anpanman. This was one of the songs I was most excited for because they’re always so chaotic. 17- So What. I never listened to this song much, but after seeing it live, I love it. It brings back memories of just so much energy and the rush of being there. Also fake ‘mist’ that was apparently water. 18- Army time with Love Myself+confetti. 19- Seeing 50,000 people on the streets all waiting for cabs. I had to include this because it was just so fun xD 20- The number of freebies we got I LOVE ARMIES. 21- Curly hair JK. YEAH WE GOT TO SEE OUR 90’S HEARTTHROB LIVE. 22- The rain. The rain that did certain wonderful things. Again, if you know, you know. Just look up Namjoon pictures from that day, you’re welcome. 23- Tae speaking Thai was the cutest thing ever. 24- Fire dance break. 25- FANCHANT. I was living for it. 26- Army bomb. Just buying it and having it in my shelf now. What a feeling. 27- Large cups of iced Fanta. yes, it’s a highlight for me. 28- There was this girl who screamed ‘Park Jimin, ULJIMA’. An icon. 29- Seeing armys all over the city felt like some weird dream. Honestly from the minute we landed, they were everywhere. In the airport, in the hotel (there were about 60 armys in our hotel), on the streets, e v e r y w h e r e. 30. Going to an actual BTS concert was a dream of ours for two years and we were lucky enough that everything worked out in the end. I couldn’t be happier. I haven’t sung in like 15 years, but I did that day. And the next time I sing will be at another concert, I hope, only in the presence of 50,000 people who truly love these boys. It was a surreal experience, and what made it even better was going with two friends who mean so much to me.

[In conclusion- this is what I wrote the day after our concert in my journal- ‘Joon is poreless. Hobi is everything. Tae is beauty. JK is baby. Jimin is angel. Yoongi is pale. Jin is ethereal.]

Okay bye. I’m glad I finally made this post. Now enjoy the video! I made a video with all the clips, the individual ones are huge and not viewable. I had to upload it on youtube because I thought it wouldn’t upload here. Anyway, you have two options now :p

Love Yourself.

Post (BTS) concert depression is real ㅠㅠ I went for my first ever concert this April in Bangkok with two of my best friends (Nabi and Bunky, as mentioned in my other Bangkok posts).

#bangkok #bangtan #blog #blogger #blogging #bts #kpop #music #thailand

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berthastover · 6 years ago

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25 Lead Magnet Ideas to Help You Build Your Email List Faster

Email marketing seems to be enjoying a renaissance in its popularity in the last couple of years.

Suddenly, from being that one kid whom nobody ever invited to the parties, email marketing’s turned into the channel that arrives fashionably late and gets the party started.

The above is a bit of an exaggeration, but you know what I’m trying to say here.

The reason for this is simple.

Marketers want more leads.

Getting them through other marketing channels is becoming more expensive.

And the number one benefit of email marketing is its impact on lead generation.

At least that’s what we’ve found in one of the studies we’ve done.

In theory, getting more leads through email marketing is simple.

All you have to do is get someone’s email address and then gain their interest in your product or service.

Since buying email lists is a bad idea, you have to take an alternative route.

And the single best way to do this is to offer your users something of value in exchange for their email address.

That thing I’m referring to is called a lead magnet – a free incentive for joining your email list.

Lead magnets are also called sign up incentives, sign up offers, content upgrades, freebies, opt-in bribes, and many other terms.

As you’ll learn from this article, there are many different types of lead magnets.

The most important thing is that they’re effective and that most of them can be created relatively quickly – using your existing resources.

As I mentioned, in this article, I’d like to focus on providing you the best ideas for lead magnets that’ll help you build your email list and generate more leads faster.

However, if you’d like first to cover the bases, here is a more detailed explanation on what lead magnets are.

Let’s now take a look at the following list of 25 lead magnet ideas, examples, and explanations on how they could be useful for your business.

25 lead magnet ideas and examples

1. Email course

An email course can be a great lead magnet.

And an easy one to set up, too!

Instead of sending all the course materials in one go, the idea is to divide them into smaller chunks (lessons) and send them to your email recipients one by one.

Thanks to this approach, your email subscribers get a lot of value, over an extended period of time.

And because you’re not giving away all the course materials right away, you get a better chance of building a stronger relationship with them.

What kind of content could be turned into an email course that’ll help you increase your email signups?

Virtually anything.

If you’re an expert in agriculture, dog breeding, or playing squash, you could gather your knowledge and offer it as an incentive to sign up to your email list.

It all depends on your niche and what your target audience is interested in.

Here’s an example of an email course that was used as a lead magnet:

As you can see, this is an email series on Video Marketing Fundamentals from Wistia.

This approach isn’t uncommon, especially in the online marketing niche.

We’ve also used the same approach and gained a lot of success with it for GetResponse.

You can check out our Resource Center to see some of our latest courses.

As I already mentioned, setting up an email course is easy.

All you have to do is put your lessons into a sequence of emails, which can be either set up as autoresponders (the easy way) or a marketing automation workflow (slightly more advanced but also allows for adding behavior-triggered emails and tags).

2. Infographic

Infographics can be both fun and useful.

Many people like them, because they can quickly provide the key information on a particular topic and do so in a format that’s enjoyable to look at.

It’s also not uncommon to see infographics get a lot of social shares and backlinks.

But there’s one issue with infographics that needs to be mentioned.

It’s that some of them have a relatively short life-span. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you’re trying to take advantage of a special event or a particular season.

On the other hand, if you don’t want to keep creating infographics too often, you’ll want to develop one that’s going to help you generate leads for months to come.

How can you do that?

Check out your existing content. See which posts or videos get a lot of engagement and traffic from the organic search throughout the entire year.

Most often, you’ll be able to find content that’s highly popular and is worth repurposing, i.e., being turned into an infographic.

Next, do a Google search for images and see if there’s anything similar already out there. If there is, you’ll have to make sure yours is better and can outperform the existing one.

What if you don’t have content that’s ranking well just yet?

In this case, go to question and answer types§ of websites like Quora.

These get a lot of organic traffic in pretty much any niche you can imagine.

Search through the categories, find the one that’s relevant to your niche, and check out the questions that have been posted there.

Look at the ones that get a lot of views, follows, and comments on.

Then all you have to do is pick one specific topic, gather all the best answers, and turn them into a neat, share-worthy infographic.

Also, you can use tools like Ahrefs to identify the top performing infographics and get inspired by what’s attracted a lot of social shares in the previous year.

3. Calendar or planner

Calendars and planners can make very effective lead magnets, especially if you offer them at the beginning of the year.

Everyone’s just starting to lay out the plans for future campaigns and events to attend.

That’s when you can ‘hit them’ – and get a lot of engagement in the process, too :).

Create a calendar that revolves around your niche (e.g., planting calendar for different plants and seeds if you’re in the agriculture vertical) and offer it in exchange for an email address.

It can work even better if you make it in a print-friendly format.

This way, if anyone prints out your calendar, they’ll keep seeing your logo next to their desk for the entire year.

Should you plan to run a lead nurturing campaign afterward, your work will already be that much easier. Your email recipients will remember you from the logo they keep seeing every day.

Below’s an example of a retail calendar we’ve done at the beginning of this year.

We haven’t actually used it as a lead magnet, but we just as well could have, and I bet the results would be satisfying

4. Spreadsheet

In some niches, spreadsheets are very popular.

Take online marketers or personal finance bloggers for example.

People in these industries often come up with different spreadsheets that help them optimize their work.

And it turns out there are many people with similar needs to theirs, so all these bloggers and marketers have to do is share their existing spreadsheets with the others.

What’s even better is that these often don’t even have to be very complex. Like social media or editorial calendars with different columns and rows prepared for individual online marketing channels.

Other times, the spreadsheets will include more complicated functions and detailed explanations on how they should be used.

These are even more powerful as most users won’t be able to develop them on their own.

Also, when you know that someone’s put a lot of effort into preparing a spreadsheet, you don’t feel bad that you have to offer your email address in exchange. You know you’re getting real value out of this deal.

In both cases, spreadsheets can help you speed up your email list building process.

All you have to do is put them behind an opt-in form and them to the thank you page or an automated thank you message.

It’s that simple

Below’s an example of a page that does just that. What’s interesting about it, however, is that instead of paying with an email address you’re being asked to share the resource to gain access to it.

5. A cheat sheet or list

The longer you work in a given industry, the more experience and knowledge you obtain – at least in theory!

Some of it is probably difficult to find or access for someone new to the business.

So why not take advantage of the years behind your belt and put them into a downloadable list or a cheat sheet?

We tend to forget about this, but there are people who prefer shorter pieces of content like cheat sheets over ebooks.

They don’t have the time to download and read long-form content. They prefer something quicker to read that can help them make significant changes to their strategy fast.

This is a win-win situation.

Creating a cheat sheet shouldn’t take you too long – after all, you already have the knowledge that’s necessary to develop it, so all you have to do is combine it in a logical way.

You’ll also get more subscribers who are actually using your content, rather than just downloading it.

Shouldn’t this be a goal for all our content?

The interesting thing about lists is that they can be used in any industry.

You could create a list of:

recipes (e.g., gluten-free, Halloween themed, or for organizing a picnic),

tools (e.g., for marketing automation, for start-ups, or those that are free of charge),

resources (e.g., on a specific topic or for a specific group of customers),

workouts (e.g., for those who are traveling or working out at home)

looks (e.g., clothes for summer vacation or business trips)

As you can see, all of these ideas could be turned into a lead magnet that’d generate tons of new email subscribers.

For your inspiration, take a look at these two websites that used checklists as their opt-in incentives.

6. Ebooks, guides, and whitepapers

There are still many people who like more long-form content.

Ebooks, guides, and whitepapers. All of them are great lead magnets and can help you grow your email list faster.

While putting them together can often take a hefty amount of time or require special software if you want them to look particularly good (I use InDesign), their lifespan tends to be very long.

The argument that supports the use of ebooks is that they’re often perceived as more valuable than an infographic or a cheat sheet.

Some of the marketers using ebook lead magnets even go as far as to say that their guide is worth several hundred dollars, but this one time they’re giving it away for *free* – in exchange for your email address.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that all ebooks have to be very comprehensive. I see plenty of downloadable guides and whitepapers that offer little to no value whatsoever.

But that’s not the approach I would recommend.

You should always pay attention to the content you put inside of your lead magnet.

You want your new subscribers to be happy about the exchange that they’ve just made.

If they don’t, you’ll likely observe high unsubscribe and complaint rates – and this is going to be counterproductive towards your deliverability and success with email marketing.

Sadly, we see this quite often for single-message autoresponders, most of which are thank you emails.

As you can see in the screen above, taken from our recent study, their engagement rates are high, but so are the unsubscribe and complaint rates.

Ask yourself – who normally signs up to an email list and unsubscribes right away?

Other than your competitors, my intuition tells me these are the people who’re unsatisfied with what they’ve received in their thank you message.

7. Report

Do you think your blog readers would appreciate something even more comprehensive than an ebook?

If so, then offer them a report.

Reports can work wonders for your lead generation strategy.

Right away, they put you in a different position. If they’re based on a large-scale study or have been conducted with a world-known research partner, they can help your brand be perceived as an authority in the industry.

The challenging part is that they take time and resources to develop.

You probably won’t be able to create one even under a month.

Not unless you’re awesome at data mining or have the ability to launch a survey that’s going to gather thousands of answers in a short amount of time.

But if you do have enough time, resources, or can launch a large-scale survey – do it and then write a report with the findings.

If it turns out good, you can expect a lot of attention from other media sites – not to mention an increase in your email list size.

From personal experience, I can tell you that they’re great for self-development, too.

In the process of analyzing the data, you’ll learn a lot and get plenty of ideas for new content pieces you can use in the future.

8. Video

Just like with cheat sheets and lists, some people prefer content that’s quick and easy to consume.

For example, videos.

Videos can work well both for user engagement and email list building.

Depending on the kind of video and what it is about, you can often watch them while doing something else at the same time.

They usually don’t require the same amount of attention as other types of content – and this is what makes them so popular.

While not all videos should be turned into lead magnets and put behind an opt-in gate, many of them can.

Interviews with interesting guests, tips or tutorials, examples effective strategies, and of course webinars.

See what kind of videos are popular in your industry and try offering one in exchange for an email address.

As an additional incentive, provide a quick summary or a short version that can be accessed without paying with email.

This will give your users the chance to make a solid decision whether they want to watch the full video and sign up to your email list.

Speaking of videos, I’ve also seen marketers use video and podcast transcripts being used as lead magnets.

I’m not the biggest fan of this approach, though I can see how they could be beneficial for email list building.

At the end of the day, I consider transcripts as something that’s meant to help your users consume your content better (and rank in the SERPS, too).

The odds are that some of your prospects are using a screen reader to access your content due to some hearing impairment.

As such, I don’t think it’s fair to ask them to leave their email address in exchange for the transcripts.

9. Consultation

You may argue that we live in a digital world where you can buy services and products from across the globe.

But the truth is that at the end of the day – people buy from people.

For some purchases, especially those that require significant commitment (time or money), people want to consult someone before they sign anything.

We’ve learned that this is often the case for some particular cultures, e.g., in the ASEAN region where the human factor makes a big difference.

If you’re an expert in a field – you either have an agency or are a solopreneur – and you offer your services online, consider giving away a 15- or 30-minute consultation in exchange for an email address.

There’s a big advantage to this approach.

Right away, you’re able to start building a relationship with your potential lead.

Plus, in most cases, you immediately know, if there’s any business to be made – whether the customer’s the right fit and they’re someone you’d like to work with.

There’s one more argument that supports this type of lead magnet.

It’s the fact that if someone’s signing up for a consultation, they’re probably already looking to buy. Maybe not immediately, but at least in the near future.

And that’s a much better ground for building long-term relationships than cold pitching out people of the blue :).

10. Free quote or price estimate

People often research and compare different options before they make any financial commitment.

This is the case for services such as car insurance, mortgage, financial loans, and others.

Offering them for free can help you generate a lot of traffic, but the truth is that most people won’t convert.

That’s just the way it is, and we have to accept this.

Reciprocity is powerful (If you’re unfamiliar with this topic, I highly recommend that you read the book Give and Take by Adam Grant), but people feel less motivated to return the ‘favor’ if they don’t know you and it’s the first – and maybe last – time they see your website.

That’s why offering a free quote only after someone provides you the email address can be a great approach for your lead generation strategy.

A popular way of doing this is to get the user to fill out the form half-way.

Ask them a few questions first, let them choose from all the available options, and right before they’re about to receive the quote – ask them about their an email address.

While this may irritate some of your users, as long as you’re transparent in your communication you should be OK.

People will understand that updating the information to provide the service takes both time and effort, but you need to make sure they understand how much value they’re getting out of this exchange.

11. Coupons and deals

Ecommerce marketers know this the hard way.

You don’t usually make a lot of money from your first-time buyers.

That’s because you have to invest to acquire them – to get them onto your site, to make them check out your products, and finally to make the first purchase.

These costs add up pretty quickly, and it’s often not enough to convince your new visitors to even make that initial purchase.

That’s why many ecommerce marketers choose to add coupons as their lead magnet.

The coupon is meant to give that extra push to help the users to make the first commitment.

But some marketers worry that offering a coupon right away is a bad practice and that it’s going to drive their profits down.

That’s true for the short-term. But if you’re able to convince your first-time buyers to order from you again – you’re going to win in the long-term.

Through lead nurturing campaigns, automated emails including product recommendations, and other tactics. If you do it right, your efforts will pay off.

If you’re unsure about giving away coupons in exchange for an email address, you can add some restrictions.

For example:

Your coupon is going to be valid only for a one-time purchase above a certain amount of money.

Alternatively, it could be valid for a second purchase instead – this way you’ll motivate the first-time buyers to make another commitment.

There are multiple ways to use coupons both as lead magnets and regular incentives meant to engage your existing or inactive customers.

Do the maths, see if you can afford using them, and don’t worry if your profit margin on the first-time buyers isn’t too high.

Pro tip: Make sure your discount codes and coupons work at all times. According to the data from Statista, “discount code doesn’t work” was the number one reason why users abandoned their shopping carts in the US in 2017.

While my explanation of using coupons and deals up to this point referred to products that you sell yourself, it’s worth mentioning that this doesn’t have to be that way.

The deals that you offer don’t have to be on your products.

They don’t even have to be for tangible products at all.

There are many marketers out there, who run affiliate sites that’ll send you great deals in exchange for your email address.

If you buy any of the products or services through them, you’ll get a good discount, and they’ll earn a commission.

Perhaps one of the most known sites that work in a similar way is Appsumo.

It gathers hundreds of thousands of marketers who’re either looking for great deals on tools or are trying to launch their product to that specific target audience.

And based on the kinds of offers they run (even up to 80% OFF), it’s safe to assume their email list grows quickly.

12. Free delivery

Some say that free delivery is even more powerful than offering coupons.

I can see where they’re coming from.

Many users often don’t mind spending a lot of money on different products, but they’ll think twice before buying something that has an extra delivery cost added in the checkout.

According to the data from Statista, unexpected shipping costs are the biggest reason why users abandon their online shopping carts.

Also, there are people (myself included) that would rather spend slightly more money to earn the free delivery, if it’s available above after a certain threshold.

That being said, if you’re an ecommerce business, offering free delivery should be one of your key strategies to help you grow your email list.

Free delivery can be a great alternative to price coupons, especially if you’re not particularly enthusiastic about offering them to your customers or are worried it’ll hurt your brand’s perception.

Once again, you shouldn’t be too worried that including the free delivery will cut down your profit margin on the first-time buyers. You’ll get it back in the long-term.

And if you want to see more commitment from your customers, offer it only if they spend more than a particular amount on their order. Or just limit it to their first order, all together.

13. Chance to win something

Who doesn’t like to win something now and then?

Not many marketers use this approach but offering a chance to win something can be a good lead magnet idea.

There are however a few challenges with this tactic.

First of all, the prize should be valuable and relevant to your target audience.

It wouldn’t make sense to offer a free power bank if you were running an online clothing store.

Neither would it be to offer something of minor value like a keychain.

Also, your prize should be redeemable.

No matter where your customers are from, you should be able to ship anywhere in the world.

There’s one more challenge with this approach, but this one’s a bit harder to handle.

Richard Wiseman wrote about it in his book – The Luck Factor.

Some people consider themselves unlucky and don’t believe they’ll win. That is also why they might not want to take part in your prize-draw.

For this kind of people, I’d suggest that you emphasize how strong their chances of winning are or the fact that everyone gets some kind of a prize.

As I said, not many marketers use this tactic to grow their email list.

However, I’ve recently come across a site that’s using it effectively.

As you can see below, a chance of winning a set of marketing-related books can work very well – if your target audience is in that niche.

Given that this blog was all about marketing, the prize was relevant.

Also, what’s clever about this tactic is that by offering books from world-famous authors, they’re right away using their names to position the blog at a similar level.

Even though the readers might not be familiar with the blog yet, they’ll anticipate that the content they’ll receive via email will be similar to what the famous authors write about.

And here’s another, slightly similar example, but with a less-clear incentive.

14. Event tickets

There’s yet another great idea for a lead magnet – event tickets.

If you organize your own event – great. Instead of giving away a free admission, ask people who’re interested in the event to register and leave their email address.

What if you don’t run any events?

Then, you can try and partner up with those who do. Quite often, partnering companies (who either pay a certain amount of money or help co-promote the idea) can get a certain number of tickets for free.

Then you can use those free tickets as your lead magnet.

This tactic is pretty popular among companies that organize events.

15. Online events and webinars

I know I’ve previously mentioned that videos (including webinars) make great lead magnets.

However, I felt that online events, meetings, and webinars deserve a separate point on this list.

The reason for this is that videos are often a one-way type of communication.

Webinars and online events, on the other hand, are usually meant to be a dialogue.

Whether it is one presenter, the host and their guest, or a number of different presenters – the idea behind using this form of content as lead magnet is the same.

You’re offering value – a presentation or keynote on an important topic – in exchange for an email address.

The more you offer – a better speaker, more interesting topic, or simply more speakers talking about different topics – the higher are your chances of getting people to opt in.

At GetResponse, we often run webinars, either on our own or with special guests, as well as we take part in similar initiatives organized by other companies.

In fact, here you can check some of the recordings of webinars we hosted in the past.

Thanks to them, we manage to gather several thousand registrations every time.

Best of all, their setup is straightforward.

You can actually host your own webinar in GetResponse in just a few steps.

16. Free samples

Another way ecommerce businesses can increase their email list’s growth is by offering free samples.

There are two ways you can go about offering them.

You can either add the free samples to your customer’s first order or offer them right away but charge for the delivery cost.

The second approach is actually very similar to what one rapidly growing ecommerce company called Wish is doing.

They’re offering one product, free of charge, for anyone who registers to their platform and pays for the shipping.

This way they’re getting thousands of people to download the app and fill out their details and all they’re giving away in exchange are small-value products like headphones or phone cases.

There’s one more benefit to using free samples. You can get people to try out your products, which might be especially difficult if you’re launching a new line or brand.

17. Case study

Case studies can be very effective when you’re trying to convince others that your products or services are exceptional.

Here’s why.

They show the process – exact steps and tactics your customers had to take – to achieve great outcomes.

This process may neither be quick nor easy, but you’re the expert and can help others achieve great outcomes, too.

In other words, you’re helping your potential customers imagine what the desirable results are and showing them that you know the way to get them.

On top of that, case studies show that your brand is trustworthy and desirable.

After all, awesome brands wouldn’t have teamed up with you and relied on your expertise, if you gave off a suspicious vibe.

But let’s talk about using case studies as lead magnets.

My opinion is that in most cases case studies shouldn’t be put behind the paywall or an opt-in form.

It’s often too soon to ask the user to leave their email address as you have to yet earn their trust.

At the same time, you can use them as a lead magnet if you prepare two versions of your case studies.

One that’s a summary of the results and tactics that were used to achieve the great outcomes.

And the second one, the one you can put behind a signup form, that goes deeper into the entire process that your companies had to go through to identify and analyze the problem, formulate tests, come up with alternative scenarios, and finally how you’ve run the campaign.

This way you’re achieving the best of two worlds – one quick case study that can help you inspire your potential customers and another one that helps you generate leads.

So if you’ve got a success story to share or are in the process of developing one, consider creating two versions that’ll help you build in your email list building endeavor.

18. Online tool or web app

Many SaaS companies choose to create free tools that can be used by their target audience, almost completely free of charge.

Almost, because all the user has to do, to access the free tool, is to give their email address in exchange.

This tactic can be very effective, especially if the tool you offer brings a lot of value to your users and it’s something they’ll be accessing on a regular basis.

Not sure what I’m getting at?

Take a look at the following tool called LSIGraph.

If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s an online tool used by SEOs and other online marketers that helps you find semantically related keywords.

So whenever you’re optimizing a page or writing an article, which you want to rank higher in SERPs – you should check out the LSIGraph.

You can use the tool for free, but it has a limit on how many analysis you can do per day.

If you want to use it for more than three phrases per day, you can increase that limit to 20, by leaving your email address.

It’s a very clever tactic that helps the people behind LSIGraph attract a wide enough audience and convert only those who’re serious about using their tool.

Those who need to use the free tool more often, must have already realized its value to their business.

This means they’ll be more motivated to leave their email address.

Plus, if they reach the new daily limit several times in a row, they’ll probably even consider going for the paid plan.

Here’s another example of a tool that marries lead generation and offering value successfully.

This one was so interesting, that I decided to reach out to Olga Rabo, from Iconosquare, to share in her own words the story behind the Instagram Audit Tool they developed.

Creating new tools can be a great way to promote your main offering.

Iconosquare offers the best-in-class Instagram analytics for brands and businesses, and last year we came up with an idea to start creating side-tools to our main offering. One of the tools we created was the Instagram Audit Tool.

The process is simple: you sign in with your Instagram account, and let the tool evaluate your Instagram account based on specific metrics, such as your posting frequency, engagement rate, your use of hashtags, etc.

It gives you an immediate score to let you know if you’re doing a good job. If you leave your email address, you’ll get a full, detailed report with tips on how to improve your Instagram performance. As you complete the audit, there’s a “Start your free trial” button, which gives us additional few hundred not leads, but trials, per month. And it’s good trials, too, that convert to paying customers later on.

Currently, the tool lists on the 1st Page of Google results when you look for “Instagram audit” and has organically acquired 102 backlinks from 55 domains.

How did we promote the tool?

The regular “checklist”:

-Blog post on the Iconosquare blog, to cross-link it with the tool,

-Newsletter (to our blog subscribers and customers),

-Social media promotion,

-A bit of Adwords and paid social,

-Dropped it on Product Hunt.

This was basically it.

The success of the Audit Tool lies, thus, not in its promotion tactics, but in the fact that the idea itself came from our users, so we knew there’s demand for a tool like that. Every day, we’re getting dozens of emails from customers and subscribers, asking us to review their Instagram accounts and tell them where they can improve. So why not use the audience feedback, create a simple solution and use it as a new way to generate trials?

I just added one more backlink to this list.

That aside, as you can see, tools like these can work very well, not only for growing your email list but also for your SEO.

19. Quiz

There’s something about quizzes that people just love.

A couple of years back, all my friends were checking which Friends character they resemble the most or which Hogwarts house the sorting hat would place them in. And, of course, by years I mean weeks.

While quizzes are usually fun, they can also be very useful – especially if you know how to use them to build your email list faster.

The same goes for surveys. They can be engaging, educational, and great for lead generation.

The good news about both of these tools is that they can be used in any industry.

For example, here’s how Iconosquare (once again), used a quiz to let users test their Instagram strategy level.

And here’s another quiz, that lets you test you Digital IQ.

20. Online calculator

I’m a big fan of online calculators.

Whether it is to calculate the cost of your mortgage rate, car insurance, or projected electricity bill – they save a lot of hassle, and in doing so, they provide value.

I use them on a regular basis, but it’s rarely the case that I see online calculators being used as a lead generation tool.

And that’s a big mistake.

They can be a powerful lead magnet and can help you increase the size of your email list quickly.

But don’t get me wrong, not all calculators deserve to be used in exchange for an email address.

Plus, Google often comes up with clever ways to overcome the need of using them.

Take currency exchange for example.

Here’s what you’ll see if you type in “200 pounds to PLN” into Google search.

Alright, so if that won’t work, what kind of online calculators have the chance of being an effective lead magnet?

The answer’s pretty straightforward: those that provide information that’s otherwise difficult to obtain and people are interested in it.

Additional points for making the calculator fun to use.

Need an example?

Below’s a screenshot of a calculator that was used by a company called Eneco.

As you can read from this blog post, the company managed to generate over 1,000 leads with their online calculator in just 6 weeks.

What did the calculator do?

It helped you estimate how much it would cost to buy a homecharger for your electric car.

This is a perfect example of a calculator that had to work well.

Its timing is perfect – more and more people are interested in buying electric cars.

Its topic is highly relevant – those who’re interested in buying an electric car are often worried they won’t be able to charge their car very efficiently.

Its playful – the calculator starts with two warm-up survey questions about your name and how you like to recharge yourself (e.g., beer vs smoothie).

Its smart – you’re being asked about your email address only in the last step, after you’ve answered six other questions and already made an initial commitment.

I’m not at all surprised by this result and hope to see more of such calculators being used as lead magnets in the future.

21. Swipe file

Another idea for a lead magnet you could use are swipe files.

While this is mainly relevant to the copywriting, advertising, and online marketing niche, you could use them for any other genre of writing or subject.

Think of examples of great headlines, joke or storytelling structures, opening lines for presentations, and design inspirations.

In fact, we’ve created a swipe file for great welcome emails.

The idea behind it is simple.

Step 1. Gather and organize tools others would find useful.

Step 2. Put them behind a web form.

Yes, it’s that simple.

22. Newsletter

I feel that many marketers keep forgetting that newsletter itself, can be an effective lead magnet.

We usually treat it the other way round.

We’re asking someone to leave their email address so that we can then send them the newsletter.

But if your newsletter content is good enough, it should be treated as a lead magnet itself.

The value we’re promising here is in a form of a newsletter.

One that’s sent on a regular basis, be it weekly or monthly, and includes information we find useful or inspiring.

One such example is the CB Insights newsletter I receive every other day.

It contains interesting information on trends and stories on various startups and other companies in the technology space.

Not so surprisingly, here at GetResponse, we also offer a newsletter that includes our weekly set of articles from the blog.

It’s currently subscribed by over 15,000 SMB marketers for whom – and I hope I’m not exaggerating right now – our content’s valuable enough that they decided to opt in.

If you feel like you could learn a few things on effective strategies for SMB marketers, I’d be honored if you joined our mailing list :).

23. Waiting list

Exclusivity is one powerful thing.

Think of all the limited-edition cars and clothes from only the best fashion designers.

Or the huge lines in front of the club that just opened up in your city the other month.

People like to be among the first ones to see, read, and experience things.

Believe it or not, this applies to non-tangible products, too.

You can create a waiting list for online courses or tools, just as if they were something you need to touch with your hands.

It could be the limited-access to the beta-version of your platform.

Or a completely new tool you wanted to try out with your pilot group.

You can create a sense of exclusivity and build your email list by simply making people wait.

Of course, It’ll only work if you’ve already offered something that’s good and what you’d normally charge for.

In other words, you’ve earned your users’ trust.

Once you’ve done it, you can try to offer them something even better.

And in theory, if they have to wait for it, it’ll be even more powerful.

24. Toolkit

This idea kind of overlaps what we’ve covered in some of the points above.

Nevertheless, I think it’s worth mentioning the fact that your lead magnet doesn’t have to consist of only one individual material e.g., an ebook.

If you promise more materials in one go, you might get a better chance of converting your website visitors into email leads.

Consider the following example.

What you can see here is a toolkit – a big file consisting of various PDFs and frameworks that’ll help you create your own platform.

While this particular example doesn’t require the users to leave their email address to access the files, it’s easy to imagine it working this way.

Why put all the files together in one bundle, instead of offering them one by one?

The truth is, you need your user’s email address only once.

While it’s tempting to divide up your files and tag each and every resource they download separately, it seems that the brand wanted to provide as much value to their potential customers as possible.

By offering them all the files in one go, they’re definitely doing so.

And if you’ve read any of these frameworks or files, you’ll know that they’re pretty complex.

If anyone finds them too hard to go over on their own, they’ll know exactly who to reach out to, to ask for help.

Here’s another example, this time from Shopify.

We’ve actually used this particular tactic for GetResponse, too.

It’s the idea that’s behind our Resource Center, which I’ve already mentioned before.

Users only need to provide their email address once, and they can access all the ebooks, reports, infographics, and other materials we publish on a regular basis.

25. Slideshare and presentation notes

Most marketers put up their slides on Slideshare or another similar website, where their audience can access them easily.

And it’s a perfectly fine approach.

It’s great for those who’ve attended your presentation and want to go through your materials again.

It’s also perfect for those who haven’t been to it, and might somehow stumble upon your content when doing a Google search on the specific topic.

At the same time, who says you can’t offer your slides or presentation notes as a lead magnet in a web form?

Especially the latter, can be very useful for those who’re interested in your presentation but haven’t had the chance to see it live.

I’m not able to travel around the world to go to all the great conferences that are currently taking place. That’s why I’d definitely leave my email address in exchange for either the presentation deck (though these often aren’t useful without the voiceover) or the presentation notes with useful links to read up on.

I’m sure your target audience would feel the same way, especially if your presentations provide actual value.

And if you’re not convinced that this could for an individual marketer, consider using this for an online conference or an event that you’ve run in the past.

Sharing presentations and presentation notes from the previous editions can help you generate leads, who you can then try to convince to register for your upcoming event.

For more lead magnet ideas, look around you

I’ve just gone over 25 ideas for effective lead magnets.

If you do another Google search, I’m sure you could find posts with more than 100+ ideas for freebies, opt-in bribes, or however you prefer to call them.

But I recommend that instead of typing your next query into the search engine, you start by looking around you.

Take a look at your desk, your well right next to it, your Slack, Google Keep, and email.

I’m sure you have some sort of a folder with useful shortcuts, links, tips, or other things that improve your work.

Rings a bell?

Now take these and think about if you can turn them into a lead magnet.

Can they benefit your customers? Will they make someone’s life easier or more enjoyable?

If it’s a yes, there are two things I want you to do.

First, the obvious one, use it to grow your list.

The second one, a personal favor, just let me know in the comments what it is that you’ve decided to use as your lead magnet :).

9 Steps to Creating a Magnetic Blog

Tackle Inactives by Designing for Their Buyer Personalities

The post 25 Lead Magnet Ideas to Help You Build Your Email List Faster appeared first on GetResponse Blog - Online Marketing Tips.

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melvinfellerstuff · 6 years ago

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Melvin Feller Business Ministries Group Looks at You as an Uncover Real Estate Investor

Melvin Feller Business Ministries Group in Burkburnett Ministries and Dallas Texas and Lawton Oklahoma. Our mission is to call and equip a generation of Christian entrepreneurs to do business as ministry. We provide workshops and resources that help companies discover how to do business God’s way and provide a positive outreach as the director. When the heart of a business is service rather than self it can be transformed into a fruitful business ministry earning a profit and being of service to the community and their customers. Melvin Feller is currently pursuing another graduate degree in business organizations.

Is there anyone in your town that does not know that you buy houses? If so, you are not doing as well at marketing as you should be. I hear investors saying all the time that they are not getting seller calls and subsequently are not getting the leads they need to find deals. I say step up the marketing and the sellers will call. Not only that but if you are shouting to the world that you buy problem properties, eventually you will be known for what you do and sellers will call you strictly on your reputation. THAT is cost effective marketing.

I was in Home Depot a few weeks ago and passed a couple of people in an aisle. As I walked by, I overheard one say, “That is the house man”. Now I had never seen either of those people and have no idea who they are but that experience lets me know that I must be doing my job at letting the world know my business is buying houses. There are many ways to let the world know what you do. Some ways are cheap and some are more expensive. You are going to have to try many things and get a feel for what produces for you best in your area. I have tried many kinds of marketing techniques and have come back to a few that constantly produce enough results for me to buy the 2 or 3 houses I want to buy every single month. They are as follows:

Classified Ads

The classified ad in the largest paper in the area is by far the largest producer of leads I have found. I know it is expensive and I know there are times it does not generate calls but if you are, going to stay in the biz just put it in there and leave it. Get used to it being part of the cost of doing business. I pay about $300.00 a month for my 4-line ad and that is the commercial rate. I run it 24/7, 365 days a year.

Over the past 3 years, I have seen many “investor” ads come and go. Most folks put them in for a couple of weeks and then pull them or try just putting them in on the weekends. IT HAS NOT GOING TO WORK! Put it in the paper and leave it. It will more than pay for itself, believe me. If you are worried because there are several in there, do not be. They are there because they are getting calls. Just be sure and actually answer your phone.

When a new ad pops up in my paper, I will always call. 9 times out of 10 I get a message. This is a big turn off to someone who needs a solution now. They want to talk to someone who can qualm their anxiety and tell them everything is going to be all right. Your answering machine will not do that. As for what to put in the ad, you will have to work on this one. I have tried several and the one I have now has not changed for over 2 years. I have not changed it because I get calls. My ad is:

CASH FOR HOUSES

In 48 Hours!

Any area, price or condition

Call xxx-xxx-xxxx

Now I have had other investors jockey for position and change their ad copy to be ahead of mine in the column but it has not made any difference. Do not worry about those things, just get the ad out there and leave it. It may take a few weeks to get going but sellers will call! Once you have your classified ad running than start working on your other ideas. If you only implement one idea a week, within a couple of months you will have a tremendously powerful real estate buying machine.

Ads in the “Freebie” Papers

I also run ads in the freebie papers here. These are the “Thrifty Nickel”, or the “Green Sheet” or whatever they are called in your area. I run both a column ad and a display in this paper and spend about $150.00 a month for these. They pull in seller leads fairly well and have always justified the costs. Remember that these people are usually open to negotiating on your rates and you can probably get a better rate if you commit to a longer contract.

Bandit Signs

Bandit signs are great. They are some of the best lead generating tools around. I have yet to put out a bunch and not be bombarded with calls right after. I just don’t put them out that often. I might put out 5 or so a month and the ones that stay continue to pull in calls. At an average cost of less than $2.00 apiece, they are one of the best values around. Check the internet for sign companies for cheaper prices. I use 18 x 24 signs and place them at high traffic intersections around town. I also place one in the front yard immediately upon buying any house.

I have bought several homes in the same neighborhoods because of this. You can use either contractor stakes or the wire stakes with your signs. I like the contractor stakes because they do not bend like the wire ones, in addition, they are cheaper. Just nail the sign to it with the roofing nails with the orange or green plastic tops or you can use screws. There are many variations on what your wording on the sign can say. Keep in mind that traffic will be moving so you want to keep your message short and sweet so it can be read. My signs say:

I BUY HOUSES

Cash in 48 Hours!

Any area, price, condition

xxx-xxx-xxx

Notice that it is the same as my newspaper ad? I like to brand my advertising because I think that helps with recognition. My signs are white with dark blue letters. Some folks swear by black on yellow or black on orange. Again, I say it’s not what or how you say it but the fact that you DO say it that counts. When dealing with bandit signs, be sure that your local code enforcement laws are tolerant of them.

Flyers

Flyers are another inexpensive way to get the word out that you buy houses. Just create a flyer telling people what you do and how to get in contact with you. Make copies for $.05 cents apiece and you have some inexpensive advertising. It really is that simple. Then place these flyers on every bulletin board in your town. I also place some of them in those plastic sheet protectors so the rain will not destroy them and put them up on telephone poles around neighborhoods I like to buy in. While not as large as the bandit signs, on poles actually IN the neighborhood they still attract calls. I carry a file with me in my truck and place them up whenever I stop at a grocery store or Wal-Mart. Some other places to put them are:

Laundromats

Taped to the inside of Pay phones

On the counter of any business that will allow you

Bulletin boards at Wal-Mart or K-Mart

Grocery store bulletin boards

Fax to Mortgage Brokers

Fax to Real Estate Agents

Take them Door to Door in target neighborhoods

Employment Center Bulletin board

County Courthouse Bulletin board

These are just a few examples. Any place that will allow you to put one is a good place. You can never let too many people know that you buy houses!

Promotional Items

These are some of my favorites and most fun. While they are not the top producers of leads or the least expensive, they will sure set you apart from the average investor.

Pen Knives – These tiny Swiss army knives are the coolest. They are actually key chains engraved with your message, mine being: WE BUY HOUSES- All cash or take over payments within 48 hours! Xxx-xxx-xxx I guarantee if you give one of these to someone, they will keep it and if they think of selling, they will think of you. They are about $1.50 apiece.

Key Chains – I give these to all my buyers with the keys to their new house on them and leave them all over the place. They come in the shape of a house or #1 or whatever style you like and have your message on them. You can guess what mine says. Cost – about $. 25 cents apiece.

Pens – I use these all the time. Whenever I sign a sales receipt or anything, I leave my pen. I cannot tell you how many calls I have gotten off these things and since I always need one, I always have one to give away. My attorney even has a supply on his closing table. Mine are the “click” type and have my message repeating around the barrel. I have two types printed. One for sellers says “We Buy Houses!” and one for buyers says “Everyone Qualifies”. Cost – about $.21 cents apiece.

Coin Holders – These you hardly find any more so everyone is surprised when I have them. I leave these things everywhere. Mine are bright yellow with blue letters and my message. Cost – about $.30 cents apiece.

I leave all of these promotional items everywhere, on the top of gas pumps, on end-cap displays in grocery stores and in department stores. I look at it this way, if I give away 100 pens, 50 knives and 50 coin holders a month, that is only a little over $100 bucks a month. That is still cheap advertising.

Business Cards

I order business cards by the 1000’s and you should as well. They are cheap, mine are about $50.00 for 2000, and I pass them out everywhere. I leave my cards everywhere, in pay phones, on restaurant tables, my kids even have their own supply to pass out. Try to get a box a week out. The card does not have to be fancy, in fact the simpler the better. My card is bright yellow with blue letters and says:

WE BUY HOUSES

Foreclosure? Need Repairs? Bad Tenants? Divorce?

CASH IN 48 HOURS!

OFFERS MADE ON ALL CALLS!

XXX-XXX-XXXX

Car Magnetics

Magnetics are one of those things where you spend once and get use for a long time. Mine cost about $75.00 and are yellow with blue letters. They say:

WE BUY HOUSES!

FA$T CA$H

XXX-XXX-XXXX

I have gotten several deals from these signs. Remember to order a smaller set for the back of your car/truck. People have more of a chance to read the message when they are riding behind you.

Clothing

I like golf shirts and oxford dress shirts with my logo on them. There is plenty of advertising, houses, that will help you design a logo if you do not have one or use the one you already have. There is no charge for set up and all items ordered include your embroidered logo free. They also have cool baseball caps and other stuff there as well. They have specials for new customers at great prices.

I pass my hats out to everyone I know who wears one and have given away many shirts as well. They really look nice and present a nice image for your business.

Other Advertising Tools

There are many other forms of advertising, some I have tried in the past such as billboards, door hangers, yellow pages, television and radio advertising. I even have a traveling billboard, an old SUV painted bright yellow with blue WE BUY HOUSES! In addition, my phone number that I drive around and park overnight at different places. It gets the calls! Get the marketing going and let the world know whom to call when they have a house to sell. If that phone is not ringing, you are not making money!

Melvin Feller Business Ministries Group in Texas and Oklahoma. Melvin Feller founded Melvin Feller Business Consultants Group and Burkburnett former grace Ministries director in the 1970s to help individuals and organizations achieve their specific Victory. Victory as defined by the individual or organization are achieving strategic objectives, exceeding goals, getting results or desired outcomes and a positive outreach with grace and as a ministries. He has extensive experience assisting businesses achieve top and bottom line results. He has broad practical experience creating WINNERS in many organizations and industries. He has hands-on experience in executive leadership, operations, logistics, sales, program management, organizational development, training, and customer service. He was a Burkburnett man. He has coached teams to achieve results in strategic planning, business development, organizational design, sales, and customer response and business process improvement. He has prepared and presented many workshops nationally and internationally.

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bradford-huebner · 5 years ago

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Bradford L. Huebner Lead Generation? This Article Has The Tips You Need

Bradford L. Huebner Proficient tips provider. If you are the owner of a business of virtually any size or scope, you surely recognize the essential nature of lead generation in keeping your enterprise healthy and financially sound. But, it may be that you lack the tools to consistently develop a new stream of potential clients and customers. The good news is that this article was written just for you.

Use social media as a lead generation tool. In social media, you need to not only build a presence, you also need to build a community. It's an opportunity to build trust which will lead to more and more leads coming your way. Don't just look at the obvious social media channels. Consider them all.

Build your presence on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the most business-friendly social media channel out there. People use linked in to network and even broker new deals. It's the perfect place to create lead generation opportunities for you and your company. Invest in a Premium membership as it will allow you to see everyone who has viewed your profile.

Try a fax campaign to increase your lead generation. Fax may seem very 1980s in terms of business communication, but most companies still rely on these machines. So many people have ignored the fax machine in the 21st century. But that only means that you have less clutter to battle. Your message will be more likely to hit!

Check out local events in order to maximize your leads. If you're allowed to have a table there, you could hand out pamphlets and hold a giveaway. Just ask people to leave their name and email in return for a ballot, but be sure to let them know if you'll be adding them to a mailing list.

Bradford L. Huebner Professional tips provider. Analyze the numbers surrounding your lead generation. Are you finding it takes lots of hours to discover potential leads? Are these leads qualified or rather weak? Measure the time you have in versus the conversion rate. This will help you decipher which tactics give you the best return on your investment.

Can you teach locals about what you do? For example, if you are part of a multi-level marketing campaign, you could run a free class teaching people how to sell the product or even letting them know about how they can do the same thing you are doing in building your downline.

Using the phone is a great way to gather new leads. You'll be surprised how many people or businesses will be receptive to your sales pitch. No mater what you sell, somebody out in the world wants exactly that, so get calling now.

Search engine optimization can take awhile to get going, as can other lead generation techniques. While they are the best, and while some experts saying purchasing leads is a bad idea, it's not always the case. Buying leads from a trusted source within your niche can actually be extremely beneficial.

Find out if any local publications available for free fit within your niche. For example, real estate agents can get into the local "New Homes" guides found in boxes around the city. If you are a dentist, you could get an ad in a free kids' magazine which details local attractions.

You have competitors, but you also have companies within your industry that are complement your business. Therefore, network with these companies so that you can exchange leads. This can be a great method to help gain new customers and strengthen your business niche in general for repeated business later on.

Consider giving a yearly gift to those who bring you the most referrals. It doesn't have to be something big, even a bottle of nice wine will do, but it shows them you care. Be sure to deliver it by hand and personally so you can tell them how much you appreciate their help.

If you buy leads, make sure they are the right ones for your business. It may be a good idea to look for those that are in your niche. A database full of irrelevant leads will be of no use to you. You could just have leads that don't fit your needs whatsoever.

Bradford L. Huebner Proficient tips provider. Don't be driven by only bringing in targeted leads to your website. It's not harmful if people come to your site who might not buy from you, although you shouldn't be focusing on them entirely, of course. Be sure to use tools which determine which visitors to your site are leads and which are just looky-lous.

Pay for leads if you must. Buying or renting them is perfectly acceptable if it increases your bottom line. Find a source of high-quality leads, and use them in addition to other methods until you get your business off the ground. Once you have enough leads coming in from other directions, you can stop using a pay-per-lead service.

Your lead generator needs traffic brought to it. This could be a full survey or your stand-alone splash page. Whatever the case, you need the traffic. Traffic development for your lead generator is as vital as securing visitors for your actual product site.

If you plan to use pay-per-click ads to promote your website or social media, create ads which actually bring in targeted leads. Make sure it is clear what you're selling and that the call to action is solid. Don't make them blink or include fluorescent colors unless you want to drive away potential leads.

Offer up freebies in return for contact information. For example, create a giveaway of a product you sell for those who submit their email address. You could give away a free ebook or a free consultation while building your email mailing list and generating a ton of new leads.

Bradford L. Huebner Proficient tips provider. As an entrepreneur, you are probably juggling several balls at once, seven days a week. You may have thought it impossible to find time to learn new ways to develop the leads that really can make or break your chances of success. After reviewing the article above, you should now feel much more optimistic about your prospects.

#Bradford L. Huebner

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marshallhosel-blog · 5 years ago

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Marshall Hosel The Biggest Compilation Of Tips And Tricks About Lead Generation You Can Find

Marshall Hosel Top service provider. Lead generation is essential to business owners. Getting new leads is crucial to keeping any business alive and thriving. The following article has helpful tips.

To generate the most promising leads for your business, your website needs very clear instructions for the visitor. Make your offer stand out from all other content on the page and make sure it's easy to understand. The visitor should have no problem identifying your offer and knowing how to get in on it quickly.

Test a small market sample if you are trying to generate leads in a new way or area of consumer spending. While online marketing can be very economical, you don't want to waste a lot of resources on something that's going to go bust. Test a sample and if it generates a few leads, go for it! Otherwise, simply live and learn and move on.

Marshall Hosel Skilled tips provider. Create engaging content. Lead generation relies a lot on building trust with your product or service. Smart targeted content does a lot to help get you there. Your target audience will be more likely to do business with you if they feel you are providing great service and that you legitimately care.

Be more active on niche-relevant forums and discussion boards to generate easy leads. If you hang out where consumers ask questions, you can gather trust, brand yourself and be a go-to source for them. Not only will they appreciate your assistance, they will also most likely visit your site for more info or to make purchases!

Understand the value of leads. Not every lead would be appropriate for the marketing campaign that you are running. By using quality leads, your marketing efforts will be more effective. Getting the best leads is definitely the key to success.

Use customized quality content to generate more leads for you. If a person stays on a page to read what you've written, you're already one step ahead of the game. When people discover value and get the help they need from content, trust usually ensues. This often translates into more sales and sign-ups!

Try to call as much as you can when you are try to get leads. You'll be surprised how many people or businesses will be receptive to your sales pitch. No matter what your business sells, someone out there is buying, so you have to work on this.

Know your target market. When you understand the specific group that most needs the products or services you offer, you will be able to reach them more efficiently. For example, if you are trying to reach elderly customers, you have a better chance of generating leads if you avoid a skateboard shop.

Don't shy away from paying for leads if you're on a budget. There are low cost solutions to lead generation out there. Pay per click campaigns are one. These search marketing campaigns give you lots of brand building impressions, but you only pay if someone actually clicks on the ad itself. This can be a very effective lead generation method.

Marshall Hosel Proficient tips provider. Make time for lead generation every single day. Even half an hour daily can be very effective. Like most things, it's building the habits that's the most important aspect of successful lead generation. If you do it daily, you'll find you become more effective at creating potential qualified customers.

Many people forget about LinkedIn when it comes to networking and lead generation. They focus more on other social media sites. But, if you knew that conversion rates were much better within LinkedIn networks that have been formulated, you wouldn't be waiting to use this service. Utilize LinkedIn to help you get new leads!

Absolutely every site you have up, whether a blog forum or regular content page or your main site, there should be contact information, social media plugins and opt in suggestions. These need to be strategically located and should be placed on every page so that people know how they can stay connected with you.

Gathering leads from your website needs traffic. Traffic building is what any site needs, but even more so if your site is also set to generate leads. Make sure that you target traffic for your products and services, but also take the time to push traffic for your lead generation as well.

Word-of-mouth referrals may seem like an old fashioned approach to gaining more customers, but they are like gold when it comes to generating leads. If you want to raise the stakes a little bit, come up with an offer or deal that potential customers can't refuse. You may even be able to come up with content that goes viral in order to generate even more leads.

Know what you expect from your leads. If you plan to purchase leads, do you know what you want? Is your promotion targeting certain ages or economic levels? This is important to know before you drop a lot of money on leads. You want to know who your leads are before you send your promotions.

Marshall Hosel Skilled tips provider. Look for non-competitors in your niche and trade your links. For a landscaper, for example, a network can be formed with the company used to buy fertilizer. Folks who are in the market for similar services may see what you are offering, and a mutually beneficial relationship can develop.

If you're going to grow your business, you must practice lead generation effectively. The future of your business will be uncertain if you don't work on finding new business contacts. These tips should help you find out how to get good leads.

#Marshall Hosel

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edvardsen69shields-blog · 5 years ago

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Considering Using Internet Marketing? Read This Article Now!

You want the truth about internet marketing, not just what some random person has said on the Internet. There are scores of self proclaimed experts out there, but you need to know the correct information and be assured that it is legitimate. You will most likely find exactly what you are looking for in this article. Investing resources and purchasing ad space on someones website is a great way to market your own business. Many site owners out there are more than happy to advertise your business, and they will give you prime placement on their highly-trafficked sites for a little bit of cash. It is how they earn money and it is how you can climb the rankings. Make the first 100-150 characters of your META description tag count. The text in your meta description is shown right below the page title in search engines. A good description will get people to click, and the number of clicks influences your site's position in search results. casino online will be truncated, so be careful. Use press releases to get traffic to your site. Submit to public release directories and wait for people to find you. The great thing about press releases is that you may even be contacted by reporters who want to talk to you about your product or service and print it in their publication. One key to enhancing the visibility of your website, is to update your content frequently. This serves a dual purpose. First, frequent updates keep your content current and fresh, encouraging existing viewers to check back often for new and relevant information. But frequent updating also signals to the search engines that you are actively engaged in maintaining your website and your efforts can be rewarded with higher rankings in the search results. If you are constantly being active on the internet, you can make your website more visible. There are blogs, newsletters, articles and forums available for you to get your website out into the world wide web. The more places you refer back to your site, the more visible you are to your audience. Tell a story about your product. Explain how you developed your product, to meet a pressing problem that no one else had addressed or how it helped you work your way through college. Puppies and cute kids never hurt, but try to keep it relevant to the product itself and help the customers consider how it could help them, too. Get a professional email address for your business. An email address containing your company's name grants legitimacy and professionalism to your business. You do not want to turn away business with an unprofessional email such as [email protected]. Many websites offer professional business email addresses for a small fee. When developing internet marketing strategies, consider the use on instant messaging services. If you have a link to send through Yahoo messenger, for example, you will align your site with one well known company in good standing. Many messenger services have ways you can integrate areas of your site to open in their platform. When you are running an online business, make sure that the content of your website stays fresh. If your customers see the same content on your site day after day, they will soon lose interest and move on to other places. When you offer something new periodically, this will keep your customers interested. If your product appeals to teenagers, install different types of fun games on your website. This will generally require Flash, and can be a great way to improve your customer's overall experience on your website. The more fun they have, the better chance they will purchase a product from your site. If your business is engaged in advertising both on- and off-line, make sure your marketing strategies in the two spheres complement each other. An internet marketing plan should work with and enhance your other efforts in print or other media. Make sure your website points visitors towards your adverts in other media - and make sure your TV, radio and print ads mention your website. Never be a pitch-filled salesman. To gain credibility, do not try to sell your audience anything. Simply write your articles to the best of your ability, and allow your reader to decide if they should buy anything based on that. Give away freebies, either information or item-wise, to show your readers that you desire them even if they don't buy anything. Use catchy slogans and attractive logos on your website so that your customers remember you. Short slogans and logos tend to stick in people's minds, and can be the way they remember you. If you can make your logo and slogan memorable, people are more likely to come back. Slogans can cause people to your website to others too. Choosing the right color schemes can have a huge impact on your Internet marketing. Researchers have looked into how users perceive colors, and studies have shown that some colors will engage users to visit sites, while other colors will drive them away. Depending on your website and marketing campaign, this could greatly affect your results. In summary, you want to be careful who you take advice from with regards to internet marketing. It is important to you that you have the correct information and that is is portrayed in a clear and concise manner. Hopefully the tips provided in this article will be more than useful for you.

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kennethherrerablog · 6 years ago

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13 Tips to Crack Down on Impulse Shopping. Your Budget Will Thank You

Your day starts innocently enough.

You normally brew a cup of coffee at home, but you’re running late. So you swing by Starbucks for a $5 morning pick-me-up.

After a tiresome day at work, you stop by a store to get a replacement for your cell phone, which has been on the fritz for weeks now. The new phone is an anticipated purchase you budgeted for, but you weren’t planning on the $40 stylish case you just had to have.

On the way to your car, you run into a group of Girl Scouts selling cookies. Their cute, persuasive ways have you digging in your wallet to buy a $4 box of Thin Mints.

You hit a block of traffic on the way home, doubling your 20-minute commute. At this point, you’re tired and hungry, and the three fast food restaurants you passed are calling your name. You have groceries at home but no energy to cook, and eating Thin Mints for dinner won’t cut it. You steer into the next drive-through and order a $7 meal.

Without realizing it, you’ve spent $56 over the course of the day on impulse buys.

Impulse buys are those random, unplanned, unnecessary purchases that eat into your potential savings. You engage in this spending behavior without thinking, which is why you can’t seem to recall what happened to that $20 bill in your wallet or how your budget got so off balance.

It happens to the best of us.

Retail marketers are trained in sneaky tactics that influence our urge to buy. Our personalities and moods can also lead to impulse shopping. In an article in Psychology Today, psychologist Ian Zimmerman said impulse buying is often connected to anxiety, unhappiness and the desire for social acceptance.

No matter your trigger, it’s important to become more conscious of your spending habits. Imagine how much better off your finances would be if you saved every penny you mindlessly spent on stuff you don’t really need.

How to Stop Impulse Buying

Find yourself getting sucked into frivolous spending? Here is some practical advice you can put into action to keep more money in your wallet.

Change Your Mindset About Spending

Shifting your way of thinking can snap you out of the habit of mindlessly buying stuff you don’t need. Take a moment to consider what you’re spending money on and why.

1. Avoid Shopping for Fun

Many people treat shopping like a hobby or something to do to pass time on the weekends. Others use shopping as a cure for a bad mood. But turning to shopping to bring you joy makes you more vulnerable to impulse spending.

Instead, find activities to fill that void. Have a picnic in the park. Take a walk. Call a friend. Work out or meditate. You don’t have to spend money to feel good.

2. Ask Yourself If It’s Worth It

Before you reach for your debit card (or hit the purchase button if you’re shopping online), ask yourself a little question: Is this worth it? You can even attach a sticky note attached to your credit card with that question.

If it’s a $3 magazine that’ll keep you from being bored to death on a flight, then maybe that answer is yes. If it’s a pair of shoes that cost the equivalent of an entire day’s pay and you’re already stressed about debt, then take a hard pass.

3. Keep Your Goals on the Forefront

Staying aware of your goals can steer you away from unnecessary purchases. If you’ve got it on your mind that you want to get out of debt in 12 months, you may not be as inclined to buy that $15 graphic T-shirt.

Avoid Impulse Buying at Your Favorite Store

Those shops you frequent have entire teams working to entice you to buy through marketing, product placement and other clever strategies. If you’re trying to save money, fight against the temptation.

1. Shop With Your Financial Accountability Buddy

A friend or family member who’s aware of your financial struggles and goals is the perfect person to bring along on shopping trips. Your accountability buddy can reign in your tendency to overspend on the unnecessary. Just make sure it’s someone who’s not afraid to speak up on your budget’s behalf.

2. Only Carry a Limited Amount of Cash

Using the cash envelope system is great, but carrying around a big wad of cash in lieu of using plastic won’t prevent you from giving into the impulse to buy whatever catches your eye. If you’re sticking with cash only, plan your purchases in advance and just take the amount of money you’ll need for that one shopping trip.

3. Keep Credit Cards Out of Reach

Using your credit card for impulse purchases only adds extra cost — in the form of interest — to something you didn’t need to buy in the first place. You could literally freeze your cards in a block of ice, shred them to pieces or simply keep them hidden away at home. Don’t shop with credit cards in your wallet to avoid easy access to impulse buying.

Nix Online Impulse Purchases

Don’t let the convenience of online shopping get the best of you. Ignore the allure.

1. Take Your Ordering Info Off Retail Websites

Online retailers want buying to be as simple as the click of a button. They offer to save your debit or credit card information so you don’t have to pull out your card and type in a bunch of numbers each time.

If you’re trying to fight impulse shopping, however, having to take that additional step gives you more time to reconsider your purchases. Remove your financial information from online sites to prevent making impulse buying so effortless.

2. Set Parental Controls on Your Devices

You don’t have to have kids to find the benefit in parental control settings. Block your favorite retail sites or set up purchase restrictions for the App Store or Google Play. Sure, you’ll know the code to circumvent the parental controls, but having that extra layer to get around might deter you from buying on impulse.

3. Unsubscribe From Emails or Text Alerts

Oh, the temptation of all the deals. That email for 30% off all footwear that just popped up in your inbox has your dreaming about getting new sandals, even though you already own several pairs. Did someone tell them shoes are your weakness?

Avoid the trap by unsubscribing from the email lists or text alerts from shops, restaurants or businesses you know will be hard to resist. There will always be another sale.

Pro Tip

Take advantage of deals when the purchase makes sense for your budget, not just due to fear of missing out.

Additional Tips to Curb Impulse Spending

When you spend your money intentionally and not impulsively, you’ll likely have more money left over to save. Here’s more help to avoid impulse purchases.

1. Give Yourself Time Before Deciding to Buy

That gotta-have-it-now feeling is what leads so many of us to buy things on impulse. But pressing pause on buying is often all it takes to realize what we’re craving isn’t something we really have to have. Some people implement a 30-day rule — delaying a purchase for about a month — but you can really give yourself any length of time.

Pro Tip

When shopping online, use the Google Chrome extension Icebox, which prevents you from making immediate online purchases, giving you time to reconsider how you’re spending your money.

2. Track Your Daily Spending

Don’t wait until the end of the month to analyze your spending and see if everything matches up to how much you said you’d spend in your budget. When you take note of what you spend each day, those unnecessary impulse purchases stick out like a sore thumb.

3. Don’t Make Your Budget Too Restrictive

Unless you have the self-discipline of a monk, there are going to be times when you want to indulge just a little bit. A budget that only covers basic life essentials? Not fun.

Add room in your budget for discretionary spending. That way you can make those random purchases without feeling guilty.

4. Take Inventory of What You Have

You know that coffee mug with the witty saying you just had to buy? It’ll end up in the kitchen cabinet along with a dozen similar ones you already own. Coffee is life, but when you can fill up an entire dishwasher with mugs alone, you gotta start saying “no” to more.

Taking stock of what you already own at home — whether it’s clothes, shoes, books or dishware — can help you put things in the right perspective when something attractive catches your eye while shopping.

When Impulsive Buying Become A Bigger Issue

As Penny Hoarders, we hate losing potential savings to frivolous impulse spending, but a few spur-of-the-moment purchases every now and then aren’t the end of the world.

If poor shopping habits, however, seem beyond your control or are becoming detrimental to your financial life, relationships or general feeling of well being, then you should seek professional help.

A licensed therapist could help you manage impulsive behavior. Debtors Anonymous also offers support to those whose shopping habits lead them to unmanageable debt.

Nicole Dow is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She no longer buys candy at the grocery store registers.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

13 Tips to Crack Down on Impulse Shopping. Your Budget Will Thank You published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/

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shanewhittleandpumpdump-blog · 6 years ago

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Shane Whittle pump and dump Experts And Novices Alike Need This Lead Generation Information

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Door knocking is always an option, so don't rule it out. This can even be true if your business is B2B. Visit businesses and ask them about who they're currently using for whatever it is you're selling, then let them know why you're the better option. Leave some materials behind and move on to the next location.

Target people seeing freebies as part of your list generating efforts. While giving things away doesn't usually make money right away for you, there will be plenty of people ready and willing to sign-up for the free stuff. Keep this list separate from your others, but include it in all your future campaigns.

Your customer base is going to be loyal to you and help you get new leads. You can accelerate this aspect of lead generation by doing different things. For example, you can start a referral program. Referral programs reward your current customer base for helping you find new customers out there.

If you have not been tapping into the power of social media enough, then it's time to expand your efforts. There are cost efficient social media campaigns you can run on the most popular sites, and ways to really make content go viral. All of your customer base is there to help you share what you can do for your new customers.

Team up with other companies to cross-promote and generate more leads. For example, if your website sells nails, join forces with a site that sells hammers. The mutually beneficial relationship should gather more leads and most likely sales for both of you. Just make sure the partner you choose is closely related to your industry and highly reputable.

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Make sure to keep your lead pipeline in motion at all times. This means you need to do lead generation tactics on a daily basis. It can take a lot of leads to get just one to convert into a customer, so you need a good source of them at all times.

Make sure when you're blogging for your business that you're seeking out subscriptions. This allows your customers to receive reminders when you make new posts. This is a great way to develop more leads. Blogging is a great way to produce leads through numerous new streams.

Review all pages of your site and make sure your call to action remains clear. Can customers figure out how to buy what you're selling? Keep it clean and concise, with direct wording to make things easy.

Provide understandable instruction to visitors on the steps to take when they go to your site. Check every page on your site for clarity and call to action. Make sure every step is clear. If you find it's not easy, make changes to make it so it is.

Be careful of buying a lot of Twitter and other followers from social media. You may get plenty of leads, but many of them may be useless. Many times what you're getting here are not valid accounts. You may end up spending lots of effort to try and sell to useless accounts.

Shane Whittle pump and dump Top service provider. It is impossible to overstate the critical nature of lead generation in terms of growing and maintaining a business.Learning to access valuable networks and information in order to gain a bigger clientele is a skill all entrepreneurs need. Armed with the material discussed above, you should feel well prepared to make things happen for your business.

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clarencenicholsonata · 6 years ago

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10 Tactics to Grow Your Ecommerce Customer Base

Fail fast.

Always be testing.

Hack your growth.

The mantras of many modern marketers.

I can't stand them.

The problem with these terms is they make growth seem like it’s a simple 1-2-3 process or the result of some sort of underhanded campaign.

The truth is far different.

Growth comes from hard work and smart strategies.

But that’s not to say you have to fumble your way around in the dark.

How to Grow From Nothing

Forget about all the growth hacking, failure loving, test dependent methods of growth for a minute and answer this very simple question.

What are the only two things you need to make money?

The answer is as simple as the question.

You need...

A quality product

An audience who needs/would benefit from it

That’s it.

That’s all you need to start making sales. Forget about complex retargeting campaigns, convoluted funnels, or slick optimization tricks.

The secret to sales is nothing more than a combination of those two points.

The real question is how do you find killer products and the audience to sell them to?

1. Find In-Demand Products

At its core, the goal here is to find a customer pain point and a product to solve it.

As a rule, I’d say avoid any articles and suggestions like “Top Products of 20XX”. These are often focused on a developing trend, not on something that will provide a long-term source of revenue.

Finding the right product, whether you’re new to the game or expanding your product offering all begins in the same place.

2. Understand the Customer

You have to take a deep dive into your target audience to understand the problems they’re experiencing and how you can help solve them.

Let’s imagine you want to target the new mother market.

Before you think of any new products you should be going through as many new mom forums, FAQs, and reviews as possible.

Here’s what I got from a quick 5 minutes on Google:

From these threads, I could generate a dozen or more ideas. I pulled both of these examples as they’re focused on gifts for the mom, not the kid.

If you check out the threads and read through some of the responses, a couple of starting points might be:

Something to help new moms sleep

Something to do with romance as new parents

Diapers, wipes, etc.

Comfort clothing like slippers, gowns etc

Baby-feeding chairs

Once you’ve got a couple of seed ideas, you want to check to see the overall demand.

3. Identify Trending, Steady, or Growing Products

One of the biggest mistakes ecommerce professionals make is jumping on the bandwagon of the latest trending product.

Fidget spinners are the best example of this.

The massive boom they experienced in popularity saw a huge number of people rushing to sell them. But if you check out the search trends, you’ll see it was a flash in the pan.

You have to find something for which there is demand now, but where there’s also going to be demand tomorrow.

Making a good number of sales in 6 months only to then see demand die off proves a quick end to your business.

You want an indication of interest that looks like one of the below:

1 - Staple needs - things that people will always need and will constantly look for. In the below case, I’ve kept with the new mom theme and looked for diapers, as they’ll always be necessary.

2 - Products with steady growth - Those which started off as a trend, but have the staying power and are continually rising in popularity with no signs of disappearing.

The below is a check on “Keto Recipe” (I've had to leave the baby market here, unfortunately, as there are a ton of steady, but few growing, products) which could be used as a jumping off point for diet products and materials.

4. Determine Market Demand

There’s a big difference between the ideas you pull from the internet and what’s going to sell.

What you now have to do is go to Google’s Keyword Planner to figure out the commercial viability of those products.

In the image below, you’ll see the results when searching for “Diapers”:

There’s a couple of things you’re going to want to look for here:

Average Monthly Searches - The higher the number, the more people are searching for it. However, don’t think searches alone indicate interest. I’ll show you how to confirm commercial viability shortly.

Long Tail Keywords - This is great for ideas. "Diapers" is too broad, and as many a marketer is fond of saying, "the riches are in the niches." So maybe something like cloth diapers, reusable diapers, or some combination of the two will resonate better with an engaged and proactive audience.

Top of Page Bid - Search traffic alone isn’t enough. You need to know if there is the potential to sell the product. This is where the top of page bid comes in. Generally speaking, the higher the top of page bid, the more economically viable the keyword and product. The reason some terms have a higher bid is that they’re more likely to garner a sale. So you want to look at both high traffic and high CPC bids. The two together indicate interest and purchase intent.

Ok, so going through this process should take no more than an hour and should give you a couple of product ideas to run with. The next step is to get real data and see what sells best.

For that, you’re gonna need some help.

5. Drive Sales Through Influencer Marketing

You’re likely not going to have an audience for this new product yet, which makes it difficult to judge its actual profitability.

Instead of throwing loads of money at paid ads or promotions, partner with someone who has an audience and ask them to promote it for a commission or freebie.

There’s a great guide here on how Tim Kock built a dropshipping store using influencer marketing as part of his strategy. I’ll lay out the basics of the strategy here though.

Tim went through Instagram and found people in his niche who shared his target audience.

Then, all he did was send them a quick message asking for feedback on his products and store:

When Tim got a positive response, he followed up as promised:

Tim then doubled down on this direct outreach method and asked micro influencers to promote the product to their audience in return for a free product of their own.

Here’s an example of the shout-outs he received:

In just under 2 months Tim managed to create a store that made over $5000. Not bad, hey?!

This method of direct outreach is the quickest way to get initial sales in. And once people have bought from you once, it’s pretty easy to sell your next product to them.

However, it’s not all you can do.

6. Kick Influencer Marketing into Overdrive

Influencer marketing through direct outreach is one of the quickest ways to reach a large, interested audience.

However, you can go a step further and increase success by streamlining the purchase funnel.

If you’re running a store and approach an influencer, the general purchase journey will look something like this;

Prospective customer sees influencer’s post > is redirected to product page > adds product to cart > proceeds to checkout page > completes checkout and sees confirmation page

It’s a lot of steps, each one throwing potential friction into the journey.

The easiest way to reduce those steps and subsequent friction is to make use of chatbots.

7. Use Chatbots in your Abandoned Cart Strategy

Chatbots will reduce the number of steps a user has to take to the bare minimum. They’ll stop users having to redirect their journey to your store instead of completing it on the platform they found your product on.

They are, quite simply, an easier way of purchasing.