Are you offering a free download?
Offering a useful free downloadable document through social media is a very good way of attracting and engaging with potential customers. It provides evidence of your expertise and you are already adding value even before the customer buys something.
Examples are guides, tip sheets, checklists, infographics (like the one above) and anything else that is genuinely useful in itself, and is not a sales brochure.
Here are four tips to make sure you make the most of that opportunity:
1. Provide a link to your website where they can download it, not a direct link to the document itself. You want them to find out more about you, not just grab a freebie.
2. Offer a .pdf not a Word or PowerPoint document. They can be big files, the recipient has to have those apps and the source file can contain content you may not want to share. Plus they are too easy to edit and plagiarise! Instead, simply save your original document as a .pdf document, which is universally accessible. Before you do that however, make sure you edit the name of the document in the Info screen in Word or PowerPoint, otherwise it still looks as if it is a Word or Powerpoint document. This title shows up on the .pdf tab later. See below.
3. Put the link in the comments below not in the post itself, so the social media algorithm doesn’t throttle your reach.
4. Always have your contact details and a call to action on the document, so people can get back to you later.
Good luck with your downloads!
Neville Merritt