We’re often told to give people a free gift to help persuade them to give us money longer term. But is that a sensible idea or is it just a dumb move that’s costing us money?

A lot depends on what it is you’ve giving away free.

And what your business model is as well.

A lot of internet companies – Google, Facebook and many others – have started by offering everything for free and working out how to make money from it longer term.

But you need very deep pockets for that kind of approach.

If you’re not in a place where you have business angels and venture capitalists thrusting money at you as though it’s going out of fashion, you need to have some products available for sale.

Giving stuff away from free has historically been an excellent way of getting business.

It’s human nature to reciprocate. Which means that if you give someone something free, there’s a built-in part of their human nature that almost forces them to give you something back. And that “something” can often take the form of them buying goods or services from you.

Whole religious cults have been very successfully built on this simple idea.

The snag comes because it seems that online, almost everyone is trying to get you to take something from them for free because they know the power of free and they’re hoping that you’ll then spend money with them.

Free has been watered down online – marketers offer badly written reports, long sales videos that are little short of an hour-long sales pitch and other “valuable” goodies that are anything but valuable.

At its most basic human instincts level, giving stuff away makes sense.

But it has to be valuable stuff.

The best definition I’ve heard is that whatever it is you’re giving away should be something that people would be prepared to crawl over broken glass to get.

It has to be high value.

That could be a report – but the report should give step by step details on whatever problem it is you’re solving.

It could be a video but the same logic applies.

Or – if it applies to your business – it could be a free trial.

In my opinion, free trials are the best compromise.

They’re used for high end products – you can take a car for a test drive or you could use a piece of software for a set amount of time – and that’s for the very good reason that free trials work.

They give you the chance to use the product or service as if you own it but without having to spend the money up front.

The test drive idea is often called the puppy dog close, based on the pet shop salesman offering a family the chance to take a puppy home for the weekend, safe in the knowledge that they’ll have bonded with the puppy by the end of the weekend and will want to buy it.

It’s hard to look a dog in the eyes, watch it wag its tail and say “goodbye”. So the sale is made.

The closer you can get your free gift to this state, the easier it will be for you to close sales.

Rather than just offering a “me too” free report, take the time to step back from your business and work out what you could offer that is no risk for the person taking up the free trial yet – providing you get on with them – is likely to push them towards buying your product or service.

This even works for people who don’t consider themselves as being selly – accountants use the offer of a free consultation and they’re not generally known for their dynamic sales pitches.

Try it – with the right offer, giving stuff away for free is still incredibly powerful.

And if you’d like to work with me, check out my internet marketing coaching.