Archive for the ‘free stuff’ tag
Free Stuff Friday: Win A Kisai Uzumaki Tokyoflash Watch
You know you want this thing: it’s a crazy watch from Tokyoflash called the Kisai Uzumaki and it’s designed to look like some sort of organic sea anemone blossoming on your wrist.
The watch has an electroluminescent backlight which lights up vinyl disks which spin to tell the time. It’s not as hard to read as some Tokyoflash watches and they want to give you one.
To enter, comment below explaining why you need a new watch. I’ll pick one winner at random on Monday and we’ll get your watch to you a few days after – just in time for your Fourth of July festivities!
Good luck and thanks to our friends at Tokyoflash.
Get Free Books, Gadgets, and More by Writing Popular Reviews [Free Stuff]
It’s fun to get a shiny new gadget or indulge in a great book or movie, but constantly purchasing these items can get pretty pricey if you do it often. If you want to keep getting new stuff without the downside of paying for it, however, work-life blog Savvy Sugar points out that all that’s necessary is a couple of good online reviews: More »
Free is Not a Benefit
It’s a feature.
We think it’s a benefit because we know what we offer has value. It benefits from our experience and it’s designed to get someone to act on something.
Yet our prospects and users have not discovered any of that yet.
You are familiar with the definitions of features -– a product’s or service characteristics, which are you (read: company)-centered –- and that of benefits –- what your client, customer, user gets from using your product and engaging your service.
Because we do understand value based on context, perception, including external signal surrounding the product or service, like social preferences (for example, if Seth Godin or Mari Smith share a link to this post, you will think it’s better), and relevance given timing, these are conditions that influence whether it benefits you or not.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s say those conditions are met. And they are, by the way, more than one realizes.
When you say that something is free, you associate that in your mind with a benefit. Which is why most buy strategies involve stockpiling free stuff or doing stuff because it’s “free” and not because it works, or it’s actually helpful, incidentally. To the point that we have a thriving business around paying to store stuff once the garage is filled, and not just when moving from and to places, etc.
From the organization perspective, why is free a feature? Because it’s something that is often readily available and which the prospect has no idea they need or want.
As such, the pick often goes to the simplest, less time consuming, most readily available thing you have to get someone to sample a product.
This is not to take away from the value of what is on offer. How many free seminar have you attended and then used the knowledge to actually do something for your business?
The same happens with your customers and prospects. Best practices, case studies, data, charts, how to information — there’s loads of it circulating online every day. Often loads of the same advice rewritten and re-packaged by different people.
Is this advice the most useful for your audience?
For the prospect, user, and client, free is a gift. Yet it becomes a benefit only when it is used, learned, put into practice, and delivers results. Yes, even free books — the $25-business card, as they call them – will not do you any good until you read them and put what you learn into practice.
Free is designed to get people into the conversation, yet when the conversation is about your product and service and not about their problem and need, it remains a feature and never becomes a benefit. I will gladly try this and that, yet that doesn’t mean I will purchase your item or avail myself of your services.
Only when what is offered is an experience that truly speaks to your prospect and user’s needs and wants, you begin to convert free from feature to benefit.
+++
As a side note: It’s interesting to note that in Italian free is gratis (from Lat. variation of gratiis, out of kindness, orig. ablative plural of gratia, which means favor).
So here’s my question to you. What can you do today to make a sampling of what you do go from free as feature to a benefit in your prospects’ minds?
[updated from archives]
+++
For a proposal delivered with confidence, contact me today.
For in depth content Sign up for the Premium Newsletter.
Reward Yourself for Paying Your Taxes with a Bunch of Free Stuff and Tax Day Discounts [Deals]
It’s tax day in America, so naturally companies everywhere are offering discounts and so much free crap you couldn’t possibly find time to get it all. But if you want to join in and celebrate paying the government your hard-earned money with a massage and two tubs of cream cheese, DealNews has outlined everything your taxed heart may desire. Here are some highlights: More »
Grab a Free DVD Rental, Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, and More Valentine’s Day Freebies Here [Free]
Valentine’s Day may be a largely commercial holiday but that doesn’t mean you can’t snag some free stuff or deals too today. Savvy deal hunters on the Slick Deals site have compiled a number of Valentines Day 2012 freebies. More »
How to Become a Regular and Get Free Stuff, Better Treatment, and Other Perks at Your Favorite Establishments [Video]
There’s nothing like going to your favorite pub, sitting in your favorite seat, and being greeted by your favorite server—the one who doesn’t need to ask your drink or lunch order because they already know what you like. Being a regular at a bar, restaurant, or shop means that when you visit, it’s more like going to spend time with friends, and those friends often go out of their way to make you feel welcome, appreciated, and like part of the family. Here’s how you can become a regular and reap those benefits at the places you frequent. More »
35 MacGyver Tips, Clever Uses, and Other Life Hacks in One Infographic [Infographics]
You know how much we like infographics here, and this one gathers quite a few of our favorite tips and tricks we’ve spotted and shared with you over the years, from everyday household hacks to nabbing free stuff. More »
Watch The TechCrunch Gadgets Webcast Live Now! (Bonus: Awesome Giveaways!)
After a day of roaming the show floor in search of all things shiny and new, we thought it’d be a good idea to gather up the crew and do one big ol’ recap of everything we’ve seen so far. We’ve got gadgets, we’ve got guests — and, because we know how much you guys love free stuff, we’ve got a bunch of (really, really great) giveaways.
Sony will be stopping by to show off some new tricks that the Playstation Vita has up its sleeve, Dell’s VP of Design Ed Boyd will be showing us the brand new XPS13 Ultrabook, and the TC Gadgets team will be running through the highlights of the show so far. Somewhere in between all that goodness, we’ll be giving away a Nest, a Jawbone Jambox, and a Playstation Vita that the winner will get as soon as the device is launched in February.
Win Free Stuff Tomorrow With The SME Holiday Extravaganza
To celebrate the holiday season, I’ve decided to host a webinar called the Exploring Social Media Holiday Open Topic, Free Stuff Extravaganza. It’s tomorrow, Friday, Dec. 16 at 1 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT. It’ll be open topic, so you can ask me, or any of the other folks who happen by the call … I’ve heard rumors that DJ Waldow, Tom Webster and perhaps some others might make it … anything you’d like to ask. If I don’t have an answer, I promise to make one up that will suffice. Heh.
Anyone who asks a question that we use, or anyone who asks a question via voice (so call in or use your headsets and microphone to be able to talk to us) will get a free gift for the holiday. Social Media Explorer will provide the shipping. We’ve got a wad of books, iPad/Tablet cases, gadgets and other such nonsense that we’ve collected over the year (products people wanted us to review, etc.) and don’t want them to go to waste, so you get dibs!
Here’s a video that includes some of the loot:
Jump over and register for the webinar and spend an hour of your Friday kicked back having some fun. I should be able to turn on the webinar camera so you can see the broadcast. I might even sing a few carols … who knows.
See you tomorrow!
free stuff, yours for the taking!
Being in the agency world has it’s benefits – like killer swag from your clients. Or lame swag, but hey, free shit is free shit so stop complaining. Well, apparently Red Tettemer & Partners‘ swag closest was overflowing so they decided to give it away to peeps on their Facebook page on a first come, first serve basis. Yep, that’s it, just say you want it first and it’s yours! And a lot of the swag doesn’t suck either – check it out fast before the vultures move in!
