The Magic of Free + Shipping Offers
Studies show that people LOVE free offers and will even pay more when they get something for free with an offer than if it didn’t include a freebie. And one of the best ways to sell books is with a free + shipping offer.
Unfortunately, some potential buyers think that free + shipping is a scam, so let’s break it down:
With this strategy, you give your book away and charge $7- $7.95 for shipping. There are printing costs and mailing costs. I did extensive research looking for the best printing prices for a client a while back and discovered a company called The Book Patch www.thebookpatch.com, which had the best prices other than Amazon.
I have had my books printed by Amazon for as little as $2.15 a book (depends on the size of the book). You can calculate the cost of your book at: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834340, But let’s take a 150-page book with black ink that sells for $14.95. The cost to print, based on their calculations would be $2.65 per book.
Note: Amazon may cap how many books you can buy; they say it’s different for each book, so you’ll have to check with them to see what is the best option for your book printing.
Now, if you are mailing the books out yourself, in the U.S., you can use a media mailer from the United States Post Office. The price of media mail is determined by weight. For a book that is one pound or less, you’ll pay $2.75 for shipping and 50 cents more for each additional pound. The estimated weight of a 150-page, 6X9 paperback book with 50-pound text paper is almost 5 pounds (4 lbs. 13 oz.). Your cost to mail would be $4.75. Mailing outside the U.S. will cost you more than your buyers are paying for the book, so you will take a loss on those.
So, when you add together $2.65 (average) for the printing + $4.75 inside the U.S., your cost would be $7.40 and you’d be losing money outside the U.S.
Now, one way to avoid this is to only give away digital books only to buyers outside the country. But, the reason so many authors use this model is because IT WORKS!
Buyers FEEL like they are getting the book for free, and then are fine with paying the shipping because it’s such a low cost of entry-usually $7 or $7.95. And using a funnel, authors will make a lot more money by using the book as a lead generator and offering other products and/or services on the back end. In fact, these additional offers should more than make up for any potential loss on the front end if there is one. And, when done right, you should not take a loss at all.
Russell Brunson is a master at creating funnels and in his One Funnel Away Challenge (http://ellenlikes.com/ofa)* , he showed how a certain percentage of the people who get the book (and who already have their credit card out) will make an additional purchase when there is a one-click process for purchasing, which you can create using the Click Funnel software (http://ellenlikes.com/clickfunnelsfree)*, which comes with a free 14-day trial.
Then, the author can offer what is called a “bump”-something extra offered at the same time like a trial to a membership, or an extra piece of information for very little money, and then another offer behind the first paid offer. So, let’s look at a typical funnel based on Russell Brunson’s data:
1st offer (20% opt in if it’s working right)
Free book + shipping
Second offer (1–5% buy rate on the first offer)
$27-$37 product
Order Bump (20–40% take the offer)
Third offer (3–10% take the offer)
$97 to $297 offer
So, for every 100 people who go to your funnel, you should get 20 people taking the free + shipping offer.
At 1% your first offer would make you $27-$37.
At 5% your first offer would make you $135 to $185.
A $5 bump would make you an extra $100 to $200 dollars (pure profit)
And your third offer (second upsell) would make you
$291 to $891 in profit!
(These prices are not set in stone, they are just examples to show you the potential.)
And here’s how it works…
Once you get your funnel working, you take the money from the sales of the $27-$37 product ($135 to $185) and put that money back into your paid ads, and then pocket the money from the bump and the $97-$297 offer, which could amount to over $1,000. And then run it again. So, you never go broke from your paid advertising, and you never pay for leads!
Plus, as you continue to increase your ad spend, you can outspend your competition, and own your niche!
And it gets better. For coaches and services providers, this type of strategy can get you hundreds or thousands of leads a month and provide a never-ending stream of customers and/or clients for your business on AUTOMATIC!
Like anything, there is a learning curve, but if you’re willing to put in the work, you’ll never have to worry about filling your practice or selling your programs again! And your ad buy will never become so expensive that you have to quit running them.
*For full disclosure, this is an affiliate link, and I will make a commission when you go through my link. (Use it and you’ll receive additional bonuses including a free funnel-strategy session absolutely FREE .)