At the SIPA Washington conference I heard some interesting comments about how quality free content is a gateway to paid content. <\/p>\n
Miles Galliford said that in a session on “developing online communities” and one of the other speakers said similar things in a general session. <\/p>\n
And it seems to make sense — as if there’s a funnel of engagement, from stranger, to some level of awareness, to website visitor, to “registrant” or other form of free content user, to paid customer. <\/p>\n
But I also had some hallway conversations with marketers who said that their lists divide quite neatly down the paid \/ free divide. IOW, the people who download free stuff don’t pay and the people who pay don’t download free stuff. <\/p>\n
So which is it? Or does it vary by market, or by industry, or by the type of content you’re discussing? <\/p>\n
One possibility is that when people download free stuff they give you their garbage email address. We all have one — the “give away” address that we never really use. And then when we want to do something serious we use our real email address. <\/p>\n
If this is true (and I’m only mentioning it as a possible explanation), the same person might be downloading the free stuff on his crapmail address and then purchasing on his realmail address. <\/p>\n
Just a thought. Any ideas? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the SIPA Washington conference I heard some interesting comments about how quality free content is a gateway to paid content. Miles Galliford said that in a session on “developing online communities” and one of the other speakers said similar things in a general session. And it seems to make sense — as if there’s …<\/p>\n