I’ve known for some time now that a free PDF give away should be a great lead generation tool.
But, I’ve just seen so many fruitless cases of its use that I almost began to doubt.
However, his example is one that revived confidence in the ploy.
The wpbeginner.com site is a software sales masterclass.
For me it’s equivalent to a 1st class door to door salesman.
It does all the basics excellently and interweaves them into a seamless market-leading sales funnel.
And best of all, it does this almost invisibly.
The funnel engineering is multi-faceted, but each face is aligned in perfect reinforcement of the sale.
A key component of this funnel is their “Ultimate WordPress Toolkit” giveaway.
It’s a mini-PDF eBook written by Syed Balkhi, the main author and founder of wpbeginner.com
The WP beginner PDF toolkit
The concept of the toolkit is sales genius.
With simplicity as the cutting edge.
Here’s the background first.
WPBeginner is a blog offering beginner friendly tutorials for people wanting to start or improve a WordPress website.
It has been running since 2009.
Syed Balkhi, the owner of the site, has steadily grown the audience through regular and comprehensive publishing of content related to the goal of teaching WP (WordPress) beginners.
Along the way, Sayed has acquired software businesses in the WordPress plugin niche that compliment the WPBeginner vision.
His blog’s content is entirely tailored to pitching his proprietary software solutions as being the pro-tools for achieving the desired A-Z website improvement goals.
When you visit WPBeginner, you’ll find the blog format and page features to be full, but not a distraction.
There’s a busy header section with search bar and mega menu featuring all the site’s content.
This offers quick click access to all the major chapters of the offering.
Then there’s the sidebar on every page which promotes:
- Their social media channels
- Their #1 guide on how to start a blog
- Ultimate toolkit PDF
- Icons for each of their main content pieces/silos
- Search bar
- Their most popular guides
Among the sidebar content all links are for eating in offers.
The only takeaway for the web visitor is the Ultimate toolkit PDF.
And this is where WPBeginner 10x their sales process with the most simple touch.
Some prospects want to go away and think about it
Fact is, although you want to make you sale immediately, some prospects want to think things through.
They’ve heard you out and they want to consider.
And any good salesman will be persuasive but not aggressive or pushy.
Allowing the prospect the sovereignty to make that call gives credibility. It also avoids looking desperate.
That said, whilst they wait – why should your pitch end there?
This is where the sales brochure comes in….
The sales brochure
The idea of the sales brochure is quite simple.
Putting your products and services in front of the prospect in your absence.
Giving them a remote sell.
Executed badly, the brochure becomes a table mat (at best).
Done well, the brochure generates a return appointment, or better yet – a sales order.
The key?
Making the brochure speak for you
Your brochure should mimic your sales pitch.
A personal 1-to-1 tone conversational consultation to achieving the best fit result for the prospect.
The best delivery is a personal letter style.
It’s the most genuine approach and written with real sincerity can strike resonance with the prospect in their thoughts and ease out any doubts.
This in my opinion is exactly what the WPBeginner PDF eBook (toolkit) does.
It’s written as a personal letter from Syed himself, the founder of WPBeginner in which he empathises with the reader reliving his experience as a WPBeginner once.
In a quick introduction he shares how when he started, that he was keen to know how the pros achieved their results.
But found no resource online which revealed the methods used.
So, as he began to research and discover the hacks – he quickly decided to publish the document he wish he’d found all those years ago.
Enter the toolkit.
The toolkit essentially is a pick list or order menu of all the most useful WordPress extensions, plugins and solutions for achieving the most common goals for new WordPress site owners.
Things like hosting, capturing leads, charging up your SEO and shoring up your security.
All the insider tips are there with links to buy find out more.
There’s even a healthy sprinkle of tutorial links in there to support the product recommendations.
From a user perspective, it’s a useful document that will save A LOT of time and money in wrong purchases.
From a sales perspective though, it’s an online sales masterpiece.
When you examine the content – it’s an identical match for all his own proprietary products that he pitches through the blog.
An carbon copy, but served differently.
Same message, and no doubt the same result.
Prospects who click links to the recommended solution websites, get familiar and when they’re ready – buy.
But this way, they opened up the toolkit when they had a spare 5 minutes. Read the personal letter.
Really connected with the message, listened to the advice.
Read further.
And was happy to give the recommendation a try.
The sale.
And a brochure (done right) was all it took.
Why don’t you try it for your business?