An Open Letter To “Freebie Seekers”
Have you ever had a weird experience with someone on your email newsletter?
Yesterday we received an unusual email in our support desk from someone named “Barry”.
His email was in response to an email follow up sequence that we have set up promoting Michelle’s “Social Media Branding Academy” course.
Here’s the message…
“If you are trying to teach people why is it $297. It should be free. I have deleted you from my list I am sick of making other people rich.” ~Barry
Clearly there is so much wrong with his message on so many levels.
So in a second here I’m going to address Barry’s remarks in an effort to set him straight.
However, the other reason this blog post will be cool for you is that when you encounter your own “freebie seeker” in the future you’ll now know how to handle them.
I have titled this…
“An Open Letter To Barry The Freebie Seeker”
Here goes….
Dear Barry,
Thank you for your well thought out message to our support desk.
Before I respond to your completely rational and logical stance on business and commerce I’d like to first make sure I understand where you’re coming from.
- Because we’re trying to teach people how to build a business on Facebook we shouldn’t actually sell our Social Media Branding Academy course (a 31 module complete guide to advertising and building a brand on Facebook) we should instead give it away for free.
- Because we’re not giving the course away for free you have deleted us from your list. (Umm…I didn’t know I was on your list, but okay)
- You’re sick of making other people rich. (this was my favorite complaint to address as you’ll see in a bit)
Allow me to dive into each of these points one by one.
If We’re Really Trying To Teach People Why Is it $297? It Should Be Free
First of all, you want us to give away our course because “if we’re really trying to teach Facebook” that’s what we should do right?
To help establish just how ludicrous this is Barry I’d like you to do a few things for me.
First of all, I’d like you to walk into your local Barnes & Nobles store, go up to the cash register and say….
“If you’re really trying to spread the message of literacy, why don’t you give your books away for free?”
Next, I’d like you to uber on over to the nearest pharmacy… (oh my bad, you can’t use uber because uber costs money and in your world you don’t pay for things that actually cost money).
I’d like you to walk (because walking is free) on over to the nearest pharmacy, go up to counter and ask…
“If you’re really trying to cure people of their medical ailments, why don’t you give away drugs for free?”
Finally, when the cute little Girl Scout comes to your front door offering to sell you a box of Girl Scout cookies…
… I’d like you to say the following:
“Hey kid, if you were really trying to raise money for the Girl Scouts you’d just give me that box of Thin Mints instead of asking me to pay for it.”
Upon completing these 3 tasks I want you to Snapchat me a photo of the look of astonishment and confusion on the faces of these people when you asked them if you could have it for free.
(Don’t worry, Snapchat is a free app which means it falls right within the wheelhouse of your typical spending habits)
I think what you might find is that these people (and pretty much every other person on earth who has a product or service to sell) will be quite surprised, confused, or even offended when you inform them YOU should be getting it for free.
Ah yes, give it all away for free.
- Economies were built on free, right Barry?
- The foundation of Capitalism is based upon the concept of free, yes Barry?
- Here’s an idea… let’s all just quit our jobs, make no money, and aimlessly walk the earth seeking out free stuff.
(Wait… clothes are also free right Barry? Cuz it might get a little chilly in winter. Just saying.)
Because We’re Not Giving The Course Away For Free You Have Deleted Us From Your List
After I cried myself to sleep last night with the knowledge that you had deleted me from your list (which by the way makes no sense because you’re on our list… but whatever) I woke up feeling the need to share this with you…
Time and information are precious commodities.
Let me explain what I mean Barry:
In order to create this $297 course (which btw contains over 13 hours of pure content yet we have the audacity to sell it into the marketplace according to you) a lot of things had to happen.
- First, we had to develop the knowledge to create the content for the course.
- To gain the knowledge for the content we had to go through a lot of testing which involved lots of trial and error.
- We had to actually get into the trenches and “do” Facebook marketing for our own business for quite some time.
- We spent tens of thousands of our own dollars to determine what does and does not work on Facebook.
- We spent time, energy and effort testing different strategies in order to get positive results so that we could share those results and then teach others how we got them.
- It took countless hours recording and delivering the course content and putting it all into a nice, neat, easily digestible product for people to consume.
Perhaps you don’t place a value on your time Barry, but we certainly put a value on ours.
It makes zero business sense to spend all of this time, effort and energy on an extremely valuable info product to just give it away for free.
I’m going to go out on a limb here Barry and say that pretty much everyone else gets this (even the 9 year old Girl Scout unloading her last box of Tagalongs gets this).
However, you seem to think you should get it for free.
You Get What You Pay For
I’m sure you’ve heard the expression “You get what you pay for.”
(Btw Barry – how’d your stomach feel after you gobbled down all of that free sushi they were handing out at the Walmart gas station?)
Look, if all you want is free training and free courses then it tells me that you’re actually not that committed to learning tangible marketing skills or improving your financial situation.
Free is fine in certain applications.
- Free can expose people to your offer
- Free can help to build brand awareness
- Free can educate people on their problem and introduce them to a possible solution
But you don’t build a profitable business by giving away everything for free.
You’re Tired Of Making Other People Rich
Well by my count you haven’t made anyone rich because you don’t actually want to pay money for anything.
You just want things given to you for free. 
This is what we call the “Lottery ticket mentality”. Someone who wants something for nothing.
You know what, I take that back.
I actually just insulted all “lottery ticket mentality” people by lumping you into the same category as them.
You see Barry, “lottery ticket mentality” people actually get off their asses, go to a convenience store, and BUY A LOTTERY TICKET!!
You on the other hand, expect someone to Fed Ex you a free lottery ticket right to your front door.
The problem is… you’ll still complain about having to walk up the stairs from your mother’s basement to answer the front door when your free lottery ticket arrives.
Explained In A Different Way Just For Barry
Let me explain it another way Barry (because I’m fairly certain you need additional explanation)
Let’s say hypothetically you did purchase our course.
I will play out the scenario for you…
Me: “Michelle!!! Pack your bags, we’re going to Fiji for 6 months!!!”
Michelle: “Oh my gosh! Why? What happened?? Did someone finally Fed Ex a free lottery ticket to us?!?!”
Me: “No, even better! Barry bought our course for $297!!!”
Michelle: “WOOHOOO!!!”
Both of us: (in unison jumping up and down): “We’re rich! We’re rich! Finally we’re rich! Thank god for Barry we’re finally rich!!”
Clearly there would be high fives all around with champagne corks popping left and right.
And our house would be echoing with the sound of me making the “Cha-ching” noise and the accompanying cash register fist pump while Michelle funnels vegan caviar down her throat with a Dom Perignon chaser.
Yeah, that’s pretty much how it would go.
So What Now?
So you see Barry, there is no need for you to send another email to our support desk.
No more need to tell us you have deleted us from your list.
Because as of this morning WE have deleted YOU from OUR list.
Perpetual freebie seekers are not who we want to attract or market to.
Is it free to be on our list?
Of course it is! (And we value 99.9% of the people on our list and we do our best to provide valuable training and relevant offers every time we send an email)
But guess what…It’s also free to walk into a restaurant.
However, you’re the guy who walks into a restaurant, gets a table, tells the waiter you’re there neither to eat food nor have a cocktail. You’re only there to drink water and take up space. Then you get upset when the waiter doesn’t refill your water glass for you as soon as it’s empty.
Bravo Barry… bravo.
So just as Barnes & Nobles isn’t going to start giving away books for free
And pharmacies aren’t going to give away Cialis and Lipitor for free
And the Girl Scouts aren’t going to start taking to the streets with wheelbarrows full of boxes of cookies while chucking Samoas and Do-si-dos into the gaping mouths of neighbors for free…
We’re not going to give away our products for free either.
Sorry, it just wouldn’t be good business.
However, the good news is that all of the content contained within our blog is free!
So you might want to spend some time on our blog, read some of the content, and learn a thing or two.
Finally Barry, I strongly recommend that you read this particular blog post more than once…heck read it several times!
You might as well get your money’s worth… after all, it’s free.
