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Coach Molly Mandelberg wants her clients to achieve their ideal futures. That’s why she specializes in helping them bridge the gap from where they are now to where they want to be by supporting her clients to get the tech and the writing done.

But she says that her business wasn’t where she wanted it to be before she first came to Thrive Academy:

“I was playing really small. I was seeing a handful of clients a month but not making a living and not seeing a way to bring in more clients or make more money. I was making less than $500 a month and it was stressful and disappointing.”

Molly resolved to make big changes when she started working with us.

She found the courage to charge more for her services and she established her niche. Molly began hosting speaking events of her own and she mastered the art of Heartselling. Using our templates, she discovered how to sell packages and create group programs.

But most importantly, she learned how to create the business that she always wanted to have:

“I’m finally enjoying the benefits of the business I always wanted to create. I frequently have two and three thousand-dollar days. I can work from anywhere in the world and I can take time off whenever I want.”

Molly mastered so many elements on the way to creating this business. However, it’s her work with group programs that we will focus on in this article.

A group program allows you to work with more people and create more value for your community. But you can only make the program work if you know how to fill it.

This is where your free gifts come in.

The Heart-Shaped Funnel

What does having a free gift have to do with filling a group program?

It’s your gift that acts as a magnet for your ideal clients. Using a gift, you can attract more people to you so that you can take them on the journey to becoming your clients.

Many of our clients use their free gifts as part of something that we call the Heart-Shaped Funnel.

Here’s what it looks like:

In the first stage of the funnel, your potential clients discover the opportunity to get your Free Gift. There are many ways to do this, from organic social media posts to emailing your list.

You don’t have to use ALL of them, but the more strategies you use to invite people to get your Free Gift, the more people you’ll have join your email list.

What’s important here is that you put your gift in front of the people who would most want it.

When they ask to download your Free Gift, they give you their email address and this puts them on your email list, where you can show them more about the magic you could create together.

Your follow-up emails encourage your potential clients to say Yes to a free consultation with you. When people use our “Get Clients” Free Consultation Formula, they provide great value to the potential client AND the person moves closer to a Yes for the Group Program, if they’re a good match. Sometimes, it’s best to offer the potential clients just your Group Program, and sometimes, it’s good to invite them into private, 1-on-1 VIP work where they pay a premium price. For some clients, doing a combination is best.

The challenge here is that the quality of your Free Gift matters.

How do you create a high-quality Free Gift that leads to new clients?

The Keys to an Effective Free Gift

There are several types of Free Gifts that you can offer, for example:

• Checklists
• eBooks
• Reports
• Templates
• Quizzes
• Blueprints
• Videos

Your goal here is to create a Free Gift that gives your potential client a Quick Win. You will give them something valuable that helps them to solve an urgent problem.

To do that, aim to ensure that your free gift has all of these elements:

Key #1 – Urgent, Specific, and Clear

Think of this question:

Will your Free Gift solve an urgent problem for your ideal client?

The idea here is that your Free Gift will give them something they need so urgently that they can’t wait to download it.

But to do that, you need to get specific with a micro-problem.

Your Free Gift must offer a specific solution to a defined problem that your ideal client has. Because the less specific your gift is, the fewer opt-ins you’ll receive. A less specific Free Gift means fewer people make their way into your Heart-Shaped Funnel.

You also have the issue of clarity to consider.
Your headline should make it crystal clear what they can expect to get from your Free Gift.

Let’s assume that you’re giving away a template, for example. Your headline may follow this template:

“Proven, Done-for-You _________________(solution)…Even if You Don’t Have
_________________ (what they think they need for it to work).”

And you’ll end up with something like this:

“Proven, Done-for-You Emails that Get You Tons of Referrals…Even if You Don’t Have an Email List!”

The person considering downloading the Free Gift knows exactly what to expect. And the headline tells them how the Free Gift helps them solve an urgent and specific problem.

Key #2 – High Value

The key here is to offer something so valuable, people would happily pay for it. And it’s also something that you could even give to current clients to help them to solve a problem.

Balance is the key here.

Aim to offer a “quick win” with your Free Gift without giving away too much of what you do. The Free Gift should also offer value that’s independent of the actual offer that you make.

Key #3 – Delivers on Your Promise

Trust is one of the keys to filling your group program. If you don’t deliver what you promised when providing your Free Gift, your potential client may not trust you to deliver what you promised in your paid programs either.

When you write the copy for the social post or the email you send that invites people to click through to the opt-in page, does your Free Gift deliver exactly what you promised there?

Key #4 – Instantly Downloadable

Finally, make it as easy as possible for people to access the Free Gift, while making sure you get their email address in return.

Ideally, they’ll be able to go to their email inbox right after entering their email address, to get the link to download the Free Gift.

Free Can Lead to Filled

Don’t underestimate the power of a Free Gift as a client magnet!

Your Free Gift isn’t just a way for you to attract the right people toward your Group Program. This is also an opportunity for you to showcase your value and show your ideal clients that you can deliver on your promises.

When used as part of the Heart-Shaped Funnel, they’re one of the keys to filling your group. But they’re not the only way to attract clients.

A Free Gift is just one way to fill your group program and attract more clients. But if you’re not sure where to start or need an easier way to reach more people faster, we would love to support you.

If you’re looking to launch a Group Program or Online Course, join us next week (March 15-18) for the “Create Your Group Program” Challenge.