This is the first part of a double post; in this post we’ll sketch the problem and have a look at XstreetSL freebies and how to use them to gain traffic. Other subjects will be covered in part 2, which will be brought online by the end of the week.
In Second Life, there’s a lot to do about the so called “Freebies” – goods offered by the merchants for free in their stores or on XstreetSL. On the consumer side there are several groups of freebie hunters, exploring all of Second Life to find new freebies of all sorts; where on the content creator’s side there is (and has always been) a lively discussion about freebies. As being a marketing consultant, I’m always getting a lot of questions from content creators about freebies. So here’s a little post with some basic ideas, and some do’s and don’ts.
A first concern of many content creators is the “freebie image” – some say all freebies are junk, or full perm items that have been in Second Life for ages and are recycled for the tenth time. When you spend 10 minutes on XstreetSL and get yourself some freebies, you will notice that this is not true – there is junk, but it is not as bad as some think. However, content creators are concerned about this, and some seem to think it would hurt their image of developing quality products when they would get involved in this. I do understand this concern, but I do not think that it is something that should keep you from distributing a freebie.
We all know the story of the Second Life resident contacting the contact creator with a lot of questions, comments, suggestions and sometimes even straightforward insults because the freebie they’ve just gotten themselves hasn’t completely changed their life. Very annoying, I agree, however it still is a minority, and even a freebie needs a good manual etc. which in many cases would solve this. Also keep in mind that Second Life, how idealistic this world may seem, still is a reflection of real life – there’s always a jackass in the neighborhood.
Having said that – let’s take a look at why some seem to be a little disappointed in the results they get from their freebie marketing actions, and use those as a start. The most common comments I get from content creators about freebies are; “I started distributing freebies to attract more traffic to my store, but didn’t notice any difference” and “I gave out freebies hoping they would increase sales, but I’ve not witnessed any difference in sales.”
Good thing here is that many content creators and merchants have a goal to distribute them. Too many times I see merchants jump on a train because it’s leaving the station, not knowing where the train is heading. (It’s always better to arrive a little late but knowing where you are, instead of arriving as first not knowing where you are).
So – first goal; attract more traffic to your store. (which you probably want to see resulting in more sales).
XstreetSL
The problem I see with many freebie advertisements on XstreetSL is that they do not contain enough textual content, and the majority of them doesn’t have a call-to-action. Here’s an example of a very friendly text – which however will not result in additional traffic: “A specially designed exclusive XstreetSL freebie – Enjoy!”.
Good points about this simple but friendly line – make the customer feel special, even though it’s a freebie, by calling it exclusive. However; you now have the customer’s attention because of the fact that it’s for free, so use it! Tell them in a few lines more about your designs, products and sl company.
Also missing – a call-to-action. A call-to-action is really a marketing basic that you should have in all your listings, and which should work given you’ve implemented it the right way. Once they’ve taken the effort of reading those few lines about your products, they’re already doing some “extra effort”, and a good call-to-action might give a result.
So; place a call-to-action like “Visit our store in Second Life”, “See all of our products on XstreetSL”, and make sure that no additional effort is required, by making that text a simple link – just one click required. It’s also a best practice to make this call-to-action stand out from the rest of your advertisement text, by ie. making it bold.
Potential customers take a quick look at the advertisement, and when the advertisement concerns a freebie, they’ll have a quick look at the picture, a look at the pricing to verify it’s really a freebie and afterwards their eyes will move on to the “Buy”-button. Make sure that somewhere in that “virtual” triangle there’s a call-to-action.
Now – the power of XstreetSL is in this specific situation also a merchant’s worst enemy. People can hunt down freebies without moving their avatar in Second Life. A simple inclusion of a call-to-action will probably gain you some extra traffic, but in fact you’re asking them again for an additional effort by letting them teleport to your store in Second Life.
Therefore I’d suggest to “reward” the ones that do the additional effort of teleporting to your store. You could for example have an exclusive XstreetSL freebie, and an exclusive in-world freebie. At your XstreetSL listing, clearly state that when they teleport to your store, there’s another freebie there that you only distribute in-world, and do the same in-world for the XstreetSL freebie listing.
A variation on this would be the half-and-half method; put half of the final product on XstreetSL, and tell them they can find the other half for free in your store in-world. This is slightly more difficult, because both parts will need to be usable “on their own”.
Hope you enjoyed the first part of this post – keep an eye on my blog for the second part, covering in-world distribution of freebies to gain traffic, and information on how to use freebies to boost sales.
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