I’ll take a wild stab in the dark and suggest that almost everyone enjoys getting something for free. I know I do. The recent holiday period showed that it holds true for my grandchildren as well, and there must be very few who look it in the mouth. If a company sends a gift to subscribers on their email marketing list, it’s fair to assume it will generate a degree of gratitude and, hopefully, this would be something to build on.

A pdf on a relevant subject will always be well received. If it has your company name on it a few times to remind the recipient of how generous you are, and it is something they might keep for a while, it’s a gift that keeps giving. That goes for both sides. 

The recipient might think it a great idea to forward it to a friend or colleague, copying the motives of the original sender. The unsolicited nature of the gift adds to its value. It will, if you have any sense, contain requests for the recipient to sign up to your email marketing list. Sending such a gift shows that the sender has seen it and thought to themselves, “I know who would find this useful”. The fact that they will feel pretty good in themselves just adds to the likelihood of the item being sent.

Don’t only offer free gifts as a come-on to new subscribers. If you offer them to those who have been on your email marketing list for some time, and have bought a number of products, it will be seen as a thank-you to them. If you include share buttons in the pdf, you give the person a little nudge. They are doing your work for you.

It’s a cheap and easy method to generate leads. You have somebody who is satisfied with your products and the way you do business, sending your contact details, not to mention your sign-up click-throughs, to people they know. Your subscriber has a gift from you, a lead which he has sourced for you. 

You’d be a fool not to go for it.