Free Hugs: Is "Free" Killing Your Sales...?

In case you haven't seen it the video below is Juan Mann giving out "free hugs" in the mall in Sydney.

This heartwarming video has been viewed over 18 MILLION times on YouTube, got Juan interviewed on Oprah and a whole range of other shows and turned the song on the clip into a smash hit.

But there's another HUGE marketing lesson you can discover if you watch this video carefully (it runs for 3 minutes and 39 seconds...)


Notice in the video how it takes quite some time before someone actually takes Juan up on his fabulous offer of a free hug.

Juan is honestly not expecting anything in return for his hugs.

It's a great product given completely free no strings attached.

The first time Juan decided to try this "free hugging" he was standing in a busy mall for over 15 minutes.

No one took him up on his offer.

Then a little old lady came up and they had a very awkward hug...

And she told him a year ago today her daughter died and today her daughter's dog had died too.

On the second day of Juan's free hugging a man had climbed to a roof nearby and was ready to jump off to his death.

He saw Juan giving out free hugs, changed his mind and came down off the roof.



Juan is giving out the greatest service on earth...a service so great that just watching it given can stop someone from committing suicide.

And still he gets tremendous resistance.

We just don't trust that word "free".

We have all kinds of walls we put up to protect ourselves from being ripped off.

And we know in our modern world "there is no free lunch."



So it's vital if you give away something free in your marketing that you build value and trust.

In Juan's case they could see value and trust once things got rolling.

They could see the smiling faces of people being hugged.

They could see real hugs were being delivered with nothing being asked for in return.

And that brings us to another powerful marketing secret you can learn from this video.


Many years ago I ran multiple stalls in the markets.

And we found that it was VERY hard to sell products or even get prospects to look at your products when your market stall was empty.

But once you had one or two prospects in your stall it was like a magnet. Nearly everyone would stop and look.

Remember we're social animals.

THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE BEHAVE BASED ON WHAT THE PEOPLE AROUND THEM ARE DOING.



How do you get these 2 huge marketing secrets working in your favor?

1. If you offer something free keep in mind you have to build the value of that free offer.

2. Remember you may have to PROVE that your offer is genuinely free with no strings attached.

3. Explain your motivation for giving something of high value away free. Explaining your selfish motives helps your prospects accept that your offer is real.

4. A whole range of testimonials can help enormously to prove that your free offer is valuable especially if your prospect knows the person featured in a testimonial.

5. Ideally get someone who knows your prospects and has a solid relationship of trust built with them to recommend your free offer.


Remember you can have the greatest product or service in the world...a product that can only do good for your prospect...

And you may even be giving it away completely free with no strings attached (like Juan Mann) but you still have to educate and influence your prospect that your offer is genuine and valuable.

Also read...
Multiply The Impact Of Your Sales Message
Over 101 Copywriting Tips Including Video, Reports And More
3 Powerful Secrets Of Online Copy: FREE Report
Why Is Story Telling So Effective?
How To Grab Attention Without Over-Hyped Language

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh


More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

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