Why a Digital Business Should Offer Free Downloads

Everyone likes free stuff. By far one of the most common search phrases that our organic search traffic enters contains the phrase “free download” or “free template download”. When it comes to online businesses selling digital downloads, it is not only easy but also a good idea to offer at least some products for free. This is for various reasons.

Sales prospects and email collection

Offering a free download on your website is a great opportunity to collect some information about your prospective customers. People who want a free download might not be a paying customer today, but they might be tomorrow. That’s why it’s good to know who those people are. Many websites require users to enter an email address and additional information in order to complete a free download. They later use this to market and up-sell to these prospective customers, all of whom are of course already aware of the brand which is a great start in any marketing campaign.

SEO

We find that offering free legal template downloads provides more opportunities to create searchable content and additional landing pages for natural search traffic. Since we know that many of our site visitors and prospective customers are searching for free downloads, providing something for free gives them a reason to come to your site in the first place and a reason for the search engines to index your website for various “free download” search phrases.

Product confidence

Aside from customer reviews, when it comes to selling digital products, it can be very difficult for prospective customers to get an idea of what it is they are buying. Unlike physical products for example, there are no photos or tangible representations of the product. For this reason, free downloads or free samples are an essential part of demonstrating the credibility and quality of any digital product. If a prospective customer can see a brand’s confidence in the product and get a taster for the product itself, they are much more likely to make a purchase.

Check out our free sample legal templates page, or you will find on many of our products pages links to sections containing sample legal clauses or free downloads from the various agreements.