Top Great Free Things to Give to Increase Conversions for Magento Store

I love free stuff, and I doubt that any person in the world can say the opposite. Psychologically, when people receive presents or get free things, not only their mood improves, but they also grow more attentive and friendly towards the presenter. Such a pattern of human behaviour makes giveaways great tools for promotion and customer loyalty improvement at all types of businesses, B2B or B2C and large, middle and small.

In the case of traditional retail, how to give away freebies is rarely a concern, for there are numerous occasions of person-to-person interaction, from direct sales to specifically held occasions like industry conventions and conferences. Yet when it comes to ecommerce, the possibilities of customer interaction seem narrower. Does it mean that you, as an online retailer, should miss out on presenting awesome free stuff to your potential and current clients? Absolutely not.

If you are running your online store with Magento ecommerce platform, you get a wide range of marketing and promotion capabilities, among them to give away things. This article is dedicated to things you can give your customers and how to give away free stuff in Magento online store.

Table of contents:

Giveaway idea #1: Free Coupon / Voucher
Giveaway idea #2: Free Template / Ebook
Giveaway idea #3: Free Extension
Giveaway idea #4: Free Trial Period
Giveaway idea #5: Free How-To Video
Giveaway idea #6: Freebies on Twitter
Giveaway idea #7: Buy X Get Y for Free

Giveaway idea #1: Free Coupon / Voucher

A coupon, voucher or a gift card is a universal gift to a customer, allowing you to increase the number of orders and improve customer loyalty at the same time. You can never go wrong with it: partly because a person is evidently interested in the things you sell for they are at your website and / or used to purchase from you and partly because one can independently make a decision what item to apply the coupon or free voucher to. At the same time, the possibilities of coupon application are endless – you can give free coupons away right at the checkout or product page, send them via emails and include them in newsletters, place them in advertisements and so on. Another advantage of free coupons is that you can not entirely give for free, but set up a balanced discount percentage that will not harm your company profitability. On the other hand, you need to stay generous enough so that joyful feeling of free stuff give away remained.

How to create and manage coupon codes in Magento 2

Together with cart and category price rules, coupons are the major promotion instruments in Magento 2. Coupon codes are easily created in this ecommerce platform back office and do not require developer expertise to work with.

This is a step-by-step instruction on how to create promotional codes in Magento 2 back office.

Step #1: log in to Magento admin panel and navigate to Marketing -> Promotion -> Cart Price Rules.

Step #2: Press Add New Rule button in the upper right corner.

Step #3: complete the Rule Information.

• Rule Name,
• Description,
• Active – set at Yes to enable at once,
• Websites – select the website it will apply to,
• Customer Groups,
• Coupon – select Specific Coupon.

Step #4: create Magento coupon code

Fill in your own code or tick Use Auto Generation to enable coupon generator.

Complete the following settings:

• Uses per Coupon – how many times a single coupon can be utilized,
• Uses per Customer – how many times a single,
• From-To – the date range your customers can use coupon,
• Priority – since you may have several promotion coupon codes in your online store, so it is important to arrange their application priority,
• Public In RSS Feed.

Step #5: press Save button to create the coupon.

New free coupon codes will appear in the Cart Price Rule list.

The Magento promo code will appear to those customers who fall within the configured range. Yet there is a better, more effective and memorable way to offer your customers a promo code or voucher with the help of a coupon code extension Free Promo Popup for Magento 2 by BelVG. With this free Magento extension, your promo codes will appear in a colourful and cute fashion to your customers, improving their mood and triggering positive emotions.

Giveaway idea #2: Free Template / Ebook

Free stuff given away is great, everybody loves presents, but as you give things that will be useful to its receiver, that will make them better or their life easier, is downright gorgeous. Companies that give away like free ebooks, instructions, fitness guides, study or lifestyle planners automatically get to the good books of its potential and current clients, for this free stuff proves you care for them, want to share your knowledge and demonstrate your skill. Undoubtedly, the free template will require time and effort to create, but in a long term, you can enter new markets, extend clientele and make money writing ebook or guide – all of this will serve as a fair reward for your labour.

With Magento ecommerce platform, you can easily set up a digital, or downloadable product give away in the back office of your store.

How to create Magento downloadable product

Step #1: navigate to Catalog -> Products.

Step #2: extend the drop-down list at the Add Product button and select Downloadable Product.

Step #3: complete the general product settings.

Fill in the following fields:

• Attribute Set – select Downloadable in the drop down list,
• Product Name,
• SKU,
• Price – set at 0,
• Tax Class,
• Stock Status – In Stock or Out of Stock,
• Quantity,
• Visibility – in Catalog, in Search, in both Catalog and Search or Not Visible Individually,
• Categories – appoint your product to a certain category on the website,
• Set Product as New From,
• Format – select Download,
• Activity – what activity the product relates to.

Step #4: additionally, complete other product settings for the downloadable item.

Step #5: complete Downloadable Information section.

 

These configurations concern the downloadable free product directly, so this section must be filled in.

• Title – of the product for the store view.
• Press Add Link button and the following field for adding a digital product URL or uploading the product itself will appear.

You can also add a sample of your downloadable product at the Samples section.

Press Add Link to add a sample URL.

Step #6: press Save button in the upper right corner.

The Magento downloadable product is created and will appear both in the back office catalog and in the front office, available to your customers. You can also configure the free product so that a client will need to sign up for things you offer them or set up ebook or template mailed to them. This way you can gather more precise data on the customers who were interested in the free stuff you offered.

Giveaway idea #3: Free Extension

Want to emphasise your professional expertise and enhance the services you provide your customers? A free Magento plugin is a great give away idea for a company that wants to improve its reputation and secure the reputation of a nifty and beneficent enterprise. The secret here is to determine the main service your free extension may compliment and properly research the needs and wants of your target audience so that the service will correspond to it directly. Spark the audience’s interest with a free give away extension and allow them to evaluate your product quality without paying money, and it will be a great stepping stone for encouraging your customers to download paid extensions or turn for paid services in the future.

As a Magento development company, we find this free module practice greatly beneficial for our reputation as expert developers and a good promotion tool. At our store, you can find a number of free Magento extensions for a number of solutions.

How to install Free Magento extensions

Step #1: navigate to System -> Tools -> Web Setup Wizard.

Step #2: select Extension Manager.

Step #3: enter Public Key and Private Key.

Go to Magento marketplace and press Create a New Access Key button. Copy the two keys and enter them into the corresponding fields.

Step #4: press Review and Install button

 

Step #5: select the extensions you want to install from the appeared Ready to Install list.

Step #6: complete the Readiness Check.

When done, press Next button.

Step #7: Create Backup.

When done, press Next button.

Step #8: Press Install button to install the extensions.

Your free Magento extension is safely installed to your online store.

Giveaway idea #4: Free Trial Period

What you give away should be the reflection of what your company is engaged in, and there is no better way to demonstrate that than with a free trial period to your software or to its premium version.

What are the advantages of free trial offers?

• Free trial offer is a great chance for you to convince the audience your product is good with no strings attached, and in that impossible case a potential client does not like the product, you do not owe them anything.
• Free month trial create the feeling of missing out in the audience using the product, which, with great probability, will result in sales.
• During trial time you can collect customer data like contact information that can be further used for marketing campaigns or retargeting.
• Free trial offers a great opportunity to collect feedback about your product, especially about its weak spots, bugs and faults.
• Free month trial gives your company a wonderful competitive edge that will set you off against other players in your industry.

No doubt, giving away stuff like this involves a certain risk, for certain people can find ways to infiltrate to your software and, further on, to your company with malicious intent, but if you take all the necessary precautionary measures, this outcome can be avoided. Yet the after effects of free trial, especially for establishing your professional reputation and credibility, will be admirable.

Giveaway idea #5: Free How-To Video

Creativity is a great source of attracting new clients as well as a great idea for things given away for free. A free how-to or an instruction video contains elements of both entertainment and education, a combination of business and pleasure which is particularly rare in every industry, meaning that your give away content will occupy the existing niche.

The choice of give for free video topic is from the beginning up to you, yet it should be closely connected with the products you retail in order to stimulate viewers’ interest to your company. If you are a skincare products retailer, showcase your customers how to properly use this or that product, or if you sell healthy foods, demonstrate what wonderful meals can be cooked with these products.

Even if what you are trading are not tangible products which can be handled in the video, there is still plenty of choices for a free video to give away. For instance, at BelVG’s YouTube channel you can find a great many of Magento and PrestaShop video tutorials on how to work with admin panel and perform all the necessary configurations for a basic web store launch, as well as detailed guides to our extensions and modules.

Giveaway idea #6: Freebies on Twitter

Social networks are a great source creating a solid business reputation and digital presence, expressing an opinion, engaging in a discussion with your customers, but also a great medium of promotion. Twitter is the leading social network for both purposes, with give aways as a popular topic there. There are even whole communities for give away stuff, like hunt4freebies, heyitsfree, CouponCabin and so on, where one can find a range of giveaways.

As a business owner, you can announce your own giveaway and offer good stuff on Twitter for a retweet, comment or a user tweet with your product. This way, you can cover a wider, global audience and win new customers.

Giveaway idea #7: Buy X Get Y Free

This type of promotion is often called “Buy one, get one free” or “two for the price of one” and is a rather common form of sales promotion that originated in brick-and-mortar retail as well as fast food and restaurants. Now, this Buy X Get Y Free formula has overtaken ecommerce. “Free” is a magical word that is guaranteed to increase the volume of sales for the products you set up the promotion for and create you the reputation of a generous and benevolent enterprise. Just make sure that buy one get one free deals you create are cost-effective and will not harm the profitability of your enterprise.

Magento has a wonderful stack of marketing and promotion capabilities, and among them is a specific configuration for Buy X Get Y Free promotion, which allows a store admin to set this promotion in no time.

How to create Buy X Get Y Free cart price rule in Magento

Step #1: navigate to Marketing -> Promotion -> Cart Price Rules.

Step #2: press Add New Rule button in the upper right corner.

Step #3: complete the Rule Information.

• Rule Name.
• Description.
• Active.
• Websites – to which website is it applied.
• Customer Groups: Not logged in, General, Wholesale, or Retailer.
• Coupon: either No coupon or Specific coupon. If you select the latter, a Coupon Code field will appear below. You can log in the Coupon code created yourself or choose Use Auto Generation. If you select and save the rule you will be able to generate multiple coupon codes.
• Uses per Coupon – the number of customers that can use the coupon.
• Uses per Customer – how many times a coupon can be used by one user.
• From – To – select the application time range.
• Priority – with 1 as the highest priority.
• Public In RSS Feed.

Step #4: expand Actions tab and set up the fields.

• Apply – select Buy X Get Y in the drop down list,
• Discount Amount – set up at 1,
• Maximum Qty Discount is Applied To,
• Discount Qty Step (Buy X) – enter the quantity of products that will be enough to qualify for this promotion,
• Apply to Shipping Amount,
• Discard subsequent rules.

Below is a field where you set up conditions for the Buy X Get Y Free rule to be applied to the cart. Also, set up the Free Shipping section.

Step #5: press Save button in the upper right corner.

A new buy one, get one free deal is successfully created in your Magento back office.

Wrapping it up

We hope that in this article you found inspiration and a bunch of fresh ideas that will guide you on your way to setting up giveaways to your clients. If you have any questions or comments, leave them down below.