Every month, we give away free books on LinkedIn.
No cost. No catch.
They’re genuinely free.
So why do we do it? In this week’s blog, you’ll learn why and how you can improve your marketing by doing something similar.
Since we started in January, we’ve gifted copies of books by authors including James Timpson, Chris Voss, and Rory Sutherland. Next month, it’s Catherine Morgan.
After last week’s giveaway of Marcus Sheridan’s They Ask, You Answer, an adviser asked me why we do it. So, because we were asked, we’ll now answer (see what I did there?).
Every month, I post on LinkedIn explaining which book we’re giving away and how many copies we have. Then, whoever claims them first by expressing their interest in the comments gets a copy in the post. They don’t even have to be Yardstick clients.
Here are the five key reasons why we do it.
#1: They’re all great books
We’ve read every book we give away, and we believe they’ll genuinely help our profession improve their marketing, sales, or business.
For example, successful marketing requires (among other things) great processes and habits; that’s why we’ve given away copies of James Clear’s Atomic Habits. And content needs distributing and promoting, so we gave away Ross Simmonds’ Create Once. Distribute Forever.
#2. An extension of our core values
One of our core values is that we “freely share our knowledge to help financial advisers and planners improve their marketing”. Giving away other people’s knowledge in the form of books is an extension of that principle.
#3: It raises our profile with the authors
It never hurts to have friends in high places, and giving the books away has certainly helped put us on the radar of some of the authors.
That’s led to the likes of Ross Simmonds and Rory Sutherland joining us on our webinars earlier in the year, while Marcus Sheridan is our October guest (click here to sign up for that webinar).
If Chris Voss is reading this, we’d love to share our virtual stage with you, too!
Reason #4: Engagement on LinkedIn
Each giveaway drives engagement on LinkedIn at three points.
Firstly, we always preview the next book giveaway, usually alongside a picture of the books being delivered.
Secondly, there’s the post giving the books away, which always receives plenty of comments, the most algorithm-friendly type of engagement.
Finally, we ask the people receiving the books to let us know they’ve arrived safely by posting on LinkedIn. Reciprocity means most are very happy to do that, and, again, those posts often receive a relatively high degree of engagement.
Reason #5: It’s becoming something we are known for
As we do more of them, the book giveaways are something we’re becoming known for on LinkedIn, much like our #neronuggets. Both raise our profile.
Harness the giveaway gains
So, there you have it: the five reasons why we started giving books away on LinkedIn, and we will continue doing so into 2025. There are many ways you could do something similar in your marketing:
- You could copy the idea and give books away to your audience. Paul Armson’s Enough?, Chris Budd’s The Financial Wellbeing book and Catherine Morgan’s It’s Not About The Money would all make great giveaways.
- There are favours you could do, especially for professional connections, that harness the power of reciprocity. A great recent episode of Phil Agnew’s Nudge podcast explains how he used reciprocity to get eight influencers to promote his podcast. Click here to listen to it now.
- You could find something to become known for. We have (among other things) the book giveaways and our #neronuggets. What’s your equivalent?
Hopefully, this week’s blog has inspired you to consider how you can adapt our book giveaway concept.
In the meantime, if you know of marketing and business books you think we should add to our giveaway list, please let us know by emailing phil@theyardstickagency.co.uk or calling 0115 8965 300.
