One business tactic that you may want to consider is to offer a free product or service in anticipation of the launch of the related paid product or service. This can offer several advantages. For starters, it gives potential customers a taste of things to come and it can help to build up anticipation for the upcoming launch.

Perhaps even more importantly, it can give you an opportunity to build up a mailing list that can subsequently be used for future announcements and product launches. This is a very targeted list, because the people on it have already expressed explicit interest in the types of products or services that you sell. They have already shown that they want what you have.

For instance, consider the free ebook being offered by John Chow. Called the Ultimate Blog Profit Model, it is a free download for anyone who visits the main page of the site. All they have to do is provide a name and email address, confirming the latter when a message comes through.

These contacts are added to the list and they will be immediately informed when Blog Profit Camp launches. This is the paid product that is directly related to the free ebook. John Chow is increasing interest in this product by offering a glimpse of it for free.

Have you considered using a similar strategy for your own company? Have you tried offering a free demo or download in anticipation of an upcoming release?