Recently, I asked you, my readers, to send me questions for the upcoming EntreLeadership Podcast with author Mark Sanborn. And let me say, you blew me away.

I was totally amazed with the quality of the questions asked. I was equally impressed with the amount of questions received. There were too many for both the podcast interview and the extended interview for ChrisLoCurto.com readers.

So I wanted to include one of them here today:

The answer to that question Bret is absolutely yes! But it must be done intentionally. Here are a few things to think about.

• Plan it– If you’re going to go to the effort of giving away your hard work, you have to be sure that you know exactly what you’re going to do with your shiny new customers. When we launched  Andres Gutierrez with the Hispanic version of Financial Peace University, we:
  • Promoted on a local radio station that we were holding a free six-week version of the class for anyone who wanted to attend.
  • Held the program in its entirety, with a discussion group at the end of each lesson to see exactly how each attendee felt about the class.
  • Compiled all of the data and then shot video testimonies of each attendee, including planned-out questions specific to their individual situations.
• Prepare it – Once you have all of this info, don’t let it sit around waiting to be used. Do whatever edits and preparation necessary to get it ready. Otherwise, it will become useless.

• Promote it – Use every possible channel you can think of to get the word out. This doesn’t need to be expensive, just thought through. Use all of the social media platforms! (Except Google+ because nobody really knows what that’s for.) Check out Michael Hyatt’s Platform for the best plan of attack. Make sure that word-of-mouth is happening with your new found tribe.

Too many times I watch companies give away their product for promotion, and they don’t have a plan. The more intentional you are, the more productive you will be in the long run. Click to Tweet

Question: What are your thoughts on giving away product?