Give-to-Get Trust Building
Let people try before they buy; give away real value and collect the email.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 85%
Bodnar argues that because AI has commoditized knowledge, trust is now the scarcest and most important asset. The way to earn it is to let people try before they buy: give away genuinely valuable tools, templates, trials, or content that you could have charged for. In exchange, collect the email address, treating it as the currency people pay with. This is fundamentally an economics decision, choosing what to give away now to sell a bigger thing later, and it compounds into an owned audience and durable trust that converts.
Origin
HubSpot decided about 10 years ago that trust was becoming the most important thing, and built a free CRM and free tools like Website Grader and a stock-photo library to let people experience value before paying.
Core principles
- 01In a world of commoditized knowledge, trust becomes everything.
- 02Letting people try before they buy builds the trust that closes sales.
- 03Give away things valuable enough that you considered charging for them.
- 04Make the customer's email the currency they pay with instead of money.
- 05Marketing is economics: decide what to give away to sell a bigger thing later.
How to run it
- 1
Find what your market pays for
Identify a tool, asset, or resource your target audience currently spends money on.
Pro tip The stronger the paid alternative you displace, the more valuable your giveaway feels.
- 2
Give it away for free
Build and offer a genuinely valuable version of that thing at no cost.
Pro tip Don't be afraid to give away great things people can actually use.
- 3
Price it in email
Make the email address the currency; collect it in exchange for the free value.
Pro tip People will readily give an email to save real money.
- 4
Build trust toward the bigger offer
Use trials, webinars, and tools so people experience your quality, then nurture them to the paid product over time.
Pro tip Prospects may attend several webinars before buying; you're investing in trust.
Watch out This is a long game; some buyers convert years later.
In the wild
HubSpot noticed customers paying Getty Images for imagery, hired a freelancer to buy out rights to 500 photos for about $10,000, and gave them away free.
→ Around 5 million downloads over the years, generating goodwill and emails.
HubSpot gives away a free version of its CRM so users get up and running and close deals, experiencing the product before upgrading.
→ Free users become far more likely to buy the paid version because trust and habit are established.
Common mistakes
Hoarding value behind a paywall
Refusing to give anything away prevents the try-before-you-buy trust that actually converts skeptical buyers.
Not collecting emails early
Bodnar and Hala both cite regret at starting email collection years too late, forfeiting an owned audience.
Is it for you?
Best for
Companies with a paid product who can offer a free tool, trial, or content to build trust.
Not ideal for
Businesses with nothing valuable to give away or no back-end offer to monetize the trust.
From the transcript
“We all have access to infinite knowledge with AI. Knowledge is a complete commodity. So in that world trust becomes everything... giving that value away…”
“Instead of having people pay for it, make their email the way that they pay for that content.”
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