You can create a targeted list of prospects who are interested in their products, offering a relevant download on its website. For example, let’s take a look at a very good example – apple.com. When the free download from iTunes and QuickTime software for your site, you are prompted to fill out an optional name and e-mail form so they can send you offers on songs that you can buy through – guess who – iTunes!

In fact, there is no need to offer such a “heavyweight” download as a full-feature software like iTunes. You can attract prospects equally well with the quality of some gifts, like a simple report, a free wallpaper, and so on. What is important is that your download offers enough value for the prospect to be willing to give away their own email address for it.

However, slapping together a simple download and putting a link on your site will not be enough to attract potential customers. You’ll have to do some work in order to bring its generating mechanism to work well for you.

First, you must place your download form prominently on its website. Preferably, dedicate a page to it and linking to the page of each page on your site. In this way, there is no way visitors can not find the download page, and when they do, you’ll get some of them converted into your prospects!

In addition, you have to put a little effort into promoting your download. Explain and elaborate on the values of the download, and why users should download. You may think why nobody wants to spend on a free, but the majority of visitors to your site would be too lazy to take the effort to download it, as most of their downloads just sit on the virtual hard disk collection dust. It is important therefore to show your visitors why you should download your free.