It seems to be an endless debate in marketing: how much should I give away in order to attract clients?

And different experts give wildly different answers.

Some say you should give away all your best material. That you can't give away enough.

Others say you're devaluing your work if you give away your ideas and content.

My experience: asking “how much should I give away?” is the wrong question.

It's not about how much, it's about what.

You can give away tons of information and still have potential clients feel short-changed. Or you can give away hardly anything, yet have them feel they're getting tremendous value from your free content.

The key is what type of information you give away.

And by that, I don't mean the old “what not how” advice. I've never found that to be useful since one person's “what” is another person's “how” depending on how much they already know.

My advice is to give away content that triggers “lightbulb moments” for your potential clients. Something that challenges their thinking and gives them new ideas. That helps them see their problems in a new light and uncovers the root causes of their issues or gives insights into potential solutions they'd never considered.

If you can do that, it doesn't really matter how much information you give away, your potential clients will feel inspired and energised. They'll feel you've given tremendous value.

On the other hand you can give them acres of material they already know about and they'll feel short changed.

“How much” isn't important, the new insights you give are.