One way to entice customers to try your product or service is by giving away a sample for free. This tactic is quite prevalent online with free e-books, free webinars, free slideshows, etc. But is free actually valuable?
On the one hand, putting a value of 0 on something may make it seem less valuabe to potential customers. Why are you willing to give it away? It must not be all that great. On the other hand, offering a free sample has become expected, especially for companies establishing themselves. As a new product or service, a reputation has not yet been developed and so potential customers have no where to turn to get an opinion about whether its worth buying.
I think free is a great way to give potential customers a risk-free taste of your products or services – and, as I said above, it is pretty much expected. However, I think what is given away should actually be valuable. Take a bit of time to provide useful information to your potential customers and instead of thinking of it as free, think of it as a trial.
(photo by Limbo Poet @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: business, business strategy, marketing, marketing strategy, strategy, internet marketing
I think a lot of companies get all bound up in the need to advertise, advertise, advertise, which is great, but successful companies understand that marketing is so much more than advertising. Marketing is intimately tied to business objectives, strategy, and customer relationships – how they inter-relate and how to tie them together to reach the business’ goals.
If you can spare some cash, a tight economy is actually a great time to do some advertising to expand your brand’s reach. Your competitors may be pulling back on advertising, which makes this a good time to steal some share from them. All of this is meaningless if you don’t have effective advertising.