Why Giving Free Samples is Great For Business

Consumers are spoiled, especially those of spending the majority of our minutes online. We are used to getting almost everything for next to nothing and, admit it, we sometimes get put out at even the smallest of online expenses.

Right now, I’m writing content that will be uploaded to WordPress, a free blogging platform that will automatically tweet my post a second after it’s published thanks to a free plug-in. Earlier today I spoke with someone half way around the world, for free, using Skype and they spent five minutes telling me all about a new (free) app they had just downloaded for their iPhone.

Music, TV shows and movies; news, games and books – the Internet offers such an avalanche of readily available complimentary content, it would be easy to wonder how anyone makes a living.

The answer is easy.

Plenty of people are making mountains of money by playing it smart, same as the strategic businesses that have been giving out samples forever already. Offering a free sample is a healthy part of hardy business. It works, and has been part of the way smart business is done for decades before there ever was an Internet.

There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but hit Costco during sample time and you might leave with a semi-satisfied belly. Strategic end caps throughout the store are positioned to present passerby with a free taste, hopefully prompting them to go for the full package.

You liked it here, right? Well, now you can take it home… for a price.

A couple of weeks ago, my family was doing our Saturday stock-up at Costco, the wholesale club where one can buy Mayonnaise by the bucket load, should you be so inclined. As we rounded the final aisle of frozen foods, our children started chirping, begging us for a box of chicken nuggets. Fortunately for them, a kind woman with something close to a century on her face was set up at the head of the aisle, handing out samples of Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets with a toothpick thrust into his forehead.

The children eagerly took their samples, said their thanks, and we proceeded to the end of the aisle.

In the freezer case we were faced with two choices: dinosaur nuggets or Mickey Mouse nuggets. Both boxes were all white meat and held exactly the same weight. The dinosaurs came with a wide assortment of extinct creatures to gnaw on, while the Mickey’s offered only the three small circles in a loose interpretation of the famous rodent’s face.

Oh yeah, the Mickey nuggets were also a dollar more.

My children might have hesitated for all of five seconds before they started arguing. “I want dinosaurs,” my son announced. “I want Mickey,” my daughter countered.

I explained to my daughter that the Mickey nuggets were a dollar more, even though they offered the exact same thing, but she didn’t care. She was adamant, and offered to pay the dollar difference with her hard-earned allowance money. This was especially uncharacteristic seeing as how she has an excellent understanding of money, loves to buy things at the dollar store and presently has only three of the greenbacks left.

I used what little Jedi mind powers I had left at the end of a long shopping excursion, then put the dinosaur nuggets in the cart and we continued on our way. Curious, I asked my daughter why she held such a strong preference for the Mickey nuggets. My daughter has reasons for everything and rarely minds sharing them, but her answer was not immediate. She spent maybe a minute in thought.

“It’s because they gave me Mickey on a toothpick,” she finally said. “I knew exactly what I’d be getting.”

We reminded her that the nuggets were almost exactly the same and she said that of course SHE KNEW that, but getting the Mickey nugget on the toothpick had made all the difference.

Free samples work. And not just with children.

What if your business does not offer things that are easily sampled or endlessly refillable such as e-books or downloads? Can “free” still fill your bank account?

Absolutely.

No matter what your business offers, there is a way to give your prospects a cookie. Offer free shipping for first time buyers, or even better, for your repeat customers too. You could give away item A for free with the purchase of items B and C. Either way, smart businesses know how to leverage the consumer’s innate desire to get something for free with their own need to drive dollars.

And one last thing, make your offer genuine and don’t resent your customers for taking you up on it.

There is no shortage of free products available online. Be inspired, not afraid. And remember, if a child is willing to spend one fourth of their net worth on Mickey nuggets, then you can win over your customers, too.