I’ve been watching Mad Men lately. I gotta tell you, it’s practically become an obsession.
Though Sterling Cooper was a traditional ad agency, they still occasionally hit a few good ideas for their clients. One example was using coupons.
While this article is not about using coupons per se, we’re going to talk about sampling to boost your response.
Depending on your business type, sampling could be in many different forms. No doubt you’ve seen sampling used in grocery stores.
In fact, I was in the grocery just the other day and a dude had his grill fired up and was grilling some chicken and some veggies. And the savory aroma practically carried you to the cooking area.
So, the guy was promoting his new line of homemade BBQ sauces and marinades… He gave patrons hot-off-the grill samples of the chicken and veggies marinated in his sauces.
And brother let me tell ya… that was some guuuud stuff! And did the sampling work? I immediately bought every favor he offered. And there was a long line of others, bottles in hand ready to buy.
But there’s the thing. Sampling doesn’t apply to just food. Allow me to share another example of sampling.
If you happen to be in the information biz, you could offer a “sample” of your informational product like a sample audio, free report, or chapters/sections of the kit course or whatever.
You could offer samples for nearly anything… clothes, music, tools, you name it.
According to Claude Hopkins, “the product itself should be its own best salesman.” Do good, produce a great product or service and give folks a “sample” of the goodness.
Samples are great for several reasons. First, you can use the word “FREE” in your ads to entice prospects to request a sample. And friends, the word free still have compelling power in advertising. It’s still a great attention getter. And this leads to action and capturing prospects names and contact information for follow up later.
A Word Of Caution: Do use give out samples casually. If you use distributors to sale your products do not casually hand this out samples at will. Make sure they show true interest and they are qualified.
A simple way to qualify distributors is to have them complete a short request and be sure to key and track requests.
Now you have some new, low cost advertising tools to try out. So, give it a go.
Do you have a sample idea? Then share it with me. I enjoy learning what works and what doesn’t work for other businesses.