Freebies are a part of marketing strategy which involves giving free product samples, giveaways, and trials of your product and services.
Many customers tend to avoid spending money on new products; freebies are useful in pursuing such people.
The idea of giving freebies can seem a little daunting as you have to bear the extra costs.
Don’t let this dissuade you because freebies can help you generate a lot of sales in the future. In some cases, up to 2000%!
Psychology of Purchases: How Freebies Influence Buying Choices
Customers undergo what’s called a buyer decision process whenever they need to make a purchase. They realize their need, desire, or a problem before seeking out for a potential solution.
To find a solution, customers rely on several information sources to help them choose the right product among the many variants – with factors like price, availability, and personal preferences playing a significant role.
By providing a free product sample, you cut through the noise and put your customer on the right track to make a favorable purchasing decision.
But how this happens – let’s find out in the following steps.
- With free samples, your customers get a direct experience of using your solution that helps them to evaluate and understand rationally.
- This way, new audiences unfamiliar with your brand can experience your services without spending any amount.
- If your product or service provides a capable solution to their requirements, it will influence the purchase decision and eventually result in more sales of your brand.
- Over time, your loyal customers will become your brand advocates, and they may refer your brand to others, helping you grow your customer base.
Apart from the reasons mentioned above, freebies also push your customers to reciprocate.
When your customers receive something from you for free, they feel compelled to return the favor by making a purchase. This process is called reciprocity.
Planning a Freebie Marketing Strategy
There are many ways to design your freebie program. But here are the points prerequisite to every freebie marketing strategy:
Determine the type of freebie you can offer.
To determine what type of freebies you should offer, survey your audience. You can use phone calls, social media platforms, and public forums to understand what your audience wants.
If you have a blog, check your analytics and see which topics are trending among your customers. Otherwise, use Facebook polls, tweets, and other social media tools to get the information.
Link it in your blogs.
Your blogs represent the philosophy of your brand. Make sure you use blogging as an essential tool to develop your marketing strategy.
And once you have initiated your freebie program, go to your blogs, and link it with relevant content. It will help you build traction and improve your search engine rankings as well.
Create website pop-ups.
Creating a website pop-up helps you showcase important information to your visitors.
With the pop-ups covering up a significant area, you have high chances of explaining the details of your freebie program to your prospective customers.
Social media promotion.
There are various methods to promote your freebie on social media networks. You can use Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat to connect to your target audience.
Additionally, you can promote your freebies on Pinterest, Reddit, and YouTube as well.
Factors Ensuring the Success of Your Freebie Marketing Strategy
Your freebie marketing strategy must capture the interest of your target customers; here are some crucial factors that can make a difference.
Make freebies an integral part of your marketing plan.
Even if your product offers excellent features, you can’t expect your customers to believe you readily.
The reality is – you can’t grow in a matter of days, even with a breakthrough product or service.
It would only help if you allow your customers to take the time to use your product and discover its features before making a purchase.
That’s why free samples and giveaways need to be an integral part of your comprehensive marketing strategy, not as a short-term goal.
Figure out why you are offering a freebie.
If your answer is sales, you’re in for a surprise! Freebies like free samples, free trials, and giveaways don’t always translate into immediate sales.
However, there are many things you’ll get by using a freebie marketing strategy. Here are some significant ones:
- Great platform: Even if your customers don’t make an immediate purchase, they are more likely to remember you as an expert in your trade.
- Wider reach: When you offer freebies through social media platforms, you will manage to get a large number of followers in a quick time, increasing your traction.
- Vital connections: When you launch a freebie program, you attract a broad audience interested in your product or service. If they like your free sample, there are chances they will make an actual purchase in the future.
- Build traffic: If you launch a freebie program through your website, it will generate a lot of user traffic, who have a high chance of checking out the entire site as well.
Understand how a freebie program works.
Out of the total individuals signing up for your freebie program, a small share would follow through, and a smaller percentage would go on to become your paying customers.
Launching a freebie marketing program can be beneficial only if you know how it works and how you can put it to your best use.
Focus on excellence.
Your products represent your brand, so are the freebies you offer. Make sure there is no compromise on quality so that your customers may find your giveaways useful.
Otherwise, a low-quality freebie may contribute to a negative brand image.
Focus on utility.
Offer freebies that directly offer a solution to the problems of your niche group. These are the people you want to target, so make sure you understand their needs and the issues they face.
If you do your homework right, you’ll be able to provide tailor-made solutions to your customers – translating into the success of your brand.
Freebies are an excellent method to introduce people to your brand. When done effectively, you can win over customers at a marginal cost to your company.
Consider freebies as an ingredient of your marketing cost that you’ll recover soon in the future.
