SUCK IT AND SEE
IF IT'S FREE, will it attract? Might it turn into a rewarding sale or long-term relationship? With common-sense planning for free trials, samples or consultations you have the means to manipulate the purchasing instincts of potential customers. If you can’t offer something free in advance, you might look at providing them with a tempter alongside.
Many items are more successful for being experienced. Will I like the new flavour? Will I find this useful? Will I feel comfortable with that? Is it an improvement on what I have already? Let them suck it and see. Let them give it a go.
A fundamental to operating any worthwhile free trial scheme is to make it simple. Don't put customers off by asking for too much information in order to access their free trial. Participation should be easy and not pulled down by bureaucracy or excessive pushiness.
Of course, do make sure you glean enough data to track the free trial participation and follow it up later in the process. For instance, you may wish to ask how well things are going. This can improve your chances of conversion. There is room for sales activity in between the offer starting and finishing.
Research has shown that the most popular approach is the one month (or 30-day) free trial. This is a reasonable period for a new habit to form, long enough for the prospect to feel comfortable with any decision.
ALTERNATIVE
An alternative is to offer free samples: to put forward a portion of the complete product or service you are going to deliver. If the prospective customer likes what he or she has tried, the next step should be to embrace the entire offering. This marketing tool works particularly well for the service sector.
A further variant is to slip samples of other products into your despatched item, creating a feel-good factor and possibly earning you a second purchase.
It is far from unusual for somebody setting up a service business to give free consultations as a means of winning customers. Fashionable life-coaching is a typical example. Many coaches offer free taster sessions in order to lure full-course participants.
However, free consultations won't do the selling. You still have to take that next step and ask for the order. In any case, the prospect, if at all interested, is likely to be seeking some direction. Free consultation should be the starting point of the journey through to making that sale.
Although the web, television, radio and print count among front-line vehicles for carrying free trial, sample and consultation messages, fulfilling this technique is particularly suited to direct marketing methods as well. In a USA coast-to-coast research sample published recently it was stated that three-quarters of people who responded to a direct mail offer carried on to make a final purchase.
EASIER TO DO NOTHING?
You have to be aware that whether you offer something for nothing or at full price you will be faced by a significant percentage of people who will never buy from you. Some don't trust free offers and see it as safer or easier to do nothing.
Conversely, there are those who are free offer freaks – collectors who do not have any intention of buying anything at any time. Therefore, introductory cut-price offers can be a more effective alternative than give-aways, involving a degree of customer commitment up front.
All options should be considered. Look at what your competitors are doing. Make sure that the offer, be it free or discounted, is sufficiently low cost for you to deliver.
Assess the way in which you will take the offer to market and be prepared to switch or supplement mid-campaign, if necessary. Work at fine-tuning how you follow up on recipients, then how you encourage brand loyalty and repeat or continued business.
Always remain focused on the stark fact that the offer will not do the selling for you. It is a means to that end, opening doors through which your sales force might march and conquer.
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