Product sampling campaigns can be an excellent way to improve brand exposure, create more personalised results for businesses, and deliver more qualified leads to any sales team.
The simple reason for this is that product sampling allows your customers to test out what you have to offer before they ever make a purchase – giving them the power to get accustomed to your company – free of charge.
At the same time, product sampling raises awareness for the product in question, giving businesses the opportunity to gather crucial reviews, feedback, and data on how consumers feel about an item or service.
What is digital product sampling?
Most companies are only familiar with product sampling in the way it pertains to free giveaways at events or samples offered by a shop on the high-street. However, the truth is that there’s more to sampling than you might think.
In fact, digital sampling can add a whole new dimension to the traditional product sampling marketplace – allowing companies to save time and money when they’re searching for valuable customer data. If you have a digital product, like a piece of software, an eBook, or a learning opportunity available, then you can still take part in the product sampling strategy.
Here are a few tips to get you started:
1. Start with a solid goal
All product sampling campaigns – digital or otherwise – must begin with a solid goal. This means asking yourself what you want to achieve with your campaign. Are you hoping to learn more about your target audience, or do you simply want to raise awareness for your brand?
Remember that your goal will be intrinsically linked to your target audience, as you’ll need to know who you’re going to target if you want your campaign to be successful. Once you have a goal and an audience in mind, you can think about how you’re going to offer your product sample to your target customers.
2. Consider distribution
The best product sampling campaigns succeed because they’re carefully and strategically structured. Placing a download on your website and hoping that the right customers will find it might not give you great results.
However, you could consider connecting with customers from the target market you’re trying to reach through email, PPC campaigns, and targeted social ads.
Today, social media advertisements can be designed to specifically show to a unique collection of people based on important demographics like age, job title, location, and more.
Combining your sampling strategy with your social media marketing techniques could be a great way to boost your chances of success.
3. Measure your progress
Finally, one of the things that makes product sampling such a powerful solution for many businesses, is that you can measure the progress of your campaign, and make changes to your strategy based on the information you gather.
For instance, you might find out that more women then men download your sample, or that you can access more engagement from a particular country.
The more you learn from your digital campaigns, the more you can make real-time changes to enhance brand awareness in all the right places.
Hotcow is a non-traditional creative agency that specialises in experiential marketing that goes viral. Our campaigns generate buzz through crowd participation, PR and content sharing. Contact us on 0207 5030442, or email us on info@hotcow.co.uk.
