This serves as an opportunity to learn more about your target market and how you can improve the product so it exceeds consumer expectations and gives you a competitive edge.

Incorporating product samples into the marketing plan is cost-effective because it saves money if mistakes are corrected during the promotional phase rather than when the product has launched and is available on store shelves.

Furthermore, since the size of product samples are often smaller in scale, you have the ability to permeate a larger demographic for a fraction of the cost. Although product sample distribution may be more cost-effective than a business plan without product sample distribution, a profitable business still requires a budget and a plan to be in place.

Entrepreneurs must take into consideration the cost of developing and distributing the samples and also work quality control and research and development into the budget. Also, samples should not be handed out carelessly with no focus in sight. A target market should be defined so that you get the most bang for the buck.

Stephanie Lee began writing in with concentration on food, travel, fashion and real estate. She has written for Amnesty International and maintains three blogs. Lee holds a Bachelor of Arts in international relations from the University of California, Irvine, and an M.

from Concordia University. What Are the Benefits of Samples When Marketing a New Product? By Stephanie Lee. Exposure The unfamiliarity of new products may make consumers weary of reliability, impact on lifestyle or effectiveness.

One of the most effective ways to generate sales is by offering consumers a free trial of the product. In fact, sampling can lead to quick brand building and purchase decision, with immediate, measurable sales impact.

Within this sub-specialized field, Promotional Brand Ambassadors has identified our own team of specialized ambassadors, and information specialists who are experts at communicating to each specialized target market.

Bringing a new product to market, or increasing existing sales of an under-performing line has always been a specialty of Promotional brand Ambassadors.

We have provided family-oriented sampling campaigns and promotional teams for programs that have including Drink Milk and Drink Chocolate Milk for the US Dairy Farmers, Gatorade, Boost calcium nutritional products and various soda companies. As would be expected, we have provided team members for Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Red Bull, Monster and other energy drink companies as well as Gatorade Stokely Van Camp , Iced Teas, Fruit Drinks and other Future Beverage Market providers.

Programs include measurable samples and resulting sales impact, creative participation programs and coupon distribution and redemption efforts.

And Stewart confirms sampling is a solid way to increase sales. Free samples encourage potential customers to play into the idea of reciprocity. In other words, people who receive the sample want to do something for your brand in return — like posting a positive review on social media.

This by no means every review is going to be positive of course. Neither should that be expected. And even negative reviews provide added authenticity for your brand.

But one of the reasons sampling does yield such positive results is because the right provider like Bazaarvoice 👀 can create campaigns for a hyper-targeted audience, right down to age, gender, or even skin tone. When the recipient is the exact target audience the product is for, the review is much more likely to be positive.

Just make sure your sampling provider can accommodate this. As a result, Dirt Devil product reviews went from 2. You probably already know that social content is an important way to reach consumers.

Combining the reach of social media with the effectiveness of product sampling gives you a unique marketing campaign powerhouse. Most Bazaarvoice Sampling customers are e-commerce managers who use sampling to create and feature content on social media.

Plus build your community. We could talk up the benefits of sampling all day. But numbers do a better job of demonstrating it. We recently surveyed over 6, Influenster community members who have recently taken part in sampling campaigns. What effect did the campaign s have?

Well, of the members we surveyed:. The individual strategies can take several different forms, from in-store food samples Costco or mailed glasses to try on Warby Parker.

The details depend on your business model and campaign goals. Costco is famous for the traditional, in-store, free sample method. People have gone so far as to tour the sample tables at various Costco stores. The more samples people try, the closer they get to a free lunch.

Personal finance and food bloggers have picked up on this idea as well and have even written articles encouraging the practice. Traditional sampling works especially well for supermarkets like Costco, as well as other brick-and-mortar stores like makeup counters.

Just remember that the goal for this type of sampling is to increase sales and positive word of mouth. Customers apply for various free sample offers through Ripple Street. Once selected for the offer, they receive the samples in the mail. After testing out the sample products, they write a review and provide feedback to the brand in question.

Applications for these offers close after a certain amount of time, but new ones are always opening up. For example, Baby BLUE Chewy Chatterbox dog and cat treats opened its sample application from May 5 to June 6.

On June 7, , the applicants were selected to sample the product. And from June 13 through July 4, , the products were sent out and tested. As a result, samplers gave positive product reviews. More reviews lower risk aversion.

When you give current customers, influencers, and brand ambassadors something exciting to take home to their friends and family and even their pets! Offering samples that are only available for a limited time also helps brands build their email list because fans want to be alerted about new deals.

So you can direct them to an email subscription form where they can give their information in exchange for access to news about special offers like free samples. Customers simply select a product like hair dye or blush.

This technique is also sometimes more helpful and realistic than physical store samples because the tool takes into account different product combinations and how they affect each other.

For example, if I dyed my hair bright red, would that red lipstick look good? Hmm… maybe a more subtle shade would be better. Brands can use virtual try-ons to fill their social media calendars. Warby Parker prides itself on its choice selection when it comes to new, stylish, and comfortable eyeglass frames.

It provides a quiz to help customers determine exactly what type of frames will best suit them and then a personalized selection based on their responses.

After completing the quiz, customers can choose up to five frames that are delivered right to their homes, where they can test them for five days. After finding that perfect pair, customers can buy what they want and ship the rest back.

For something you have to wear all the time like glasses , comfort and style are paramount. Warby Parker helps customers feel assured that both needs will be met because customers can literally see the results for themselves at home before buying.

For brands that want a turnkey sampler program, Bazaarvoice offers a white-labeled sampling program to help retailers get their product samples directly into the hands of their community and start generating UGC.

Kent Yoshimura and Ryan Chen, co-founders of wellness company Neuro, explain in this podcast one of the key ways they achieved their success: making sure Neuro Gum was as perfect as possible before they jumped into product activation. They gave out free samples of the gum to family, friends, and co-workers to test a variety of key details such as:.

After perfecting the product, Yoshimura and Chen surpassed their crowdfunding goal in just three days and ended up selling over 12 million pieces of Neuro Gum. And those people who sample the product became loyal customers.

Sampling is a really big opportunity for us. Neuro ensured it had a good, high-quality product and an active community of fans , thanks to product sampling.

After their initial success, they continued sampling with specific cohorts like the CrossFit community. Using samples and collecting customer responses is the most effective way to get meaningful feedback about your product, so you can improve it and launch with confidence.

Kosas offers a cost-effective product sampling method in the form of cashback sampling. This means customers buy samples in exchange for store credit. This strategy helps drive sales because it functions like a coupon for the customer.

With every sample they purchase, they get cashback in the form of a credit bonus for any future purchases. Cashback sampling is best for products that are difficult or expensive to ship, like alcohol or bulky items. Bazaarvoice offers a solution to help brands with CashBack Sampling , including an app to help with opt-ins and redemptions.

Home Depot Canada wanted to increase the volume of UGC, particularly reviews, its brands get on its product pages.

So it partnered with bazaarvoice to create the Home Depot Seeds Sampling program. We see our site as a research tool, so even if people come into the store, they still use their phones to see ratings and reviews and make a final decision. WiZ, a brand featured on HomeDepot. It worked, too.

Not bad at all. And you could be next. Bazaarvoice makes it even easier by helping you get products into the hands of hyper-targeted customers through the mail or in-store. Then you can benefit from the increased reviews and UGC, which you can use to further develop the product, market it on social media, and boost sales.

You can learn more about Bazaarvoice Sampling here. Or get in touch below to see how Bazaarvoice can help you get started. Receive products from your favorite brands in exchange for honest reviews. Tell us a little about yourself, and our sales team will be in touch shortly.

Thank you for your interest in Bazaarvoice. A member of our team will be in touch shortly to talk about how Bazaarvoice can help you reach your business goals. Thank you so much for subscribing to our content! We'll keep you informed of all the latest and greatest content that we publish.

The Bazaar Voice. Made a beeline for a bite-sized Vienna sausage on a toothpick at Costco? Been offered a tube of toothpaste by your dentist?

Product sampling is one of the oldest and most effective marketing techniques for brands and retailers, and a powerful way to achieve a number of marketing objectives. Sampling offers brands and retailers several advantages:. When most people think of a free sample they probably think of a single serving of instant coffee or a sachet of anti-wrinkle cream.

But a growing number of eCommerce companies are also tapping into the technique. They include:. With the right strategy and sound targeting, sampling can also help drive sales of more expensive goods that usually spend more time languishing in inventory.

Our turnkey sampling solution only requires our clients to ship the products in bulk. We can do the rest of the work—finding the right target audience, managing fulfillment, and collecting honest, authentic feedback from customers.

Merchant-branded interfaces are used by brands to manage the campaigns, and by sample recipients to sign up and submit reviews. This enterprise approach gives merchants the ability to leverage their customer base and fulfillment capabilities on behalf of brands, if they so desire.

It works great for marketplaces that need high-quality reviews across a number of brands. We can supply complete program management, only oversee the content collection, or do anything in between.

Sampling program members can sign up for samples, track shipments, and write reviews all in the same place. Interested in learning more about TurnTo Sampling? Pixlee TurnTo welcomes contributed content from leading marketers, influencers and ecommerce experts.

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