Freebies’ magnetism for customers – Can this sales strategy be used without hurting the business’s budget?
The power of free goods is unparalleled, yet many businesses underestimate the effectiveness of this sales strategy and are off-put by the upfront costs involved. While the truth is that such a marketing endeavour doesn’t come for free, there are inestimably many reasons why so many businesses increasingly adhere to this audience-boosting trick.
Businesses grow more and more aware of the potential of offering free gifts to targeted or untargeted audiences, so let’s see why this strategy may work despite the inevitable expenditures and what businesses get wrong about this undertaking.
The psychology behind free products
Hardly can you come across an individual who faced with a gift, whether personalised pens or notebooks, succeeds in not giving in to the temptation to accept it. These instruments usually boost brand awareness and give the respective business an aura of altruism and care towards bringing customers closer. Other times, they act as scrumptious bait-cheese that lures targets into taking a product, testing it, learning valuable info about it, and boosting their chances of becoming loyal clients.
Free products is one of the most straightforward and effective ways to increase an audience and have more individuals talk about your products or help the word-of-mouth marketing strategy. However, this can often be regarded as a double-edged sword. Companies usually deliver higher-quality products in small-sized packages compared to the formulation that’s found in bottles or containers coming in larger sizes on the market’s shelves, which is a practice that, once detected, can do no good to the company’s reputation and deter those consumers from further investing in these offerings. However, such a practice is hardly detectable, with few repercussions for the testing gift receiver, so there’s no reason to wrap your head around these aspects too much.
Despite upfront costs, freebies can improve the BTL
Free offerings are one of the most effective ways to enter a market and gain brand awareness, so they’re frequently called “a foot in the door” for companies seeking exposure. But why is this expression associated with freebies? Well, let’s take the example of an eatery. Suppose nothing attracts you about a restaurant regardless of its history in your town. Would there be any reason to enter that establishment’s door and order a meal when travelling solo, considering how numerous the alternatives are for you to make the best pick? The answer can hardly be “Yes”, so it’s clear to see why the only way you could change your mind and visit that establishment that you once showed reluctance to is to gain a free sample of their offerings.
Freebies work because they can give individuals a taste of a company’s products and services. Inevitably, when individuals are offered free items repeatedly, they can’t help but develop a fondness toward that thing that keeps coming to them without them having to move a finger. Psychologically, this persuasive technique triggers recipients to build familiarity and a sense of appreciation toward the supplying party.
Freebies are a thrifty way to elicit otherwise costly feedback
One of the most penny-wise means of securing feedback is through offering gifts. One valuable gain from this sales strategy is gathering feedback and ratings that can further contribute to extensive research on operations strategies, from developing the product to customising it to distribution across chains. Numerous methods exist to carry out such research and enter customers’ minds to discover areas of improvement, as well as the strong and weak points, such as mobile-based online surveys. On the other hand, companies can offer consistent packages of samples and testers following a targeted individual’s completion of a questionary or survey.
There are many tactics businesses can employ to get under consumers’ skin, find out what would turn them into loyal customers, and carry out the necessary adjustments to cater to an increased audience’s requirements. One of the most effective ones, whose potential is unquestionable, is giving away lighters since their functionality expands beyond having a source of fire to always being prepared when someone needs this portable instrument. Businesses choosing to customise lighters BIC have endless possibilities in colour and design and make recipients feel cared for as they unavoidably need such a device at some point in their lives. They’re universal, and gender or demographics are off the table when discussing such a sales strategy.
Businesses delivering on their promises offset the initial expenditures
Businesses must exercise caution when targeting customers to give them a taste of their products. Say a company gives away perfume testers, but they fall behind in terms of projection and consistency. Then, regardless of how qualitative the purchasable product is, the chances are that the recipient won’t fall prey to investing in a product that fell short of expectations. Once customers create a wrong impression, they will lose their appetite for that service or product.
Therefore, the quality of the freebie needs to meet customers’ demands and mirror the attributions of the chargeable product. Otherwise, customers will avoid giving a second chance to that product as nobody can create a second impression once they’ve failed to master this task.
Freebies aren’t free for companies, so monitoring is a must
Needless to say, every step of the freebie offering process, from the plan’s development to the distribution of items, can cost the company a substantial amount of money. Similar undertakings are not to be mindlessly or lightly taken. Instead, experts recommend businesses create gifts that represent five per cent of the sales, while for customers, the value should revolve around twenty per cent.
This way, businesses keep their expenditures under control and ensure their efforts are not costing more than can be afforded.
At the end of the journey, the expenses pay off
Often, the advantages of giving freebies are underestimated. But most of the time, there are numerous gains you can expect from such an endeavour, such as a triggered feeling of reciprocity, developed trust and familiarity, boosted likeability quotient, and a boost in sales.
