Everyone likes a freebie, and giving things away to customers can be a great marketing strategy for small businesses. But you may be worried that giving away your products and services for free, or handing out anything else for free, will end up costing you money. The truth is, the ROI outweighs the risks, and there are many great reasons to start giving things away for free.
Boost Exposure
When you start giving away freebies, more people will come into contact with your product or service, so you can think of giveaways as a form of effective advertising. Businesses know they have to pay for advertising, and you will have to pay for the giveaways, but the added exposure it can bring can make it well worth it. You may find it even works out as cheaper than advertising, making it a great way to increase brand exposure.
Display Confidence in Your Products
When you give away your own products, it shows that you are so confident in your products you can give them away for nothing. What this tells your prospects is that you know they will want to buy your products once they have tried them, and this can boost your image.
Boost Trust in Your Brand
Giving things away is an excellent way to build a relationship and boost trust. Reciprocity is one of the most powerful influencers. Essentially, when you give something away, you are encouraging your prospects to give something back in return – to buy your product or service.
Increase Awareness of What You Do
You may have a large number of products or services, but only one or two which you are known for. You could therefore provide giveaways of your less popular products to remind your customers that you also provide these. So you are rewarding them for being customers by providing them with a freebie, as well as making them aware of your other products and services.
Make Sure the Giveaway Is Suitable for Your Audience
If you are giving away your own product, you will already be giving something away that is suitable for your audience. But if you give away something else, make sure it is related to your audience.
For example, if you provide luxury services, you may want to give away some luxurious chocolates like these chocolate pick and mix products. Getting this right will increase the positive feelings towards your brand and help to build strong relationships.
Convince More Prospects to Convert
The simple fact is that more people will try out your product or service when you provide them with giveaways. A giveaway combats wariness on the part of the consumer. People are naturally wary of anything they have to pay money for, but if they can try it free first, they know they have nothing to lose.
Don’t Limit Yourself to Product Freebies
When you think of a giveaway, you automatically think of a free sample of your product or a free trial. But you can also give away information, which is something internet marketers do it all the time. They give away documents, white papers, ebooks, podcasts and more, and this is a tactic that has proven to work.
Take Advantage of the Power of Giveaways
Giveaways can be an excellent way to market your business, so start looking into how you can take advantage of them. Although they will cost you money, the truth is that it will be money well spent, so experiment with giveaways and take advantage of all the benefits.
Philip Ahn is a Chocolatier based in Nottingham UK. He Specialises in manufacturing chocolate bars such as pralines, truffles and marzipan for companies under ‘private label, own brand’. Martin is privileged to be working with some of the biggest and smallest names in the industry. He enjoys sharing his ideas and insights online.
