Everybody loves getting something for free. Free umbrella? Great! Free discount on your next restaurant visit? Even better!
When it comes to giving freebies and giveaways, some marketers are torn on whether it actually works and drives continuous sales, or their just devaluing their products and services by giving them away.
But we’re not here to put an end to the “it works-it doesn’t work” debate. In this article, we only answer one important question: when should YOU do it?
What Is Freebie Marketing?
According to the integrated marketing association, “Freebie marketing is defined as any promotion, low price product, or giveaway that encourages the sale of another, higher value product.”
Since the goal of freebie marketing is to upsell customers to your better, higher-priced services and products, it’s important that you carefully think what item you’ll have to give away to entice those who avail your freebie to opt for the higher valued product.
“To successfully employ a freebie marketing strategy, businesses must consider the bottom line. Top sellers and large ticket items rarely work within the freebie marketing model. Instead, businesses search for value-added, low-cost products that will drive subsequent sales.” Notes the integrated marketing association.
When Is Freebie Marketing Most Useful?
While freebie marketing is a good strategy to include in your overall marketing plan, there are only certain situations where you can take advantage of this marketing strategy:
When You Want To Generate A Buzz
Word of mouth is still one of the best ways to sell your brand to people. When making purchasing decisions, people still look for other people’s opinion and experience with a product before deciding to buy in or not.
Reviews and personal experience are still powerful tools that can help promote your brand without spending a lot. So giving away freebies to bloggers and online influencers during an event or expo can help grow your following.
When Building Interest In Your Brand
Whether you have a strong and well-established brand or still just a small brand name in the large marketplace, it’s important that you continuously grow people’s interest in your brand since the market’s taste and feelings can change in a matter of seconds.
Thanks to technology, market sentiment has become even harder to capture and generating brand loyalty has become a big challenge for many marketing specialists. Freebie marketing is one of the best ways to solidify your brand’s presence with current followers and could be a gateway to getting new people to try your brand.
When Opening Up To A New Market
Freebie marketing is also a good strategy to use when you’re opening up your brand to a new market sector. This is often done when brands have a new product line that is aimed at another market besides their current target market.
This is also done when a brand undergoes a rebranding and wants to generate brand recall for their new brand image.
What Should I Give Away?
Now that you know when it’s best to use freebie marketing to capture your market’s attention, it’s time to talk about what to give away.
Right now, you might be thinking “well, we’ll give away one of our cheap products while selling our better-prized items!”
That’s pretty much what every novice marketing specialist will think of when they think of freebie marketing. When it comes to finding what to give away for free, there’s one word you should always remember: value.
When people receive your freebies, it shouldn’t only be because you’re offering it for free, there should be a value or a lasting impression in the freebie you are giving away.
Before you decide what to giveaway in your freebie marketing strategy, here are a few things you should remember:
Know Where Your Target Market Is
Before you decide to just give things away to random people, it’s best to first know where your target market is. By knowing where your target market frequently go to will help you decide what to give them.
Here’s an example:
Because you’re selling a new brand of baby diapers, you want to give away free sample diapers to your target market. Your market research shows that your target market (parents with babies) can often be found in public parks with their babies. You decide to package your freebie with a sample diaper and a bottle of mineral water. Do you think the freebie package is of value?
In the example above, the freebie package (a sample diaper and a bottle of water) is a valuable freebie package since the family would most likely be tired from walking around the park and giving them a bottle of water will benefit them, and since it comes with a free diaper, they would most likely be interested in trying it out on their baby.
Give Away Something Your Market Desires
This is very beneficial for brands that are looking to increase their networking and leads, especially when you want to entice prospects to sign up their email or personal information.
When you offer things your target market desires, you can easily ask for their personal information for your sales and marketing efforts. Things like gift cards, coupons to a spa treatment, and other valuable items are great ways to entice your target market.
Avoid Asking Too Much Of Your Prospects
Lastly, make sure that the freebie you’re giving away to your prospects doesn’t ask too much from them or force them to commit to something.
When a freebie is too valuable (like a car or cash prize) there are often “strings attached” to it. And many consumers are aware of this. When you think of what to give away as a freebie, make sure that it’s not something that would place unnecessary pressure on possible prospects. The more you pressure them into something, the more they won’t buy into your offer.
Give Away Those Free Stuff
Freebie marketing is a great tool that can greatly boost your sales and revenues when used properly and for the right reasons. If you’re just planning to give your items and products away without a clear goal and objective for doing so, you’re just wasting valuable resources and product samples.
Freebie marketing also works online. But without a competent team of SEO experts to help you out, you’re going to have a hard time enticing people into getting your freebies.
