Well, duh! Of course I want a free sample…who doesn’t?

Actually, @havi discovered that free doesn’t always work. So before you start passing out bits of your product or service, you’ll first want to chew on:

• What to offer,
• How much of it to share,
• Who you’ll give it to,
• What to ask for in return (if anything),
• What you’ll get from giving, and then
• Whether to offer freebies at all

If you offer too much of the wrong thing (or even the right thing) to the wrong people without a  strategy for how you’ll benefit, you may find what @MarkHeartofBiz worked out: free samples can be worse than anarchy.

That said, free can be fantastic and there are plenty of real-world examples where free samples are done right. Here are a few from my weekend—

Costco

We walked into Costco and there were a dozen+ food stations with smiling people in funny paper caps handing out tasty samples in tiny paper cups. Everything from chips and salsa to chicken sausage to jellybeans…a 3-course meal

Keys to success: They drew us in with yummy smells and hollers about the benefits (“low-fat!”, “super tasty!”, “high in fiber!”, “easy to prepare!”). When we decided to buy, the full product was in plain view in a nearby display, freezer, or refrigerated case. And as quiet as it’s kept, the paper-cap people do get a commission.

XBox 360

Dan gave me a cool tech tour of his new-ish toy. Every game I tried had a free download with full-featured play, though access was limited to 2 or 3 game levels (around 10-15 minutes of playtime).

Keys to success: The free samples were mostly tasks to get me into the games and learn their controls. Instead of challenging me into frustration, they built confidence with simple successes and eased me into a beginner’s mastery. Of course, addiction was inevitable once I found the right game (Peggle!). I bought the full version with a single click and delivery was instantaneous.

The Kindle

Since I got a Kindle 6 weeks ago, I’ve spent more time and money on pleasure reading than I did allll of last year. I see this as a good thing. And I blame the free samples.

Every book in the Kindle catalog has a free download of the first chapter(s). Also, there’s usually a free book available as a promotion…yeah, an entire book. That’s two workable takes on gratis content: sometimes a free sample is a chapter of a book, but sometimes a whole book is a sample for a series or an author.

True story: Amazon offered a free Lee Child mystery-thriller that’s #7 of a 12-book series, apparently as a promotion for book #13 coming in May. I finished it, loved it, and I was: WTH? I need the backstory! After I read books #1-#6, I was: Hey, what happens next?! Eight purchases, $57, and many sleepless nights later, Child has one more True Fan.

Keys to success: Sample chapters finish with, Enjoyed the sample? and Buy Now links, there’s a 1-click purchase process and a quick download via Whispernet. Cleverly, books in Child’s series end with the first chapter of the next book. From there, a list of his Jack Reacher series is only 4 clicks away. Way. Too. Easy.

And other stuff, too

Oh golly, there are so many others?

• Bloggers offer free special reports that are a prelude to larger, priced work.
• Blog posts are free samples, actually.
• Online service providers offer a semi-limited basic free version with hopes you’ll outgrow the basics and upgrade someday.

Blah, blah, blah…I could go on, but I’m thoroughly distracted now. I downloaded Lee Child #9 after writing that bit on the Kindle, now I’m dying to go read it

But before I go…

One particularly notable thing from my three examples:

buying the full product is just as easy as sampling the freebie
(and maybe even easier)

Digital or brick-and-mortar, it plays out the same: Buy Now buttons abound, one-click purchasing is enabled, and the Costco samplers are keen to tell you, “If you want to take it home, I have a box right here for you” or “Good isn’t it? It’s here in the case right behind me. Take one home and see about it.”

So looking over it, merely offering a freebie isn’t enough. Strategy matters, purchase flow matters, a smart interface matters, and a clear call to action is essential.

Et tu? Seen any good free sample examples lately? Did you stop with the sample or go all the way? Lemme know down below…

photo courtesy of avlxyz