Product sampling is a time-tested, proven tactic for boosting sales and pulling in new customers. Consumers get to experience a brand firsthand and risk-free, forming a positive connection that sparks a sense of obligation. The brand reaps the benefits as up to 65% of consumers buy products they’ve sampled, making sampling a reliable, powerfully effective marketing tool. “Product sampling marketing helps brands boost feedback, conversion rates, positive reviews, and social content for both small and enterprise brands alike,” notes a blog post by bazaarvoice.com.
But product sampling is about more than simply putting products in consumers’ hands. Any successful sampling campaign must overcome a number of challenges — chiefly, ensuring samples reach consumers who are genuinely interested in the product and likely to become customers, which requires both extensive research and deep market knowledge. That’s why, increasingly, brands are looking to product sampling companies to guide them as they plan and implement sampling campaigns. These companies have expertise in various aspects of product sampling, from strategy and logistics to data analysis and consumer engagement, and they help brands make the most of product sampling as a powerful marketing tool.
What Do Product Sampling Companies Do?
Product sampling companies specialize in designing and executing sampling campaigns to target potential customers. To accomplish this goal, product sampling companies work closely with brands to handle various aspects of the sampling process: identifying the target audience; determining the best products, packaging, and presentation for sampling; strategizing sample distribution; managing distribution logistics; and measuring effectiveness.
Identifying the Target Audience
Pinpointing the specific consumer groups most likely to be interested in the product is key to the success of any sampling campaign. Sampling companies excel at this, primarily because of their experience in the kind of research necessary to identify each brand’s ideal consumer — the customer most likely to be receptive to the brand’s products and message. A sampling company will consider demographics, interests, and buying habits of these customers. Once the target audience has been identified and profiled, the sampling company shifts gears into creation of sampling strategies tailored to reach and influence those ideal customers.
Sample Selection and Distribution
With the targets identified, the sampling company develops a plan for strategically distributing samples through various channels, such as events, online platforms, retail partnerships, or direct mail. There are numerous ways to distribute samples — in-store, via direct mail, online, and at events being the most popular means — and the sampling company’s choice of method will focus on meeting the target audience where they are.
Equally important: choosing the right product or products to sample, says a recent Promobile article. “Not all products are ideal for sampling,” notes an article on nautical-direct.com, which recommends choosing products that best represent the brand and are likely to excite the target audience, but also are relatively easy to package, store, ship, and produce.
Because sampling is, at its core, a form of experiential marketing, a good sampling company will put considerable effort into creating a positive sampling experience for the audience. “We invest time into understanding your brand’s unique qualities and core elements, building meaningful and memorable experiences that resonate, and generate sales,” says UK-based sampling company Purity.
Campaign Management
All aspects of sampling logistics and campaign management fall under the sampling company’s purview. Depending on the type of sampling effort your brand is planning, managing the myriad details of the campaign will involve different aspects of shipping, storage, packaging, permitting, and distribution. A direct-mail sampling campaign might involve optimizing packaging for sample protection and delivery cost, for example. An event- or retail-based sampling campaign could require recruiting and training staff, plus equipping them with the extensive product knowledge and ability to engage with the audience to both create connections with customers and collect data.
Success Measurement
As a final step that analyzes the just-completed campaign and sets up the brand for future sampling efforts, the sampling company gathers data and consumer feedback on the sampled product to provide valuable insights to the brand. This analysis might assess brand awareness and perception; sales pre-, during, and post-campaign; brand loyalty as measured by repeat business, social media engagement, and other measures; and direct feedback from consumers who participated in the sampling campaign gathered via surveys, reviews, or social media interactions.
Taken as a whole, this post-campaign analysis provides valuable insights about consumer preferences, product perception, and potential areas for improvement, and indicates potentially fruitful directions for future sampling efforts.
Promobile Marketing is a dynamic experiential marketing firm based in New York City. For over a decade, Promobile has collaborated with a range of brands—from budding startups to major CPG brands—on immersive marketing campaigns. Want to discuss your next project? Reach out below.
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