One of the most critical factors for any growing business is marketing. Your brand’s reach plays a significant role in the growth and popularization of your product or service.
There is no one way to use marketing to your advantage. There are many different avenues or channels to boost your brand awareness and produce more sales. Marketing itself has changed and evolved over the years, with many new methods becoming popular.
Today, we’ll look at and discuss one of the more popular marketing channels — Product Sampling.
Different Forms of Marketing Channels
More than ever, the internet has become one of the principal and most prominent platforms for facilitating marketing.
Pay-Per-Click
The most prominent form of online marketing is not social media, as one might initially think. In fact, unbeaten for many years, the best form of online marketing is PPC advertising or Pay-Per-Click. This does, however, tie into social media, as Facebook and Instagram ads are some of the most prominent and effective forms of marketing. The only other form of advertising that is even comparable is advertising through Google search result ads, which helps users find your service or product when searching for anything vaguely similar.
Social Media
With PPC advertising dominating the online marketing world, it’s difficult to think of any other channels being worthwhile. However, the only time advertising your brand isn’t worth the effort is when your advertising won’t be seen. One of the easiest ways to raise brand awareness is through social media.
People all over the world are involved with social media in some way or another. Whether it be someone who shares their artwork on their Instagram profile or someone who has a Facebook profile that they use to keep in touch with family members, there is no escaping the use of social media in some shape or form in 2021. However, the fact that social media is used by the vast majority of the population via some type of platform creates a fantastic opportunity for sharing your brand and creating an invaluable community of supporters for your work. Your social media platform presence may be something as simple as a “behind-the-scenes” page, or it might become dedicated to updates on your brand to keep your viewers in the loop and excited for the next big thing. The power of social media is in building and maintaining a loyal community.
Business Websites
Finally, there is also your website. While some people may not think of their business website as a marketing channel, it is one of the more important ones. Once someone finds out about your product via some other form of marketing, your website is one of the first places they’ll end up going.
By creating a marketable website, you invite an interested user to explore more of your brand, getting you even more traction where it is arguably most important.
Product Sampling
The next marketing channel is a big one and thus gets a section of its own. Product sampling is incredibly commonplace and is something you will have taken part in yourself as a consumer. You may recall times when you’ve walked through a shopping centre and been offered a free sample of a product.
This particular form of marketing has numerous advantages. This is because it plays off of a few different psychological factors:
- Risk aversion
- Reciprocity
- Sentiment
Risk aversion comes from the fact that it is a win-win situation for both the consumer and the brand. The consumer gets a free product without worrying about committing to a purchase, while the brand gets to market its product through someone who has tried it.
Secondly, it plays off of a person’s urge to reciprocate. Once a person tries out your product, they will often feel indebted to try it out again by purchasing it, feeling the desire to return your kindness.
Finally, the sentiment of the product. By offering the product to a customer for free, they will appreciate and take it to heart. Getting the chance to taste, smell, feel, or simply experience the product can lead to positive reinforcement and encouragement to try it out again.
There are many different channels one can take to advertise and market their brand and product. While the internet may offer some great options, tapping into sampling marketing will extend your reach in one of the best ways possible — word-of-mouth recommendation.
