Give it free, and get something in return

An old but good marketing strategy is to give something away for free to perspective customers. If you give people something for free they will feel obligated to return the favor. What does this mean? It means that if you help someone out, it creates a natural desire to return the favor. It doesn't mean you have to give your products away for free, it means give a sampling, a bit of information, a teaser, or something else to help you gain the customer's trust and hook them.

Let's look at what you can give for free in order to get higher sales, and a loyal customer base:

Information: People want information, about all kinds of different subjects. Information is one of the most important and useful things to give for free. Free information can come in many forms. For example, you could have an opt-in newsletter, a blog that is full of helpful tips. You can participate in forums, discussions, and more to offer advice, ideas, etc. You can use Facebook and Twitter, etc. The point is, provide value to customers in the form of information, without asking anything in return, and they will be more than happy to give you something in return.

Why should you give something for free? It helps to builds trust with your perspective clientele, and develop relationships with these potential customers. Just because you hope for something in return, does not mean you make it a requirement, which means that your customers are not going to feel like you have an agenda, and thus distrust you. So, by giving something away for free, without strings attached, you build trust and develop relationships. Sure, there will be people who take advantage of the free things you offer, but there are also those who will feel the natural inclination to do something in return, like buy from you, recommend you to others, and more.

Even if what you give for free can't be used without the person buying your product, it is good to give things for free. Back when JELLO started, they were not having much success. However, in order to get into more homes, they started printing out recipe cards. They gave these recipe booklets out for free, to homes across America. Women were thrilled to receive free recipe books. Then, they started using them, and started purchasing JELLO so that they could take advantage of what they got for free. This is a great example of how an obscure company became well known by the marketing strategy of giving something away for free. Their cost was low, and the profits became very high as a result, and now JELLO is a well known national brand.

Take time to determine what you can afford and want to give for free, and how much you hope to profit as a result.