Tips for using a free trial as a promotional technique

Here are tips for using a free trial as a promotional technique. Free trials are wonderful ways to market your service or products. However, there are some key rules and tips to stay with, in order for the free trial to have a positive effect, instead of a negative one.

Honesty and expectations:

Everyone knows that free, does not mean only free. The main thing to do with a free trial is to make it clear that a free trial works for a specific amount of time, and with expectations in the end.

Misleading an individual can be a real negative way to start a relationship with your customer. This impact can be enough to deter that customer from ever using your service or product.

You both need to win:

When you are going to give a free trial to your customer, of course you want to have something that is your benefit also. A great example of this is the free trial of a water softener and water purifier. This is a free trial that many water Purification Company's use.

The company does install the plumbing, water softener and water purifier for free. This is a 30-day trial to try how great the water tastes, and how it makes you feel. About 70% of the time the customer will keep the water softener and water purifier. This is the way the company makes money. Those few that say "No" simply have the devices removed from the home.

However the benefit to the company is that their product gets out there, and a majority of their free trials purchase. If you will not make a profit from the free trials you are setting up, then it will not be worth the money to create the free trial promotional technique. It may be wiser to go a different direction.

Make contact:

In order for a free trial to have a positive impact on sales, there needs to be several non-invasive contacts made. This means that there should be several times the customer is talked to about the product. Here is an example:

Contact #1
The offer of the free trial
Contact #2
The giving of the free trial
Contact #3
A call two weeks or so into the free trial to make sure all is going well
Contact #4
At the end of the trial, do they want to keep it contact?
Contact #5
Follow up after the trial and purchase or rejection is complete

This is how simple it really is. A quick few words, that builds the relationship with the customer in a non-invasive fashion.

It is not too good to be true:

To many times a person will avoid something that is free, purely because they know this saying. That is where the benefit of why you are doing this free trial that you will receive should be explained to the customer. This way they feel they are being worked with in a positive manner.

If you are going to be getting the product to the customer because this is the best form of advertising your company has, then tell the customer this. If you do not run other ads, because you use the free trial instead, explain this to your customer. They are not stupid, and people detest being treated as if they wool are being pulled over their eyes. Let them know what the purpose of the free trial is for.

The product shines, not the free trial:

Free trials are all well and good, however if the free trial out shines the product itself, then what is the point of it all. This is where you need to make sure that the free trial is great, but the product or service is greater.

These tips should make it easier to use a free trial as a promotional technique. Now it is up to you to implement the successful process for your small business.