The dangers of sample marketing

The marketing has an ever-changing landscape and to connect with it, one must have good methods. When finally something is becoming a trend, it is changing after a while, and just when the marketers are starting to understand their audience and their behaviors, a new wave is coming through with innovative technologies and everything is changing once again.

In the current climate - content is everything. The brand before everything needs to inspire the people, provoke them, and after all, the new customers will approve the product and be appealed by the brand and its emotions. The goal is not only to give people the good content but to give them the opportunity to taste the product for a short period of time. Meaning that some brands are giving free trials to get new customers. You will ask if they are worth it, and we will answer - Yes!

Who doesn't like to try new things and products? The marketers know perfectly that they need to give the simple meaning of their product in order to be successful. It is not rocket science that sometimes we buy things we don’t really need, but when we are given the ability to try these things before actually purchasing them, that makes us like Alice in wonderland. There are actually dozens of marketing benefits from giving away freebies.

The ultimate reason why businesses are using sampling

Sample marketing is when you are given something for free to try out. For example, this could be some meat in the store or a month's subscription to Netflix for a month which then charges you if you don't cancel it. It surely can easily hook people into something they didn’t initially want. But we all like free stuff and it is not necessarily true that with a free trial we are only getting the things we don’t actually need.

There are good examples of it as well (well mixed to be honest). This is particularly the case in the finance sector in South Africa. In South Africa specifically there are dozens of SA brokers with no deposit bonus offers that introduce a previously uninterested person to the market, and potentially hook them to a dangerous product. But another side is that they allow an interested person into the industry without too much of a commitment. It really depends on how people look at it. Offering product samples to a person gives him\her a taste of what’s to come. That will allow them to make a decision fast without any hesitation because now they know what they are purchasing. Even for B2B companies like Linkedin, Quora, and forums, there is a huge way to give some information about the product you are selling. Think about it more. When you receive something for free, it is exciting! It also eliminates the risk of trying something new.

Many people think that customers are willing to change the brand if they are proposed with a better option. If the brand is communicating with the customers, free-trial material can be a great way for benefits.

Perhaps the most important part of selling some product with the strategy of free-trial is making sure that they target free trial to those who are more popular. For example, bloggers, authors, sometimes they can even be celebrities. When the individual is impressed, they can write the whole article about it and share it with a great audience. Still, sampling is not the best way of gaining new customers. While many companies are worth it, there are many companies that are taking advantage of new customers. There are dozens of “companies” who are offering some “services” and they surely are traps and one needs to be away from them.

Some free trial offers are dangerous

Sometimes, free trials are not really “free”. At the end of the day, you are giving someone your personal information when you share your email address, and believe that if this company is a scam, and will sell your information to other companies, you will get thousands of spams every day in your mailbox.

Most of the free-trial offers are requiring the information on your credit card. It is never a good idea to share your card information with uncertain platforms. And if you are not really planning to pay anything in the future, think twice before giving your card information.

Are you going to remember to cancel? This is the main concern. You may forget about it at all. They will not remind you, be sure of/ that. Companies are sometimes making money on people when you are forgetting having an account, they are happy to charge you. If you decide to try free-trial, mark the cancelation day in order to not forget about it. You may think, what is worse than forgetting to cancel the subscription. Well, have you ever experienced a difficult cancellation process? That is a huge headache. In some companies, you need to call to cancel the subscription. These calls sometimes take forever, or no one is answering at all. Companies don’t want you to cancel the subscription, why would they let you go easily? No way. They have no motivation to cancel your account because they will lose money. Some of them can even say that your account is closed but then somehow charge you in the next month without any reason at all.

We all use the internet daily and we all see these advertisements about free products. They are about everything, starting with entertainment and ending with free educational courses. Offering a free trial is legal and can be done in so many industries, including finances, art, culture, education.

Some free trials are scams. For example, the federal trade commission said that free trials are a “Negative option in marketing”. Why? Because the company is using the basic common sense in humans in order to get successful. We are all taking stuff when they are offered freely. Some of them are not scams but they are much less than other honest business practices.

Conclusion

If it seems too good to be true, believe me, it is! The ads are always exaggerating the quality of the product. The free trial doesn’t mean that it will be free in the future. It goes without saying that one must always, always, always, check the terms and conditions before signing up in anything. The best way to save yourself to not lose any money is that you just stay away from the advertisement that seems too much false. If you are a victim of some of the dishonest business practices, report to regulations in your country. They may help you somehow. There is a local consumer protection agency in every country, if the victim is complaining about any brand, they are taking care of them.