These days many people talk about the power of having free content to give away as part of your marketing tactics.

These as well as bonus offers and samples have been used for decades by successful businesses.

Seth Godin describes in a recent blog post explained the difference between free and a bonus and how he used both recently in the launch of his new book Linchpin.

If you shop in a supermarket, especially on the busiest days you will find people offering samples of food and other products. After trying the sample offer you will often find that on shelf there is a special price offer as well.

These types of marketing tactics are not one off activities done in isolation or because it was thought at the time it could be a good idea.

They are offered for a reason.

Before you decide to use these marketing tactics, consider  these three questions to make sure the offers are beneficial for your business and your customers:

Who are you targeting?

You need to be clear on this because potential customers versus current customers versus lapsed customers are likely to have different needs. It is so difficult to try to appeal to all customers and you could end up not appealing to any of them.

Why are you targeting these people?

Once you have decided who to target you need to be clear on why. What do you actually want the customers to do after receiving the free offers, bonuses or samples? You also need to understand what the most appealing offer that they would value is.

What is the purpose?

Whatever you are providing, it needs to be part of your marketing strategy and make sure it fits in well with your other marketing tactics to gain the most value. If you make these offers in isolation then it is likely that you will not gain the results you want.

Once you have implemented any of these, don’t forget to measure the results and gain feedback so you can learn and fine tune if necessary.

Have you had success with free offers, bonuses or sample?

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