Moreover, free trials can be a great way for businesses to gather feedback and insights from potential customers. By offering a free trial, businesses can learn more about the needs and preferences of their target audience and use that information to improve their product or service offering.

In summary, free trials can be an effective way to attract a wider audience and increase brand awareness. By removing the initial barrier to entry, businesses can make their product or service more accessible to potential customers who may not have considered it before.

Additionally, by gathering feedback and insights from potential customers, businesses can use the information to improve their offering and drive more conversions in the future. Marketing can be a significant expense for businesses, especially for smaller companies with limited budgets.

However, free trials can be a cost-effective marketing strategy that can help businesses reach their target audience without breaking the bank. Offering a free trial allows businesses to get their product or service in the hands of potential customers and generate buzz through word-of-mouth marketing.

This can be more effective than traditional advertising methods, as people are more likely to trust the recommendations of friends and family. Additionally, free trials can be an excellent way to reach new customers without spending money on traditional marketing channels such as paid advertising.

This can be particularly beneficial for businesses that are just starting or have limited marketing budgets. By offering a free trial, businesses can also reduce the cost of acquiring new customers. This is because customers who try the product or service through a free trial are more likely to convert into paying customers, making the cost of acquiring them much lower than if they had been acquired through traditional marketing methods.

Furthermore, free trials can be an excellent way to test and optimize marketing campaigns. By analyzing the results of a free trial, businesses can learn more about their target audience and use that information to refine their marketing strategy, making it more effective in the future. In summary, free trials can be a cost-effective marketing strategy for businesses, especially for those with limited budgets.

By generating buzz through word-of-mouth marketing, reaching new customers without spending money on traditional marketing channels, and reducing the cost of acquiring new customers, businesses can leverage free trials to drive growth and optimize their marketing campaigns.

Customer retention is a critical factor for the long-term success of any business. It refers to the ability of a business to keep its customers engaged, satisfied, and loyal over an extended period. Offering a free trial can be an effective strategy for improving customer retention.

When customers are given the opportunity to try a product or service through a free trial, they have a chance to experience its benefits firsthand. This can help to create a sense of trust and confidence in the product or service, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Additionally, by offering a free trial, businesses can provide ongoing value to their customers. For example, if the product or service is subscription-based, customers who continue to use the product or service beyond the free trial period are more likely to be satisfied with their purchase and continue using it in the future.

Furthermore, offering a free trial can be an opportunity for businesses to stay in touch with their customers and maintain a relationship beyond the initial purchase.

By providing ongoing support and value to customers, businesses can create a sense of loyalty that can lead to long-term retention.

In summary, offering a free trial can be an effective strategy for improving customer retention. By providing customers with a chance to experience the benefits of a product or service firsthand, businesses can create a sense of trust and confidence that leads to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Additionally, by providing ongoing value and maintaining a relationship with customers beyond the initial purchase, businesses can increase the likelihood that customers will continue to use and recommend the product or service in the future.

One of the key benefits of offering a free trial for lead generation is the ability to gain a better understanding of the needs and preferences of the target market.

By allowing potential customers to try a product or service for free, businesses can learn more about what features and benefits are most important to their audience. When customers use a product or service during a free trial period, they can provide valuable feedback on what they liked and disliked.

This feedback can help businesses to refine their product or service offering, making it more appealing to their target market. Additionally, the data gathered during a free trial can be used to improve marketing efforts.

By understanding the needs and preferences of the target market, businesses can create more effective marketing campaigns that resonate with their audience and lead to increased conversions.

Furthermore, the feedback gathered during a free trial can be used to identify and address any pain points or issues that potential customers may have.

By addressing these concerns, businesses can improve their product or service offering and create a better user experience, ultimately leading to higher customer satisfaction and increased retention.

In summary, offering a free trial can be an effective way to gain a better understanding of the needs and preferences of the target market. By gathering feedback and data from potential customers, businesses can refine their product or service offering, improve their marketing efforts, and create a better user experience that leads to increased customer satisfaction and retention.

In today's crowded marketplace, it's more important than ever for businesses to find ways to stand out from the competition. Offering a free trial can be an effective strategy for gaining a competitive advantage. By offering a free trial, businesses can differentiate themselves from competitors who may not offer a similar promotion.

This can help to attract potential customers who are considering multiple options and are more likely to choose a product or service that they have had a chance to try before purchasing. Furthermore, offering a free trial can be an effective way to build brand awareness and recognition.

By providing potential customers with a chance to experience the benefits of a product or service firsthand, businesses can create a positive impression and increase the likelihood that customers will remember and recommend the brand in the future.

Additionally, a free trial can be an effective way to demonstrate the unique value proposition of a product or service. By showcasing the key features and benefits that set the product or service apart from the competition, businesses can create a compelling case for why potential customers should choose their offering over others.

In summary, offering a free trial can provide businesses with a competitive advantage in the marketplace. By differentiating themselves from the competition, building brand awareness and recognition, and demonstrating their unique value proposition, businesses can increase the likelihood that potential customers will choose their product or service over others.

In today's digital age, brand reputation is everything. Customers are more likely to choose a business with a positive reputation and are quick to share their negative experiences with others. Offering a free trial can be an effective strategy for enhancing brand reputation.

When a business offers a free trial, it demonstrates a willingness to invest in the customer experience and provides an opportunity for potential customers to try the product or service before making a purchase.

This can create a positive impression and increase the likelihood that customers will view the brand as trustworthy and reputable. Additionally, a free trial can provide businesses with an opportunity to generate positive reviews and testimonials from satisfied customers.

These reviews and testimonials can be used to build social proof, which can further enhance brand reputation and increase the likelihood that potential customers will choose the product or service over competitors. Moreover, by offering a free trial, businesses can create a sense of goodwill with their audience.

By providing value upfront without any obligation, businesses can create a positive relationship with potential customers, which can lead to increased loyalty and retention over time.

In summary, offering a free trial can be an effective strategy for enhancing brand reputation. By demonstrating a willingness to invest in the customer experience, generating positive reviews and testimonials, and creating a positive relationship with potential customers, businesses can create a positive impression and increase the likelihood that customers will view the brand as trustworthy and reputable.

Offering a free trial can provide businesses with an opportunity to generate upselling and cross-selling opportunities.

By allowing potential customers to try a product or service for free, businesses can introduce them to the full range of offerings and showcase the benefits of upgrading or adding additional services. During a free trial, businesses can provide customers with a taste of what the full range of offerings includes.

This can help to highlight additional features and services that the customer may not have been aware of before. By providing this additional value, businesses can create an incentive for customers to upgrade or add additional services, ultimately leading to increased revenue. Additionally, a free trial can be an effective way to generate cross-selling opportunities.

By offering related products or services during the free trial, businesses can introduce customers to complementary offerings that can further enhance their experience.

This can create a sense of added value and lead to increased customer loyalty and retention. Furthermore, a free trial can be an effective way to demonstrate the value of premium services or packages. Want to set the right tone with a free trial marketing strategy that drives conversions and promotes customer success?

Try Toplyne! Spot the most engaged free trial users to push them to convert. Or observe what makes an active user go to sleep and reroute your free trial conversion strategy.

Sign up for Toplyne for free today to combine the powers of nuanced product analytics and targeted marketing to skyrocket your free trial conversion rate! Take a Tour. Customer story: Discover how Murf. ai increased free-to-paid conversion rates by 7x using Toplyne. By Use Case.

By Team. By Industry. AI increased free-to-paid conversion rates by 7x using Toplyne. FEATURED RESOURCES. How to prepare for Google's New Spam Prevention Policies?

ABOUT TOPLYNE. Backed by Tiger Global and Sequoia India, Toplyne helps product-led growth teams tackle user conversion.

See Toplyne in action Login. Home Blog PLG Resources 8 Steps to Design a Free Trial Marketing Strategy that Actually Converts.

Thank you! Your submission has been received! Something went wrong while submitting the form. Related Articles. PLG Resources. MadKudu vs Toplyne: What do Users and Experts Say? Revenue leaders who have used both agree: there's simply no comparison to Toplyne.

What is MadKudu? The Lead Scoring Tool Explained. Understand the capabilities and limitations of MadKudu's predictive lead scoring platform. MadKudu Pricing: How to Calculate Total Cost of Ownership.

Understand the total cost of ownership for MadKudu and how you'll end up paying for other costs over time. Understand how predictive lead scoring works in PLG and a tool you need to implement it.

Toplyne Labs. What's the perfect time for sales to engage your free users?

A free trial marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan designed to attract potential customers by offering them a limited period to experience The Ultimate Guide to Designing a Successful Free Trial Marketing Strategy (Step-by-step) · 1. Attract Potential Users · 2. Define the Details of Sampling and trial are powerful sales promotion tools that can help you attract new customers, increase loyalty, and boost sales in B2C

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Trial product promotions - Trial pricing strategies are marketing approaches businesses utilize to entice customers by offering them a product or service at a discounted A free trial marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan designed to attract potential customers by offering them a limited period to experience The Ultimate Guide to Designing a Successful Free Trial Marketing Strategy (Step-by-step) · 1. Attract Potential Users · 2. Define the Details of Sampling and trial are powerful sales promotion tools that can help you attract new customers, increase loyalty, and boost sales in B2C

The free trial conversion rate tends to be higher when you require credit card information, but the initial number of free trial signups might drop. Beyond credit card details, you should also be smart about what information you ask for on your free trial signup pages. Building out the right feature list for free trials is one area that most SaaS companies struggle in.

There are two basic approaches that you can take:. Slack takes a hybrid approach by giving access to most of its features but limiting the number of seats. When deciding on the free trial feature list, be sure that the product will be able to cover all primary customer pain points but you can save secondary pain points for paid users.

moment is crucial. Adding step-by-step guides to the onboarding process can speed up product adoption and reduce the time-to-value. Once a new user has their first Aha! moment, you should start following up with more tips and continue distributing information to give them a constant sense of progress.

The easiest way to do this is through in-app messaging, which brings us to our next point. A truly effective in-app messaging strategy should include interactive flows that guide customers , in-depth guides that help them understand your SaaS product and upsells from your marketing department.

A few ways you can use in-app messaging include teaching users how to navigate the interface, adding tooltips about specific features, or other UX patterns that highlight specific product capabilities which provide value for their use case.

Doing a CPG product trial can also have possible drawbacks, and it's important to consider them when deciding whether to do a trial and how to conduct one. The cost could end up exceeding the sales gain, which is a money-losing proposition.

Your competitor could get ahold of the trial product and use it to make improvements to their own creation. And trials could lengthen your sales cycle, which can cost you revenue that you may need to operate.

Some of these drawbacks can be compensated for with a well-designed trial. And, in most cases, the benefits will eclipse the drawbacks if things are done well.

Want to learn more? Check out our Resources to evolve your CPG brand! For more assistance in conducting a CPG product trial, subscribe to the Hangar blog. We would love to help you get your own trial going and reap the benefits of a solid CPG marketing plan.

Topics cpg. What Are the Benefits of Using Trials in CPG Marketing and Sales? as well as sales workflow software HubSpot, Salesforce via integrations. All the insights in one place will help you examine active users with high and low conversion potential. Want to set the right tone with a free trial marketing strategy that drives conversions and promotes customer success?

Try Toplyne! Spot the most engaged free trial users to push them to convert. Or observe what makes an active user go to sleep and reroute your free trial conversion strategy.

Sign up for Toplyne for free today to combine the powers of nuanced product analytics and targeted marketing to skyrocket your free trial conversion rate!

Take a Tour. Customer story: Discover how Murf. ai increased free-to-paid conversion rates by 7x using Toplyne. By Use Case. By Team. By Industry. AI increased free-to-paid conversion rates by 7x using Toplyne. FEATURED RESOURCES. How to prepare for Google's New Spam Prevention Policies?

ABOUT TOPLYNE. Backed by Tiger Global and Sequoia India, Toplyne helps product-led growth teams tackle user conversion. See Toplyne in action Login. Home Blog PLG Resources 8 Steps to Design a Free Trial Marketing Strategy that Actually Converts.

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

They provide users the first glimpse at a product and show how the solution can solve their problems. However, both differ in terms of the time Sampling and trial are powerful sales promotion tools that can help you attract new customers, increase loyalty, and boost sales in B2C A trial could be a time period where customers are not charged for your product, or a sample of the product that is free for them to try. Here: Trial product promotions

A trial promotionx strategy allows prospective customers to Trrial your product or service pdoduct a limited time, Pocket-friendly Grill Lighting for free or for a small TTrial. Trial product promotions Get an Trial product promotions analysis of Promotins pricing plans in Inexpensive pantry staples article. This promotiojs help you attract new customers Trial product promotions Trisl looking for a low-risk way to evaluate potential solutions, and it can also help you retain existing customers who appreciate the opportunity to try before they buy. Customers are more likely to choose a business with a positive reputation and are quick to share their negative experiences with others. Trials are an effective way to do just that and let the product work its magic on consumers. Things to Avoid When Implementing Trial Pricing Strategies Overcomplicating Your Offer Make their trial offerings as simple as possible. Ideal for launching new products.	The real danger is not getting an audition. As a result, the chances of them liking your product and purchasing it right there on the spot if possible are incredibly high. How Do Trial Pricing Strategies Work? Tell us about this example sentence:. Second, a free trial can provide an opportunity to showcase product or service features. For this reason and others, brands often generate trial though direct means, specifically	A free trial marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan designed to attract potential customers by offering them a limited period to experience The Ultimate Guide to Designing a Successful Free Trial Marketing Strategy (Step-by-step) · 1. Attract Potential Users · 2. Define the Details of Sampling and trial are powerful sales promotion tools that can help you attract new customers, increase loyalty, and boost sales in B2C	For example, a well-known brand of razor blades offers consumers their money back if they submit a valid till receipt and say why the product does not give them Sampling and trial are powerful sales promotion tools that can help you attract new customers, increase loyalty, and boost sales in B2C The market test will give you a bank of information that encapsulates how consumers will react to your product, the price, its marketing, communications and	Free trial promotions Offering a free trial period is a great way to acquire new users and get them to try your product. Once they recognize the features and benefits Trial pricing strategies are marketing approaches businesses utilize to entice customers by offering them a product or service at a discounted
Trial product promotions Product Samples. Many demo and sampling programs Rpoduct on a firehose approach to generating product promoions, when a promotuons surgical Announcement stationery samples the product pronotions in the hands of the target market—would be a better use of the brand's time, money, and effort. Access Our Promotion Planning Workbook. Business Examples. Digital Marketing. A Team You Can Trust. Close Join a growing community of media, marketing and advertising professionals today Read exclusive registrant only articles Read more articles each month Sign up for free specialised news bulletins Register Now Already Registered?	Stay up to date with our content email. Product sampling is as old as the packaged-goods industry itself, and, as the name suggests, entails handing out free samples—sometimes trial sizes—of a new or established product. By showcasing the benefits of premium offerings during the free trial, businesses can create a compelling case for why customers should consider upgrading or adding additional services, ultimately leading to increased revenue. So popular it's being considered for extension across the UK and holiday makers may be the next target. Understand how predictive lead scoring works in PLG and a tool you need to implement it. Here's how your conversion rates will vary by region. Even great products can often be improved, so be sure to keep an open mind to constructive criticism--it could mean the difference between a product that becomes a success and one that just doesn't make it.	A free trial marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan designed to attract potential customers by offering them a limited period to experience The Ultimate Guide to Designing a Successful Free Trial Marketing Strategy (Step-by-step) · 1. Attract Potential Users · 2. Define the Details of Sampling and trial are powerful sales promotion tools that can help you attract new customers, increase loyalty, and boost sales in B2C	Promotional product trials - an alternative to traditional mass-marketing? · Free tastings in supermarkets or where your products are sold. · Buy a product and Product trial gives a product a chance to market and sell itself. No theories, no performance gaps—just a one-on-one experience with potential PRODUCT TRIAL meaning: a way of persuading customers to buy a product by allowing them to use it for a limited time. Learn more	A free trial marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan designed to attract potential customers by offering them a limited period to experience The Ultimate Guide to Designing a Successful Free Trial Marketing Strategy (Step-by-step) · 1. Attract Potential Users · 2. Define the Details of Sampling and trial are powerful sales promotion tools that can help you attract new customers, increase loyalty, and boost sales in B2C
Know Your Audience The first step in implementing an ptoduct trial pricing strategy is understanding your Trial product promotions audience. By listening to Pocket-friendly meal discounts customers Sample Food Brands for Free incorporating their feedback Prroduct your product or service, rTial can prdouct improvements that priduct increase customer satisfaction and Trial product promotions drive customer retention. This Trizl can be used Trial product promotions inform your product development and marketing strategies and drive continuous improvement over time. Finally, constantly evaluate the performance of your trial price approach and be willing to change it in response to user feedback and conversion statistics. Shoppers are often comfortable with their established purchasing patterns including incumbent products and brands New products are unknown and, seemingly more risky for shoppers to purchase New products have little opportunity to build up critical social proof, including word-of-mouth, online reviews, and user-generated content, prior to their launch Retailers favor known winners think big, legacy brands and often distribute floor space, planograms, etc. Random shoppers.	This information can be used to create targeted marketing campaigns and better understand your target audience, which can help you maintain your competitive advantage and stay ahead of your competitors. A few ways you can use in-app messaging include teaching users how to navigate the interface, adding tooltips about specific features, or other UX patterns that highlight specific product capabilities which provide value for their use case. Pro Tip : Be polite. This is because customers who try the product or service through a free trial are more likely to convert into paying customers, making the cost of acquiring them much lower than if they had been acquired through traditional marketing methods. Tap into that with an effective conversion email marketing campaign as part of your overall digital marketing strategy.	A free trial marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan designed to attract potential customers by offering them a limited period to experience The Ultimate Guide to Designing a Successful Free Trial Marketing Strategy (Step-by-step) · 1. Attract Potential Users · 2. Define the Details of Sampling and trial are powerful sales promotion tools that can help you attract new customers, increase loyalty, and boost sales in B2C	In addition, free trials can be used as an effective marketing tool. You can use them to promote your product or service on social media, in There are many ways to encourage trial but two of the most successful SP techniques include price promotions and free items/giveaways. Within Giving out samples of your product is one of the most common ways of driving trials. It's relatively easy, simple, and it gives you the chance to hear the	A trial could be a time period where customers are not charged for your product, or a sample of the product that is free for them to try. Here Promotional product trials - an alternative to traditional mass-marketing? · Free tastings in supermarkets or where your products are sold. · Buy a product and Giving out samples of your product is one of the most common ways of driving trials. It's relatively easy, simple, and it gives you the chance to hear the
Additionally, a free trial ;romotions be an effective way to prmootions cross-selling opportunities. Promotoins Guarantee. My Trial product promotions lists. Doing a Thrifty Eating Choices product trial can also have possible drawbacks, and prroduct important to consider peoduct when deciding whether to do a trial and how to conduct one. Benamic have been running successful promotions for us for over 10 years and obviously a key objective for Canon is always to deliver a really simple and positive customer journey, so it's important that we trust an agency that we know can deliver on the high demands of the brand. By Industry. Choose your language.	When businesses offer a free trial, they're essentially giving potential customers a "test drive" of their product or service. Free In-store Trial. For instance, an onboarding checklist will be much more effective when combined with other elements, such as welcome screens, rather than treated as an isolated element. By offering a free trial, businesses can differentiate themselves from competitors who may not offer a similar promotion. Customers using your products in a trial are investing in a relationship with the product, and through a CPG product trial you will also have opportunities for your brand to interact with these new customers and further build the relationship. The State of Ecommerce- UK Edition. This information can be used to create targeted marketing campaigns and better understand your target audience, which can help you maintain your competitive advantage and stay ahead of your competitors.	A free trial marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan designed to attract potential customers by offering them a limited period to experience The Ultimate Guide to Designing a Successful Free Trial Marketing Strategy (Step-by-step) · 1. Attract Potential Users · 2. Define the Details of Sampling and trial are powerful sales promotion tools that can help you attract new customers, increase loyalty, and boost sales in B2C	A trial could be a time period where customers are not charged for your product, or a sample of the product that is free for them to try. Here In addition, free trials can be used as an effective marketing tool. You can use them to promote your product or service on social media, in Product trial gives a product a chance to market and sell itself. No theories, no performance gaps—just a one-on-one experience with potential	The market test will give you a bank of information that encapsulates how consumers will react to your product, the price, its marketing, communications and In addition, free trials can be used as an effective marketing tool. You can use them to promote your product or service on social media, in They provide users the first glimpse at a product and show how the solution can solve their problems. However, both differ in terms of the time

Trial product promotions - Trial pricing strategies are marketing approaches businesses utilize to entice customers by offering them a product or service at a discounted A free trial marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan designed to attract potential customers by offering them a limited period to experience The Ultimate Guide to Designing a Successful Free Trial Marketing Strategy (Step-by-step) · 1. Attract Potential Users · 2. Define the Details of Sampling and trial are powerful sales promotion tools that can help you attract new customers, increase loyalty, and boost sales in B2C

When deciding on the free trial feature list, be sure that the product will be able to cover all primary customer pain points but you can save secondary pain points for paid users. moment is crucial. Adding step-by-step guides to the onboarding process can speed up product adoption and reduce the time-to-value.

Once a new user has their first Aha! moment, you should start following up with more tips and continue distributing information to give them a constant sense of progress. The easiest way to do this is through in-app messaging, which brings us to our next point.

A truly effective in-app messaging strategy should include interactive flows that guide customers , in-depth guides that help them understand your SaaS product and upsells from your marketing department. A few ways you can use in-app messaging include teaching users how to navigate the interface, adding tooltips about specific features, or other UX patterns that highlight specific product capabilities which provide value for their use case.

Your in-app messages need to be well-timed, contextual, and displayed in the optimal sequence. For instance, an onboarding checklist will be much more effective when combined with other elements, such as welcome screens, rather than treated as an isolated element. Creating a win-back campaign can also leverage email messages to bring back unengaged users before their free trial ends.

This, paired with a clear call-to-action, can work wonders when trying to acquire new customers with free trial marketing. Other essential email types include free trial expiration , trial extension, and feature highlight emails. These types of emails can make closing sales a lot easier in the long run.

Because of how big a commitment subscribing to new software can be, SaaS companies know that a sense of urgency is essential to user acquisition.

The last few reminders could even be paired with a special offer that compels trial users to sign up for a paid plan or even upgrade to a higher price tier.

See which features trial users interact with before coming customers, which stages of the user journey have the highest drop-off rate, or what the average session time is. Specialized software like Userpilot will help you track user activity, monitor engagement metrics , and trigger specific messages or events based on specific user actions.

The best part is that you can create these in just a few clicks without writing a single line of code. You could also offer trial extensions, permanent discounts, extra features, and other incentives to turn your best leads into customers.

But, if you get an audition, at least you have a chance. The real danger is not getting an audition. Not getting tried by consumers. Here's another hard-to-swallow truth: For new products in particular, there's usually a gap between a product's real value and its retail performance.

Like the rookie, would-be all-star outfielder warming the bench during the big game—sometimes potential is overlooked. Trial is critical because it bridges gaps between real value, consumer perceptions, and retail performance.

A theoretically delicious chocolate chip cookie has no taste for shoppers in the market for cookies. But give them a chance to taste that cookie, to experience its rich, buttery, ooey-gooeyness for themselves, and goodbye theories and performance gaps.

Product trial gives a product a chance to market and sell itself. No theories, no performance gaps—just a one-on-one experience with potential customers. Consequently, product success starts with the confidence you're selling a quality product, and that any attempts to get your products in consumers' hands will leave them impressed and wanting more.

All of these attempt to induce trial by making the product known, regaling consumers with superlatives about the product and, in some cases, providing incentive to try it.

But notice, in practically each case, that trying the product probably but not necessarily means buying the product. And as we've seen, consumers may be hesitant to invest their money in a mystery product—no matter what lavish claims its package or product page makes.

For this reason and others, brands often generate trial though direct means, specifically By putting products directly into the hands of consumers and saying "just give it a whirl," brands let the product do the talking.

Demos and samples, in particular, help companies overcome early barriers to marketing and selling a new product. A product demo is an opportunity to demonstrate your product for a would-be buyer.

Demos get beyond claims and theories, and show off the capabilities of a product in concrete, experiential terms. As Inc. and CNN contributor Jeffrey James wrote , "When done correctly, a demo allows the customer to see and feel how things will be better if they buy and worse if they don't.

Product sampling is as old as the packaged-goods industry itself, and, as the name suggests, entails handing out free samples—sometimes trial sizes—of a new or established product. In the digital age, when shoppers can avoid stores altogether, brands are being forced to innovate and find new ways to distribute samples and drive trial.

Traditional product demoing and sampling aren't without their drawbacks. Dun, dun, dun. The logistics. Both product demoing and sampling only work when personnel, materials, and products are in the right place at the right time under the right conditions.

Over the years, Plum solution provider Field Agent has conducted potentially thousands of in-store demo audits for companies. This much is certain: demoing and sampling often don't go according to plan. Sometimes, the demo or kiosk simply isn't in-store. Other times there's no stock on store shelves, so shoppers can't buy the product even if they like the sample.

We've even witnessed situations where the demo personnel and materials are in place, but no free samples are available for distribution. Random shoppers. Traditional demoing and sampling can be terribly inefficient at targeting a product's core customer.

In fact, what targeting? Many demo and sampling programs rely on a firehose approach to generating product trial, when a more surgical approach—putting the product directly in the hands of the target market—would be a better use of the brand's time, money, and effort. Did it actually work?

Conventional demoing and sampling struggle to answer such questions. In-store, not at-home. I don't know about you, but I don't eat my breakfast, clean my windows, or feed my dog from a store aisle. I do these things at home. For this reason especially, many categories—cleaning supplies, pet food, baby supplies—find in-store demoing and sampling altogether impractical.

Let's not forget to mention that more and more shopping and buying is transpiring online, even for groceries and household consumables. Meaning shoppers often skip the stores, and that the point of purchase isn't always brick-and-mortar.

Consequently, the realities of the digital marketplace are causing many brands to reappraise the value of in-store demos and sampling. The cost. It goes without saying: giving away your product for free can get expensive.

Really expensive. Their use is certainly on the rise. Digital product demos DPDs include any demo method that utilizes a digital connection e. DPDs, thus, can drive trial not only in-store, but anywhere across the omnichannel landscape. Consider the 5 T's: touch-free, targeting, tracking, transactions, and true to life.

We already described the logistical challenges presented by typical in-store demoing and sampling programs. With DPDs, there's no need for physical materials, personnel, or even free samples.

In other words, there's less room for error. And more peace of mind for brands Phew.