What is sampling? The role of product sampling in marketing

Businesses use many ways to get their message out, and product sampling is one of the most popular. With the growth of the internet and the shift in how people shop since Covid-19, sampling is no longer just a real-world marketing tactic. It is also common in marketing online. What is sampling? What role does sampling play in a business's strategy? What are the best professional sampling tips? All the industry questions about sampling are answered by Mona Media in this article.

What is sampling?

In marketing, sampling means giving out product samples. Traditionally, these are samples handed directly to customers to try a product or service. Today, sampling can also mean delivering samples online.

Sampling is how a business gives customers a firsthand experience, builds brand recognition and earns trust in its products and services. From trying the product themselves, customers form their own judgment. If the product or service is good, the customer becomes the business's free “word-of-mouth advertiser,” recommending what they tried to friends and family.

81% of customers say they like this form of advertising. Customers always value real experience. Surveys by experts also conclude that the crowd effect and the resonance it creates work very well.

What role does sampling play in marketing

For a business, product sampling is an extremely important form of advertising. Almost every business uses it. Here are the benefits a business gets from sampling done well.

Give customers a chance to try your product or service

Sampling lets customers experience the product themselves. This experience is far better than advertising. Customers use the product completely free.

This kind of promotion makes it easier to move customers to buy. Trying the product firsthand is the strongest way to make customers happy with your products and services.

Build customers' trust in the brand

Understanding a product properly gives customers more confidence in it. Their own impression is a more trustworthy measure than any ad. That trust helps customers rate your products and services well. They may not buy right away, but when they need what you offer, yours is the first brand they remember.

Encourage potential customers to buy

When someone uses a product or service, what they trust most is their own experience or that of family and friends. Sampling gets people who have tried the product to bring in new ones.

You cannot hold on to the same customers forever, so you have to expand the market. Existing customers extend your reach to new customers, and someone who only tried your product becomes a long-term prospect. Sampling makes all of this easier.

Save on advertising costs

Advertising costs are high today, especially in categories with fierce competition. You may even have to bid for ad packages to get prime time slots, top Google results, Facebook placements…

With sampling you mostly just need sample products and a marketing team to promote them. It is easy to run, reaches people quickly and costs much less than other forms of advertising.

Listen and respond to customers directly

At each sampling event, customers give feedback right after using the product. Staff trained on the product can answer them quickly. Talking and advising face to face explains customers' questions better. Some advisers have a special skill for leaving a deep impression and turning a trial into a purchase, making the customer a lasting prospect.

The 2 most common forms of product sampling today

Face to face and door to door are the 2 most common forms of sampling today. We will go through each one with its strengths and weaknesses so you understand them better.

Sampling Face to Face

Face-to-face sampling is a direct way to get customers to try the product in person. You choose convenient, busy places to run your promotion.

Strengths of face to face

• This form reaches customers of many ages and professions.
• Customers use the product directly and respond immediately, so you learn what they think.
• The “crowd effect” and “resonance” help this form of advertising attract a lot of people.

Weaknesses of face to face

• Many people are curious and want to try but have no intention of buying. Free things attract people. Without good promotion, you burn through many samples for little return.
• It does not target potential customers. Many people buy once after the promotion but do not keep using the product or service.

Door-to-door sampling

The product goes straight from the producer to the consumer. This is a special form of promotion aimed at potential customers. Businesses using it usually research their target customers carefully and sample only to people who need that product or service.

Strengths of door to door:

• Door to door is often used to introduce a business's product line to potential customers, with the chance of landing large contracts.
• It also strengthens customers' trust.
• It reaches the customers who really need the product or service, and avoids wide-scale sampling that brings a low purchase conversion.

Weaknesses of door to door

• Narrow marketing reach
• Advisers need strong expertise and a good understanding of the product or service, especially the ability to negotiate and present it to customers.

Ideal places to run sampling

Sampling can be done in many places. Choose locations by the nature of your product. These are the places most often chosen.

• Markets and supermarkets have the most foot traffic and are among the ideal places to sample. But the products must match what people there are looking for.
• Restaurants and cafes: cosmetics, fast food and unique souvenirs suit these places.
• Office buildings. Office workers are the main crowd here. Fast food, drinks and cosmetics attract them most.
• Hospitals, gyms and beauty clinics are also ideal. You can promote baby products, formula, cosmetics, dietary supplements…
• Ideal of all are trade fairs, exhibitions and crowded events, where you can promote new products not yet promoted through media. The audience is diverse, so you can promote a varied range of your company's products.
• Sampling by attaching samples to newspapers and magazines: this is common for fashion, cosmetic samples and dietary supplements.

When to run product sampling

Sampling needs a strategy, the right people and the right timing. You cannot sample all the time. Doing it too often brings no results and loses you money. The best times to promote are:

• Your company has just launched a new product or service.
• You are promoting and expanding your brand into new markets.
• There is an event that drives shopping and your products relate closely to it, for example sampling cosmetics on Valentine's Day, March 8 or October 20.
• You want to prove your product quality, raise brand and logo recognition and compete with rivals…
• You need to sell a large volume of products or services and strongly stimulate demand from potential customers.

The trend toward online sampling

In the digital age, online sampling has taken off. When you browse the web and want to try a product, you register on the site, and the business sends the product to your address.

Online shopping habits and the global pandemic are pushing online sampling to grow faster. This is one of the best moments for online sampling to work well, and you should not miss it.

Tips for effective sampling

Face to face, door to door or online sampling: choose the form that fits. It depends on the customers you are targeting and on the nature of your product.

Study sampling locations too, to see customer traffic. Whatever customer group your product or service serves, find a place that suits them.

Train staff to know the product and care for customers well. They especially need to handle situations on the spot and communicate well with many customers.

This article should have helped you understand What is sampling and the role of product sampling in promoting a brand and finding customers. Used sensibly, sampling can easily raise your business's profit.

Learn about other ways to attract customers:

• Tips for selling online and attracting customers
• Steps to plan effective sales marketing