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Getting Consumer Information With Free Samples

Guest post by: John Clark

Article Overview: Companies are often surprised to learn how cheaply, and how easily, consumer information can be obtained directly from consumers.

Getting Consumer Information With Free Samples

Companies are often surprised to learn how cheaply, and how easily, consumer information can be obtained directly from consumers. One secret: free samples.

After driving users to your company's website, using incentives such as a free sample can convert them from a one-off visit to a prospective lead. To receive their free sample, the consumer must disclose their name, home address and depending upon the nature of your sign-up form, almost any information imaginable. As long as your form avoids being too invasive, for example, asking the consumer for their work phone number, consumers will often leave valuable demographic data such as age, occupation, or how they discovered your product.

You can also try using social networks to gather consumer information. By offering free samples, either of physical products mailed to a person's address, or by offering digital content, you can encourage potential customers to "like" your product's page on Facebook or another social network.

Naturally, free samples of physical products will result in a higher quality of some data, for instance, geographic data culled from mailing addresses because without disclosing this information, the user won't receive his sample. Free digital samples are still useful, however some individuals may use false data such as fake geographical locations, ages or e-mails just to satisfy sign-up requirements. The promise of future coupons will encourage visitors to leave a current, and valid, e-mail address.

As they "like" your product, page or offer, this event will turn up in the profiles of their friends. More importantly, this allows you to collect information about your potential customers. If your promotional campaign offers an incentive for referrals, or even a simple question on the subject, you can further track the effectiveness of your social network campaign.

If users remain an engaged part of your social networking community, you can continue collecting information directly from them through polls, or even better, by engaging the consumers in conversation. Posting a question to your company's Facebook page asking what users thought of a recent product, or about their experiences with your company, can solicit rapid, honest information.

The use of free samples can help any company gather valuable insight into consumer information and demographics, so long as the company avoids invasive questioning, and engages with its market.

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Article Tags: consumer information, consumers, free samples
Referred by: http://www.saveonquotes.com



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