The Smart Ways Companies are Enticing New Customers
It wasn’t so long ago that a free sample was a mere taste of what we could expect if we paid for the full-priced product. Whether a little chunk of cheese at the grocery store or a tiny sachet of detergent through the mail, the free samples of yesteryear were simple but effective.
It’s 2019 though and for every need we have, there are now dozens of businesses vying for our attention. It’s led to rapid innovation as companies clamor for new ways to encourage customers to hop on board with their service over competitors.
But what are the smartest ways companies have gone about this? We’ve taken a close look at the market to highlight a few of the smartest, most innovative ways companies are luring us to choose them. Let’s take a look.
Casper Mattress’ 100 Night Trial
Choosing a mattress has, historically, been pretty difficult. You go to the store, you have a minute-long lay down on the mattress and then you make your choice. The issue is that because you haven’t really tested it, you often endure worse quality sleep than before.
Identifying this issue, Casper launched a slice of pure genius – a 100-night trial of the mattress in your own home. It gives customers time to live with and adapt to the mattress while discouraging potential customers from trying anything else first. Super smart and, based on their growth, super-effective too.
Xbox Live Gold’s Free Trials with Games
Xbox Live Gold enables customers to play their favorite games online against friends, while also offering free monthly video game downloads. The latter is a nice bonus, but the issue for Microsoft was encouraging customers to try online gaming at all.
[Source: Pixabay]
The solution? Microsoft began packaging 24- or 48-hour trial memberships with major online video game releases. It gives new customers a taste of what they can expect with Gold and encourages new sign-ups aplenty – a major source of revenue for the big M.
Bookmakers’ Matched Deposits
Betting companies have always relied on competitive odds to beat the competition to customers, but recent years have seen a new tactic – matched deposit bonuses.
These bonuses encourage customers to deposit lump sums and, in return, they’ll match them in your account. For customers attempting to decide on a betting company, a huge $200 deposit match is a mighty tempting reason to hop on board. And as review sites show, there are plenty of offers to choose from.
Since their introduction, matched deposit bonuses have proven to be such a hit that they’re now used across the industry.
Audible’s Free Audiobook
Few of us read as much as we’d like to, but the rise of podcasts has encouraged a renewed interest in audiobooks.
Capitalizing on that, Amazon-owned Audible launched a huge advertising campaign across podcast networks for their audiobook service. The 30-day trial period not only lets you listen to a huge number of audiobooks, but it lets you keep one at the end of it – whether you take up the subscription or not.
For customers willing to cancel their subscription on time, that’s a huge win. But most of all it’s simply a very smart way for Audible to entice customers on to their platform.
For the business owners among us, then, what do these smart trial periods teach us? They highlight the uber-competitive business landscape, sure, but they also show that risk breeds reward – especially if you’ve got an amazing product. That’s a lesson any business can learn.
Feature Photo Source: Pixabay