Businesses must consider free sampling as a tool to boost sales

Sales promotions are used as a way to attract attention to one's business or provide an incentive for customers to take a desired action.

Sales promotions typically last for a specific period of time and are designed to achieve a defined purpose like helping to launch a new business or luring customers away from a competitor. A variety of sales promotions types are available to small business owners.

Ghanaian businesses have always channelled their minds and resources to the media side of promotion of sales of their products, when there is an easier way for one to sell or gain popularity in today's market.

A free sample is a portion of a product given to consumers at no cost for their trial with the aim of driving product adoption. One of the most effective ways of getting people to discover and try your products or services is by offering a Free Taste - a taste of what it is that you offer.

Free Tastes come in many forms and they are usually free. It is a tried and true marketing strategy that if you offer someone a free taste of what it is that you do, they are much more likely to become a paying client or customer down the road.

Sales promotion is an important component of a company's marketing communication strategy along with other marketing tools such as advertising, public relations, personal selling, direct marketing and event sponsorship. Sales promotion adds to the basic value proposition behind a product.

Many new products brought to the market might have gone through all the necessary processes for them to be of good quality. However, they leave out one key ingredient in their strategies and that is the free sample tasting.

In the developed countries such as the UK, free tasting of finished goods is done in respect of products such as such mineral water, fruit juices, and energy drinks. They are packaged in small presentable sizes. If prospects like the product, they will be inclined to purchase newly packaged product.

Once you've created your Free Taste, the next step is to market it to encourage people to sign up for your list. In Europe, producers of various perishable products have devised this means of catching customer's attention by using the sample tasting method.

Many businesses ignore this effective approach and rather choose to pay huge sums of money for media adverts involving celebrities. Some of the adverts are aired four to five times a day.

Sales are arguably the lifeblood of a business and therefore if businesses want to flourish, the strategy to use is the free sample technique. Sample tasting is very important as in that, it does not only help to boost sales, but it also helps a business to draw new customers while at the same time retaining older ones.

It ultimately leads to expansion in market share and businesses flourish.