Cusa coffee and tea brand offers free sample flights that include a variety of tea and coffee samples for only a modest shipping cost. Prospective customers can try up to 20 of the brand's offerings and choose one or more favorites to buy.

Brands that choose this kind of trial can follow up via email or text, asking participants, "What was your favorite? Hanz de Fuko men's haircare brand does a variation on a product trial by including free samples of related products with each order. Customers typically order more different products when they receive free samples, and overall sales increase over time.

Sample Source is a place where you may be able to get your product placed in a free sample box sent to a large number of requesters. Product placement in this type of free product box typically leads to a number of new orders and can be a good option for some brands.

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Topics cpg. Why Use Product Trials? Examples of Product Trials 1. Related Posts. How to Leverage Social Media in Your CPG Product Re-launch. 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. Because DPDs are facilitated through digital connections, like a crowdsourcing app, it's possible to get really granular with the types of people a brand enlists to try the product.

Unconstrained by space and time, DPDs, on the other hand, can ask shoppers about their intentions post-trial and even follow-up with them days or weeks later to verify purchase or repurchase.

With sampling, a brand gives away its products. Talk about big dollar signs. It's the difference between sales-hopeful and sales-driven marketing. Most traditional trial methods—from advertising to in-store demos—are sales-hopeful. A brand spends money, and can only hope a shopper purchases the product.

True to Life. No eating cereal in store aisles. DPDs can specify under what conditions targeted consumers try a product. Often times, DPDs specify the consumer try the product at home, under normal, realistic trial conditions. Not only does home offer a more natural and immersive atmosphere for trying a product, but the "true to life" nature of digital demoing allows products that don't traditionally demo well in-store e.

All three sales-driven demo methods are facilitated through the Field Agent mobile app, which has been downloaded by more than two million U.

As you can see below, each DPD requires shoppers to make an actual purchase and to try the product in-home.

But Field Agent's DPDs also deviate from one another in important ways. And then there's the Digital Demo. H ere, the value-add is user-generated content, professional brand photography, and even social sharing.

The image below specifically describes how Digital Demos work. Analog or digital, sales-hopeful or sales-driven, product trial is an essential part of new product success.

A deliberate, strategic, proactive approach to product trial, however, can help brands overcome early barriers to product success. The Plum Marketplace contains several products designed to help new products meet early success. Click below to explore these tools—and launch a project in minutes.

Product Trial. PO Box Fayetteville, AR hello plumshop. Products Audits E-commerce Insights Operations Retail Pipelines SimpliField Trial Solutions Pricing Shelf Reset Product Launch Packaging Change Brand Awareness Buyer Meeting Seasonal Execution Restaurants Winning at Walmart Club Stores Resources Help About Contact Press Learn Blog Content Library Push Go Podcast Let's Talk Shop Now.

One thing we've learned about creating world-class Free Trial experiences is that it's not about you and what your product can do Product experience is a subset of the entire user experience. It focuses on the entirety of the customer journey that takes place within the product itself A product trial is a crucial opportunity to showcase your solution to potential customers and convince them of its value

Trial product experiences - Optimize Product Trials to Drive Conversions and Satisfaction: Learn how to enhance the free trial experience to boost conversion rates One thing we've learned about creating world-class Free Trial experiences is that it's not about you and what your product can do Product experience is a subset of the entire user experience. It focuses on the entirety of the customer journey that takes place within the product itself A product trial is a crucial opportunity to showcase your solution to potential customers and convince them of its value

If you have a freemium product, your premium offering is, in fact, a different product from the free version of your product. You can even incentivize users to use your premium features by extending their trial or giving them some extra credits based on their feature usage during the trial.

The most important objective you have during the trial is to hook users into using your product :. To properly hook users, you need first to offer enough external triggers for them to develop their own internal triggers.

Ensure you understand in what context users use your product and prompt them to return to it by implementing a proper push strategy or taking care of your lifecycle emails. If your trial period is too short, users will not have enough time to properly understand the value you are offering and get hooked on the product.

Also, if your product is subject to fraudulent behavior e. You want to find a sweet spot when the trial is long enough for users to fully grasp the value and short enough so they are still in the honeymoon phase when you ask them for money.

Your primary long-term opportunity to improve your free trial conversion rate is to provide as much value for customers as possible.

Experimenting with various free trial approaches can help you lift your metrics and improve revenue quickly, but from a long-term perspective, optimizations are not a strategic opportunity. Working on your value proposition is. The free trial experience is a critical moment of the user journey.

You usually get this opportunity once, so use it well. If you hook the user during this limited time, you win loyal, long-term subscribers.

However, at the end of the day, the most important thing you can do is improve the value of your product. Featured image source: IconScout.

LogRocket identifies friction points in the user experience so you can make informed decisions about product and design changes that must happen to hit your goals. With LogRocket, you can understand the scope of the issues affecting your product and prioritize the changes that need to be made.

LogRocket simplifies workflows by allowing Engineering, Product, UX, and Design teams to work from the same data as you , eliminating any confusion about what needs to be done.

Get your teams on the same page — try LogRocket today. Ellen Linardi, SVP of Product and Design at Clover, shares how her design-oriented team came to understand the importance of system thinking.

As a PM, you want to make knowledge sharing as easy as possible to avoid bottlenecks and keep your team operating autonomously.

Asynchronous communication can enable you to remain focused on your work so that you have fewer distractions and are more productive. Sapna Gulati discusses how GenAI is changing the game for product managers to focus more on strategic innovation and competitiveness.

Blog Dev Product Management UX Design Podcast Features Solutions Solve User-Reported Issues Find Issues Faster Optimize Conversion and Adoption.

Get a Demo Sign In. LogRocket generates product insights that lead to meaningful action LogRocket identifies friction points in the user experience so you can make informed decisions about product and design changes that must happen to hit your goals. Share this: Click to share on Twitter Opens in new window Click to share on Reddit Opens in new window Click to share on LinkedIn Opens in new window Click to share on Facebook Opens in new window.

Recent posts: Leader Spotlight: Contextualizing problems through firsthand observation, with Ellen Linardi Ellen Linardi, SVP of Product and Design at Clover, shares how her design-oriented team came to understand the importance of system thinking.

Strategies and tools for knowledge management As a PM, you want to make knowledge sharing as easy as possible to avoid bottlenecks and keep your team operating autonomously.

A guide to asynchronous communication Asynchronous communication can enable you to remain focused on your work so that you have fewer distractions and are more productive. Leader Spotlight: Adopting the right mindset for AI, with Sapna Gulati Sapna Gulati discusses how GenAI is changing the game for product managers to focus more on strategic innovation and competitiveness.

View all posts. Leave a Reply Cancel reply. Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website. 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. Because DPDs are facilitated through digital connections, like a crowdsourcing app, it's possible to get really granular with the types of people a brand enlists to try the product.

Unconstrained by space and time, DPDs, on the other hand, can ask shoppers about their intentions post-trial and even follow-up with them days or weeks later to verify purchase or repurchase. With sampling, a brand gives away its products. Talk about big dollar signs.

It's the difference between sales-hopeful and sales-driven marketing. Most traditional trial methods—from advertising to in-store demos—are sales-hopeful. A brand spends money, and can only hope a shopper purchases the product. True to Life. No eating cereal in store aisles. DPDs can specify under what conditions targeted consumers try a product.

Often times, DPDs specify the consumer try the product at home, under normal, realistic trial conditions. Not only does home offer a more natural and immersive atmosphere for trying a product, but the "true to life" nature of digital demoing allows products that don't traditionally demo well in-store e.

All three sales-driven demo methods are facilitated through the Field Agent mobile app, which has been downloaded by more than two million U. As you can see below, each DPD requires shoppers to make an actual purchase and to try the product in-home. But Field Agent's DPDs also deviate from one another in important ways.

And then there's the Digital Demo. H ere, the value-add is user-generated content, professional brand photography, and even social sharing.

The image below specifically describes how Digital Demos work. Analog or digital, sales-hopeful or sales-driven, product trial is an essential part of new product success.

A deliberate, strategic, proactive approach to product trial, however, can help brands overcome early barriers to product success. The Plum Marketplace contains several products designed to help new products meet early success. Click below to explore these tools—and launch a project in minutes.

Product Trial. PO Box Fayetteville, AR hello plumshop. Products Audits E-commerce Insights Operations Retail Pipelines SimpliField Trial Solutions Pricing Shelf Reset Product Launch Packaging Change Brand Awareness Buyer Meeting Seasonal Execution Restaurants Winning at Walmart Club Stores Resources Help About Contact Press Learn Blog Content Library Push Go Podcast Let's Talk Shop Now.

Shop Now. Find your sweet spot. Subscribe Here:. Jul 15, AM Chris Medenwald, PhD Product Trial. We know it, you know it. New products always start behind. For many reasons 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.

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