experience matters

Registration to view a portfolio or a POV drives me crazy! Giving customers a taste of the full experience only shows your confidence and does not compromise your brand. I am going to have to post Mike Wagner’s quote on my wall.

Thanks for the post, David.

Thanks for the mention David. You never know what people will remember. My comment that “a blog is a free sample of your brand” goes back to my earliest days of blogging when I had to come to grips with why I wanted to blog.

Your observations about building a database ring true for me.

The examples you cite are doing the old-fashion database transaction model. “You give me your email address and I’ll give you a nice shiny White Paper to download.”

I argue for transformation over transaction. Offering a free sample that leaves you different experientially (like the free sample at Starbucks) or intellectually enlightened (like in downloading a PDF) is how to hand out free samples of one’s brand.

Keep creating…and stirring the pot,
Mike

Rock on David! Excellent example. My preference is to “sample” your site and if I am wowed or dying to learn more, I’ll offer up my details. If you ask me to show you the money first, bye bye.

Absolutely agree. I’ve often hit a registration wall in trying to download white papers from consultancies or get exclusive content from companies. At my last job we struggled in balancing content for free or in exchange for a form complete. With potential customers’ attention so fleeting in today’s world, I think the opportunity to “say” something to a customer who is raising their hand and willingly asking for information/content/expert advice is so valuable that to risk losing them for good is just not worth it.

The argument can be made that those leads that complete the form are more valuable because they took that extra effort but if you’re providing something of value as a “taste” then the information shared and the goodwill engendered will go much farther. This is where tools like e-mail progressive profiling and a philosophy of permission marketing will get you a lot farther in the long-term. I guess a rule to remember then is “No one likes to be teased.”

but you did exactly the same thing. i clicked on this from my rss reader expecting a story about starbucks and got something much more mundane. interesting point, but a bait and switch nonetheless. plus i didn’t think i had seen that flavor before – i thought it might actually be a new one and it looked really good.

Thanks guys—all good thoughts. And Lori, how nice to see you here! I feel like it’s the good old days.

Jessi—interesting point. But not the same. I didn’t ask you to fill out a form. All you had to do was click a link for the full story.

As for it being Mundane. Fair enough. Sometimes experiences are mundane, but worth remembering as we can learn from them. While you felt this was a bait and switch, my intention was to draw you into the story with an applicable metaphor. Nice to see that you commented!

not mundane, just *more* mundane. i thought it was an interesting point – but i wanted food porn!

(actually i think it’s interesting how the mere picture of a tasty frappucino evoked such a pavlovian response for me. but maybe that’s just because i’m a hopeless foodie.)

For a while our area of the country was considered a great marketing test bed. As a result we would get a lot of free samples in the mail. I brought this up in a marketing class one evening as part of the discussion on “cost of sales”. The outcome was although the free sample appears to be an expensive way to go it is a sure-fire way to guarantee the consumer actually tries the product. In the end it is actually less expensive then even a broad mailing of “free coupons”. This same logic could be applied to the virtual world. As examples, both Steelcase & Herman Miller have research (limited but still…) finding available on their websites.

Jesse,

The photo choice as well as how I opted to begin the story were all by design.

@Jon

I think it’s one thing to ask for some basic information when the product you’re sampling is the actual product or service. For example, I’m thinking of BaseCamp. You can sign up for a limited version with just your email address.

I think it’s another thing, and perhaps not a good thing, to ask for such information when what you’re sampling is *not* the product and simply just a white paper.

[...] Get Yer â??Freeâ?? Samples Hereâ?¦ at Experience Matters – â??A blog is a free sample of your brandâ?? I like the metaphor used at the beginning of this post on the right way to use free to create loyalty. [...]

I absolutely agree with Mike – “a blog is a free sample of your brand.”

I always get a little suspicious when I’m asked to divulge personal information before accessing blogs, etc. on the Web. I want to know who’s going to see my info – and I get a bad feeling about it, I walk away.

And who wants potential customers to walk away without even experiencing the brand?

Right on the money. Well said. I have a photography portfolio and I don’t agree with the idea of burying or hiding the good stuff. I figure if I can’t show people the good stuff then why the heck should they give me the time of day? At some point I rely on them to appreciate my work enough to want to get in touch and hire me. There’s no room for big egos in that kind of situation.

Be well.

“I have a photography portfolio and I don’t agree with the idea of burying or hiding the good stuff. I figure if I can’t show people the good stuff then why the heck should they give me the time of day?”

Tobias, that’s a very entrepreneurial attitude you have there. I think one of the side effects of the whole “2.0″ things is that slowly, but surely big companies will have to act smaller—even though they remain big.

Help, bro! How do you draw the line between the sample and the product? How do you give away enough, without giving away the farm?

Especially in these days of membership sites, how to balance what goes in your blog/newsletter (free), paid content, and products … it’s making my head spin.

I agree, Tobias. It’s the same with my writing samples; If I give people my best stuff, they’ll probably at least think I have more. On the other hand, if I were to send out my not-so-great work, I’d be worried they’d wonder, “Is this all he has?

If you’re a professional in any field, it’s all about keeping up appearances. If you give out the good stuff for free, it shows that you can whip up more in no time.

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What a facinating article. I’m looking for a marketing expert to help with a project, could you help?

This post is just the tip of the iceberg.I think you made some good points in Features but there might be more good points.

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How are you, I go over all your articles, keep them coming.