King Pin Business Cards

Offering free samples of your products is an effective way of generating custom for many businesses. It gives your potential customers something to look at, as well as giving the confidence that you are professional enough to allow inspection of your work before being employed.

There are small industries that grew up around collecting samples of things and trying them out, even without the intention of buying the whole product. Some of my student years were spent doing just that! There are even schemes now where you can volunteer to receive regular free samples of stuff if you provide feedback on it. This is a useful marketing tool where companies who are planning new products or to rebrand older ones can test it out before releasing them to manufacturing. This is being increasingly adopted by companies to enable them to talk directly to their target market and gain valuable feedback on their products.

This has seen a massive increase over the past year as more and more people are getting wise to the idea of getting things for free, while only have to spend a few minutes a week giving feedback. I fully expect this expansion to continue for years to come. Nice to see that it isn’t just in the realms of student life anymore!

There are obviously industries and products where this isn’t possible, but alternatives are always there for the imaginative. Examples such as impregnating a business card with perfume for a fragrance company, or the “new car smell” for an auto retailer. Neither of which could feasibly give away free samples of their product but can still market it via giving away business card samples. There are plenty of examples of fragrant cards being used to promote business and specific products. There are wedding planners who make their cards smell of fresh flowers or marzipan. Candle makers who make their cards smell like their fragrant candles.

The process is simple enough if you want to try it yourself. Simply get a sample of whatever fragrance you want to use, such as marzipan or essential oil and put it into an airtight container. With liquids I suggest soaking a rag or handkerchief to stop the cards getting wet. Add some cards to the container and lock them all in together. Leave them for at least three or four days to enable the card to absorb the fragrance, and viola, you can now communicate with your audience on another level. Not only are you appealing to their eyes, but their sense of smell too! Smell has something to do with triggering memories, so it isn’t a bad idea to try this out, especially if the fragrance then triggers memories of your company!

Offering free business card samples of your products, reminders, or suggestions of your products is an effective call to action for your target market. It literally adds an extra dimension to your marketing strategy, and as long as your business isn’t waste management or septic tank cleaning, using smell as an extra element is a good idea.