Can you buy WOM with freebies?

by Mark Nagurski, July 25th, 2008

Can you buy word of mouth with free stuff?

In a post on the Brains on Fire blog, Spike discusses recent TV coverage of BzzAgent and similar word-of-mouth companies - and the resulting influx of people looking to signup and get free stuff.

So the question is: by giving away free stuff are you actually going to get more positive word-of-mouth?

In the BzzAgent model the recipients of the freebies are supposed to start conversations about these products with friends and family - and then report them back to BzzAgent who, in turn, reports the conversations back to the client.

The service and concept is couched in WOM and ‘new marketing’ terms, but if you strip out the talk of ‘influencers’, ‘mavens’ and WOM - you’re still left with a massive sampling campaign.

Without knowing more about the fees and processes involved I can’t say whether sampling alone is a justification for using BzzAgent or similar companies but there is certainly something to be said for sampling anyway.

As a small business you might not have the budget to take on a buzz building company but you could try a few simple ideas yourself.

Some low-cost tips for using sampling to create buzz (and more) …

Pull together a (loose) collective of customers or prospective customers. If you’ve been in business for a while you should have enough goodwill to make that happen. If not, bribery may work.
Let them sample your product or service and get out of their way.
Get some feedback - you want honesty, so don’t be afraid to encourage it.
Give them more samples to take away with them - as a thank you and to encourage WOM.
Ask them if they know anyone who would benefit from your new product / service? Follow up on these perhaps with a special offer.
Use feedback to make improvements.
Use positive comments in your marketing.
Thank them honestly.

What other sampling and initial buzz building activities have you tried? What’s worked and what hasn’t?