Giving away the first chapter of a book is obvious and smart marketing. Allen & Unwin are doing this with ICE by Louis Nowra and The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas. Magazine publishers could use this approach in newsagencies. With around 50% of all newsagency customers not buying a magazine, we ought to promote the category through giving away samples.
Sampler marketing could work well for crosswords, fashion, food, travel, cars, health, craft and special interest categories. I have pitched the idea to several publishers without success. Budget is the main issue – production, diostribution and the expectation that newsagents would want a fee for in-store management of the giveaway.
I would give this a crack for free, to see if the promotion works – as long as the trial product offers genuine value. For example, take Good Food from ACP Magazines. An A6 size eight-page sampler of some excellent recipes and an article by Gordon Ramsay could result in greater interest in the magazine. Newsagencies are the only outlets where such a promotion could be run. We can track how many samplers were given away, when and what was in each basket included with the sampler. This data could be used to track uptake and better target promotion of the magazine.
Magazine publishers could learn from the approach taken by Allen & Unwin. Putting a sample of a product into the hand of a prospect is, in my mind, more valuable than a billboard, TV ad or some other more traditional form of advertising.