Brand awareness is a fundamental objective for any business aiming to establish trust, create positive associations, and build invaluable brand equity. It is the process of making your brand a household name and a consumer staple, which does not happen overnight nor from a simple advertisement. Strong brand awareness results from multiple simultaneous efforts that extend beyond trying to get paying customers. For UK businesses, offering free samples, promotional items, and giveaways—particularly through stalls at events—can be a powerful component of this strategy. This article explores how freebies, when used strategically, can serve as a cost-effective marketing tool to raise awareness, drawing on established principles of brand marketing and promotional tactics.
The Strategic Role of Freebies in Brand Building
Freebies are not merely acts of generosity; they are strategic marketing tools that can drive business growth. When tailored to meet the needs and wants of target customers, free items can have a much greater resonance with recipients than generic giveaways. The key is to ensure that freebies align with business goals, whether those involve increasing website traffic, raising brand awareness, or marketing a specific product. Freebies should serve to highlight products or services, rather than being random unrelated items. For instance, a restaurant offering a free dessert encourages diners to return, while a pet food brand might offer free samples to introduce new customers to their products.
However, businesses must be cautious. Overusing giveaways could devalue a product or create the impression that the brand relies on giving items away just to get attention. Furthermore, giving away subpar products could harm rather than promote reputation, so quality control is essential even when items are free. To mitigate risks, it is advisable to set clear boundaries for any freebies campaign, such as limiting one free item per customer or offering it only during certain time frames.
Freemium Models and Try-Before-You-Buy Opportunities
One effective way to raise brand awareness is through the freemium business model. This model offers a basic product or product line for free, only charging for any products deemed premium or enterprise-level. It is a popular pricing strategy for software companies, but the principle can be applied to physical goods. Freemium options allow customers to get a taste of a brand and product before making a purchase. It’s a try-before-you-buy opportunity that, in some cases, can last forever, unlike a limited-time free trial period.
It is common to offer a freemium option with the condition that the brand’s watermark will show on any public-facing parts of the product or service. This creates a win-win situation: the consumer gets the product for free, and the brand gets free advertising when consumers use it. For example, Typeform offers a freemium option of its survey software but requires customers to include a thank-you page that features the Typeform logo and message. While this example is from the software sector, the underlying strategy of providing a free, branded experience can be adapted to physical products distributed at stalls.
Creating Free Content to Humanise the Brand
Another method to raise brand awareness is by creating free content. Content is a fun way to raise awareness because it allows a brand to show personality and share opinions and positioning on issues—two major components that personify and humanise the brand. Content doesn’t have to be in written form; it can include videos, infographics, podcasts, and more. Written content like blogs and downloadable guides are arguably the easiest, but they are not the only option.
Content doesn’t have to live on just a website. Guest posting and sponsored content provide opportunities to get in front of new audiences and diversify the type of content created. For instance, guest blogging on other niche websites is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness with minimal effort. A business can take advantage of another website’s traffic to get more eyes on its brand while offering helpful and relevant content. This approach is about writing in the brand voice and presenting the company as human first, company second. Publishing sponsored content on niche websites is a great alternative. If a brand isn’t creating content, it might miss out on major brand awareness opportunities.
Co-Marketing and Expanding Reach
Co-marketing is an excellent way to build brand awareness because it allows a business to take advantage of another brand’s audience and can highlight what the business offers in the marketplace. For example, if a company sells dog leashes and toys, it might partner with a dog-walking app. The campaign could work in ways like creating a shared offer (e.g., “download the app and get one free leash”) or hosting an Instagram live together. Partnering with another brand could help increase reach significantly.
Advertising and Social Media Engagement
While advertising may not build brand awareness as much as it builds product awareness, it is still one of the best tools for people to know about a brand in a low-touch, unobtrusive way. Grammarly is mentioned as an example of effective advertising. Beyond paid advertising, social media monitoring is crucial. Businesses should track who is tagging their brand, mentioning it in comments, or using their hashtag in their posts. The more an audience discusses the brand on social media, the more they are aware of it.
Running brand awareness surveys is another method to get direct feedback from customers and audience. This can be incredibly helpful in understanding not only who knows of the brand but also what they think of it. These quantitative and qualitative metrics help understand brand awareness among the audience and the general public. While it will never be a perfect number, keeping a pulse on this measure will help influence campaigns and stay connected to the audience.
Specific Applications of Freebies: Events and Subscriptions
Freebies can be deployed in various strategic settings. Events, expos, and trade shows provide ideal opportunities for handing out promotional products with a brand’s message. Attendees at such events often eagerly look forward to collecting freebies. A brand can capitalise on that interest by giving away eye-catching branded merchandise like tote bags or phone grips that will leave a mark while raising awareness far after an event has ended.
Subscription boxes are another avenue. Offering customers something extra as part of a subscription box can be an excellent way to surprise them. Common examples include free e-books, downloadable templates, webinars, or trial memberships which require customers to provide their email addresses, which helps build a mailing list in exchange. Buy-One-Get-One (BOGO) promotions, while technically tied to purchases, still fall under the freebie umbrella. Customers love receiving something extra for free, which makes these offers ideal tools for moving inventory or promoting new products. Surprise gifts and loyalty rewards are also key to growing customer relationships and retention. From birthday gifts to items after a fifth purchase, these tokens show customers they are valued and feel connected with the brand.
Brand Awareness Campaign Examples
Not sure what a brand awareness campaign can look like? One example is HubFans, a brand awareness campaign that rewards avid and knowledgeable HubSpot users for spreading their knowledge about the CRM platform. It’s a brilliant campaign because the HubSpot brand is not building the awareness itself; HubSpot customers are. This demonstrates the power of turning customers into brand advocates through incentives, which can be applied to free sample programmes where satisfied recipients are encouraged to share their experiences.
Conclusion
In summary, raising brand awareness through free stalls and giveaways is a multifaceted strategy that requires careful planning and execution. For UK businesses, the key is to use freebies as a strategic tool that aligns with broader marketing goals. Whether through freemium models, content creation, co-marketing, or event-based distribution, the aim is to create positive, memorable interactions that build trust and equity. It is essential to avoid pitfalls such as overuse or low-quality items, and to set clear campaign boundaries. By understanding the audience and tailoring free offers to their needs, businesses can effectively use free samples and promotional items to foster brand recognition and loyalty. The principles outlined here—drawn from established marketing practices—provide a foundation for designing freebie campaigns that are both impactful and sustainable.