By Claude C. Hopkins and Troy S. Laughren

© 2005 Troy S. Laughren All Rights Reserved
No part of this 2005 version May be reproduced in any form.

The product itself should be its own best salesperson.  Not the product alone, but the product plus a mental thought, and feeling, which you place around it.  That being so, samples are of prime importance.  However expensive, they usually characterize the cheapest selling method.  A salesperson wouldn’t go out without his sample case neither should an advertisement.

Sampling does not apply to little things alone, like foods or drugs.  It can be applied in the same way to almost everything.  We have sampled clothing and we are now sampling CD’s.

Samples serve numerous valuable purposes.  They enable one to use the word "Free" in ads.  That often increases the number of readers. Most people want to learn about any offered gift.  Tests often show that samples pay for themselves - perhaps several times over - in increased readership of your ads without additional costs of space.

A sample gets action.  The reader of your ad may not be convinced to the point of buying.  But he is ready to learn more about the product that you offer.  So he cuts out a coupon, lays it aside, and later mails it, presents it or clicks it.  Without that coupon he would soon forget about it.

When you have the name and address of the interested prospect you can start him using your product with a free sample, you can give him more complete information.  You can follow up with him.

That reader might not read one of your ads again in the next six months.  The impression you made could be lost.  But when he writes to you, you have a chance to communicate to that prospect all that can be presented.  In that saving of waste the sample pays for itself.

Sometimes however a small sample is not a fair test.  Instead we may send an order to the retailer for a full-size package.  Or we may make the coupon good for a package at the store.  Thus we get a longer, more meaningful test.

You say that is expensive.   So is it expensive to gain a prospect's interest.  It may cost you 50 cents, 1 dollar, 5 dollars or more to get the person to the point of requesting a sample.  Don't stop at the extra cost of a sample when you have a hot prospect wanting more information.

Another way in which samples pay is by keying or baselining your advertisements.  They register the interest you create.  Thus you can compare one with another ad, headline, plan and method.

That means huge savings for any product line.  The wisest, most experienced person cannot tell you what will most appeal in any line of copy.  Without a key to guide you, your returns are very apt to cost you twice as much as they need cost.  And we know that some ads for the same product will cost you ten times what others cost.  A sample may pay for itself several times over by giving you an accurate representation.

Again samples enable you to refer customers where they can be supplied.  This is important before you attain general distribution.

Many advertisers lose much by being cheap.  They are afraid of nuisance, or they try to save pennies.  That is why they ask a dime for a sample, or a stamp or two.  Getting that dime may cost them from 40 cents to $1.  That is, it may add to the cost of replies.  But its mind blowing just how many will pay that additional money and spend the additional time complicating the whole process instead of simply offering a free sample.

Putting a price on a sample greatly hinders replies.  It prohibits you from using the word "Free," as we have stated. Sampling generally more than pays for itself.

For the same reason some advertisers say, "You buy one package, we will buy the other."  Or they make a coupon good for part of the purchase price.  Any keyed returns will clearly prove that such offers do not pay.  Before a prospect finds value in your product or service, we have found that it is, approximately as hard to get half price for your product or service as it is to get the full price for it.

Bear in mind that you are the seller.  You are the one encouraging interest.  So don't make it difficult for the consumer to demonstrate their interest.  Don't ask your prospects to pay for your selling efforts.  3 in 4 will refuse to pay and often as high as 9 in 10.

The cost of requests for samples differs with every product of course.  It depends on your width of appeal.  Some things appeal to everybody, some to a small percentage.  One issue of the newspapers in Greater New York brought 1,460,000 requests for a can of evaporated milk.  On a chocolate drink, one-fifth of the coupons published were redeemed. Yet another product not widely used may bring a portion of that number.

But the cost of inquiries is usually enough to be important. So don't neglect them.  Don't stint your efforts with those you have already half sold.  An inquiry means that a prospect has read your story and is interested.  He or she would like to try your product and learn more about it.  Do what you would do if that prospect stood before you.

Cost of inquiries depends largely on how they come.  Asking people to mail the coupon brings minimum returns.  Often four times as many will present that coupon for a sample at a retail store.

With a product before the writer right now, sample inquiries obtained by mail averaged 70 cents each.  Those same ads bring inquiries from 18 cents to 22 cents each when the coupons are presented at a local store.

Most people write few letters.  Writing is an effort.  Perhaps they have no stamps easily available.  Most people however will spend gasoline to get a sample rather than use two postage stamps.  Therefore it is always best, where possible, to have samples delivered locally.

With one product three methods were offered.  The woman could write for a sample, or telephone, or call a store.  70 percent of the inquiries came by telephone.  The use of the telephone is more common and convenient than the use of stamps.

Sometimes it is not possible to supply all dealers with samples.  Instead we request people go to some central stores.  These stores are glad to have many people come there.  And other wholesalers do not generally object so long as they share in the sales.

It is important to have these dealers send you the coupons promptly.  Then you can follow up the inquiries while their interest is fresh.

It is said that sample users repeat.  They do to some extent. But repeaters form a small percentage.  Figure into your cost.

Say to the woman, "Only one sample to a home" and few women will try to get more of them.  And the few who cheat you are not generally the people who would buy.  So you are not losing purchasers, but the samples only.

With numerous product lines we have for a long time offered full-sized packages free.  The packages were priced between 10 cents and 50 cents each. In certain territories for a length of time we checked up on repeaters and found the losses to be much less than the cost of actually checking.

With some products samples, they could be wasted on children, as they are most quick to get them.  So say in your coupon "adults only." Children will not present such coupons, and they will rarely mail them in.

But one must be careful about publishing coupons good for a full-size package at any store.  Some people, and even dealers, may buy up many papers.  We do not announce the date of such offers. And we insert them in Sunday papers, not so easily bought up.

But we do not advocate samples given out promiscuously. Samples distributed to homes, like waifs on the doorsteps, probably never pay.  Many of them never reach the house or the housewife.  When they do, there is no prediction for them.  The product is cheapened.  It is not introduced in a favorable way.

So with demonstrations in stores.  There is always a way to get the same results at a fraction of the cost.

Many advertisers do not understand this.  They supply thousands of samples to dealers to be handed out as they will. If a trace was placed on the cost of returns, the advertiser would be stunned.

Give samples to interested people only.  Give them only to people who exhibit that interest by some effort.  Give them only to people whom you have told your story.  First create a mood of respect, of desire, of expectation.  When people are in that mood, your sample will usually confirm the traits you claim.

Here again comes the advantage of figuring cost per customer. That is the only way to gauge advertising.  Samples sometimes seem to double advertising cost.  They often cost more than the advertising.  Yet, rightly used, they almost invariably form the cheapest way to get customers.  And that is what you want.

 The argument against samples is usually biased.  They may come from advertising agents who like to see all the advertising money spent in print.  Answer such arguments by way of tests.  Try some towns with them, some without.  Where samples are effectively employed, we rarely find a product line where they do not lesson the cost per customer.