You would be surprised how often I hear this. It seems to be a common problem with small business, so over the years I've been testing and documenting a large variety of low-cost marketing strategies.

The results of my testing shows that one of the most cost effective way to get more customers is to 'Give away free samples' or 'Free trials'.

The benefits of this marketing approach are two fold. Firstly you are removing all risk from your potential customers and secondly you are demonstrating the value of what you sell in a tangible way.

Let's look at some small business examples:

Example 1: I had a client who was starting a children's pony-ride party service. To kick start her business I held a birthday party for my son and invited her to bring her ponies. She gave all the kids pony rides (which they loved) and we put vouchers for discount pony parties in all the lolly bags. We had 30 kids at the party, most of whom had brothers and sisters. The following month she got two party bookings. Again she put vouchers in the party bags. She continued this process with every party and the business took off. Her only cost for this promotion was the time she spent giving my son the initial party free and the cost of printing the vouchers but even that was minimal because in the beginning she was printing the vouchers on her home computer. It wasn't until she was making reasonable money that she invested in professional printing and design services.

Example 2: To get new clients for my marketing firm, I distributed vouchers for a Free Marketing. Consultation valued at $297. I gained a lot of bookings from people who weren't even considering hiring a consultant but once they had seen the results of that initial consultation about 80% purchased additional services.

Examples are Everywhere. Giving away free samples and trials is so powerful that even the multi-nationals are employing this strategy. When Krispy Kreme opened a new store in our suburb they had employees out on the streets handing out free donuts for the first few months of trade - the result was cars queued down the street waiting to buy Krispy Kreme donuts.

Microsoft is now giving away a trial version of Office 2007, you can download it from the web and you'll find it preinstalled on almost every new PC sold.

We've all been past a bakery or food outlet that was handing out samples and I'm sure most of us have gone ahead and bought something as a result of that sample -something that we had no intention of buying moments before being handed the sample.

The law of reciprocation tells us that when most people are given something they feel the need to reciprocate. So if you give away a free sample people will often unknowingly feel the need to make a purchase in return.

A free trial is especially effective for companies selling high priced products? When choosing between several companies, the company that offers a free trial of their product is going to be the more attractive option and provided that product meets the buyers needs the other options in the marketplace won't even get a look in.

What can you afford to give away to get new customers hooked?

Here's some ideas to get you thinking: A hairdresser could give away free hair cuts or free foils. A dance teacher could give away a free lesson. Any business that offers services via consultation could give away a free consultation. A mechanic a free oil change. A restaurant a free meal.

Most businesses will find they have several options as to what they could give away free. Test a few different offers and see which ones get the best response. When comparing your results consider the overall impact on your business. Don't just measure the immediate sales that result but look at the sales that result in the coming months / years.

Distribution or your offer. Once you've decided what you can give away, you need to set up a plan to actually get your offer to your target market. You can of course just stand on the street handing out samples to passers-by but unless you sell a product with an extremely broad target market you'll find this method very difficult to control, because whilst giving out free samples is an extremely low cost way to win new customers this strategy will only work if you are giving them to people who are likely to buy from you in the future.

The simplest way to reach your ideal customer is to first decide exactly who your ideal customers are and then look at what other businesses they are buying from. Once you know this you can ask those organisations to hand out your vouchers or samples for you. Not only will you gain valuable access to the people most likely to buy from you but you will reach those people in volumes far greater than you could if you were approaching them all personally.

Just as Microsoft knows that new computer buyers are the most likely prospects to buy the new version of Office you need to recognise the purchase patterns of the people most likely to buy from you.