How to measure peer product sampling effectiveness and ROI

If you want to get your brand into the hands of thousands of new customers and increase your brand ROI amongst women, there’s no time like the present to examine peer-to-peer product sampling effectiveness.

When looking at women aged 20-50 years-old with dependent children, you need to work out where they are currently getting their samples from, and which sampling methods they’re going to respond to best and why. Our founder, Sally Durcan, has over a decade of sampling activity experience along with access to a powerful network of over 3 million women with children aged two to teens. Here, she provides some helpful guidance as to how to improve product sampling effectiveness, increase your brand ROI, and move your target consumer through the peer to peer sampling journey through strategic planning and thought.

Mums 33% more likely to remember a product if given to them by a friend

A recent survey conducted by Talk to Mums revealed that mums are 33% more likely to remember a product if it is given to them by a friend.

This is perhaps one of the key metrics to bear in mind when drafting up a strategy to achieve product sampling effectiveness. Why? Put simply, mums trust other mums! If one mum recommends a product to another, there is a higher likelihood that that mum is going to try the product, like the product, remember the product, talk about the product, and then buy the product. If you want to get your product into the hands of thousands of new customers and therefore increase brand ROI, peer to peer sampling is key.

How much value does peer-to-peer sampling add to the bottom line?

To break the figures down further, we found that the figure of 33 percent increases to 40 percent when we asked mums how likely they would be to purchase a recently trialled product using a peer to peer sampling method over an out-of-home sampling method.

Mums are also 36 percent more likely to buy a product given to them by a peer than by someone at an event, 60 percent more likely to buy a product given to them by a peer than by someone at a train station, 16 percent more likely to buy a product given to them by a peer than in a goodie bag and 44 percent more likely to buy a product given to them by a peer than from a door drop. It’s clear when looking at the figures that when it comes to product sampling effectiveness, peer to peer is the best method to use when targeting mums to increase sales, and, in turn, help in increasing brand ROI.

It’s all about a brand’s visibility

If we look at the frequency of the brand’s visibility and/or the number of taste reminders, the question is, will this strategy ultimately improve the odds of changing behaviours more quickly and move consumers to purchase?

The simple answer to this is yes. If a mum receives one sample of a product it will result in her being 39 percent more likely to purchase the product, but if she gets three trials of a sample product it will increase the likelihood of her purchasing that product to 84 percent. That is nearly doubling your sales potential, and the likelihood is it will keep current customers from switching brands.

Increasing the Power of Advertising

And what if a mum receives a product sample, how likely are is she then to notice an advert about that product? A staggering 50 percent of our network of mums said that they would be more likely to notice a product’s advert if they’d received a sample of that product. That’s great news for advertisers as it means that adding sampling to your overall marketing strategy will ensure that your other media channels will start to work harder for you as mums stop blocking out messages from brands they don’t know or care about. Once they’ve had a sample they have a relationship with you, making your message stand out more and getting it the attention it deserves. And is there a likelihood of mums going on to purchase a product after they have trialled a product, and seen an advert? Again, the answer is yes. They are 53 percent more likely to go on and purchase.

Talk to Mums is an influencer platform that connects brands with close to 3 million women with children aged two to teens through sampling and surveys. Get in touch today to find out how we can help you get your brand into the right hands.