- Kenneth Hein

Want to get someone to buy your product? Then give them one for free. While this might sound counter-intuitive, a new survey from Arbitron found sampling works.

More than one-third (35%) of customers who tried a sample bought the product during the same shopping trip, per the poll of 1,857 respondents conducted earlier this year via the phone. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed reported they would buy a product again after trying it.

Sampling, which reaches 70 million consumers every quarter, “is both effective in making new customers aware of products, while also establishing a firmer identity with those consumers who have considered the product before,” said Carol Edwards, svp of sales at Arbitron’s out-of-home media department, in a statement.

The survey divvied up consumers into three segments: acquisitions (those new to the product), conversions (those willing to buy it after sampling it) and retentions (those who had previously purchased the product).

Eighty-five percent of retentions who sampled a product said they would purchase it again compared to 60% of conversions. Almost half (47%) said they would now look to purchase it.

Twenty-eight percent of respondents received a free sample in the past three months. Of that group, 64% said they accepted the sample.

Perhaps the most surprising finding: Nearly a quarter of those polled (24%) said they bought the product they sampled instead of the item they initially set out to purchase.