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You have something fantastic to give away to your customers and fans (and it’s not a sample or swag or a trial version of your stuff). Your most meaningful handouts might not be what you expect, but they’ll do so much more for your word of mouth than the usual freebies.
Here are three examples from amazing companies giving away remarkable stuff:
1. Old designs
2. Helpful videos
3. Branded tools
1. Old designs
Photo thanks to Popsop.
According to the UK Alzheimer’s Society, combining nostalgic images and tastes can help trigger positive memories for patients with dementia. So to help their cause, Nestlé took vintage designs from their archive and put them into a downloadable PDF called a “Reminiscence Pack.” Each page has a printable version of their old candy tin wrappers, drug store counter displays, posters, and labels that can be cut out and placed onto Nestlé’s current products. It’s a sweet thing to do, but it’s also a great word of mouth tool to put into their customers’ hands.
2. Helpful videos
Photo thanks to WarbyParker Help.
When Warby Parker gets a customer service question on Twitter, they respond with a quick, personalized video posted to YouTube. The amazing thing: Each of the videos they post gets multiple views. That means so many more people are watching and sharing these videos than just the customer Warby Parker’s directly responding to. When they help out a customer, they make it meaningful and personal, but they also find ways to share the knowledge with everyone else.
3. Branded tools
Photo thanks to Fast Company.
Volunteers kept asking climate advocacy group 350.org to share the fonts they used to make their stuff. The problem: The license to use those fonts was too expensive for the volunteers to buy themselves. That’s why 350.org created their own font, so they could give it to other climate activists for nothing. Now, those volunteers not only have a great word of mouth tool, they also have a sense of goodwill and belonging from 350.org that encourages them to share even more. When your biggest fans want to talk about your stuff, are you giving them the best tools to do it?
