You already know that the more stuff you give away to your customers, the more they have to pass on to their friends (for example, they’ll talk to more people if you give them three coupons instead of just one). But you can extend that sharing even further by getting their friends to actually ask them for it. Here’s how one company did it with barrels of beer:
In Belgium, Maes is not only the name of a brewing company, it’s also a common last name. So in the spirit of “family pride,” they sent a letter to every Maes in the country with a coupon code to get a free barrel of beer. But to make sure they shared it with their friends, they told everyone else about the offer, too.
Since everyone knew people with the name Maes were getting a whole barrel of beer, their friends could encourage them to take the beer company up on their offer — and then to share it with them. That got lots of people talking and getting together around a Maes barrel of beer.
Maybe you can’t give everyone a keg, but you can give your fans something cool to share, and then recruit their friends to ask about it.
