A Toronto tech startup is using enterprise software to inject some digital measurability into the staid practice of product sampling.
The company, Sampler, has developed a software-as-a-service platform for creating, promoting and analyzing sampling campaigns. Taking its cues from enterprise marketing platforms that automate campaigns in email, display and social, Sampler’s big focus is on providing analytics and audience data so that marketers can get a better handle on how the campaign impacted their brand and their bottom line.
Marie Chevrier, who’s worked with several fashion and CPG-focused tech startups in NYC, founded the company in 2013. Since then she and her team have built up a client base of around 89 brands, mostly in the U.S., across cosmetics, health food, parenting and other CPG categories. Most recently, the software has been used by The Body Shop to launch a major global campaign across Canada, the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.
Sampler’s product campaigns run mostly online, and can either be set up to deliver the product directly to the customer, or email them a printable coupon to be redeemed at a local store. It also does live events, with cross-promotions featuring a variety of brands.
Chevrier said she came up with the idea for Sampler when she saw how much marketers were struggling to find measurable ROI in product sampling. “If you receive a product sample at Dundas Square, you get the sample and walk away,” she says. “The marketers don’t get to know much about you, and they don’t know whether you’ll buy or not.”
Sampler gets at that information by asking interested consumers to connect to their social accounts, which provides demographic and interest data about who’s taking samples. That way the platform can find out which consumer segments respond best to the product, and reach out to them with follow-up offers.
Chevrier said creating detailed reports about the impact and effectiveness of sampling campaigns is a big part of what the platform provides. For example, a marketer can see the median income and age range of the consumers that take samples, and they can see how different groups responded to the product in follow-up email surveys.
Built-in remarketing is another core feature. Within the platform, brands can set up campaigns to retarget consumers that have tried samples (and opted in to receive follow-on messaging) via email and social ads.
“Sampling is often a one-touch thing — even if you enjoy it, the brand can’t talk to you again,” Chevrier said. “We know you need something like three to four touchpoints to drive a sale. The idea is now you can get that with every customer you sample to.”
Marketers can also export any audiences they define in Sampler to a CRM platform of choice, to merge with other datasets for targeting across the web, she said.
Not surprisingly, Sampler’s biggest success has been among the mom blogger community. The platform runs a lot of sampling and remarketing campaigns for female hygiene and baby products, which it promotes through social ads targeting new moms, as well as a network of influencer blogs.
Chevrier said Sampler sees a 75% redemption rate on coupons it puts out, and about 65% of the people that sign up have opted in to receive follow-up messages from the brand. And the scale that Sampler’s software-based approach offers is pretty immense compared to live sampling programs — The Body Shop campaign, Sampler’s largest yet, is live in nine countries and nine different languages.
