Starting Up: Freebies Can Spur Sales

No matter if you give away your stuff or someone else's, offering consumers free products can help put a start-up business on the map. But since giveaways can further drain already cash-strapped small businesses, be sure to reserve your efforts for the right time and place. Here are a few giveaway strategies that might make sense, depending on your goals, target market and type of business.

Trade Shows

Trade shows provide one of the best opportunities to spread the word among people in your respective industry, says Robert D. Hisrich, a global entrepreneurship professor and director of the Entrepreneurship Center at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz. While consumers themselves don't often attend these events, buyers for big retailers or distributors often do. Concentrate on getting their attention and leaving them with something to think about. For example, "you will definitely want to have some significant product literature as well as samples," says Hisrich.

These events can also be a good place to connect with tastemakers such as members of the press, suggests Paul W. Farris, a business administration professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business and author of "Marketing Metrics." Plying influencers with your products can help spread the word to a wider audience, he says.

Since 1997, Francine Glick, founder of Water Journey, the Livingston, N.J.-based maker of hand sanitizer Hands2Go, has been pitching her products at trade shows. Having a presence at these events, she says, was key in getting placed in certain retail stores. That's because at these events, she says, "buyers come to you."