I asked my LinkedIn audience If the Sales and Marketing functions were merged and run by Sales, What would be your main focus? Why?

As you can see, 68% of those surveyed said that increased lead generation and demand generation was a top priority. What this means is that people see Marketing as a vehicle to increase Sales and Revenue.

Free Trials

Previously, I have discussed the marketing strategy of free trials, discounted trials, and loss leaders.

Free Samples

Another great marketing strategy for brands to get prospects and current customers to try a new product or retry an existing one is to offer a free sample. This can be done by handing out the product sample during online, field, and tradeshow marketing.

Field & Trade Show Marketing

Samples can be in the form of a physical product, a link to an online offering, offering a discount to make a purchase. Recently, I attended the 9th Avenue International Food Festival in New York. I received sample food products. One of the vendors offered a food sample and a coupon to make a purchase.

At Tradeshows, brands can offer physical and digital products in exchange for customer information. This is an excellent tactic for lead generation. Most times brands scan the badge of customers to collect this information.

Online Marketing

Brands can also reach customers online to get them to request a free sample. The sample can come in the form of a download or a physical offering depending on the product type.

Brands can also offer branded merchandise as a way to be remembered by prospects and customers.

How have you used free samples to attract new customers, renew, upsell, and cross-sell existing customers?

Share your thoughts and join the conversation.

Additional places to find my content and blog

WordPress: https://dangalante.me/

Tumblr: http://www.askdangalante.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/DanGalante

Medium https://medium.com/@DanGalante

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/trendsettingsm

Anchor https://anchor.fm/dangalante

About Me

I’m a Strategic Marketer with Field Sales, Sales Enablement, Content Creation, and, Classroom Teacher/Trainer skill sets using Marketing to drive Sales/Growth.

As a Marketer, I’ve worked with Start-Ups, a Political Campaign, and a Digital Marketing Conference.

I’m certified in Inbound Marketing with classes in Marketing, Product Management, Product Marketing, SEO, and SEM.

Before teaching, I was an Outside Sales and Marketing Rep. selling and marketing dental products to Dentists using consultative selling, trade show marketing, field marketing, and market research.

I publish Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; a blog that covers industry events and trends.

I’m seeking a full-time role in

Inbound Marketing, Digital Marketing, Content Marketing, Product Marketing, Competitive Intelligence, Demand Generation, Social Media Marketing,

Sales Enablement, Enablement, Sales, Account Management, Customer Success, Sales Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Employer Branding, and Recruitment Marketing.

Open on the title, industry, company, location, and level. Reach out on LinkedIn or at dan@dangalante.com to start a conversation.

Insights from 2024 DMWF NA

Last week, I covered the Digital Marketing World Forum conference in New York. The conference was held at the Marriot Marquis in New York’s Times Square. The Digital Marketing World Forum or DMWF for short, covered a wide array of topics beyond just digital marketing, that covered AI, ecommerce, influencer marketing, and creativity just to name a few. 

DMWF also had interesting service providers in the Digital Marketing space. 

The conference was divided into two tracks. Track one consisted of topics that fell into the categories of: Covering Data, CRM & Insights // eCommerce & Omnichannel // AI & Marketing Automation // Digital Transformation & Leadership // Customer Experience, Email & Automation // Mobile Marketing & Advertising //.

Track two consisted of topics that fell into the categories of: Influencer, Affiliate & Creator Marketing // Content & Video Marketing // Social Media & Community Marketing // Digital Brand Strategy & Communications //.

There were so many amazing discussions. The topics that I found the most interesting were Building a successful Full-Funnel Marketing Strategy, and How to navigate changing social platforms.

In the Building a successful Full-Funnel Marketing Strategy panel,

Shayna Macklin, Director, Social / Brand + Music Partnerships & Fractional CMO, Playboy Enterprises, Inc. & Rainbow Apparel Co

Carly Schrager, Head of Marketing Automation Engagements, North America, Bluprintx

Michelle Gitter, Beauty Commerce & Measurement Insights Manager, Unilever

address the questions of:

• the power of implementing a full-funnel marketing strategy
• Moving away from a leaky funnel and delivering and building on brand perception, targeted content and communications to your consumers
• Reviewing the opportunities and risks when implementing a full-funnel marketing strategy
• How does the change in strategy impact your reach of message, insights and conversion of purchases

In the How to navigate changing social platforms panel,

https://fb.watch/uWyBOeuXQg/

Moderator: Dasha Shunina, Ambassador Community & Partnerships, Puzzle

David Johnston, Head of Social Media, U.S. Department of Defense

Lamarr Shand, Head of YouTube & Digital Video Strategy, Google

Cara Hedgepeth, Senior Social Media Community Advisor, AARP

address the questions of:

• Social strategies in 2024 and beyond
• Defining your customer profiles and adapting your game plan for your audiences, including B2B and B2C
• Using data and insights to define your social strategy and increase engagement
• Socials in different industries — when should you engage with your customer?

The DMWF was an amazing conference. If you are interested in Digital Marketing and all things Marketing, I suggest attending the DMWF.

I want to the thank the organizers of the Digital Marketing World Forum for having me as their guest. 



Trends in AI & Generative AI: Insights from The 2023 AI Summit New York 

Last week, I covered the AI Summit in New York. I was excited to learn about the trends in AI and generative AI and to see some commercial applications of these new technological advancements. 

Patrick Murphy of UAB led the AI Exhibitor hub. Patrick shared insights from his research on Entrepreneurship. He shared how start-ups use AI, and Generative AI to scale up and bring products to market. 

Generative AI is being used in the following eight ways:

1. Content and Asset Generative
2. Automated Processes
3. Ideation
4. Financial Management
5. Project Design
6. Optimized Structures
7. Acceleration and incubation
8. Ethics and Risk Management. 

There was a pitching completion where start-ups did pitches in multiple rounds. At the beginning of the competition, they received advice from judges on best practices. 

One of the start-ups that was of interest was Botwise. Jan Nowak shared how his team shared a use case on how they leveraged Language Learning models (LLM)using statistics and GPT solutions for rapid automation in customer service for Mylead.global is a platform that allows influencers to earn money. As a result, MyLead.global was able to screen influencers faster and better for their big brand clients.

AI-Powered Use Cases from across the board panel discussion

Leaders Saira Kazmi Ph. D. (CVS Health), Matthew Blakemore (Creative Industries Council) Taha Mokfi (HelloFresh), Kriti Kohli (Shopify), and Kris Perez (Data Force) share how they use chatbots, improving both the buyer and seller experience using AI. How AI can be used in video games to identify levels of violence and how AI can improve in healthcare and Radiology reducing the amount of time images are read while improving accuracy and detail. 

Another interesting Panel was by Tim Delesio CTO of techolution

Tim asked What’s driving the explosive rise of AI all of a Sudden?

The answer is the economics of the labor market.

On the demand side, he cited labor shortages and persistent high inflation. 

On the supply side, he cites the rise of ChatGPT and, major scientific and Technological breakthroughs in the past five to seven years. 

He shared trends in AI for 2024 that include:

1. Physical Labor with AI to help deliver small batch sizes with high-precision quality control
2. Improved customer engagement by providing a new generation of customer service agents using Generative AI 

Tim demonstrated some of these trends when he ordered a soda using an AI-powered robotic arm. 

The booth had another machine showing how AI can enhance inventory management when items are ordered. 

I was amazed to see some AI Tech that techolution brought to the marketplace.

On that note, I saw an AI-powered Kiosk by Graphen where a man ordered his food and paid. This company is using AI to revolutionize all industries.

Man orders food AI Kiosk

Man pays for food at AI Kiosk

There were so many great talks and exhibits. 

Additional pictures can be found on Instagram. 

I want to thank the AI Summit for having me as their guest. If you want to use AI and Generative to improve business outcomes, sign up for the AI summit in your city.

What do you think is next for AI and Generative AI?

Comment and share below.

Additional pictures can be found on Instagram.