I think the whole free trial thing all started with magazines and Columbia House. You know, “bill me later”, and “Try these, return them if you don’t like them for full credit, cancel any time”.

Then we started getting free trials of software – like physical products, “try it for 30 days”. Of course, software then morphed into “try it for 30 days, and then keep a crippled version of it forever if you don’t buy the paid version” – correctly recognizing that if you couldn’t persuade someone to buy immediately, you could at least maintain your presence in front of them and block competitors’ sales.

Then came Netscape, RealNetworks, Eudora and others, and the concept became “Try a fully functional version, and upgrade to a paid even better version”, or “Try a fully functional version but if you don’t pay you have to see advertisements” (Ah, ads as punishment… gee, I’d love to have my ads placed in a channel which creates negative associations around them…)

Now, we have “Try stuff. For free. No strings.” For example, my orders from Oxford Press over the last months have included extra books. No charge. (Volumes that would have been remaindered, I must assume…). Several software companies now offer fully functional versions of their personal and small-company products for free. In all cases, the theory seems to be “This stuff represents a small incremental cost for us – and if you like it, you’ll come back to us for more paid stuff / support / influence your company to buy it / etc”.

Frankly, I love it. This behavior seems an explicit acknowledgement of the power of trial, word of mouth, and community. Kudos to the bold marketers doing this – just tell me that y’all are tracking the actual costs of your free giveaways, demonstrating that they’re being offered to target segments, and associating your paid business, so that you can prove ROI.