Sampling can sometimes be very effective, but it is almost always expensive, because scattershot programs don’t get the right products into the right consumer’s hands. SoPost Founder and CEO Jonathan Grubin has a better way, and clients in the health and beauty space agree. The company has worked with more than 200 brands, including Procter & Gamble, Estée Lauder and L’Oréal Paris, to create targeted, measurable campaigns to get sample products to engaged consumers.
 
It all comes down to data. Grubin’s personal history reads like so many other tech executives: an interest in computers at an early age, university dropout, serial entrepreneur. The current iteration of SoPost got its start in 2012 when Grubin realized that while every brand manager he spoke with insisted that his or her sampling program was successful, no one was capturing data or analyzing the tiny amount of data they captured.
 
“The more we dug into the problem, the more we realized there was no data; it was all anecdotal,” he recalled. “We knew sampling could work but it had to be better.”
 
SoPost engages with consumers through online channels such as social media, influencers, content and customer relationship management. Next, data is captured, duplicates are eliminated and addresses are validated. On average, 57% of consumers opt-in for more additional contact with the brand.
 
SoPost operates in seven countries with distribution hubs in the US and UK. Marketers just ship samples and literature to either location and SoPost takes it from there, according to Grubin. 
 
“Nearly every person who clicks on the form fills it out,” he explained. Using that data, SoPost is able to vet the best customers. Top-tier users get the best sample, a lower level user might get a more basic sample and others could get a coupon. 
 
“It is the right experience for the right customer,” Grubin asserted.
 
And for some, they might not get anything at all besides an email along the lines of: “thank-you, but the brand does not approve your request.”
 
Cold? Not at all, says Grubin who notes that 15 years ago, companies and brands only looked at clicks, cheerfully sending expensive samples all over the world.
 
“A lot of companies looked at how many sample orders they fulfilled. We focus on the quality of the data,” he explained.
 
More companies like the SoPost approach. Grubin said he works with 70% of the beauty industry, including all the multinationals. SoPost is also engaged in the food and beverage and pharmaceutical industries. Now, the focus is reaching out to indie and other smaller beauty companies to show them the SoPost approach to successful sampling.
 
“We have the best product in the space, but we don't have the most brand awareness. We want people to know about us. We want them to think of us,” concluded Grubin. “The internet can be a very good solution to the challenges that brands face with their sampling programs, but they need to do it properly.”
 
With so many people rethinking the retail experience in this age of social-distancing, more marketers will be thinking about the most effective ways to reach consumers.