Is offering a free product a good way to generate more business?

Paul whatever you give away, I would make sure that it is FREE to you. But not necessarily the customer. Even if the cost to them is filling in an email address or getting details to sell them products later.

By giving information they are essentially telling you they are interested in your products. This is a great way to build a targeted mailing list.

Once a client is on your mailing list and happy to receive updates you can upsell your other deals. forever. 30% discount, limited time. ONLY 12 LEFT IN STOCK! etc

A really fantastic free item to give away is information/ebooks as suggested above. As it really is free, costs nothing to post, or share. But most importantly can be automated. How this can align with the rest of the business depends on the product and being a bit creative.

One-two punch. An instant one-time offer after getting the free promotion can work nicely too. - "Hey thanks for your interest in the 'free Widget promo' to say thanks, we are offering Red Widget for only XX in the next 24 hours. etc.

Good luck, and where's the link for free stuff!?

We've given out a couple of free home cleanings before, usually to local bloggers or key influencers in exchange for a review on their site.

It's worked relatively well in a couple of instances.

For every first time clean we also provide a bouquet of flowers and a thank you note to enourage them to book a regular appointment although I am looking at changing this slightly moving forward as I think there are other more interesting ways of doing it.

That's lovely, I'd be really impressed with free flowers!

We think it adds a nice touch, we're also now looking at sending out a follow up pack with a couple of posh tea bags a couple of posh biscuits and a branded card saying something along the lines of - "Thanks for inviting Indigo Clean into your home, now everything is sparkling and clean why not put your feet up and have a cuppa on us!" and then a £10 discount voucher to use on their next clean.

This should hopefully increase our conversion rate from one off cleans to regular customers!

Really good idea, and I don't know any window cleaners who do this so it should create good word of mouth recommendations.

I have approached 15 of my customers with the offer. I will see next week if they have got any extra orders for me.  I won't loose these customers as they are loyal and have become friends, some inviting me into their homes for a cuppa and chat. They are as passionate about Phoenix cards as I am.