This MSNBC.com headline caught my eye this morning:  Weak economy means it’s a freebie nation.

At a time when almost everyone seems to be tightening their purse strings, giving past and potential customers a product or service for free is a great solution for a business with local store marketing needs. What's more, with the adoption and immediacy that social networking tools provide, the cost of getting your 'freebie' message out to your local audience doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg! In fact, you could utilize facebook or twitter and have your message out to past, current and potential customers within seconds for absolutely zero out-of-pocket cost!

While many big franchises are on the freebie fad bandwagon - Starbucks (Free music downloads), Denny's (free grand slam breakfast), Auntie Anne's (free pretzels), Amazon (free ebook downloads) - don't think that you have to have a big brand budget to offer a worthwhile freebie that yields a big ROI.

While offering 'freebies' has routinely popped up during economic slumps, never before did businesses with local advertising needs  have such a variety of affordable tools to get their message out. Not convinced that offering a freebie could help your bottom line? - What's more, Promotional Products Association recently found that consumers were far more likely to make a purchase after receiving an item for free than after simply viewing an ad or commercial for the product or service.

I've experienced this personally several times over the past several months. One of my (now) local favorite coffee shops gave me a free coffee mug a couple of months ago - at the time I didn't feel overly connected to that particular shop or brand and was surprised to receive the free mug....Looking back now, it is interesting to consider that I went from visiting their location once or twice a week to going nearly every day (seriously, if you come by my desk, 9 times out of 10 times there will be a Tully's coffee cup there). Come to think of it,  I haven't consumed "office coffee" in weeks (perhaps even months!) Nice job with the freebie Tully's - see you on Monday!