If you’re going to advertise during the COVID-19 pandemic, offer a discount — or better yet, offer something for free.

That’s the big takeaway from a survey of 5,531 consumers, produced by the Canadian product review site ChickAdvisor. The company interviewed people about the kinds of advertising they do and don’t want to see right now.

This is an important subject, because many entrepreneurs are unsure of how to communicate during this crisis. Is it OK to advertise, they wonder? Is it OK to send cold pitches? The answer: Yes, so long as you’re catering to people’s needs, and speaking to them from a place of understanding. “Right now,”says business consultant Adam Bornstein, “the idea of a stranger reaching out and saying, ‘I thought you could use this’ is one of the kindest things that you could do.”

So what do consumers want, and what are they thinking about when they see advertising today? Here’s what the survey found.

. Give them what they want … but lower the price.

If you can drop your price or even give something away for free, you have people’s attention.

The results were very clear about this: 84 percent of people said they want to see ads for free product sampling, and 58 percent said they like to see discounts for products they already like. Consider where these people are coming from: Many of them have been laid off or had their salaries reduced — in fact, 84 percent of them said they’re concerned about their finances — so they’re looking for ways to buy things they enjoy without straining their budgets.

2. The magic discount number is 30 percent.

The survey asked people: “What is the minimum discount you’d need to convince you to shop?”

The answer: Almost nobody wanted a 10 percent discount, a handful of people were fine with a 15 percent discount, and nearly a quarter of people were compelled by a 20 percent discount. But the big winner was a 30 percent discount — with nearly half of all respondents saying that the number would convince them to shop.

3. People really love free shipping.

“If a brand you liked offered you an incentive to shop their online store for items you enjoy but aren’t necessities,” the survey asked, “which incentive would you need to see in order to make the purchase?”