Promotion is about making sure potential customers are aware of what your business offers, and giving them incentives to buy. It’s about getting the message to the right people at the right time, while creating a sense of urgency.
Here, we’ll explain what a promotional strategy is, and discuss why they’re essential for business growth. We’ll also look at different types of promotional strategies and provide tips on choosing an approach that will work for your business.
A promotion gives your audience an explicit incentive to buy. It creates urgency for casual browsers to convert. It attracts value-seekers and nudges fence-sitters to finally click “buy now.”
A promotion also helps you achieve long-term growth. With the right marketing plan, your promotion can capture a new cohort of shoppers and nurture them into long-term customers. But first, you need a strategy for creating and publicising your promotion.
A promotional strategy is a plan that includes factors such as your goals for the promotion, and the steps you’ll take to raise awareness. It should provide details about how all the aspects of your business – such as production, logistics, and advertising – will work together to drive sales.
Your promotional plan should also align with your overall marketing objectives, ensuring that promotional activities are targeted and on-brand. While the goal is ultimately to increase revenue, this shouldn’t come at the expense of long-term profitability and growth.
Having a well-structured promotional marketing strategy is essential for reaching your target audience and generating positive associations with your brand. It’s especially important to get your promotion right if you’re running a small business, since your resources will likely be limited.
Promotional strategies help to achieve the following:
Here, we’ll look at some of the most common types of promotional strategies. You might choose to focus on one method, or you could also opt to use more than one for a particular campaign – depending on your budget.
Paid advertising has remained an effective marketing promotion strategy for many decades because it works. In this form of advertising, you pay for your ad to be placed in a specific place at a specific time – such as a TV commercial shown during a sports event.
Here are some examples of paid advertisements:
Paid ads can help you reach a broader audience – putting your brand in places where you’d like it to be seen.
This is a style of marketing where you provide your audience with pieces of ‘content’ they will find valuable and engaging. The idea is that people will form positive associations with your brand – as a trusted provider of helpful information, or simply as friendly and familiar.
There are many ways you can deliver content to your customers. Here are some of the most common:
Content marketing can be very effective – but it does require time. You need to publish regular pieces of content over a number of months (or years) to be able to build your audience and grow trust.
This is when a company pays to have their branding featured at a specific event (such as a football game) or mentioned on a popular form of entertainment (such as a radio show or podcast). For example, one of the major sponsors of the Socceroos is the sandwich chain Subway.
Here are some common types of promotion through sponsorship:
In recent times, it’s become common for companies to sponsor social media influencers. This approach makes sense if you’re marketing to a younger demographic.
Electronic Direct Mail (EDM) marketing provides an effective way to communicate directly with your customers. Sending newsletters by email to your subscribers can increase revenue (especially if you’re announcing a sale), and it can also perform the same function as content marketing by building positive associations over time.
Here are some ways email marketing can be used:
Retargeting is a digital advertising strategy that targets individuals who have previously interacted with your brand. It’s commonly used for retail websites, where a user will be shown tailored ads across different platforms after they’ve looked at products on your website.
If a customer has visited your website and looked at items (and possibly also put items in their cart), they will have a higher likelihood of purchasing. This is why retargeting can be extremely effective – it reminds people of your products and brand, right at the point when they’re planning to buy something.
Here are some ways that retargeting can be used to increase sales:
This strategy encourages existing customers to recommend your products or services to other people by using rewards such as discounts or bonuses. It leverages word-of-mouth and trust between personal connections to expand your customer base.
Referral marketing will happen naturally if you have a great product and your customers are highly engaged – but it’s also possible to help it along with special incentives.
Here are some examples of referral marketing:
Event marketing is the strategy where your company hosts, sponsors or participates in an event that will directly engage with your target audience. Say, for example, that your company sells waffle irons. By attending a food festival that celebrates desserts, you can provide people with direct exposure to your brand and product.
Not only is this a good strategy for increasing sales, it’s also a great way to generate goodwill and get people talking about your brand.
Here are some events where that can provide a good platform for marketing:
When a customer provides positive feedback about your products or services in the form of an online review, this can help to boost brand awareness and drive revenue. When potential customers see that there are a lot of good reviews for your business, they’ll be more likely to buy.
Here are some ways you can encourage people to leave a review:
Creating a loyalty program is a clever way to keep customers coming back. Loyalty programs offer incentives such as discounts, early access to sales, and exclusive offers – fostering a sense of community while also working to promote your business.
The members of your loyalty programs will already be active customers, and by offering them more of what they want – together with discounts and deals – you’ll be investing in your future growth and success.
Here are some example of loyalty program examples to get you inspired:
Deals and coupons have a dual function: they encourage customers to act quickly, and they give people the satisfaction of saving money. After all, who doesn’t enjoy the feeling of scoring something at a bargain price?
Here are some ideas for deals that could work well for your business:
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by choice, fear not. In this next section, we’ll provide useful tips for selecting marketing channels based on your audience. Having a sound understanding of who your audience is – including their budget and goals – is your key to finding effective ways to connect with them through your promotions.
Most promotions have two primary goals: To increase revenue and maximise market exposure. As you create a strategy geared towards those goals, remember the following tips.
You’re likely to get a high response rate if your promotions are easy to understand and redeem. The simplest strategy is to discount the item for everyone. If you strike out the original price on your website and display the new price, perhaps in a bolded font, people can easily see the benefit of the promotion.
Another option is to use promo codes. When you go this route, you need to make sure that the promo code is straightforward to use. Don’t make it so that people have to hunt down the code once they’re on your website. If you’re sending an email, display the promo code prominently, so people can go back and find it if they forget to copy it. Consider publishing the code on your website for easy access, too.
One way companies sell more products is through bundling -offering two or more products for a combined cost that’s less than the total cost of the individual items when purchased separately. Merchants often use this product promotion strategy to move a product that isn’t selling well by pairing it with a popular product.
Say that you’re a jewellery retailer with earrings priced at $20 a pair and bracelets at $10 a pair. Your earrings are flying off the shelves, but no one’s biting at the bracelets. By offering a bundle of one pair of earrings with one bracelet for $25, you could move your bracelet stock and potentially get more loyal followers in the process.
One famous example comes from Nintendo, which sold 100,000 more consoles and more than a million game cartridges when bundling the two.
You can increase the average value of your orders (AOV) by offering a freebie when a customer reaches a certain purchase threshold.
One popular version of this strategy is conditional free shipping - the “Free Shipping over $X” offer. One article explains that free shipping would increase the likelihood of an online purchase for about 80% of Australian customers. If you have a lot of orders totaling $60, consider offering free shipping at $75.
If you can’t afford to offer free shipping, that’s okay. Choose a small complimentary item to offer when an order reaches a certain threshold.
Some data analytics indicate that existing customers spend 31% more than new buyers, and they’re 50% more likely to try a new product. You can boost that loyalty by rewarding your highest spenders with customised offers.
To get even more out of this strategy, encourage your rewarded customers to share their good fortune on social media. This is a great opportunity for a referral bonus.
Many retailers think of merchandising as a brick-and-mortar strategy, but it’s just as important for eCommerce. Your customers get used to seeing your page as it is. When you mix it up and add new visual elements, you draw attention to your promotion.
Consider remarketing your homepage and product pages when you start your promotion. A good way to start is by revamping your homepage, placing promoted products front and centre. You can also revitalise any category and individual product pages highlighting not only the promotion, but also any accessories, add-ons, or popular related products.
Reviews matter to many customers. One study shows that close to 95% of consumers read reviews before making a purchase. On the retailer’s end, showing five reviews compared to no reviews for a product can increase conversions by up to 270%.
Before you run your promotion, make sure your products have good reviews. Meanwhile, start collecting original reviews. One particularly effective technique, especially for new product launches, is to send products to customers and ask for reviews. Then, with their permission, you can post them to your product pages.
Buyers can give you reviews as well. Mailchimp makes it easy to collect reviews from current customers through automated product follow-up emails. All you need to do is add language requesting a review of a recently purchased product perhaps with a link to a review submission page on your website.
You can link to third-party review sites, too. Don’t worry if not all of the reviews there are glowing -research shows that negative reviews help to build trust and can lead to as many as 85% more conversions.
Different audiences respond to different promotions. Consider conducting A/B testing, an easy and effective way to understand how your audience engages.
A/B testing sends out two versions of a campaign - a percent-off promotion versus a dollars-off promotion, for example. Mailchimp offers A/B testing as a feature available in all paid plans, so you can easily refine your strategy and optimise your results.
Consumers have promotions coming into their inboxes and social media feeds every day. It’s important for you to stand out as a brand, preferably with a personal touch. Consider adding a thank-you card or free sample item in the package to delight your customers.
Promotions are time-tested strategies for acquiring new customers, but you don’t want to stop there. Now that you know how to get people buying, it’s time to turn them into regular customers.
Loyalty is a key driver of repeat purchases. Here are some important tips that can help you turn new buyers into loyal customers.
The more you know about your new customers, the better you can personalise messaging for them in the future. Make sure you’re tagging all of the new customers who visit your site during your promotion. Tag them based on what they shop for, and consider adding an Engages with Promotions tag.
Expert tip: For better conversions, use your audience tags to personalise future communications. Segmented, targeted, and personalised emails could generate a meaningful amount of revenue, and conversions can go up even more with more personalised pageviews.
Welcome emails are a great way to build relationships. If you’re not already doing it, add an option on your checkout page where customers can give you their email address and opt in to future messages. Get a welcome message out to everyone who signs up. Think of what a great first impression you’ll be leaving with your new customers.
Expert tip: If you set up an automation that sends out welcome emails to new customers, you can be sure those messages will go out consistently. Even better, it’ll happen without any ongoing effort on your part.
Your new customers should keep hearing from you after the promotion is over. Use the tags you set up for those customers to send out personalised product recommendations.
Through your connected store, Mailchimp can help to predict what your customers will like, so you can send emails with product recommendations to encourage them to keep shopping.
Put your newest products and best-sellers front and centre to drive interest. This refreshes customer engagement and keeps your brand at the top of buyers’ minds helping you drive conversions.
Expert tip: Make sure your e-commerce store is connected to Mailchimp, so that you can unlock even more tools to better target your customers.
It’s important to pay attention to the outcomes of your promotional campaigns, so you can gain an understanding of what works – and what doesn’t work so well.
Here are some of the key metrics you can track:
You can use tools like Google Analytics and Semrush to monitor website performance and traffic sources. If you’re looking for ways to measure the success of your social media campaigns, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn all provide ways to track engagement. Additionally, the email marketing platform you’re using (such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact) can give you data on open rates, click-through rates, and conversions for email campaigns.
Regularly updating your promotional strategy will help your business stay competitive. You should update your promotional strategy regularly – ideally every quarter – or whenever significant changes occur in your business, market, or customer base. Additionally, major events such as product launches, seasonal changes, or competitive moves might warrant an immediate update to keep your strategy fresh.
Finally, it’s good to be aware of some common mistakes small businesses sometimes make when planning their promotions. These can include:
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