PMBC Group featured on Fit Small Business.
Everyone loves a good sale, but when you’re on the sales end of the promotion, it’s seller beware! If you’re not savvy about how you run promotions, you might find them cutting into your sales rather than increasing them. Here are 20 sales promotion ideas from the experts so you come out on top.
1. Run Targeted Promos
Martin Hayman, Head of Search, Orb Online
The first question to ask when running a sales promotion is, who are you targeting? For example, you may want to run a promotion for people who visited your website but did not buy. In which case, if you have the Facebook pixel installed on your site (which you should have), then you can show ads to only those people with your targeted promotion.
On the other hand, if you wanted to run a wider promotion to customers and potential customers, it’s again about targeting. Where are these people online? Your email database may be your first port of call. Then you may want to make use of Facebook’s awesome targeting for ads. Want to target men between 25 and 40 who are married, live in London, and buy business marketing services? Done! Over time and with plenty of testing, you’ll get a better idea of where your audience is and who to target.
2. Incentivize Referrals
Fraser Sutherland, Marketing Manager, Storage Vault
Referral contests can generate amazing results, but they’re based on two things: loyalty and reward. First, you need to have a userbase that genuinely likes your product or service. Second, you have to provide them a reason to refer people. Yes, you could rely on the kindness of their heart, but people are busy and that doesn’t always work. Successful programs have shown that rewards – especially rewards for both the referrer and referral – achieve substantially better results for the business.
3. Be Genuine
Zac Halloran, CEO, Twill
A marketing strategy we put first is being authentic. By posting to all of our social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and posting live feed on Snapchat and Instagram’s live story, we show our customers their gracious giving is actually helping a local friend in need. We provide content that shows our live drop offs of blankets to local organizations in our community so customers really see how they are helping give back. We are real people behind a company wanting to continue to make real change. Be authentic. Be REAL. That is who you are.
4. Make an Emotional Connection
Robin Salter, CMO, KWIPPED
Make an emotional connection! Think beyond the product or service itself, and find what motivates your audience – or what touches them on some emotional level. This can manifest in a lot of different ways. When selling a product, this may mean finding that pain point or that psychological trigger that the majority of people can relate to – and then associating your product, service, brand or promotional event with the solution, or contribution to the solution, for that pain point.
5. Have an End Goal in Mind
Ola Danilina, Founder and CEO, PMBC Group
By knowing the potential impact of your promotion, you have the information you need to host a strong promotion that will deliver business-boosting results. Be clear about what you wish to achieve. Set the number of sales you want to ring up, dollars you want to bring in, customer names you want to collect, buying patterns you want to change, or any other objective you want your promotion to achieve.
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