Top Sales Promotion Trends To Emerge Post Coronavirus
Any form of promotion during Covid is quite a sensitive matter. There is a very fine line between notifying your customers and annoying them. If you are planning to get in touch with your customers, then you must know that by the time your communication reaches them they must be already annoyed to the core with hundreds of emails lying unopened in their mailboxes with subjects on Covid.
So before you initiate the promotions, you might want to check out the sales promotions trends that would emerge during this pandemic.
The language of all the promotional communication ought to be sensitive and empathic. If the customers find you lacking compassion they won’t bother to engage, let alone buy your brand. Maintaining that human touch during campaigns has become more important now than ever. When informing your customers about your processes and policies during Covid, brands need to show that they are being responsible.
Creativity and joyful communication is going to play a big role during sales promotion campaigns.
With customers getting bored, locked in their houses, brands can make use of this opportunity by spreading some joy among their customers with the help of creative and engaging campaigns. This will not just help in better and easier conversions but also give a good brand recall value.
With most of the media houses and studios shut, use of social media influencers would be a great idea at this point in time. According to a survey conducted by Hammer Kopf Consumer Surveys, amid the lockdown, in India, there has been 87% increase in social media usage. Brands should utilize this trend and hire relevant and authentic influencers for the sales promotion campaigns.
Offer discounts and promotions.
BOGO (Buy one Get one) is here to stay. The purchasing power of the consumers has been immensely affected. Also it has been observed that the consumers who can afford to buy are delaying purchases. A slashed price would motivate the consumers to make the purchase without further procrastination. Along with price cuts, there can be all forms of BOGO offers.
Free samples of products or online trials of services is a great way to launch a new brand during Covid. When giving out samples, make sure that the consumers know about the safety policies that your brand is following like contactless deliveries, best practices of hygiene and so on.
Offer discounts and promotions.
BOGO (Buy one Get one) is here to stay. The purchasing power of the consumers has been immensely affected. Also it has been observed that the consumers who can afford to buy are delaying purchases. A slashed price would motivate the consumers to make the purchase without further procrastination. Along with price cuts, there can be all forms of BOGO offers.
Free samples of products or online trials of services is a great way to launch a new brand during Covid. When giving out samples, make sure that the consumers know about the safety policies that your brand is following like contactless deliveries, best practices of hygiene and so on.
Apply Targeted Promotions.
Something that your consumer needed earlier may not be required now. It is important to understand their needs and accordingly craft the promotion strategies. According to a Harvard Business study, regardless of which group consumers belong to, they prioritize consumption by sorting products and services into four categories:
- Essentials: are necessary for survival or perceived as central to well-being.
- Treats: are indulgences whose immediate purchase is considered justifiable.
- Postponables: are needed or desired items whose purchase can be reasonably put off.
- Expendables: are perceived as unnecessary or unjustifiable.
It is important for brands to classify their products or service and bundle it appropriately to have a successful campaign with a desired outcome. For example: Bundling an essential item with a treat can become quite a desired combination for a customer.
Giving out ‘At-Home reward’ coupons or gift vouchers is another unique way of sales promotion during this pandemic. Now that everybody is at home, brands should switch to rewards that can be redeemed at home, online. For example, they can give away reward coupons for online streaming channels, food delivery apps, online learning platforms, fitness apps, e-commerce websites and so on.
RewardPort specializes in loyalty marketing programs, corporate loyalty card, dealer incentive programs, dealer loyalty, channel incentive, distributor incentive program, B2B loyalty programs, customer loyalty cards & marketing partner programs. Get a free consultation today.
Got a Marketing Challenge at Hand?
Great sales promotion ideas to win New Customers
Nurturing relationships with the customers is a significant aspect to shape a brand. Sales promotion strategies can do wonders for your brand through retention and engagement. Sales promotion is the process of persuading a potential customer to engage with the brand and eventually buy the product or service. A good sale promotion strategy can be effective at achieving a quick boost in sales but this “boost in sales” is mostly short-term. Many customers come back expecting or anticipating further promotions which is why brands have to continue coming up with different strategies to comply with the market behavior.
Here are some sales promotion ideas to make your campaigns successful:
Give away rewards
A compelling way to engage with consumers and motivate them to keep coming back to you is by giving them rewards. Offering the customers free credits or coupons on their next purchase is the perfect way to make them come back. It helps in increasing sales and also in improving the bottom line of your brand. So having a reward program in your sales promotion strategy is significant.
Personalize your brand
If your company is a massive faceless corporation, there’s a high chance that the customers would shy away from your brand. Giving a friendly face to your brand can help people connect to your product or service. It’s important for businesses to introduce themselves and share their story with the people. This is a simple yet effective technique to stand out and engage with the audience. Give your brand a voice, tell your story, add a character to your business if you can.
Create an urgency
Driving a ‘flash sale’ promotion is a great way to create urgency among the people and make them buy a product or a service, sooner rather than later. You can start with a teaser of the promotion and let people know about the upcoming sales. And when the timing is right, release your flash sales promotion.
Upgrade instead of price cuts
Upgrading your product is a better way to keeping your sales up rather than cutting down the prices. Giving some extra service or a product on the same price can appeal to potential consumers in a better way.
Momentum, scarcity, and credibility
Creating a momentum or anxiety before the sale, then making sure that in the middle of the sale the promotion becomes scarce, and ending the sale promotion at the promised time. These three things are very significant. Ending the promotion at the given time gives something for people to regret.
Free trials
Free trials are popular at attracting attention. Let’s take an example of Netflix and other streaming services who give out 1-month free trial before the customer has to pay. This one-month free trial creates addiction in the free trial period and when that addiction is taken away, the consumer is forced to pay for the service.
Videos
Using videos to make product demonstration is a very effective way to attract consumers. Offering special discounts and other offers in your video will also get your customers excited to make a purchase
Use social media
Using social media to give out coupons and discounts which are only applicable through social media is another way of engaging customers.
Volume discounts
Offering volume discounts is a great way of encouraging individuals and businesses to purchase goods in multiple units or in large quantities. Shoppers love volume discounts, so we often find business owners offering them to encourage sales.
Follow leads
Track your customers from the first contact to sale within the sales pipeline. Send and track emails, and alerts to help follow up with potential clients.
Got a Marketing Challenge at Hand?
Festive Sales Promotion Ideas across the World
Businesses today need to re-imagine their online marketing efforts when going overseas. The marketing efforts can’t achieve a heightened success unless the sales promotion strategy is grounded within the dynamics of the geographic area. This technique is commonly known as Geo-targeting. There are varied festivals celebrated by the people across the world. A sound sales strategy incorporating the cultural differences serves as an underpinning for the effective online sales promotion efforts.
Sales promotion ideas:
Add festive touch to your online campaign
Firms need to create magic and nostalgia around their sales campaign which will evoke a sense of joy & warmth in the minds of the buyers in the region where the festival is celebrated. The graphics should speak of the festivals and the spirit of it. This will have a magnetic effect on the buyers and they will instantly connect with your brand.
Email marketing
The email marketing is undoubtedly the best and a must tool to be utilized during festive season. Offer product discounts to new customers and rewards to your old customers to get maximum reach and engagement. This is one tool which can generate good figures of converted customers. Ensure you are creative with your email captions.
Campaign timeline
The offer should run throughout the festive season for instance the Christmas week should offer highly-targeted campaigns across the week preceding the festival day. This will keep a constant interest about the offers and increase the awareness levels about offered products or services to engage greater number of new customers.
Create a sense of urgency
Online advertisements have to be smartly designed keeping in view the duration of the festival. A call of action needs to be planted using words which limit the duration of the offer. This will urge the people to grab their hands on the discounts at the earliest and avail themselves of the offer.
Remarketing
Customers can be found be in multiple phases of the marketing funnel. Hand – holding the customers and guiding them through this marketing funnel along every step can be successfully achieved by remarketing technique. For instance, for any incomplete purchase, a reminder greatly helps to convert the potential lead to a buyer. Remarketing is definitely yet another successful sales promotion strategy.
Language customization
It is a no brainer that the online message needs to be customized for its language to reach effectively across the different geographical locations. And the catchy phrases used in either online adverts or the landing pages should reflect the sentiments of the locals.
Got a Marketing Challenge at Hand?
Top benefits of customer retention
‘Customer Retention’ or ‘Customer Acquisition’, these are the two conflicting ideas marketers face when deciding what is more important. And with so much importance given to ROI, marketers overlook the reason of just why are they in business- that is to serve the customers. Old school marketers used a multichannel wide net marketing strategy to reach out to more number of prospects, however much like the definition of this strategy has changed, so has this mindset developed. Multichannel marketers now see that it’s about using different touchpoints to interact with customers and create a more personalized experience.
As alluring as customer acquisition may seem, the truth is that it is important to invest time, effort and resources in maintaining a relationship once the customers are on board. Customer loyalty and brand loyalty initiatives facilitate companies to retain customers, beginning from the first contact one has with the company and endures throughout the period of the relationship.
In this article, we’ll make the case for customer retention and explain why it deserves the same amount of focus as acquiring new ones:
Low Marketing Cost
Acquiring new customers requires a lot of resources, efforts, and expenses. By focusing the marketing strategies on existing customers, customers who show a demonstrable interest in the product and the willingness to buy increases the chances of converting them and making a sale. This not only significantly reduces the ad spend but also is a chance to showcase the brand’s commitment to rewarding the customer’s loyalty.
Loyal Customers Boost Sales
Loyal customers have a relationship with the company and trust the brand more than new customers do. Since a current customer has been with the brand for some time and has experienced the product or service first-hand, they’re more likely to upgrade or make a repeat purchase. Also, loyal customers are better at word of mouth and so your customer acquisition costs decrease.
Improve Brand Image
Brand Image is the customer’s interpretation of the product and services of a brand. A positive brand image helps businesses acquire new customers, cross-sell and upsell and reduces marketing cost. One of the best things about customer retention is that the brand gets an idea of who the customers are, what they want and the data collected facilitates in creating personalized and targeted promotions to maximize chances of success. It’s impossible to overstate the vitality of a brand profile, as prospects connect with it directly and build a relationship.
Retention equals acquisition
A price cannot be put on customer loyalty and can even result in the further acquisition of customers for the brand. Word of mouth or WOM is not only a free advertising tool but possibly one of the most credible forms of advertising. It’s a fact, that customers will talk and prospects will listen. Happy customers will give positive referrals will which in turn increase the profitability of the company. Acquisition can also be increased through retention by giving incentives to existing customers when they refer the brand to family, friends, and acquaintances.
In today’s competitive market, it is really difficult to differentiate your brand from its competitors. Arguably the most important driver of a company’s good health is customer satisfaction and retention. A loyal and satisfied customer is more important than one who is not. While closing new business might be exhilarating, your company won’t truly advance and grow without retaining your current customers as well. The bottom line is to not lose sight of the existing customers in pursuit of new ones and it’ll definitely pay off.
Got a Marketing Challenge at Hand?
10 Mistakes to Avoid in Sales Promotion
Numbers never lie and if numbers are to be believed, take a look at following industry figures of impact of sales promotions:
- Total Reach Value: 90%
- Total Recall Value: 89%
- Positive Impression On Customer: 52%
The relevance, reach and impact of meticulously planned sales promotion on customer behavior is unsurpassable; which inversely also means that if your sales promotion is not planned well, it could negatively affect your brand and business with equal values!
So, how would you ensure a flawless sales promotion plan that affirmatively reaches and affects as many people as possible? Here are the common mistakes that you should avoid to maximize the impact and minimize the remorse:
1. Thinking Single Channel
Sales promotions can elevate the sales and profits dramatically in a short time. To fetch optimum outcomes of the sales promotion activity that took much of your hard work and huge capital, it is necessary that you utilize all the channels of promotion available to you. The current advancement of print and digital media offers a beautiful amalgamation to explore infinite opportunities to boost your sales and brand value. When your consumers see you everywhere, they get inured to your brand and you gain their acceptance. Do not keep it only online (which may be fine if you are an online company) or only print promotion. Integrate all the channels ingeniously to stand ahead the crowd.
2. Not Setting A Goal Or Deadline
Launching a sales promotion program without fixed deadline or measurable goal will lead it to whole big null point. Set a start date and end date to streamline your efforts to complet everything within the stipulated time frame. This will help keeping each component of the program in track. By setting up goals, you will always have a figure in hand to achieve and to measure the success of the campaign.
3. Fixing On Presumptions
Don’t presume customer’s behavior. Never plan your sales promotions assuming that the segment you have created defines your real or limited customer base. It is very much possible that a profitable share of customers in high concentration is in the segment you do not tap your sales promotions for. Study your data patterns well to have a diverse profitability.
4. Not Solving It For Each Stakeholder
While planning your sales promotion program keep in mind how would it impact each of your stakeholder or retailers or any other patron associated to your organization. You may launch a promotional plan that attracts new customers with some special offer or benefit but would it be fair for your regular and loyal customer who may not have that benefit? Take each stakeholder into your consideration for an overall successful sales promotion program.
5. Making It Too Complex
Keeping your sales promotion plan simple makes it easy for you as well as your customers. Your customers will feel more connected and involve when the processes are simple without much complicated terms and conditions. With a simple sales promotion activity, capturing, handling and processing the data for result analysis and profit calculation gets extremely easy and effective. So, do not unnecessarily complicate things.
6. Not Keeping It Relevant
Relevancy is the essential most factor of any sales promotion program for its success and positive outcomes. Relevant program helps you in targeting your right customers and communicate with them for awareness and sales. Relevancy of the sales promotion plan also ensures that your customers are reminded about your brand or product with full intensity.
7. Communication Gap with yourTeam
For successful promotional plan, it is imperative to involve and inform all those part of your value chain that includes your team members, distributors, retailers about your plan. This provides the required thrust to pull it to an extended level for broader effect and profit.
8. Not Testing Your Assets
This is a very common mistake that is easiest to avoid. It doesn’t take much to test all your assets that you plan to consume within your promotional program to be active, available and useful. For example, you may roll on an email campaign with a broken link due to lack of adequate testing. This is a sheer waste. Avoid it.
9. Not Capturing The Data
Without capturing the data appropriately, it is impossible to measure the effectiveness and successfulness of any activity. Capture the data to realize if your plan has delivered what you expected. Capturing the data can also benefit you to apprehend new market segments and opportunities that you never thought of before.
10. Not Using The Captured Data
This is the biggest mistake companies commonly get trapped into. Before planning the next sales promotion plan, it pays largely to dig in the previously captured data to concentrate upon profitable segments along with exploring new dimensions for unconfined growth.
For a short word, make your sales promotion plan to attract new customers while also encouraging your brand power and loyal customers effectively.
These are a few common mistakes you need to be aware to ensure a flawless sales promotion. You should do everything possible to learn whatever you can about the complexities and nuances of your industry or profession–and not just once, but regularly. By knowing the potential bottom-line of impact of your sales promotion, you’ll have the information to invest the energy necessary to host a strong flawless sales promotion that will deliver boosting results over the time period it covers.
Got a Marketing Challenge at Hand?
The Art of Marketing by using Coupons
Coupon campaigns have been around since the launch of the first paper coupon by Coca-Cola in 1887. The first lot of coupons were distributed on the streets and in magazines and newspapers. Wow! that is a good century-old marketing tool. Since then it has grown in popularity, with it being almost a give in American retail and now a part of the marketing mix of the Indian marketing ecosystem. Since then, however, the coupon has evolved and in the new digital times, it’s become a more effective tool.
Why you should use coupons?
Coupons are an inexpensive form of marketing, nearly half of all retailers and brands reported offering consumers some form of bonus coupon program or gift with purchase. This means your competitors are probably utilizing coupons in their marketing plan and maybe should you too. With the advent of digital, it has now become easier for products in the FMCG category to use pack /in-pack digital codes. You should use Coupons – digital or print to
– acquire new customers
– increase sales of specific products
– Increase brand awareness
– move out unsold inventories
– reward existing customers
– retain former customers
– up sell a higher margin product
– Increase social media engagement
……..add to it that this is a highly measurable activity
How to use coupons in your sales promotions
Coupons should be used in a way that not only motivates the consumer to purchase the product but creates good brand memories. This way there will be good social media stories about your brand. That’s free marketing for you! This can be done by creating a cyclic format where customers just don’t get price offs or discounts all the time ( this will ensure that your brand is not perceived to be a “discount” brand.
– Run programs with coupons that deliver rewards instead of discounts always.
Eg: A free Rs.200 voucher for online shopping on the purchase of a toothpaste
– The reward should be relevant and experiential.
Eg: Free Movie tickets on purchase of shampoo. Everybody loves the movies!
– The perceived value of the reward should be high, even equal to the value of the product purchased (not too high if you are an upcoming brand, else it will seem too good to be true).
A known food company gave a minimum gift of Rs.150 on purchase of Rs.100
– Add sweepstakes. Everyone loves to win the lottery. Add a contest with a chance to win big. It always works. A large personal products brand gave assured gifts and a chance to win Ipads and it worked!
Applications of Coupons
Coupons can be used in multiple ways for multiple marketing goals
- Gift with Purchase
- In pack /On-Pack promotions
- Contests and Sweepstakes
- App Download
- Online registration
- Product trial
- Referral marketing
Coupon Distribution Methods
You can distribute coupons in multiple formats in different ways
- e-coupons delivered online, in-app, SMS, email
- Paper Coupons
- M-Coupons – SMS-based coupons for the segment that is not online
- On-Pack/In-pack
Making Coupon Programs effective
So we have a great coupon idea with fantastic offers which are bound to attract the customer, but that is not all for it to work. There are certain hygiene elements of the campaign that you must keep in mind before launching the campaign
- Clear, Concise Text Detailing Offer and Terms
- Ease of use along with a clear explanation
- Product Image and packaging
- Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQ )
- Any Necessary Legal Copy
- Expiration Date
- Complaint redressal – Company Name, Address & email
Conclusively, coupons are a very effective marketing tool with a proven model of success. If you have not used it earlier try it with a small budget, you will see instant result. If you already use coupons try out the above to get a better ROI.