Sales Promotions

8 Sales Promotion Ideas to Stand Out and Get Noticed

Sales promotions are limited deals designed to quickly generate income by luring customers to make purchases or increase brand recognition. Although this marketing tactic is frequently used in business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce, retail, or restaurant industries, business-to-business (B2B) suppliers might also benefit from it depending on their objectives.

We’ll discuss sales promotions in this blog, look at some innovative promotional ideas for B2B companies, and offer important advice on how to carry out a sales promotion effectively.

1. Punch Cards

Punch cards are loyalty cards that have a predetermined amount of stampable icons on them that can be added to after a customer makes a purchase, typically in-store. When all icons are stamped, a customer is rewarded, frequently with a discount on their subsequent purchase or a free gift.

With this kind of sales promotion, you can entice people to keep buying from you so they can get the reward you’re offering at the end.

2. Referral Promotions

You can offer a discount on their first purchase from you by providing your current customers with a referral code to share with someone they know. The owner of the referral code will also receive a reward, which may encourage them to suggest you to others if they stand to gain something in return.

3. Promotional Bundles

Bundling-based promotions differ differently from buy one, get one free offer in that you combine complementary goods for a discount rather than the same product or service. Accounting businesses in the B2B market provide discounts for combining tax preparation and bookkeeping services because of the two-work hand in hand.

4. Promotions Based on Quality

A quality or best-fit promotional discount can have the same effect as lifestyle-based discounts in that it can start a paying relationship on a positive note and retain a customer over time. But in this instance, you’re deciding who gets the discount based on the quality of the lead, fit, or whether they fit a consumer persona you’ve developed, making them a highly qualified prospect.

Since many suppliers of B2B goods or services frequently have specialised markets or specific expertise, this campaign may be an effective B2B sales tactic. If they come upon the ideal opportunity, they might seal the transaction by offering that company a sizable discount.

5. Sign-up Specials

A sign-up sales promotion entails extending a discount just to new customers. Customers may be motivated to complete a purchase if they can make a first purchase at a reduced price, therefore it can be a useful strategy for boosting sales and attracting new clients.

6. Applications-only Promotions

Running an app-only offer is a fantastic method to market your company, giving customers discounts only for installing or using your mobile app to make purchases.

7. Deals for Customers Who Fit Best

Offers should be made to customers who are about to choose your goods. Be honest about whether they would be a good fit for your company as well. Promote prospects who are actively working toward a close, conversing with you and negotiating with you, and seriously considering using your goods or services in their company.

8. Feedback Rewards

For instance, once a customer makes a purchase, you may give them 10% off their subsequent purchase in exchange for their participation in a customer satisfaction survey. Customers might then be enticed with a discount to conduct a repeat buy.

Statistics About Sales Promotions

Interested in learning the real story behind sales promotions? These statistics provide a clear image of its effectiveness, which techniques are more effective than others, and how well clients responded to varied tactics.

•   Product bundling generates 10% to 30% of online sales, according to research
•   Referrals, whether generated by marketing initiatives or not, have conversion rates that are 30% greater than those of other lead sources
•   80% of consumers will test a new brand if a discount is provided
•   Regardless of whether they had purchase intentions before receiving a promotional coupon, nearly two out of three consumers will make a purchase
• About 48% of customers won’t even interact with a brand if they don’t have any special offers

Bottom Line

Sales promotions are a great method to boost sales, create leads, and raise brand recognition. It’s critical to have a clear plan regarding the campaign’s scope, duration, and target audience even though each sort of promotion differs from the others and RewardPort is here to assist with all your needs. After your campaigns are finished, be sure to follow up and try to strengthen your current client relationships for long-term benefit

5 Superb Sales Techniques to Reach Your Consumer Faster

Everyone has something they can market, whether it’s an item, a service, or some essential information. However, gaining customers and increasing sales from that service, item, or piece of knowledge are the only ways a business can prosper. However, you can’t just sit back and hope that someone would come across your product and buy it. Sales growth is the result of carefully planned sales methods that are created and implemented. To boost sales, you must either expand the audience you sell to, improve the goods you sell, improve your messaging, or do all of the aforementioned.

1. Be methodical when creating leads

The first step is to make sure that your firm generates enough leads consistently to sustain a steady flow of business. Too many business owners are determined to put out regular fires instead of thinking about their long-term aims.

• Establish goals for how many prospects you want to have in the funnel at any one time.
• To reach those goals, schedule the number of visits you want to have each week with potential clients.
• The remaining time should be used to manage your ongoing sales efforts.
• Although it’s not always the simplest element of your job, generating leads is essential if you want to create steady sales.

2. Understand the sales cycle

Your sales cycle, which is the period of time between meeting a potential customer for the first time and closing a deal, will be determined by the type of business you’re in. This can differ significantly amongst businesses. Your sales cycle can only be increased greatly when you offer good products at the time of redemption for the customers through game vouchers and gift cards. But you need to be aware of how long it often takes you, in days, weeks, or months.

To determine how long your sales cycle is:

• List the 20 most recent closed sales you’ve had
• Note the duration of each
• Calculate the median
• Using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology can also help you discover your best customers, target particular demographics, and obtain a better understanding of your sales pipeline.

3. Understand numbers

Every business needs a certain number of prospects at all times just to keep up sales. Consider the usual sales cycle as well as the quantity of closed transactions you desire each month. The proportion of contacted prospects who made purchases is another important statistic to be aware of. Make the best customers through your products such as game redeem code, best loyalty programmes, redeem game voucher. With the aid of these figures, you may establish objectives for your company.

Example: 

Your company wants to sell three things each month. An average sale is closed four months after the client is first contacted. You have a close ratio of 25% if one out of every four prospects your sales team contacts end up making a purchase.

In this case, you can be certain that you will close three transactions each month as long as you keep 48 active leads at any given time. It’s that easy. You will need to keep a list of 64 active prospects if you decide one day to boost your monthly production to four closed transactions, for example. With this knowledge, business owners are better equipped to provide their salespeople clear, measurable goals.

4. Active referral-seeking

Obtaining recommendations from happy customers is a general rule for any firm. Asking for a referral directly can be difficult, so one approach to avoid it is to encourage customers to mention their customers and suppliers about the products or services such as best loyalty programmes, redeem game voucher, game gift cards and others.

If a possible customer comes up during a conversation, you may ask them if it’s okay to call Tom and explain that you spoke with him. Describe yourself and say something like, “I was thinking it would be a good idea for us to gather up. Consider next Tuesday.

5. Be prepared for pushback

Be ready for typical objections, especially when conducting cold calls. Typical adverse reactions include:

I have to deal with someone else. 

I’m overworked. 

This is not the best time. 

Send me some material first, and then we can discuss. 

You will lose the prospect’s interest if you are not prepared with succinct responses. Get ready to respond by practicing your exact words in advance. It’s critical to understand their concerns before attempting to cast a more favorable perspective on them.

Conclusion

Sales promotion is one of the essential elements of the promotion mix. Keeping your needs in mind RewardPort develops a variety of sales campaigns that resonate with your target market in order to establish lasting relationships with your customers.

8 Unique Sales Ideas Used For Promotion Across The World

Every marketer desires more leads, signups, and subscribers while spending as little money as possible. Every day, businesses and causes of all sizes compete for your attention and persuade you to buy their products, embrace a category, change your opinion of their company, support their cause, or vote for their candidate.

Some marketing and advertising campaigns have done that job more convincingly and

memorably than others over the years. Many have survived the test of time.

Competing at the Bottom of Funnel

Every company wants to steal customers from competitors, but few make it their top priority. If you have a competitor who offers a similar product but isn’t providing great results for its customers, you have an opportunity to target those people.

Flash discounts, coupons, and limited sales, this space is filled with quick-fix strategies to divert aware consumers to your brand.

Start A Referral Program

Referral marketing may be your best bet for quickly increasing your followers. Customers can promote your product for you through referral programs. It’s a simple concept, but it’s underutilized by small businesses.

To pay actors or sports figures, you don’t need the budget of a major corporation. “Real” people are often more effective influencers than celebrities.

Try To Hold Photo Contests

Photo contests are a low-cost and simple way to engage potential customers with your brand. They’re simple to enter (anyone on Facebook or Instagram can submit a photo with your specific tags), and they provide you with great user-generated content that you can reuse on other channels.

Provide the winner with a special prize or discount, and don’t forget to ask them to share something about your brand to be considered.

Imitate the Experts

Sometimes being creative entails imitating someone else. It may appear counterintuitive but doing what has already worked for someone else can greatly benefit your business. While the audience and subject matter of the content may differ from yours, it’s a good idea to look at what other brands are doing well and learn from them. Examine the headlines, content structure, and how they promote the posts.

Make Your Product A Challenge

One of the most difficult aspects of viral marketing campaigns is tying the viral content back to the company’s actual products. You can achieve two goals by going against the grain and making your product the focal point of your viral marketing campaign.

Food companies, for example, ask their customers to create the brand’s next great flavour. 

To make this work for you, identify the need that your product fills and turn it into a challenge for others to fill. They’ll be forced to keep your brand at the forefront of their minds throughout the process.

Begin Your Company as An Invite-Only Platform

We want what we can’t have as consumers. If you’re just getting started, consider opening your website to an exclusive list of customers to generate interest. Consider the early days of Facebook and Pinterest.

When only one person has access. Their friends will also want access.

Make Use of Popular Hashtags

Participating in weekly hashtag themes (via Twitter), such as #FlashbackFriday or #ThrowbackThursday, can help your brand get the attention it deserves. You become an active participant in the community and have access to an audience far beyond your typical follower count.

Active and regular participation with hashtags that thousands, if not millions, of people, are already using also increases your followership and visibility.

Distribute Stickers

Stickers may appear to be a ridiculously simple way to grow your business, but they can have a significant impact. You can get a lot of eyes on your brand by giving away free stickers (or other quick, easy, and cheap marketing swag) and encouraging people to post them in public places.

Real Life Success Stories with Unique Sales Ideas

Volkswagen: Think Small

The Volkswagen Think Small campaign is widely regarded as the greatest print campaign of all time, as well as one of the most successful campaigns before the rise of television. Before their 1959 campaign, automobiles were regarded as powerful and fashionable status symbols.

Volkswagen went in the opposite direction, which turned out to be a great move because it forced car norms to be reconsidered. They enticed readers with the “think small” slogan, and once they were hooked, they drew them in with the benefits of Volkswagen.

Commercials for Apple’s Mac vs. PC

Commencing in 2006, Apple produced a series of commercials that featured two people, one of whom was a Mac and the other a PC. The Mac was a young, attractive man, whereas the PC was an older gentleman who stumbled over his words.

They would simply talk about the various things they could do, with the PC always seeming to struggle to keep up with the Mac. PCs in some commercials were unable to communicate with other devices such as digital cameras. In others, the computer would repeatedly freeze or restart.

Dove: Real Beauty

Before their most successful marketing campaign, Dove was negated by numerous brands in a crowded market. They discovered that only a small percentage of the women interviewed thought they were beautiful, which prompted them to launch their campaign.

The campaign helped to broaden the narrow definition of beauty and get people involved in making women feel empowered about their appearance. The campaign was so successful that it inspired other brands to follow suit.

They took a sensitive but popular topic for their customers and created ads based on what their customers believe rather than what is true. Even though it was a simple campaign, it had a significant impact.

Lipton Green Tea

Lipton Green Tea created a shopping cart that tracks your steps, calories burned, and time spent moving at the grocery store to encourage consumers to make healthier choices while shopping.

The cart, which is aimed at people who are too busy for regular exercise, is designed to show customers how many calories they can burn just by walking around the grocery store. The hope is that if they can see how many calories they’re burning in real-time, they’ll reconsider what they put in their shopping cart.

Uber POOL

Uber’s in-house marketing team launched a guerrilla campaign in Mexico City as part of a major advertising push in Latin America, sending out a small army of drones outfitted with cheeky signs promoting Uber POOL. While stuck in rush hour traffic, drivers were confronted with small planes and their mini billboards.

Although they do not intend to replicate the stunt in other markets (because doing so in the United States or Europe would necessitate significant bureaucratic hoop-jumping), the stunt garnered significant media coverage for the car service app.

Conclusion

Coming up with an unusual advertisement can be difficult. First, you’ll need to conduct a series of creative brainstorming sessions. Then, you must ensure that your campaign is understandable and captivating to the audiences to whom you present it.

One way to see if people will truly understand and engage with your unusual campaign is to first present it to a focus group.

One of the most important components of the promotion mix is sales promotion and RewardPort creates various types of sales promotions that work with your target audience to build long-term relationships with your customers.

Brand Loyalty in Modern Marketing: Ways to Improve It and Retain Customers

As an entrepreneur or marketer, you are probably intrigued by some brands that have a cult-like following. Their customers remain loyal to them for nearly a lifetime and make repeat purchases whenever they require that specific product or service, regardless of price. Such brands can be found in every industry and come in a variety of sizes and shapes.

Value of Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty has proven to be extremely important in creating iconic brands and retaining customers for an extended period, even a lifetime.

The following points emphasize the significance of brand loyalty for any type of business:

• Lower acquisition costs

You must be aware that the cost of acquiring a new customer is five to seven times that of retaining an existing one. This is where brand loyalty comes in handy. An effective brand loyalty program can lower the cost of acquiring new customers by keeping existing customers loyal and enticing them to make repeat purchases.

• Retargeting and remarketing made simple

According to one recent study, businesses are only 5 to 20% likely to sell their products or services to a new prospect while they are 60 to 70% likely to sell to an existing customer.

• Increased customer trust

Customers have exceptional trust in successful brand loyalty programs because they focus on delighting and exceeding their expectations every time. This gives them a significant competitive advantage and allows them to charge a higher price for their products and services than their competitors. Despite charging a premium, they retain most of their customers and receive consistent repeat purchases.

Top Ways to Increase Brand Loyalty

Before making a purchase, modern customers scour websites and research the products they intend to purchase.

You can’t rely on traditional methods to generate loyalty when customers are 60% to 80% of the way down the funnel before speaking with anyone at your company.

At the same time, fewer customers remain loyal to a single brand.

Loyal customers are profitable customers because they are less expensive to market as they purchase more frequently. However, only 27% of initial sales become repeat customers. Companies must invest in cultivating customer loyalty.

• Begin with your employees

If you want satisfied customers, start with your employees. Customers notice and feel it when they are appreciated, valued, and included. Call your boss and co-workers. Inquire how they are doing and what you can do to assist them. Be adaptable. Be adaptable. Make communications more personal. Employees will then pass it on even if their boss is not looking! Loyalty spreads like wildfire.

• Maintain Contact Between Projects

Maintain contact with current and former customers in between projects. Customers can stay informed about your service offerings by receiving a client-focused newsletter regularly. When comparing the cost per new lead versus the cost of retention, a client discount is also a great incentive and a justified expense.

• Connectivity and functionality should be combined

The combination of brand functionality and emotional connectivity is redefining brand loyalty. Products and services must not only solve a problem but also reflect the views and preferences of the customer. Marketers who strike this balance will build stronger, more intimate relationships with brand ambassadors.

• Engage your customers

Connecting with your users aids in the development of a sense of belonging and community. To get your users excited and engaged, share your brand’s new and exciting developments, as well as news and opinions in your industry.

You can use social media to inform customers about new trends, special deals and discounts, and your company’s next steps. The more like a conversation it feels, the better.

Another way to keep your existing customers happy is to recognize their needs before they even realize they have them. Predict what your customers are likely to want using your customer behavior data, and then provide it to them.

A simple Thank You note, Happy Birthday or Happy Holidays greeting will also go a long way. Customers in any industry want to know that you care about them outside of business transactions.

• Personalize programs

When it comes to brand loyalty programs, there are numerous reward and incentive options available to keep your customers engaged and loyal. Most successful brands use a variety of options, including points programs, hybrid loyalty programs, tiered programs, fee-based loyalty programs, and others. Using a variety of loyalty programs can be extremely appealing and valuable to various customers.

• Create a distinct brand position

Nothing beats your company’s distinct brand position when it comes to increasing brand loyalty. Unique brand statements are created by strong brands to highlight their brand values, unique selling propositions (USPs), and market position.

A distinct brand position communicates what distinguishes your company and the value it adds to the lives of your customers. Create a distinct brand position that resonates with your target customers. Determine what distinguishes you from your competitors and list the strongest points of your brand that distinguishes it from the competition.

• Channel sales partners should be rewarded

The comprehensive and multi-pronged nature of the brand loyalty program is its best feature. Working with the right channel sales partners and providing them with appropriate rewards and incentives is one of the most effective ways to boost your brand equity.

A brand can benefit greatly from collaborating with the right channel partners and creating personalized and tailored rewards for them. It will encourage channel partners to prioritize one brand over others, thereby improving brand identity and equity.

Appropriately rewarding channel partners create a virtuous cycle that tends to pass the benefits on to the end customers.

• Increase loyalty by using reciprocity

Reciprocity is a social construct proven to increase loyalty. Kindness creates a sense of obligation in the recipient, who instinctively wants to repay the kindness.

There are two types of reciprocity, and both can be used to increase customer loyalty to customer service.

A surprise gift or gesture is surprise reciprocity. For example, if you send your customer free swag or tickets to a company event without warning.

Trumpeted reciprocity occurs when someone gives or does something beneficial in a way that demonstrates that they are going above and beyond. It doesn’t mean you have to document and report on everything you do, but it should be clear to the customer that what you’re doing is outside the normal scope of the working relationship. Giving your customer early access to a new product or feature is an example of this.

Conclusion

Loyalty marketing is critical for building long-term relationships with customers who spend more money with you. With loyalty scheme members generating 12 to 18% more revenue per year than the average guest shopper, it’s no surprise that loyalty marketing is so popular among brands.

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.

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.

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.

A sales promotion checklist: Do’s and don’t for running a successful campaign.

If you are looking to amplify the product sales for your brand, it calls for a structured sales promotion campaign. Many businesses in the market are always looking forward to attracting their old and new customers in different ways to promote their products. At the same time increase profits for their business.

From a customer’s point of view, it is about finding, analysing something new in the market and the benefits it brings them in the long run. Their ultimate aim is to feel satisfied with their purchase.

There should be a value owned for their money. A brand can gain a lot when it is able to pull off a successful sales campaign. But there are many hiccups in the process and that’s when it fails.

First, let’s find out the Dos of running a successful sales promotion campaign. And then move on to the Don’ts which will be the crucial steps for implementing the campaign.

Do’s:

• Set an objective for your sales promotion campaign. It could be a short or long term objective. You should be able to state, measure and analyze the goals set
• It is important to know your target market. Ask this question to yourself.  Will the sales promotion appeal to the target group? Each group comes up with its unique behavioural action. Their needs and tastes are different from one another. Find out the right type of sales promotional campaign that suits your target audience
• Work on the type of messaging, voice, offer content appeal, format and duration. Brainstorm with your team to extract a lot of ideas. You can execute it better if you have a solid plan in place
• Examine and evaluate your promotional budget. The process involves knowing the cost breakdown,  expenditures and balances. Allocate the funds to determine the profit margin

While designing a sales promotional campaign for your brand, including a sense of scarcity as and when you know the time is right. This situation of urgency can increase the demand and value for your products.

The Dont’s:

• Understand your customers. A lot of factors influence a buyer’s purchasing decision. There are many reasons behind their approval and disapproval of your product when they purchase. Do not include actions that will affect your plan in the future
• There is an overload of information in the digital age. Your customers read many online reviews which may impact the sales. Do not assume that the influential message on the sales campaign will run on a smooth road.  Keep a sharp eye on customer feedback and the message that is being circulated on social media
• Make sure that your campaign is not hard to follow. Include a simple set of an action plan with workable backup programs
• Avoid stress and confusion. Find the loopholes from the current campaign and work on the solutions

Finally, evaluate the performance of your campaign – understand and summarize the key learnings. Find out whether your campaign met its objectives. Learn from the summary and use the information to design new campaigns in the future.

The Secret Sauce For a Successful Sales Promotion Campaign For Special Days

Be it the New year, Valentine’s Day, Republic Day or any celebratory day and most marketing teams would hound on the opportunity as soon as possible! The hounding does not stop there, in case you were wondering; it is further extended through several tactical strategies deployed by loyalty program companies in order to increase their sales.

Companies often bank on these special occasions such as so and so days, international observatory days, etc to pump up their sales and build a connection with the clients. It’s also a great time when loyalty companies generate higher sales and convert potential buyers into loyal customers.

Just like you can’t repeat a dress to every fancy event, every occasion must have different sales promotions planned accordingly. “One size fits all” does not quite settle in, in such cases!

We’re sharing insight on the secret sauce for a successful sales promotion campaign for special days.

1. Keep it personal

The more you personalize your loyalty program, the easier it is to get a customer’s attention. The attention of your customer must not sustain only for a short span and to increase the same, your loyalty programs must deploy rewards and incentives that are specific to the special day it’s being launched on. The use of artificial intelligence can help with predicting your target audience’s preferences and choices.

2. To the point

Introducing a point system is a perfect strategy to utilize during festivals or special days. Encouraging your customers to buy during a specific celebratory day would fetch them a specific number of points. Each point represents a certain percentage of discount.

These points are then rewarded to the customer in order to motivate them to shop again from your brand during the span of the special day’s offer. An accumulation of these reward points helps them purchase more by paying lesser. This point-wise reward system works great during Valentine’s day, Mother’s day, etc.

3. Exclusivity

A great way to ensure that you have a successful loyalty program that guarantees you with immediate sales hike and long-term customers is to please the existing ones. Offering your existing customers helps in getting traction and an increase in your sales.

This also adds to the word-of-mouth marketing. When you market your loyalty programs exclusively to the members, it ties in a sense of exclusivity and allows them to feel special. Knowing that some offers are exclusive to member creates a positive feeling amongst them.

4. Time is ticking

Making your customers believe that the time is ticking encourages them to act on an urgency. Validating your offers to a specific time plays an important role in making them feel the need to utilize the opportunity before the time runs out. It automatically aids in the sales growing manifold.

5. Charming non-members

One fantastic way to rope in customers during special occasions is by projecting the benefits that members receive when they enroll in specific loyalty programs. Enticing offers showcased for non-members drives more attention home. Inquisitive buyers will enquire and subsequently enroll in the program if the incentives match their requirements.

Loyalty programs must evolve and customize itself in order to stay in tandem with what the customer wants. The simplest way of boosting your loyalty program is by utilizing the frenzy that naturally occurs during any celebratory day and package it in a way that lures target audiences with ease. Value-added loyalty programs are one such way to capture buyers who return for more.

Top 10 Sales Promotion Trends for 2019

A company’s success or popularity is measured by several means but the way it performs in sales is one of the most important ways of gauging its success. Every brand’s value or rate of success is often dependent on its sales promotions and how they project themselves to their audiences and hence, it is an integral part of creating a successful brand. Sales promotions are the process through which a company or brand pitches their products or services to their target audience. This often consists of different promotional methods such as online marketing, direct sales, public relations, advertising, and several others. The use of media and non-media communications directed towards the audience for a pre-determined time frame helps generate customer demand and inquisitiveness amongst the people leading to an increase in their overall sales.

Sales trends are often fast-changing as the target audience and their taste keeps evolving with time. The strategies that worked wonders for a company at one point might stand null after a point and is highly dependent on the way or mode you choose to deploy for your product’s sales promotion. Some trends, however, have withstood the test of time and are a sure-shot sales promotion trend and the trends enlisted are ones that are likely to stay and emerge in the year 2019:

Buy One Get One Free

You may have heard plenty about this trend but the truth is that it is here to stay! Nothing sells better than another product of the same kind for free! It’s an easy but sure-shot way to engage and bring customers to buy your product. ‘Free’ is often an eye-wash but a powerful one as the strategy is to hike the price of the product and project it in a way that allows customers to believe that they are at a profitable position!

E-retailing

Gone are the days where you receive pamphlets of different brands selling customers their products at great offers as most of the buyers are now buying things virtually. So, it is imperative that you shift your sales tactics to the virtual sector as well. This gives brands a greater reach as the targeting can be narrowed further down which implies that sales are likely to increase automatically.

Social media influencers

The world is on the web now and so should you! Utilizing someone’s popularity to strengthen and sell your goods and services is likely to help both parties grow. Through promotions of your product on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, influencers are likely to generate a healthy, organic growth for both, your brand and theirs. A collaboration between the two parties helps enhance the overall traffic on the influencer’s account and the brand they are collaborating with.

Testers and Samples

Apart from allowing your customers try and sample your products and services for free, having your brand advertise and promote in cultural events, fests, and exhibitions, giving out free samples or freebies aid in enhancing your customer’s loyalty towards your brand. It gives them an assurance of the genuineness and authenticity of the products or services that you may be offering. This automatically builds a stronger base for your brand to remarket to these customers.

Sales promotion trends that have ruled the market and are likely to build more rage in the year 2019 are listed above. Many more trends are sure to emerge in the year to follow as the way customers perceive brands are ever-changing and are constantly evolving and to keep up with the fast-paced audience, the way a brand sells themselves will need to constantly upgrade.

Digital Sales promotions Ideas & trends 2019

The most crucial way of reaching out to the target audience for any brand or company is through advertising and promotions. Every company relies on promotional techniques of various kinds for the success of their services or products and marketing via digital media has become the most effective and efficient means of promotion for brands at this point of time. As buyers are frequently distrusting of advertising and marketing strategies, it has become all the more critical for brands to penetrate into their target audience.

The audience to which advertisements and commercials are directed to have become more aware of matters and inquisitive as well, which has further pushed the companies and brands to constantly keep creating and innovating in order to stay at pace with the fast-growing consumers whose taste change at a rapid pace.

We’ve curated a list of trends and ideas that are employed for digital sales promotion by different companies. These are trends and ideas that are likely to appear or have already helped brands in promoting their products and services:

1. Authentic and Real Content

It has become imperative to go in the path that supports and projects only authentic and real content. Consumers are no longer hooked onto things that appear pre-concocted, lack reality or are “clickbait” content. The more raw and real you keep your advertising or promotions, the easier it is likely to get through to your target audience. Influencer marketing is one of the trendiest ways to gather people’s attention towards a certain product or brand. The element of “human trust” adds to the brand value and a real testimony helps them connect to the brand better than a highly edited video made for the purpose of selling. The idea is to sell an emotion through pointing out to subsequent aspects of the product one wants to sell. This indirect approach seems to be working for several brands already and is set to be one of the biggest trends of 2019!

2. Interactive Ads

Ads that do not sell products, sell the most number of products! The logic is strange but in reality, the lesser descriptive your promotion is, the higher the attention your audience would pay. Ads in the forms of interactive videos where the protagonist of the ad talks directly to you cause customers to believe that they are being made to be a part of the scenario. Ads that require customer responses or are in the form of a poll helps increase the interest and engagement of the audience resulting in a better sales scenario.

3. Voice Search is the thing!

With automated voice search devices such as Alexa and Google Assistant, people have become all the more dependent on these applications and gadgets to help them do tasks. The ability to make a device such as a phone or a tablet recognize and respond to your voice and help you with your browsing is incredible and can help marketers reach out to their audience by sectioning or categorizing them into specific keywords so that their ads appear on the top when a person voice searches for a product or service.

4. World of Social Media

A person’s presence is felt when they are doing things in different places and their information travels in the form of word-of-mouth and that’s exactly how brands aim to reach out to more and more audiences. They are keen on penetrating into the different outlets of social media based on their type of goods or services and after analyzing what is best for their brand image. Social media can help you brand become visible and highly approachable as it allows you to spread out and cater to different audiences based on which platform you use. Live streaming, contests, quizzes, giveaways, they’re all strategies to amplify your sales through digital media. For you, the choices are endless as you can promote your products and create brand loyalty on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, LinkedIn and several other platforms!

5. Visual Search

We all know that artificial intelligence and machine-learning is speeding up most technological processes with each day and brands and companies just have to hop onto that wagon to stay at pace with the fast evolving consumers! Visual search is helpful and is likely to boom in the coming years as it is the basic concept of converting visual information into text-based data. This will not only help marketers make their products more visible but also help people learn about different and new brands through the process.

Consumers and brands are always changing and all of it happens in tandem with the scientific advancements made by researchers. An amalgamation of technology, digital marketing ideas and brand positioning, sales of any goods and services is imperative! These trends and ideas are just a few ways of enhancing the sales promotion through the new media but there are plenty other interesting ways in which, brands and advertisers can make better sales!

Importance of Emotion Based Marketing Campaigns

Emotions prompt our actions according to the famous psychologist Daniel Goleman. The customer buying behaviour is too motivated by their emotions. Consumers no longer want products to be pushed upon them. Marketing campaigns have to be more humane and sensitive towards the sentiments of the people. Emotional appeal advertising aids in achieving the same. Marketing campaigns need to be redefined so that the customer’s heart meets his wallet and there is a synchronisation between the two. These emotions have to be tapped at the right time and rightly guided to the social media and other public visibility outlets to gain the movement of customers towards the brand.

What are the Diffrent types Of Emotion Involved in Marketing Campaign

1. Positive emotions

Positive emotions provoke good feelings about the brand in the minds of the customers. Mostly people associate themselves easily with high-value lifestyle products which increase their status in the society. Apple did a business storytelling around the iPhone before launching it. When they launched iPhone mobiles, it became a hallmark of style statement from teenagers to young adults to all age groups. Today, most Americans prefer buying iPhone over other mobiles. This is an example of emotional marketing campaign driven by positive emotions like joy & acceptance which are associated with the purchase of iPhone.

2. Negative emotions

Negative emotions on the advertisements display the harsh realities of life. An anger or disgust emotion is usually used to evoke thought provoking feelings in the minds of the consumers in order to spread awareness and encourage donations for those in need. ‘Save a child’ advert was used to display the effect of wars especially on the children.

3. Surprise emotions

Advertisements of Insurance companies tease the fear or surprise element in the lives of the people. The fear of the unknown and growing risks of deaths due to health ailments & accidents is strong enough to coerce people to buy life/health insurance to protect their dependants against difficult times. Instead of distracting customers from chief information, these emotional marketing campaigns should speak about the brand and attract the customers in order to boost quality leads.

4. Emotional Content Marketing

The CSR activities are an excellent example of emotional branding. It increases the customer participation by involving them along with the brands to carry these activities. Stories connected with the event when told reflect on the values business stands for, such as fighting for a social cause or combating environmental issues. This emotional storytelling about the event or activity helps to evoke empathy for the brand. Moreover, this reaches still larger audience especially middle class buyers.

5. Run time for these marketing campaigns

The run time for the emotional marketing campaigns has to be optimum. While it achieves its desired purpose, one cannot overlook the fact that people start to construe a different meaning when the same campaign is running for too long. They either get overwhelmed or bored. Similarly running it for too short time will not make enough time available to let them associate with the emotions exhibited through the message of the advertisement.

5 Ways To Drive Sales Promotion Through Social Media

Sales promotion aims to increase the sales of the products or services to customers or clients. Routinely it targets at the low moving products or high consumption products/services. The process initiation utilizes distinct media and non-media methods.

Social media is very effective in reaching larger audience and there are 5 key methods by which social media can drive sales promotions for your business.

1. Understand the audience

As a rule of the thumb, understanding the buyer persona is imperative to gain insights into what the customers are searching for. Social media offers interactive platform where millions of users share their opinions. An informal approach sought after increasing the scope of trust building within the customers.

The click through rate increases and hence greater conversions as users now wish to seek brands who have gained there trust and they now want to visit the business website again and again.

Besides, being well informed about the customers’ buying behaviour prevents the businesses from getting tempted to bombard wrong advertisements at the wrong occasions.

Once you know the buyer behaviour, the next step is to approach the audience through targeted advertisements on product promotions.

2. Target the audience

Advertisements on social media suggest discounts and offers on the products or services. It conveys the offers to a substantial number of customers in a jiffy. However, not every customer bears similar interests.

The social media is inundated with various advertisements every single day and directing the business advertisements to the right audience is essential. Targeting the right audience based on various parameters like demographic, region, ethnicity etc. keeps the sales promotion strategy on the right track.

3. Choose the right platform

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms have varied features and each can be used to drive promotions. Linkedin is a professional development platform and mainly limited to professional communication. It is less likely to be effective for product discounts for customers, albeit it is constructive for B2B promotions .

The Dynamic ad option particularly is a direct way of actively seeking engagements from individuals as well as businesses. Pinterest is well accepted among women groups. The sales promotion strategy should be aligned with the basic offerings of the platform and the sort of audience virtually active on it.

4. Perform Competitor analysis

As almost all businesses reach out to their customers through social media, it is easier to understand the competitors to ensure that the business does not lag behind the competition. This creates awareness of the opponent’s approach.

While keeping this in mind, businesses can devise better creative methods. Additionally, one can track the seasonal and off-season trends for introducing the promotions on social media to prevent the clash of offers.

5. Schedule the promotions

Social media monitoring tools help to monitor and control the response to the promotion ads. This was never achievable with offline marketing methods. Advertisement posts have to be timed according to the peak usage hours to ensure maximum returns on the social media promotional efforts. The seasonal promotions have to be in congruence with the real trends which can be tapped online through social media.