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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 Hammerkopf 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.

How Covid 19 has changed the channel incentive strategies

The Novel Coronavirus has impacted almost everything, right from people’s lives to businesses to economies. According to the IMF, the global economy is expected to shrink by over 3 per cent in 2020 – the steepest slowdown since the Great Depression of the 1930s. These are indeed unusual times. Despite all this, there are brands who have accepted the events and taken it all in their stride. These brands are doing amazingly well with their channel strategies too.

Let’s look at what changes are recommended to be done in your channel incentive strategies due to this pandemic, and how you can benefit from them.

Your channel partners, customers and employees are most likely distressed. Don’t let their morale go down. Create an ecosystem to uplift them. Try to meet their needs. Guide them about the safe and best practices that can be implemented to ease the operations. Let them know that the brand is with them in this together. Hold joint webinars, virtual events to motivate them.

Brands should consider suspending all non critical events and sticking with only the necessary ones, through digital medium, preferably.

According to research conducted by Qualtrics, nearly 70 per cent of people in India believe it is important for brands to take care of their employees and customers and they should not take advantage of the crisis to maximise profits.

Keeping short term targets is a good strategy during this crisis. Brands should work in conjunction with their teams and partners to understand their priorities, both core and short term functions. These should not be imposed on them instead should be suggested by them. These functions should be easily achievable. The completion of such functions will itself enable a sense of achievement among all the involved  members.

Sticking to channel incentive strategies based on performance would not be such a good plan for now. Brands would need to be flexible, and sensitive towards their channel partners and employees. Also they should not limit the benefits to only performers, this is the time to be inclusive and empathic towards everybody.

Design tailored initiatives for small and medium sized partners. These initiatives could contain solutions such as digital assets, guidelines for safe engagements, tutorials to educate them some digital techniques and suchlike. Brands who are doing so are being praised for passing the initiatives to their channel partners and employees, and needless to say are winning minds and hearts.

Maintain regular communication with the partners and the employees. The study by Qualtrics suggests that Indians want brands to communicate with them. Around 50 per cent of the respondents said their trust in the brands they regularly engaged with has increased. The sound of the communication should not be tone-deaf but empathic.

Drive positive engagements and seek continuous feedback. The engagement practices have changed now. There are rewards which can be used at home, aka At-home Rewards. Rewards like Digital Entertainment vouchers, online learning vouchers, online shopping vouchers, and so on are getting quite hit now.

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.

Emerging Loyalty Marketing Trends Post Corona

It is absolutely appalling how Coronavirus has changed our world dramatically in just a few months’ time. At one end people are trying to save their lives and at the other end, they are trying to save their livelihood. But if the facts are to be believed, people are bouncing back stronger than ever and so are the businesses. In fact, according to the research data by GlobalWebIndex, one in ten Indian shoppers would buy a luxury item first after the lockdown lifts.

Also according to the Valassis consumer survey, 48% consumers will continue purchasing from the same brands they always do. Seems like the pandemic is not completely upsetting the brand loyalty. Well that’s a breather isn’t it? 

So let us check out what loyalty marketing trends would look like now onwards.

Data from Bazaarvoice shows that online shopping activity experienced significant y-o-y growth in April 2020 for both page views (88%) and order count (96%). Brands must be available on ecommerce platforms now more than ever. They should reward their stakeholders with online shopping vouchers for sites like Nykaa, Fynd, The Souled Store & more.

Customers would expect easy and instant redemptions through online mediums. Spending power has plummeted drastically so it is time to be easy when giving out rewards. Brands should be careful with the medium of redemption and make it online. Customers will prefer rewards that can be redeemed online, quickly.

For example, they would avoid going into crowded and closed spaces such as theatres and would prefer coupons of online streaming platforms such as Hotstar, Amazon Prime, Netflix etc. Incidentally, Netflix India has reported more than double rise in its subscriber base in the first quarter of 2020. While last year it forecasted the subscriber base to reach 10 million by the end of 2020, it has already touched 15.8 million during the first quarter of 2020. And now it is aiming to grab new 100 million Indian subscribers. So much for pandemic and chill.

Brands should aim at a rewarding system that has something for everyone in the family. As everybody is locked under one roof, brands would not want to upset a family member. They can include reward plans for kids like home activity box vouchers from Podsquad, Magic Crate etc. Plans for fitness enthusiasts which can have Home Fitness Vouchers from Cult.Fit, Shilpa Shetty App etc. Rewards for foodies with vouchers from Zomato, Swiggy etc., and so on and so forth.

Marketing in this pandemic era has empathy as its soul. So, whatever you do, do not miss out on showing empathy in your communication, processes, and all the interactions. Study from Qualtrics shows that 70% consumers trust brands who take care of their employees, customers, dealers, partners, and stakeholders. In the four levels of loyalty, trust plays a pivotal role. No amount of reward would make them more loyal to your brand than building a long term relationship with them, at the time of crisis.

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.

Why Is Targeting Your Audience Important When Deciding Your Offers?

Target marketing is the most effective form of marketing to fulfill the end goals of each business i.e. ROI and sales. Any marketing strategy that does not keep into consideration the target audiences will always end up frozen in time with no effective results. Such vague communications never reach out to the prospective buyer and fall flat on the ground. Targeting audiences is a very important component of the marketing mix.
To understand the concept even better we have chalked out the benefits of targeting your audiences which are as follows –

• Set Goals and Achieve Them – There is nothing more satisfactory than the fact that you set goals and achieve them too. Streamlining your efforts towards the designated goals can help you get great ROI. Scattered efforts in reaching out to a scattered set of audiences will not be worth your while. Talk to a designated group of audiences who share similar buying decisions and have similar buying patterns.


• Gather Information and Interpret – Measure the results of the campaigns you run and interpret what worked. Divide the data into fragments and understand what percentage of your customers enjoy what offers and use them too. Experiment with a different set of audiences offering them different discounts and offers. This will help you understand your audiences and reduce wasteful efforts.


• Know What works for you and Why – Understanding demographics and streamlining target audience is not an easy task. It needs consistent efforts and some experiments to understand what campaigns work and what offers work for your target audiences. Take time and understand what did not work for your business and enjoy what worked of course!

Here are a few tips of targeting to your audience –
• Talk to and Benefit a Defined Set of Audiences – To save in time and effort, a business must understand that talking directly to a defined set of audiences will deeply affect them and they will feel the connection. Any offer or communication that connect with the desired audiences will hit the bullseye and make way for more orders.


• Be Effective and Earn Customers Loyalty – Offers are lucrative and the higher the gratification the better. Ease of using discounts and discount coupons can help you as a brand to stay in memory retention resulting in getting customer loyalty. Bring effective in communication is the key too.


• Opt for a Focus Centric Approach – As a business streamlining your focus can help you outshine your competitors and help you earn customers. Focus driven efforts are always fruitful in reducing errors and winning a loyal customer base.


• Keep an Eye on Changing Trends – The market around is evolving each second and keeping pace with the change is the key. Keep a check on the latest trends ruling the charts and offer what you have at the right time, at the right place. This way you will hit the target audiences and offer what they want.
  Putting effective efforts in decoding on how to target your audiences will eventually help in deciding offers for them. Keep in sight and stay together with the changing marketing trends will help you win business. Segregating your target audiences will help you offer them with the offers that best suit their needs. Like in the case of a company, one can easily opt for loyalty points for the audiences through loyalty program management tools. Rewardport is an initiative that provides an end-to-end solution for any corporate in reward program management. Whether working separately or together. Through research and our collective expertise, we guide our clients with choices to help them motivate their people. Get in touch to know more – (link to the services page)

What should your Reward Programme constitute of?

A loyal customer base is key to a stable and thriving business nowadays. A loyal customer base who purchases from you on a regular basis doesn’t just help you stabilize the business but also helps in getting the word out. Customers who come back or what we call ‘the repeating customers’ can increase sales by 47%. Customer loyalty programs are proven methods to sustain and grow profits. 5% increase in customer loyalty can increase the profits of the company by 20%. However, in the current market scenario having a traditional loyalty program is just not enough to survive let alone make profits.Brands have to incorporate the customer’s social and behavioral actions and expand loyalty rewards. But customer retention is the biggest obstacle that almost 60% of the business face.

Just having a loyalty program in place isn’t enough. It needs to be engaging, compelling, and beneficial for the business, customers, as well as the channel partners.

Here are a few benefits of having a carefully planned and the right loyalty program:

Save Money
Many companies nowadays continue to try to attract new customers but what they should be doing is retain old customers. Retaining old customers is far less expensive than acquiring new ones.

Increased revenue
The reason behind this is that the customers are already loyal to the brand and are likely to spend more hence increasing the revenue.

Make customers feel appreciated
A loyalty reward program that is personalized according to the social and behavioral actions of every individual customer, they feel appreciated and it sets an emotional connection with your brand.

Growth
A good loyalty program is never stagnant. It keeps on creating better communication with the customers, measures loyalty through engagement on a daily basis, gather valuable data from customer behavior, etc.

We certainly know what’s worse than dying loyalty is a dying loyalty program. Undying loyalty is something which is very rare and hard to maintain. So what should a basic reward program constitute of? Here are a few key elements that every loyalty program should have:

• Frictionless
  Loyalty programs should be easy for customers to join and use. One thing that customers don’t want is giving out their personal details or information when they are signing out. Make sure the customers know that it’s easy and be sure to reveal the benefits of the program upfront.
• Exclusivity
  One thing that customers love is exclusivity and personalized rewards. If something is available to everyone, it’s usually special to no one.
• Compelling
  Rewards should be compelling enough to make the customers do some work too but not too much. You can’t afford to give away rewards for every other purchase, but it can’t require 20 purchases to redeem either.
• Brand
  At the end of the day, it’s all about building your brand and thinking about why your customers come back to you. This should be at the core of every reward you offer.
  In conclusion, having a loyalty program is not enough. Keeping up with market trends and consumer behavior is also important. So start with understanding the customer base.

Role of Rewards in Driving ‘Value Sharing’

“I do not love rewards!”, said nobody. Rewards are always exciting and free vouchers always boost the motivation of the customers. Also, customer loyalty programs are the best way to drive value sharing in the business either by helping in buying decisions or keeping employees motivated to achieve a certain goal. The end goal of every business has to be to achieve the buyer trust and a brand name of its own which only can happen with the help of high sales and motivated employees. Both the driving forces can be kept happy with free goodies that come as a reward to them. Value Sharing is an extensive subject that includes not only building on buying decisions but also include other intangible good a customer can do to a brand in terms of helping in word of mouth or act as a repeat customer. In short, a reward will make a customer happy and a happy customer will help in adding to the value share for the business.
Here are certain points to help you understand the role of rewards in driving Value Sharing.

• Satisfied Customer Base – Buying and purchasing is a daily activity a customer does but when the target audience shops he adds on to the credibility of the brand as a whole. On top of the quality products you promise, if the customer also gets a good discount or a buy one get one free option it will help in saving more and bring a purchase satisfaction to your customers. This will help you in retaining more customers.
• Win Customer Trust – Winning a customer is one thing and retaining the existing customers is another. Most of the times major brands also indulge in a plan to do a lucky draw and only one winner wins which in fact makes a lot of people disappointed and sad who do not win the draw resulting in a reduction in sales and unhappy buyers. Winning customer trust is important.
• Add More Customers – loyalty reward management programs in terms of discounts and sales often add on more footfall in your store or website and help in adding more customers to your database. Discounts and other rewards act as a driving force for the customers to invest more money in you than your competitor.
  All in all, rewards are a win-win for both the buyers and the sellers where they gain in terms of a customer or retaining customer and the customer gets brands at reasonable prices. For more end to end reward program solutions, one can visit rewardport.in. Through research and collective expertise, we guide our clients with choices to help them motivate their people. Be its sales force, channel partners or employees. We motivate to enable people to do things differently, by developing their strengths, knowledge, and confidence. They care and focus to build a relationship with people… Forever.

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.

Gamification of your loyalty program – Is it possible?

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘Gamification’? Though it is seen as a game-changing tool for brand promotions, there is more to it. Yes. Gamification, as we know is an emerging trend and some of the brands have already been using consumer loyalty programs as a part of their marketing strategies. In the context of brand promotion, gamification has become an integral part of the marketing structure with an increasing number of reward programs.

Gamification is not complex as it may sound. It only intensifies the value to an existing marketing program by using data-oriented engagement techniques to capture a customer’s attention.

Before we look at the possibilities of gamification in loyalty programs, let us go through the types of Gamification.

• Progress tracking

This is undertaken to make people stay loyal to the brand by helping them keep a track of their performance in loyalty programs.

    For example, an online program which has users to sign up for a course includes a system to track their progress until their final objective is completed. This encourages their potential leads and customers to use more content.

• Reward level

This is an advanced version of a basic reward program. For instance, users can earn stars to win rewards at different levels of the program. Once a customer gets a specific number of stars, they become part of a special membership program where they are entitled to receive benefits throughout the year.

Now, this brings us to the possibilities of using gamification in loyalty programs and its subsequent benefits.

• Firstly, it increases sign-ups for a program
• It increases product sales and revenue with continuous participation
• It encourages a customer’s willingness to be a part of loyalty rewards
• It brings more brand advocates who eventually become influential marketers

There is more possibility of bringing gamification to the loyalty programs as general human behaviour is tied to motivational factors. In other words, the user gains extensively through repeated efforts. If you want to retain your customers, gamification can help al it adds excitement to improve your brand’s marketing strategy.

Gamification in loyalty programs acts as catalysts to make users spend more time and effort to reach higher levels.  This is probably one of the reasons why repeated discounted sales are often considered as the primary objective of a loyalty program. It makes it easier for users to express their appreciation, aiding the brand’s marketing goal. The extended reach will amplify your brand’s social worthiness along with the online ad spends.

Hence, yes gamification is possible. In fact, it brings a brand closer to its sales goals.

Whether a brand’s consumer wins a prize or gains maximum out of it, the game design inputs put in a marketing strategy brings positive feedback looping new customers. When a brand offers more than just amazing products and services with a sense of gamification in their loyalty programs, customers are sure to love the experience and be willing to come back.

5 power moves to retain your customers

Retaining your current customers isn’t going to be easy anymore unless businesses are flexible to bring innovative changes with the design or delivery of their loyalty programs. Hence, we bring you five power moves that will help you to retain your existing customers base.

Surprise with a reward

Holding your customers’ hands through their buying journey makes them feel appreciated. Surprise rewards bring added joy to your customers. Plus this element of surprise will encourage your regular product purchasers to keep an eye on your new offerings. It helps to deepen the relationship with your customers. Tap your existing customer’s data to draw beneficial insights into their ever-changing preferences. Targeting those specific needs and surprising them at an opportune moment with the right reward can aid in retaining them.

Segregate loyalty program

You have to be smart and agile to devise your loyalty programs based on the customer type. For instance, a firm selling makeup products can redesign its program for novice users, regular users or master make up artists/professionals. This differentiation helps to reach the targeted audience. Customers are likely to appreciate this move and want to purchase more.

Improve online user experience

It goes without saying that customers want to have the best buying experience online. Hence, it should be accessible on all devices and must be optimized accordingly. The rewards redemption process should be easy for customers. This power move will not just enhance the customer’s online experience such as swift navigation or gamified content and help companies boost their sales.

Give time-bound promotions

Firms can offer festive time-limited promotions that will keep their customers wanting for more. These promotions increase the conversion rate as customers act quickly to grab the best deals. Just remember to keep refreshing the discounted items as per the customer click insights and product preferences.

Add an extra touch of care

An additional touch of kindness or care exhibits your brighter side to your customers and shows that you care about their safety or health. To quote an example,  a pizza shop updated their customers to feel free to take shelter in their shop in case they feel threatened. This touched the customers at a personal level and there was an increased engagement with the existing customers. This helped them to increase their sales and build a trust bond with existing customers.

The point of any brand’s loyalty program is to drive more sales and increase the number of loyal customers. These points are sure to help you create better customer retention for your brand.