Sales Promotions That Sell

Sales promotions should be offered to your customers on a semi-regular basis. Too much exposure to this type of marketing technique can backfire on you and not provide the return on investment you need.

Key ingredients to a successful sales promotion include; products or services which match well to specific consumer offers, a physical location to hold the promotion (this could be either retail or website), a participating promotional partner, and the offer itself.

As you develop your sales promotional calendar you should also develop business relationships you can count on for future partnerships. Possibly you would want to partner with another retailer who has a unique group of customers, separate from yours, yet demographically compatible. Offers could be buy one, get one (BOGO), gift with purchase (GWP) etc., something to entice the customer to take action and buy.

In many instances a sales promotion is only executed internally with a data base of current and past customers. In other cases, it could be marketed to the general target group of your business. In each instance the approach to the target market may be different. Possibly a customer only event is held to attract the current or past customers. More traditional media may be used to reach the overall target market of your business.

Experiment with a small sales promotion to lessen the risk. As you feel more and more comfortable in developing the promotions, step up and build bigger and more unique sales opportunities. Be sure to get your entire staff involved in the development and execution of the promotion. The more they are involved, the better the buy in, and typically, the better the ROI.

What are your challenges when it comes to developing sales promotions? I look forward to hearing your comments. Until next time…