You have a lot of choices when it comes to online promotions for your business, but some of them could be better for your company than others. So how do you sift through the smorgasbord that is online promotion and get down to the nitty-gritty of what’s best for your company? You first need to start off by asking yourself four fundamental questions:
- What am I trying to accomplish?
- Am I shooting for higher-order values?
- Is my goal to engage more people with my site?
- Do I just want more overall orders?
How you answer these questions should help mold your marketing strategy during your promotion.
Once you’ve asked some of these soul-searching questions and established the goals of your marketing campaign, you should consider your target audience and how to best reach them. If you are trying to analyze your target market, consider using individual coupon codes for each platform you advertise on. This will give you valuable insight into where your customers come from so you can tailor future promo efforts to meet their needs.
Once you have your specific audience and goals in mind, you may need to make some modifications to your website. Include promo codes in the banners and modify your Call to Action (CTA) to reflect the current promotions. Strive to maintain continuity across all your different marketing platforms—whether it be a Facebook promo, PPC advertising, email marketing, or paper pamphlets. Keep your design elements uniform across your campaign.
You also need to keep your SEO in mind as you run your promotions. You can coordinate your promotions with your blog posts to enforce your offers. Between your authentic blog posts and the various links and backlinks that are built through your advertising, you should be in a good place SEO-wise.
Here are a few promotion ideas to consider. The one(s) you choose will depend upon your end goal and target audience.
- BOGO coupon: This promo rewards your customers with an additional coupon after they use their existing one. If they feel like they are being rewarded for using a coupon that saves them money, they’ll have good feelings toward your company and be much more likely to come back for more.
- Donate to charity: Offering to donate a certain amount or percentage of each sale to charity can help your customers feel like their purchase is helping someone other than themselves. This can give you good PR and yield positive word-of-mouth referrals.
- Refer a friend: Referral coupons are excellent ways to expand your network while encouraging repeat customers. The original customer feels like they are helping a friend, and both the friend and the customer benefit with matching coupons. It’s a win-win!
- Bundles: If you own a retail company, this could be an excellent way for you to make some additional sales. Monitor your customers’ choices and prompt pre-designed bundles that match their interests once they have made their selections. If you offer matching items in the bundle at a slight discount, your customer will feel like they’re getting a good deal. This can translate into your raising your average sale by a significant margin.
- Free Shipping: It seems like free shipping is everywhere, but it may not be in your company’s best interest to offer it all the time. During your promo, you can offer free shipping if the total purchase is over a certain amount. That will boost your overall sales and help offset the cost of free shipping. You could also offer free shipping for their next purchase, which will encourage them to come back as a repeat customer.
After your customers have made a purchase, make sure to follow up with a thank you email. Genuinely express your appreciation for their patronage and invite them to come back to your store again. You may even consider offering another incentive if they leave a review about their shopping experience. Remember to think through all aspects of your promo before you launch it so that all of your efforts pays off.
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