Published on: January 20, 2023 | Last updated on: March 13, 2024 |
A difficult part of running any business is attracting customers. Another just as difficult part is retaining them!
There are so many brands out there, operating from brick-and-mortar stores or on the digital shelf, that companies must get creative if they want to succeed.
Of course, promotions are a great way to unlock your business’s full sales potential. But which ones do you need, and how can they work best for you?
In this article, we look at sales promotions and discover how they can drive shoppers to your brand.
Put simply, sales promotions compel customers to purchase products that are better value than elsewhere.
It’s your job as a business to offer the most attractive deal on the market! At least, the most attractive deal for your customer base.
Many shoppers are familiar with the term BOGOF (buy one, get one free); this is a type of sales promotion, but there are lots of others you can leverage to increase your brand’s revenue.
Sales promotions aren’t just for customers; they can benefit your business, too, in big ways.
If run correctly, sales promotions will:
These are just some of the ways you can use sales promotions to increase your brand visibility (and hopefully improve sales!).
When devising your sales promotion strategy, keep in mind the following for a greater likelihood of success:
There is no single type of consumer. As such, you will need to do plenty of research into who you plan on targeting with your sales promotional activity.
Are you looking to attract new shoppers, or reward your most loyal customers? Will you offer discounts to those in specific professions, such as nurses, teachers or service people? Is there an opportunity to engage with one particular demographic you’ve already identified?
Answering the above questions and more will help you pinpoint exactly what sales promotions you need – and where to put them.
Supply and demand is the number one rule in business, and sales promotions are great at leveraging both. By limiting the availability of certain products, and pricing them lower than normal, you’ll increase demand among shoppers and hopefully see sales soar.
Do pay attention to your stock and availability levels, though. Running out of inventory during a limited-time sale will upset your customers and probably drive them to shop elsewhere.
Sales promotions only work when handled carefully and alongside your regular pricing strategy. For instance, if you use everyday low pricing, sales promos aren’t for you because your price point is already low enough to be compelling. Plus, going lower could seriously harm both your profit margins and brand credibility.
If, however, you switch from everyday low pricing but still want to maintain an affordable image, balanced sales promotions in conjunction with day-to-day activity could be a good way of keeping your customers happy.
Businesses who win at the digital shelf have one thing in common: a strong, active online presence. And when it comes to sales promotions, people really need to know you’re there if you want them to take full advantage of any offers currently running!
Highlight your latest promotional activity across the company’s social media channels, as well as other spaces where you know your customers like to congregate. This way, you’re more likely to engage them so they start shopping during your sale.
In the ecommerce world, it’s very tempting to ‘set and forget’ your sales promotions. But you should see every promo as an opportunity to learn and grow as a business.
Treat your combined promotional activity as a test to work out where your brand is performing best in terms of sales. Replicating success is fine, just be careful not to stagnate; customers may cotton on and switch to competitors being a bit more creative with their promos.
Once your sales promotional activity has run its course, don’t forget to measure the success of each campaign. Otherwise, how will you know where to improve next time?!
Use a comprehensive digital shelf analytics (DSA) platform to give you all the information you need to make actionable changes to your sales and marketing promotions. With different metrics, you can identify your strengths and weaknesses for a much stronger approach going forward.
By using our highly intuitive promotion tracker, you can check on your promotional performance, as well as those of your competitors, with Magpie DBX.
Analyse the impact from one central hub that also updates you whenever new promotions appear. Plus, see where they’re appearing, how long they’re running for, and what percentage of website takeover they have.
Think Magpie DBX can help make your sales promotions more successful? Get in touch today to request a demo!
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Shoppers love looking at things, and if you want your business to succeed, you’d better make sure your products are as appealing across the digital shelf – where they’re housed online – as they are within a physical retail space.
Appearing on the digital shelf involves more than just listing your products across multiple channels.
It’s about making sure that you’re presenting them in the right way, so that customers will keep using your brand because they trust that you can deliver.
But retaining customers means first maximising your digital shelf visibility, which is tricky given how crowded the online space has become.
In this article, we look at why digital shelf visibility is so important, as well as suggesting ways of appearing more visible across the internet.
Want to learn more about how Magpie DBX can help your business? Get in touch with us and let us show you!
