Effective promotions to attract customers. Promotions to attract customers

Hello! In this article we will talk about promotions to attract customers.

Today you will learn:

  • How to conduct promotions for;
  • What types of shares exist and how to come up with a share;
  • How to calculate stock performance.

What are “shares” and why are they needed?

During the height of the economic crisis in the country, the issue of attracting new customers faces almost every enterprise. The situation is aggravated by the high level in almost all areas of business.

In such harsh conditions, entrepreneurs are forced to resort to the most stringent measures to attract customers. One of these measures is sales promotion.

Sales promotion – a promotion tool aimed at short-term increase in demand with the help of various promotions that stimulate purchases.

Promotions will allow you to achieve the following goals:

  • Short-term increase in sales volumes;
  • Capture market share for a long time;
  • Attracting new consumers:
  • Poaching consumers from competitors;
  • Stimulating large volumes of purchases;
  • Retaining loyal consumers.

Advantages:

  • Drawing attention to the company, brand and product;
  • Providing information about the product and the company to potential consumers;
  • Significant increase in sales during the promotion period;
  • Quick consumer response to stimulating effects;
  • Sales focus.

Flaws:

  • The short-term impact, as a rule, increases sales only for the duration of the promotion;
  • Often have a negative impact on the image of the organization. If a high-level company begins to sell goods at a discount of more than 70%, it loses wealthy buyers and attracts those who are ready to purchase products only at discounts;
  • Significantly reduces company profits. A discount of even 5% has a painful impact on the company’s profits, which we will talk about a little later.

If these shortcomings don’t scare you, then let’s move on.

Promotion strategy development process

Any activity to attract visitors must begin with developing a strategy. Stocks are no exception.

The process of developing a sales promotion strategy includes the following stages:

  • Formation of sales promotion goals;
  • Identifying suitable stocks, which we will talk about a little later;
  • Development of an incentive program: designation of the timing of the promotion, determination of the amount of the incentive (budget), determination of the conditions for participation in the promotion, methods of promotion and distribution of the incentive package, development of a mechanism for responding to the promotion, preliminary testing;
  • Practical implementation of the incentive program through the use of various promotions;
  • Evaluation of results.

Types of promotions to attract customers

At the moment, there are a very large number of different stock options.

The choice of one or another means of sales promotion depends on the following factors:

  • Specifics of activity.
  • Product type. For example, let's say you sell wedding dresses. It would be strange to give a second when buying one;
  • Store format and location. For example, we own a stall selling pies at the station. There are three more similar stalls next to us. To attract consumers, we decided to hold a promotion. As a gift to a random lucky winner, we are providing a coupon for one free pie per day for a month. However, 90% of our consumers are passing through this place and they will not be interested in this promotion, and it will not help us resolve the issue with competitors;
  • Activities of competitors in this area;
  • Financial capabilities of the company;
  • Purposes of the action.

Determine each of these parameters for yourself. Have you determined? Then let's move on to the types of shares.

Discounts

Discounts are the most popular and easiest way. Buyers are happy to buy goods with red price tags. The more you lower the price, the more purchases you will get. But be careful. Every percentage of the price hurts the margin of your products.

During the month of discounts, sales volume increased by 20% and amounted to 148 pies or 2,664 rubles. The pie margin for the promotion period was: 18-17.3 = 0.7 rubles.

Let's calculate the profit received during the month of the promotion: 0.7 * 148 = 103.6 rubles. Thus, thanks to discounts, we lost 209.4 rubles in profit with an increase in purchases by 20%.

Make it a rule to carry out such calculations before introducing a discount system.

Human psychology is designed in such a way that he practically does not notice a price reduction of less than 15%. Therefore, a 5 or 10% discount will not lead to a significant increase in demand.

Discount forms:

  • Seasonal sales;
  • Discounts for large volume purchases;
  • Discounts in honor of a special occasion (customer’s birthday, store opening date, etc.);
  • Discounts for purchasing a certain category of products.
  • Discount on defective goods;
  • Discount on “product of the day”;
  • Discount when purchasing in ;
  • “Bring a friend” discount.

Please note that the introduction of any discount must be tied to a specific occasion. If you simply lower your prices, the consumer will think about the quality of your product. It is discounts that tend to negatively affect the image of an organization if they are applied ineptly.

Gifts for purchase

This is also a very popular type of promotion. You can give away both your own products and those of your partners for purchase. In the first case, you will again have to calculate the change in sales volumes and profits so as not to go into the negative. But the second option is very tempting.

Find a partner company that needs to promote its product or brand and offer cooperation.

Example. Since the idea of ​​discounts at our pies stall failed, we decided to give gifts for purchases. To do this, we agreed with the store opposite that we would attract our customers to their outlet by issuing them a coupon to receive free tea from them. The store agrees, since the likelihood that a visitor will buy some product from them by going for free tea is very high.

Types of “gift with purchase” promotion:

  • The second lowest priced product is free;
  • Bonus from partners;
  • Lottery;
  • Discount card for purchase.

Loyalty cards

Almost everyone has several cards from their favorite stores in their wallet. They allow the buyer to benefit from shopping in this store.

The following forms of discount cards are distinguished:

  • Discount cards– provide the client with a fixed discount. It does not change during the use of this card. Aimed at retaining visitors and linking them to the outlet;
  • Savings cards– often the amount of benefit depends on the total quantity of goods purchased in monetary terms. The more you bought during the entire period of using the card, the greater your discount. Aimed at increasing the number of purchases and retaining customers;
  • club card– provided to special customers, for example, for a large purchase volume. It carries certain privileges, including: the opportunity to participate in promotions, permanent discounts, gifts.

You can’t just give out cards; time their donation to coincide with some event or set conditions.

Here are some options for you:

  • Store birthday;
  • Large purchase volume;
  • Issuance of discount cards to first visitors;
  • Issuance of cards for participation in the competition;
  • Selling cards.

Competitions and giveaways

This type of stock is actively gaining momentum. Hold a prize draw, come up with a competition, the winners of which will receive your products as a gift. This will allow you to increase company awareness and consumer loyalty.

There are two types of competitions:

  • Related companies. In this case, the buyer must purchase a certain quantity of goods in order to receive a surprise. For example, buy 10 bottles of soda to collect the caps from them and get a prize. Aimed at increasing demand and attracting attention to the company;
  • Unrelated to product. The consumer performs a task without having to purchase the company's product. For example, a consumer must write a story about their day at school in order to receive a free school supply kit.

Tasting

As a rule, it is carried out in large supermarkets. Moreover, this type of promotion is aimed not so much at increasing the sales volume of the product being tasted, but at increasing the sales volume of the supermarket as a whole. According to statistics, consumers who have tried a product buy 25% more than they planned in that store.

We will talk about calculating the effectiveness of this type of promotion a little later.

How to come up with a promotion to attract customers

To come up with a promotion to attract customers, you need to go through the following steps:

  • Define your advertising campaign goals. What do you want to achieve? Increasing sales, increasing customer loyalty, attracting new customers or retaining existing ones. Write down all your goals;
  • Determine the participants of the marketing campaign. Who exactly do you want to influence, who will influence it, who will control its implementation. Discounts can scare away wealthy clients from your company and attract consumers in the middle and low price segment. A club card may have the opposite effect. Promoters, salespeople, and customer service managers can influence consumers. The entire process will be controlled by a director or administrator. All personnel involved in the action must be trained: familiarized with the conditions, and given instructions.
  • Determine the motives of each participant. The consumer is interested in additional benefits, the seller is interested in premiums or bonuses for good results, the administrator is interested in fulfilling the plan, increasing sales volume. Correctly identifying the motives of each participant will allow you to effectively manage the process.
  • Work to identify your customers' needs. What exactly might interest them?
  • Think about when your promotion will be most relevant. For example, ice cream in winter will not cause such a stir among consumers as gingerbread cookies and hot chocolate.
  • Decide on the type of promotion. It directly depends on the one for which you are holding the promotion. It is also important to determine the value of the gift. Remember that a large number of small bonuses attract consumers more than a few expensive gifts.
  • Make the terms of participation in the promotion clear and short, otherwise the client will suspect deception or simply will not study your proposal. There shouldn't be too many conditions.
  • Communicate with your consumer, answer his questions, play with him. This way you will gain precious trust.

Analysis of the effectiveness of the campaign

We have already discussed how to evaluate the effectiveness of discounts; evaluation of the effectiveness of the implementation of loyalty cards, gifts and competitions is carried out in the same way.

Remember that an increase in sales does not at all guarantee an increase in profits, because you lose on a discount or gift. In this case, when calculating efficiency, the gift should be considered as a discount (the cost of the gift = the amount of the discount).

Example. For the purchase of 5 pies at a time, we give chewing gum. The promotion will last one week. The price of chewing gum is 2 rubles. Let's assume that only those who initially wanted to buy them will buy the fifth pie, and we have 10 out of 50 people a week. Thus, thanks to the promotion, sales volume will increase by 200 rubles or by 10 pies. Our margin before the promotion was 2.7 rubles. The sales volume before the promotion was 90 pies. We calculate the profit for the week before the promotion 90 * 2.7 = 2 43 rubles.

Let's calculate how much additional profit we will receive from the promotion: 2.7 * 10 = 27 rubles. And we will lose: 2*10 = 20 rubles. Thus, the promotion will allow us to increase profits by only 7 rubles.

Now let's learn how to calculate the effectiveness of tastings.

Let's say we are conducting a tasting of our pies. The promotion will run for 2 days, 3 hours a day. The price of our product is 20 rubles. The cost is 17.3 rubles.

We plan to reach an audience of 20 people. The number of pies required is 20 pieces. In addition, we need a tray costing 200 rubles and a package of napkins costing 30 rubles.

Thus, the cost of carrying out the campaign will be 576 rubles.

Let's calculate using the formula: Break-even point = total costs/margin = 576/2.7 = 213 pies. We will have to sell this number of pies based on the results of the tasting.

According to the rule of information dissemination, everyone who tastes the pie will tell three of their friends about the product, and each of these three will tell three more.

Thus, the maximum number of buyers who will come to the stall based on the results of the tasting will be 180 people. We don’t know how many pies they will buy, but according to pessimistic calculations (everyone will buy only one pie), this number of buyers is not enough. The project is risky.

Examples of the best stocks

Promotion at the airport.

A couple of years ago, an American airline held a raffle for travel packages. The conditions were as follows: a person waiting for a flight was asked to press a button, after which the computer randomly determined the country to which the lucky person would go. In this case, all travel expenses were paid by the airline.

Free lunch.

One of the Chinese sites ran an interesting promotion. For a month, every hour for 1.5 seconds a button appeared on the resource page, by clicking on which the lucky person received a free lunch. By the way, the number of site visitors increased 4 times this month.

An example from Russia.

The Moscow Geocafe holds a promotion every day. Its conditions are as follows: at 18:00 Moscow time, a drawing for a free dinner was held between cafe visitors. The winner was determined randomly. Second and third places were also determined and received a bottle of wine and a 50% discount on their order, respectively.

Promotion in the store.

In one of the Vilnius denim stores, the following promotion was held: all customers who came without pants were given free jeans of their choice. As a result, on the day of the promotion, a line of freebie lovers lined up in the store. However, be careful with such promotions, otherwise you may face legal consequences.

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You cannot force people to buy your product; you can only interest them in buying this product

David Ogilvy

Each company resorts to a variety of advertising techniques to attract customers and increase its sales volumes.

Firms periodically organize events to attract customers, which stimulate the interest of potential audiences in the company's products.

The most frequently used advertising methods today are all kinds of promotions, quizzes and competitions, which allow you not only to attract new customers, but also to better learn their needs, desires and much other useful, quite interesting information.

It should be noted that events for clients can pursue several goals and be both low-budget and quite expensive. They can be aimed at increasing sales, introducing customers to new products, as well as stimulating the purchase of “slow-selling”, that is, goods that are not in particular demand.

What kind of customer promotions are there, where and how are they usually held, and what prizes do they offer so that potential consumers have an incentive to participate?

Requirements for promotions

Before finding out, it’s worth saying a few words about the conditions for holding such events. Properly organized advertising campaigns to attract customers must be closely related to the product promoted by the company.

This means that the conditions of the competition or quiz must relate to the products that the company offers, and not go separately from each other.

For example, this could be the consumption of a specific product (“cut out and collect 10 product names and get a guaranteed prize”), its detailed study (“find 6 differences in the pictures and get a prize”), photographing, sketching, collecting some either information about the product or anything else.

What promotions are available for clients?

Advertising campaigns to attract customers can be very different - it all depends on the imagination and capabilities of their creators. These can be entertaining quizzes, photo competitions (for example, “my family’s favorite product”), creative competitions (for example, “write a poem about the benefits of a product, a new beautiful slogan or an unusual script for a video, come up with your own recipe from the product”).

These can also be promotions (“collect 6 product codes, come to the number and receive a prize”), special promotional sites for promoting products, and so on.

Photo competitions are considered especially popular today. This is not surprising, because practically every Russian family has devices with which you can capture something (this can be either a professional camera or the simplest mobile phone with a camera).

Therefore, this opens up opportunities for almost everyone to take part. The second position is occupied by creative competitions. In our country there are a lot of talented people who are able to compose beautiful poems, come up with brilliant slogans and write extraordinary scripts.

Other promotions for attracting customers are no worse than photo and creative competitions. Companies also use them quite often and not without success.

Where are promotions held?

Advertising campaigns to attract customers are usually carried out in company offices, having previously announced this through television, advertisements, invitation cards, and so on, at exhibitions, in retail locations, as well as on the company’s official website or on any third-party thematic resources.

An announcement about an event for clients is given on the Internet in the form of a banner or link, and in order to attract the maximum number of people, you can use the platforms of well-known and popular social networks.

Important details when preparing and conducting promotions for clients

A company, preparing for a promotion, photo contest or creative competition, must think through everything to the smallest detail before holding it: how long the event will last, its main conditions, what main audience it is intended for and what the prizes will be.

Prizes are perhaps one of the most important points, since they are the main driving force of the event and the main incentive for the actions of the participants. No one will buy, cut or invent anything if the prize does not represent any value.

The more valuable it is, the more people it will attract to participate in the action. But it should be noted that the total value of the prizes should not exceed the company’s planned profit, otherwise this idea simply loses all meaning.

Promotions for regular and VIP clients

Firms should not forget about events for their already established audience. Promotions for regular customers inspire greater respect and trust in the company, strengthen relationships, and stimulate further purchases.

Events for VIP clients are held by companies with the aim of conveying information to the right people, presenting new products or services, as well as encouraging them for their choice and trust. Usually the company gives them all valuable gifts, because these are its key clients, on whom its success and prosperity mainly depend.

Bag as a gift

As everyone has known for a long time, the engine of trade is advertising. Of course, advertising should not be “anyhow”, but one that engenders in the souls of potential buyers the seeds of demand for a product of a certain brand or store, and in addition, diligently and carefully cultivates these seeds right up to the moment of making a purchase. Advertising must also maintain the buyer’s loyalty to its product, so that, other things being equal, he chooses the advertiser’s product. All over the world, to create and maintain “love” and customer commitment to their product, clothing stores and boutiques conduct promotions, and these promotions can be either standard (simple, but working) or quite original. Let's consider both those and other options.

When opening a new clothing store, of course, it is simply necessary to conduct an advertising campaign with the goal that your potential customers will simply found out about availability such store. In this case, the simplest promotions that a newly opening clothing store can carry out are all kinds of discounts, gifts, and discount cards for new customers.

Two for the price of one

You can run promotions such as “two for the price of one”, “three for the price of two”, “discount on things with a red price tag”, “discount of so many percent for buyers, for example, with a green bag” (while selling these same green bags at attractive prices), “prices without extra charge for certain goods”, “we trade at a loss, offering you prices 2 times lower than the purchase price for such and such a product”, “fill out the form at the checkout and receive a discount card as a gift” , “happy hours in the store - a discount of so many percent, for example, from 11 to 12,” etc. In fact, there are a lot of options for promotions. A standard promotion would be attractive promoters handing out flyers with a discount coupon for your store. We talk about “standard” promotions, meaning they are simple and effective. That is, you can adopt any of the above options and get positive effects. Of course, it is worth carrying out advertising campaigns using the support of well-known media in your region (radio, newspapers, television, Internet portals).

Unusual promotions

Now let's look at the option of how you can conduct an unusual advertising campaign that would attract the largest number of potential and actual customers to a clothing store or boutique.

An example of a short-term and effective advertising campaign is a promotion held in one of the large Vilnius stores of expensive denim clothing. Having announced in advance that customers who came to the store without pants at a certain time would have the opportunity to choose stylish jeans for free, the store management received the result in the form of a queue of young guys and girls in their underpants lined up at the store doors at the right time. Since the promotion lasted only 10 minutes, the store didn’t really lose out on free jeans, but more about this promotion and the store itself there were long conversations, and the “wave” of buyers for “paid” jeans was quite long. By the way, does this incident remind you of anything? Many years ago, the Euroset mobile phone store held an even more shocking promotion: customers who came to the store completely naked gave me a brand new mobile phone.

People are sometimes ready for madness

Thus, we can conclude that “people are ready to do a lot for free,” they are even ready to do crazy things. Start an original, even crazy, flash mob advertising campaign, connect the media to this event, especially the Internet, television, so that this campaign is written and talked about beforehand and subsequently, so that there are photographs and videos - and your clothing store will be talked about for a long time they will talk. Word of mouth works clearly and effectively; as experience shows, people trust rumors even more than openly presented information. Loud and scandalous advertising campaigns eventually become urban legends, and the name of the store that staged a grandiose flash mob becomes recognizable and attracts the attention of visitors.

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From time to time, websites run advertising promotions to attract customers. Even if a company offers the consumer some kind of discount, it is not at all a fact that this promotion will attract the customer’s attention. Why? How do stores usually reason when giving a customer a discount? A simple example. Gave a 10-15% discount to visitors and sit, sip coffee and don’t forget to count the money from sales. But it was not there.

In fact, if you follow this principle, store sales will tend to zero. Competition is growing every day. And there is less and less creativity, and advertising campaigns are no exception. Everyone gives a 10-15% discount for selection and waits for something, working at a loss. But there is a discount! What promotions are needed then to increase sales?

Promotions to attract customers

1. Express savings as a percentage and in rubles

Let's consider an example: the company decided to hold a promotion to attract attention: “Gives a 15% discount on a product that costs 7,590 rubles.” It may seem that the prospect of saving 15% will help attract a client and increase sales.

What really? The client does not see his benefit: 15% is how much in rubles? Correct answer: 1138.50 rub. But do you think customers will calculate this themselves to understand how much they are saving? Most won't bother with this. Rather, they will look for another store where it is clearly and specifically indicated how much they can save. Fortunately, there is a lot of choice now.

The solution is obvious: To attract, indicate exactly how much the client saves when purchasing a product in the store. Agree, “savings - 1138.50 rubles.” sounds clearer and more interesting than “some 15% discount.”

2. Short deadline

The shorter the duration of your promotion, the better for increasing sales. What does the client think when the company decides to hold a promotion that is valid for 1-1.5 months? “I’ll have time, what’s the hurry. I have a whole month ahead of me.” It’s not hard to guess that the client will simply forget about the interesting promotion. And the company will wait for him to remember about the excellent offer and hurry up to place an order.

Promotion to increase store sales

This promotion is very popular among car sellers to increase sales. An example of an attraction method: On the last day of the month, car buyers can receive a RUB 5,000 discount. True, there are no cheap cars available, but there is one in a more expensive configuration. With a discount it will cost the same as a cheap one without a discount.

And another interesting condition of the promotion: the sale must be completed today, before the last day of the last month ends. Many customers are aware of the tricks of sellers, but still fall for these promotions.

Example of a promotion: Today is SALE! TODAY ONLY... Bring this car home in time for dinner. The keys are in the ignition, the tank is full, she's waiting for you!

Time is a tool for creating scarcity. Phrases like “Offer valid for a limited time” create the effect of time pressure. This helps attract customers to the store.

3. Prepayment

Does the company provide prepayment services? A client who is ready to pay 100% immediately should be given a discount.

4. Pre-order

Another situation: soon some new goods or services should go on sale in the store. But you can start actively promoting them now. Warm up your customers' interest in upcoming new products, including through interesting promotions. Example: take and provide a discount to those customers who placed an order for a new service/product before the start of sales.

5. Rationale

Any promotion launched by the company must be “transparent”. “What’s the point of such generosity,” the buyer might think. Perhaps they are selling him another product that has been left behind or is not in demand? And no one wants to be a donkey.

To prevent this from happening, it is important to justify your interesting promotions. Example: “In honor of a holiday”, “For the company’s birthday”, “Store opening”, “Seasonal discounts” or something else.

6. Gift

A discount is good, but a gift is better. It is more tangible and understandable for the client.

Marketing campaign for stores

Example: “When purchasing in our store for an amount of 6,900 rubles. one of four exclusive shower gels as a gift” (Fig. 1)

Fig. 1 A discount is good, but a gift is better

7. Club cards

Pamper your regular customers. Don't forget about them. They are your loyal fans, cheerleaders. They need to be treated with care. Come up with some special, interesting promotions for them. Available only to them. Show that they belong to a privileged, exclusive club.

8. 1 purchase = 10 gifts

Be more creative in your sales. Come up with new formats for promotions.

Promotions for stores

Example: Provide a discount when purchasing a larger volume (Fig. 2). Or make not one gift, but several - a kind of set. “For any purchase over 3,000 rubles. in the period from June 1 to June 10, you receive 10 gifts."

Fig. 2 A discount for the volume of a one-time purchase encourages buyers to purchase a larger “batch” of goods

9. Cumulative discounts

This type of promotion will help attract new customers and form a base of regular ones. It will be more difficult for the client to leave and make a purchase from someone other than you. You thereby “softly” tie him to your company.

10. Related products

Make an interesting promotion not for the main product, but for some related product. Thus, the sale is no longer just one product, but a complete set. At the same time increasing store sales.

11. Only one pair left in your size

An artificial shortage in a store is created very simply. When we see the phrase “Only one pair left in your size” or “Last set left in stock,” we subconsciously feel that we better hurry up and make a purchase. Artificial scarcity is good for attracting attention and increasing sales.

Example of a promotion for travel agencies

“Buy now! Only 2 tickets left at this price!

Thus, if there is a shortage of any product, its value in our eyes increases and we want to get it even more. The product becomes more valuable and desirable to us.

12. Expensive things can’t be bad.

The promotion is that the more expensive the product (and therefore less accessible), the higher its quality. We subconsciously prefer expensive goods. Our subconscious tells us: expensive means good!

13. Sorry, but you can't have it.

Another promotion is to introduce restrictions from time to time. When something cannot be obtained, then real scarcity begins. The more inaccessible the goal, the stronger the desire to achieve it. As a result, the stricter the prohibitions in stocks, the more we will strive to circumvent them.

Bottom line: The value and desirability of any thing often depends on how difficult it is to obtain. Limited products or promotional periods create a subconscious fear among visitors that they may be late. And this forces them to act.

Promotions to attract customers: 3 important rules

  • The promotion must justify your costs. Don't work at a loss.
  • Don't sell discounted items en masse. On the one hand, you will get more attracted customers, but you are sure that they will buy your product without a discount. Introduce promotions proportionally - only for a limited set of goods.
  • Make new promotions on different products at different periods of time. And watch the reaction of buyers.

Efficiency of the actions carried out

Take a look at your stocks and adjust them based on the recommendations outlined. Using the 13 examples of the best options outlined in the article.

Successful promotions to you!

P.S. Do you want to increase sales without increasing your advertising budget? Then this is the place for you - Increase conversion

The article was written for the magazine “Marketer”

Read other useful articles

"Promotion. What could be simpler?

It’s okay if you are interested in the event itself, and not the result.

Yes, you can plan a promotion, even one that is very profitable for customers. But this is not enough. It needs to be properly developed and presented.

Let's assume that a household appliance store has decided to run a promotion whereby any buyer of a meat grinder receives a blender as a gift.

This is quite a valuable offer that will interest visitors.

Now imagine if this promotion “reaches” potential clients, for example, in this format: “When you buy a meat grinder, you are guaranteed to receive a good gift”.

It will be a bit boring. Even “guarantees” and “good” adjectives will not help here.

What is the benefit of such an action?

That’s why it’s important to be able to create and “voice” a promotional offer - to convey it to the audience in such a way that a person will want to drop everything and rush to your store for shopping.

Let's look at how to do this correctly. Let's start by answering the question...

What does the classic stock formula look like?

Indeed, there is a template formula for “selling shares.” And you all know her well:

offer + limiter + call to action

A proposal is your offer. The message you want to convey to your audience. It should be clear, concise and enticing.

Limiter - any “framework”. These are limits on the duration of the event or the quantity of goods that take part in the promotion. It is important to “hint” here that the proposal is not forever. Those who didn’t make it were late (and perhaps forever).

A call to action is what needs to be done (directing a person to a specific action). With its help, you explain to the potential buyer what he should do to receive the coveted “prize”.

Even on its own, this formula gives good results. But don’t rush to stop studying our article and take action.

If you pick up knitting needles and learn to distinguish purl stitches from knit stitches, this does not mean that you will create a beautiful knitted masterpiece that you can be proud of.

You must be able to “manage” all this. Know a lot of schemes and subtleties so that the end result pleasantly surprises you and does not upset you.

1. Eliminate surprises and intrigue

In the case of promotional offers, intrigues and riddles of any format do not show very good results (“Buy refrigerator X and find out what an interesting GIFT awaits you”).

Buyers are already fed up with all sorts of trivial surprises (when you buy a bread machine on sale in the hope of getting at least a useful book with recipes, but you get a simple loaf).

They stopped responding to them.

Therefore, use specifics if you want to attract buyers, of course.

No surprises or intrigue in style "PROMOTION! The lowest prices for the entire model range ____" or “A nice gift for every customer ____”.

The ideal option is the exact cost of the goods (“ Designer bag ____ at a SUPER price: only 6790 rubles instead of 9530"). This item becomes mandatory when the price is not indicated (“ minus 30% of the unknown"is unlikely to interest anyone).

2. Make the offer as tempting as possible.

The abundance of “variegated” offers did their job - the person became demanding (and even spoiled). He needs more, more often, better.

Today no one is interested “minus 5% on your next order in a restaurant" or " 20 rubles discount on orders over 1000».

Is it worth announcing such events at all?

You will waste your time. It’s better to let everything remain unchanged than to make a fuss about a soap bubble.

Buyers need generous offers (discounts of 30% or more, gifts here and now, sales on popular goods). Then it will be attracting new people, and not scaring away regular customers.

Remember about profitability so as not to go into the red.

Give as much as you can afford ( “Two fresh apples for the price of one from Monday to Friday”, “Minus 40% on any pizza when ordering from 21.00 to 8.00”, “salon ____ gives half the amount of your check”).

At the same time, it is important not just to give out gifts, but to “retain” the client. Otherwise, all promotions are meaningless.

3. Seize the moment

The promotion is most effective when it is carried out at the right time and has a “seasonal” emphasis. Simply put, this is the “mobility” of the proposal itself depending on a specific holiday, date, time of year.

What do we want to say?

Your offer must be relevant.

Let's look at the example of a beauty salon. What “gift” can you give to clients, say, by March 8?

Let's reason. It's spring, it's time to put hats in the back drawer. There is a complete “reboot” of the appearance. Free hair tinting or styling can be provided.

But in winter, when almost everyone puts on hoods and hats, “pleasant bonuses” in the form of hair treatment or haircut correction will be relevant.

Offer what the person needs at the moment.

One more example: " How to quickly prepare your body for summer? Buy ____ sneakers before the end of March and get a FREE gym membership ____».

The current promotion will be a success.

4. Make life easier for your customers

Try not to overload with requests: “Buy ____ toothpaste. Be sure to keep your receipt, then fill out the form given at the checkout. In a week, come back to us, present your receipt and receive your long-awaited gift.".

This is an exaggerated diagram. However, this approach is often encountered during various promotions (here it is not only the receipt procedure that is annoying, but also the way it is announced).

Present the “prizes” immediately, without clutter and ornate labyrinths.

A person should feel pleasure from the purchase, and not “get” the feeling that he was deceived somewhere (he spent money, but still doesn’t have a gift).

However, even when offering complex schemes for obtaining “candy,” do it at least in such a way as to clearly convey the essence to buyers.

Let's slightly adjust the promotion with toothpastes: “Only 2 steps separate you from the gift! You need to buy toothpaste X and fill out a simple questionnaire. Exactly one week later you will receive Y for FREE upon presentation of the receipt".

5. Deliver on everything you promise.

Even if you really want to evade what you promised, it is better not to do so.

So, let's say you announced the start of an event: “Hurry before April 5 to buy a vacuum cleaner ____ at a SUPER price - 3540 rubles. You save 1500 rubles".

Customers liked the offer, the product quickly sold out. And you come up with the “brilliant” idea to extend the promotion "due to numerous requests from customers".

There are two points here...

First, early stage participants will lose the joy of their purchase. They tried to make it in time - to be among the chosen ones. Although there was no need to rush.

And, secondly, clients will already be wary of all your subsequent offers.

Distrust is formed instead of loyalty.

6. Make sure there are no repetitions

Let's look at a real example. There is a subscription to elite varieties of Chinese tea. Every week this store calls Black Friday and announces a 10% discount on orders over 100 grams of tea.

I would like to ask: “Does anyone even buy from you on other days?”. This is no longer a promotion, but a sale of goods on Fridays.

The feeling of excitement and novelty is lost.

Therefore, you should not repeat it often (both with the timing and with the “bonus” itself). Experiment, put your event in other forms, even if you work in a fairly narrow niche in which it is difficult to please with variety.

Offer free delivery or holiday packaging, make Mondays “black”, maneuver, say, with types of tea, etc.

Here we want to remind you that you need to analyze in detail the character and behavior of your clients. You should know who exactly is buying the product, what is important to this person.

If you are afraid of making a mistake, then it is better to take a neutral position.

For example, the logical chain “washing machine-washing-woman” may be erroneous. And, offering a promotion “Washing machine X + cream Y as a gift for lovely ladies”, you will fail (men often choose washing machines).

A win-win option would be “Washing machine X + 10 kg of washing powder Y as a gift”.

A few more important points

It is necessary to take into account:

  • The needs and desires of your clients.
  • The need to attract them to further purchases.
  • The relevance of the proposal itself.
  • Compliance with gender and seasonal “norms of behavior.”

But most importantly, if you write your action in the text, pay attention to the style and presentation of information. One wrong move and you can easily go into the red even with the coolest bonuses and prizes.

It is important to be able to correctly convey the essence of the proposal to the audience.

This is the same selling text that needs to be composed correctly - the way our studio does it (you can see examples of work in).

Everyone must do HIS job.

Then the result will be a flow of new loyal customers.