Using Promotions to Increase Sales
by Scott F. Geld
http://www.marketingblaster.com
If you have a business or company, you probably already know
how important promotions can be. There are many different
types of promotions and there are promotions for start up
companies and businesses as well as price-based promotions
and pricing discounts.
As the price of your product is key to your success, it is
little wonder that price promotions are amongst the most
popular form of advertising that we see in today's market.
Pricing strategy for a price-based promotion can be very
difficult. As a business you obviously want to make a
profit, but your customers must also feel that they are
having a bargain.
Special offers and discounts all work to sell your customer
on price. You don't want to sell completely on price. You
want to sell on the actual product and the quality of your
product. But occasional special offers can be a good idea.
Instead of offering a free unit or a free item, you might
offer a price discount.
Companies make the mistake of letting their customers depend
on coupons and discounts and then they don't want to buy
unless you have them. This is a bad way to do business. You
might offer a one-time only special to new customers but
then your current customers may feel they are missing out on
a deal.
Consider your pricing carefully; it must appeal to your
audience but not leave you out of pocket. Will you be
offering this promotion to existing customers as well as
new customers? Will there be any limits on the numbers
that people can buy at this special price? How long will
the promotion last?
How are you going to distribute these discounts? Are you
going to send out coupons or are you going to issue codes
that people can use online? Will these offers be restricted
to new or existing customers?
You also need to plan for your redemption rates. This is the
percentage of people who want the coupon and this can be a
little tricky to figure out. But you can look in records,
your past data and also comparisons to others to help you
decide on your redemption rate.
If you do your research and plan your marketing promotions
properly, you will find some success in using them. But
remember that publicity and word of mouth are just as or
even more- effective when it comes to marketing.
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