In the midst of creating your marketing production plan and strategy, it’s important to keep in mind any promotional opportunities throughout the year. Look at upcoming periods that would be optimal for planning out promotions and sale generating activity. We aren’t just talking about a product based company having a semi-annual sale. This can be applied to any business from selling a product or service to bringing in donations as a non-profit to generating buzz around a special announcement.
The first step is to think through the year. Use what’s already coming up. Does your company generate more activity during certain seasons or time of the year? Are there holidays or special dates that apply to your business practices? Mark them on your calendar and plan out your promotion strategy to effectively generate the activity you want during those times. Don’t let these dates creep up on you then it’s too late to promote your idea.
Next step is to research what news, promotions, or activity attracts our target audience. If you haven’t had the traffic flow and sales you’d hoped for in previous years, it’s time to assess where you may have been lacking and how to pull them back in. If something stood out as a strong point then elaborate on that again. What to think about: Do your customers respond well to social media contents? Do they love getting promotional codes via ENewsletters? Does it make sense for you to host an annual appreciation event allowing you to promote the items you wish to a “live” audience? Take a look at the marketing and sales generating efforts you put forth in past years. What pulled traffic back to your site? What encouraged your followers to click and follow through? If what you’ve done so far hasn’t been successful, it might be time to get advice from a professional. (Give us a call!). Take a look at your competitors, is what they are doing working? How can you take that and make it your own?
Get creative. Once you feel confident that you’ve marked your calendar and you have a good handle on the types of marketing you need to create to accomplish your goals then think creatively. Make it interesting, make your audience want to come back. Yes, getting a simple promotional code with a discount is great. Yes, knowing you can rely on your favorite business to have an offer or an event that you love each year. Predictability is certainly nice…to an extent. At the same time you need to generate new activity, new customer flow, new traffic that opens it up for increased buzz flowing all around your business. Predictability can lead to less checking in, less of a need for your customers to have to return to your website and/or social media because they know what they can expect and they’ll get to it when they feel like. Having new, exciting activity and calls to action for them to receive any benefit encourages them check in, to share with their friends and family who may share similar interests. Create eye-catching promotions that they want to open. Think about what you would want to receive in order to follow through with what’s being presented.
Take a leap. Remember you need to give to get back. You can’t expect any sensible consumer to stay loyal to any business if they get nothing in return. It’s the lay of the land in today’s world of endless deals, bigger and better, and greener grass on every corner. Taking a little bit of risk and stepping outside your comfort zone of promotions or sales or event possibilities can open up a new world with your marketing reach potential. The bigger the idea or plan, the bigger the return. We aren’t saying every action needs to be bigger than the next. We are saying it’s in good practice to consider a larger marketing promotion within your year to keep your customers coming back and to gain new ones.
Finally, share, spread the news, and follow through. Promote, promote, promote. Don’t think sharing it once is enough. Send reminders, give updates along the way. After the item is complete send a follow-up. Keep the interest flowing don’t let your efforts go to waste. Don’t let what was a good idea fall back just because you didn’t get the desired results due to lack of effort on your end.