The anatomy of a good promotional offer: Promoting your offer to the world.
Blog. Email. Tweet. Post.
These days, promoting your offer to the world requires more than sending out a single email and waiting for the sales to come in. A successful strategy requires integrated planning across your marketing and social channels. Running the offer multiple times across multiple channels helps it to sink in with your audience, especially since every other business is trying to reach the same shoppers.
Of course, email is still an effective way to communicate with your existing customers. They work particularly well when your promotion has a "customers only" component, such as a gift or discount for customers who introduce family and friends to your business.
Launch your holiday promotions through social channels such as Facebook and Twitter, offering special promotions for those who follow you online—such as a gift with purchase, discount, or shipping upgrade. It can help soften the "hard sell," generate sales, and bring in referrals, as fans are likely to forward your offer, bringing first time visitors to your brand.
Finally, consider creating non-sales content—stories that interest or entertain your audience—to drive content through your website. It's a great way to support your holiday promotions.
Creating the offer
No matter what time of channel you're promoting your offers in, follow these best practices for communications:
- Make it clear: Make the benefit to the customer clear and simple, so they know what’s in it for them.
- Make it original: Make your promotion memorable and entertaining. The less it's like the generic offer that your competition is running, the better.
- Give it urgency: Make it clear to visitors when the offer expires. Use phrases such as "Hurry—offer ends December 20th!"
- Tell them what to do: Make sure there’s always a clear call to action in your promotional materials—something to click or a number to call. Make the calls-to-action action-oriented, such as a "Buy Now" or "Get the Discount."
Pro Tip: “Use marketing automation, such as Hubspot or Marketo.” says Tracey Wallace, Editor-in-Chief of the Bigcommerce Blog. “This type of software allows you to set up automated emails and create various nurture streams based on both site and email behavior. For instance, if a customer bought a particular bundle—send them a follow-up email about products often bought with that bundle. If that customer clicks the email, make sure to follow-up with a discount if they don’t purchase. If that customer didn’t open the email or click the link in the email, try a different headline or a different message. You can set all of these nurture streams up ahead of time, so you can focus on other things during the rush, while your email marketing works for you.”
Get started now!
Hopefully, you've been planning your holiday offer campaigns for a while. If not, don't stress: accomplishing even just one or two of our recommendations can help make this a more successful shopping season.