Promotions will sometimes give businesses a “push” to stimulate the market. Not only helping businesses increase sales, promotions also help businesses build credibility and deep impressions in the hearts of customers.
What is Promotion?
Promotion is a part of trade promotion (Promotion mix), implemented to attract and encourage agents, distributors and customers to participate in the process of buying/selling products of enterprises. Promotions are usually short-lived and always bring many competitive advantages to businesses.
In general, promotions can either entice customers to buy an item they didn’t previously intend to buy, or convince existing customers to buy the product in bulk.
Benefits of promotions
Attract large customer files
Customers are often attracted by the attractiveness of bundled gifts, super vouchers, 50% discount offers, great gifts… in promotions. Therefore, these marketing activities will help businesses gain a large number of customers with only a very small cost.
Build a reputable brand and increase sales
You can completely build your brand reputation and brand name through promotions with meaningful and valuable gifts. Gifts are a great catalyst to increase customer trust and love for products and businesses.
Investing in promotions is a profitable investment that not only resonates in the market but also helps businesses quickly achieve sales goals in a short time.
The most popular forms of promotions today
Direct product discounts
This is the most basic and widely used form of promotion. Products that are directly discounted may be items that are selling slowly at the store. Thus, the discount on specific products, according to a certain % will stimulate curiosity from customers.
Use Vouchers, coupons
Coupons and vouchers are both promotional vouchers given when customers buy products of the business. However, unlike voucher – discount according to the amount printed on the coupon, coupon discount by %. In particular, you can use the coupon offline and online depending on your purpose.
Offering products and services
Usually, for products that are about to expire, new products, or products that are nearing the end of the season will be selected as gifts with the best-selling products at the store.
With the mentality of liking freebies, this will be a way to attract a large number of Vietnamese consumers.
Discount when buying multiple products
Discounts when buying combos are a form of promotion that many stores, supermarkets or commercial centers prefer to use. Same item, but when you buy 2 or more products of the same type, you will get 20% – 30% off.
Promotion on golden day, golden hour, golden week
In addition to major holidays such as Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, International Women’s Day… your business needs to plan and prepare in advance promotions in golden hours, birthday weeks, summer greetings… to Engage users in the buying process, stimulating them to make purchasing decisions faster.
VIP guest privileges
Points cards, gold cards, loyalty cards… are used by most supermarkets, cinemas, and restaurants in Vietnam to attract customers. Invest in promotions on these cards to gain a loyal following.
Customer Gratitude
Customer gratitude is often used for loyal customers who often use the store’s products/services. You can offer promotions such as discounts for customers who buy products on the second payment, discounts on customers’ birthdays, etc.
This not only keeps the file of loyal customers, but also helps to expand the file, helping customers feel more valued.
Free Shipping
Regardless of whether the shipping costs are low or high, almost every customer is happy and satisfied with stores that offer free shipping. So, let’s create unique shipping promotions such as freeship for orders of 250k, free shipping for orders within Hanoi from 99k…
Customers are very willing to buy more products to make their orders more valuable and to enjoy free shipping.
Discount “liquidation”
Liquidation discounts are usually applied to electronic items, shoes, clothes, etc., and do not include exchange or warranty services. These are products that change according to the season, following the trend, so stores often carry out the form of discharge, liquidation of inventory, defective goods with reduced prices ranging from 540% – 90% depending on the type of item. .
Use trial products
The strategy of “using trial products” is a perfect promotion, your business does not need to spend too much money to advertise because there is already a large number of users after trying it, evaluating and referring them to with their family, friends and acquaintances.
This form is often applied to new products, food or perfumes. A statistic shows that: 33% of people who use a sample of a new coffee brand have told family and friends about the brand with high confidence.
Steps to plan promotions
Define target audience and promotion
The first step when planning a promotion is to define the audience and goals of the promotion. What are the characteristics of the target customer group that your business is targeting this time? Are they using your product? Or are you using the opponent’s? What products of your business have they used? What is their attitude to used products, and to new product lines? Their future intentions? How much money do they spend each month to buy products of the business?…
The better you understand the customer profile that the business is aiming for, the better the promotion program will have the right direction to succeed.
After determining who your customers are? What do they need?… the next step is to determine the goal of the promotion: Increase sales, increase conversion rates, or acquire new customer files… The clearer the goal, the better the plan will be. detailed and specific.
Determine the form of promotion
Please choose the form of promotion that is suitable for the product, customer as well as the market at that time. Your business can apply the form of gift giving, winning lottery numbers, selling in combos…
Similarly, if the product of your business is in the high-end category, the form of shock reduction will reduce the value of both the brand and the product, so this is not suitable.
Calculate the budget for each type of promotion
Make a budget that you need to spend, as detailed into each specific item as possible. In addition, you need to budget for additional risks and expenses to be able to come up with an effective promotion strategy.
Define promotional messages
Promotional messages need to follow throughout the campaign. You can cleverly integrate your message into media publications to increase recognition and create a strong impression on customers.
Create an ad for a promotion
Advertising for promotions will help businesses reach more customers and earn more revenue. Therefore, you can completely consider using ads for your campaigns, in terms of goals, budget, and performance.
Summarize and evaluate the results of the promotion program
After the promotion ends, you need to summarize and evaluate the results of the program. Collect all data about customers, calls, visits as well as revenue and profit achieved. Compare the results you have just collected with the original goal set to evaluate the effectiveness of the whole campaign. At the same time, you also need to draw lessons for future promotions.
Promotion plan template
Samples of promotional programs for customers
Conclude
Promotion is an indispensable marketing tool for businesses. You can flexibly combine different promotions into one program for maximum effectiveness. Good luck.
