Sales promotion examples
You will need to use some form of promotion to encourage sales of your product or service.
Sales promotions are often original and creative and there are many popular options, for example:
Buy-One-Get-One-Free
incentives such as bonus points, vouchers, money-off coupons, competitions and prize draws
time-sensitive incentives can be used to encourage customers to purchase immediately rather than waiting for a better deal or shopping elsewhere
promotional messages via new media including websites and mobile phones that support sales promotions
point-of-sale materials and product demonstrations
free gifts and loyalty points
discounted prices
joint promotions – between brands owned by the same company or with a brand from another company
free samples
fair-trade and cause-related products such as those which help charities
finance deals – no or low finance, or buy now pay later
first time customers can be offered special deals in order to help turn them from browsers into purchasers
online coupons for customers who have registered for an account or subscribed to a newsletter
It is important to ensure that any promotions and offers will still make you a profit even if very successful and taken up by lots of customers.
Pricing
Strategically, pricing is very important as it is related to product positioning and affects other marketing elements such as product features, distribution and promotion.
There are many ways to price a product, for example:
premium pricing – a high price for unique products or services
penetration pricing – an artificially low price to gain market share before the price is increased
economy pricing – no-frills low price usually associated with economy brands
promotional pricing
For further information see price your product or service.