Sales Promotions: Getting Action Now

Sales Promotions: Getting Action Now

Sales promotions are a marketing communication tool for stimulating revenue or providing incentives or extra value to distributers, sales staff, or customers over a short time period. Sales promotion activities include special offers, displays, demonstrations, and other nonrecurring selling efforts that aren’t part of the ordinary routine. As an additional incentive to buy, these tools can be directed at consumers, retailers and other distribution partners, or the manufacturer’s own sales force.

Companies use many different forms of media to communicate about sales promotions, such as printed materials like posters, coupons, direct mail pieces and billboards; radio and television ads; digital media like text messages, email, websites and social media, and so forth.

Companies use sales promotions to increase demand for their products and services, improve product availability among distribution channel partners, and to coordinate selling, advertising, and public relations. A successful sales promotion tries to prompt a target segment to show interest in the product or service, try it, and ideally buy it and become loyal customers.

There are two types of sales promotions: consumer and trade. A consumer sales promotion targets the consumer or end-user buying the product, while a trade promotion focuses on organizational customers that can stimulate immediate sales.