Developing Promotions that Increase Your Bottom Line

 
First, I can’t say enough good things about Marketing Sherpa – www.marketingsherpa.com. I can’t afford to purchase any of their reports and research at this point, but even their free information – I subscribe to their newsletters – is exceptional. Applying just the free tips and ideas will put the average marketer far ahead of the pack.

Today’s newsletter featured  the Chart of the Week: Ecommerce – Its’ Not All About Price, which shows a breakdown of how Consumer Products Marketers Rate Engagement and Sales Tactics.

While the focus is on ecommerce, the good news for those of us with just a toe in the water is this: the top performer is the good old fashioned Limited Time/Limited Inventory Promotion, which doesn’t require complex ecommerce software to implement. In fact, it doesn’t require an online presence at all! Marketers have been using this technique for – well, for as long as there have been markets.

Of the marketers surveyed, 49% rate it as Somewhat Effective and 43% rate it as very effective.

Second was Loyalty Programs, with 41% rating them as Somewhat Effective and 31% as very effective. This was followed by: Adding Customer Reviews and Ratings (to your website), Product Videos on the Site, and Special Offers such as gift wrapping, etc. I wonder where free shipping falls in the rankings…

The LTO (Limited Time Offer) is easy to use, even with a static website.

For example, with my online gallery – which is now up and running at www.thebacongallery.com - I plan to use PayPal to handle my online sales.

I haven’t set it up yet and don’t know what promotional options will be available to me with their services. However, I know I can announce an LTO in my website News section, post it on my social networking sites, send out an email blast to my customer database, and even Twitter it – when I have all that stuff set up.

When developing any promotion, it’s important to remember that all the old marketing rules apply; all that’s changed is the media we use to communicate them. And, thank goodness, most of the Internet options are still free!