Three simple ways your Website can work for you.
The Promotion Trends Report by Promo Magazine, revealed that consumer
promotional spending for companies in 2002 was 233.7 billion. Spending
increased 3.7% in 2002, signaling a strong trend of businesses adding
promotional marketing to their overall advertising budget.
Web Design and Promotional Marketing?
Promotional marketing is a business marketing strategy designed to draw
customers in. It allows a first time buyer the opportunity to try your product
or service while remaining in a comfort zone. Who can resist a deal? You've
probably even made a purchase based on the "just because it was a good
deal" right. Promotional marketing is a technique that includes
various incentives to buy, such as:
Contests
We all like to win... and we all like something for free.
Contests offer an attractive marketing vehicle for small business to acquire
new clients and create awareness. This doesn't need to be expensive and extravagant;
just a valuable prize to your target market.
Use your Web site to promote a simple contest. Getting people to register
through your site in return for the possibility to win a giveaway is an excellent
way to gather a client list that will help you keep in contact with your
potential customers.
Coupons
Over 76% of the U.S. population use coupons, according to the Promotion Marketing Association (PMA) Coupon Council. Coupons still work and provide an affordable marketing strategy for small business. Overall coupon distribution in 2004 grew 9% to 342 billion coupons according to CMS, a promotion management company.
BOOYA Web Design can create a system that puts up a coupon on your site durring typically slow days. This takes minimal effort on your part to get started and there is no need to continually change pages, the scheduler will do it for you. This is an effective way to reduce the need for print and mailing. Take it a step further and have your customers sign up to receive the coupons via email and build your customer list.
Sampling
Do free samples work? Giving your product away for free may seem profit limiting but consider the case of Seth Godin. Godin released a book called "The Idea Virus" in 2000. Unlike other authors, he did not charge for the book instead gave it away for free as an e-book. In less than 30 days over 400,000 copies were downloaded. This created a buzz about the book and even though it was free, people bought the hard cover; making the book #5 on the Amazon best seller list.
Consider a bar or resteraunt that sells promotional t-shirts and hats:
Place your promotional items in an online catalog for pickup only;
no shipping option. Then promote it by offering a free drink when they
come in to pick up merchandise purchased online. This gets the
customer back to your establishment one more time and they feel like they got
a deal.
Take it a step further now that you have the customer's contact information and send them a coupon after they've picked up their merchandise!