Do your promo like a pro

I have worked with clients who have reached their annual growth targets by midyear because of the success of one great promotion. You can create similar results for yourself in every business with the right formula. Promotions are valuable tools to stimulate interest, build brand awareness, and increase your products or services. But, unfortunately, they should be short-term, a quick sprint to achieve business goals quickly.

It may be a flurry of activity for your team for a brief period, but the ultra hyped environment, heightened visibility, and spiked sales, while unsustainable, will eventually flatline and decrease almost as quickly as it started with you hopefully meeting your target.

However, planning a promotion can be a bit tricky with so many moving parts to keep track of and sync in time for the scheduled launch date. So today's blog will share with you some promo pointers to help you make a plan that will bring the sales reeling in.

"There is only one winning strategy. It is to carefully define the target market and direct a superior offering to that target market." ~ Philip Kotler.

We cannot stress the importance of identifying your target audience for any promotion enough. A promotion with no specific target audience, and worse still, an inadequate offer is like groping in the dark for a light switch in a house unfamiliar to you. You might eventually find it, but not before stumbling over and breaking a million things on your way there. You, therefore, need to be clear on exactly who you are selling to when promoting your product or service. Ask yourself how this particular product or service benefits the lives of your customers or a specific group of customers. For example, how effective will a sales promotion selling lab coats, blood pressure kits, and stethoscopes be for students at a business university? Or imagine trying to promote the sale of winter gear and equipment in the Caribbean?

Taking the time to learn and understand your product or service's unique audience will put you well on the way to having an effective promotion plan.

Your promotional message should communicate to consumers your product or service, and why they should purchase. It should be a simple but memorable message that strongly encourages consumers to buy and clearly states the promotion incentives. In today's digital world, where we consume content a mile a minute, you want to create a bold promotional headline and message that will stop shoppers in their tracks.

Remember that your marketing message, while aiming to solve a problem with a promotional element, should also provide a bonus. So, think about what you can include to help the customer take that last step to make a purchase.

Added features to create urgency like a limited time offer or a while stocks last messaging can stir up the fear of missing out (FOMO) in all of us. Consider this when crafting your messaging.

Equally as important as knowing your audience and messaging is your choice of media. However, choosing a suitable medium for your promotion is highly influenced by your audience's nature, habits, and preferences. For example, you may want to use social media marketing, digital Ads, and video content if your target audience spends most of their time on web-based activities. On the other hand, you may need to use newspapers, radio, or TV ads if your target audience is in an area with limited internet access, such as an older generation who habitually gets

What type of promotion should you use? To make this decision, you have to carefully consider the product/service and pair it with a complementary promotional strategy for best results. This can be achieved by offering a Buy One, Get One Free options, reduced rate bundles, flash sales, and redeemable coupons or vouchers with purchases. Such incentives provide the tipping factor that push your customers into FOMO mode.

With promotions, your job is to grab your customer's attention with your promotional message, bridge the gap, and take the prospect from a curious shopper to the excited buyer stage. Promotions make that happen.

While great tools for generating product sales, promotions need an eagle eye and active monitoring of the expenses incurred. Advertising expenses alone can creep into your profit, diminishing it, and you can find that in the end, your entire promotion was executed at a loss. Therefore, take the time to estimate various itemized costs incurred in each stage of your promotion plan.

Depending on your resources, you may need to remove certain promotional activities or restructure your overall promotion mix. For example, will your product benefit better from direct selling? Or should more focus be placed on advertisements for reaching larger masses of people? It will also be helpful to research different budgeting strategies to determine which promotion mix will work best for your business.

Now IT'S YOUR TURN!

Be clear on who your exact target audience is, and you will find that you know precisely how to tailor your promotional message, quickly determine what your overall budget may look like, and include sales promotion strategies to effectively meet (and hopefully surpass) your targeted sales goal.

Still, need additional help? We have created our new "Do your promo like a pro" Workbook to help you work through these helpful tips to plan and execute your next promotional campaign.

Dont want to do this yourself? We can help. Schedule a call on our website for a consultation on your next promotion or to use our services to plan and execute it at www. kimaleneregisconsulting.com