One of the most pressing topics for owners and marketers of any business is advertising promotions.

What could you come up with to increase sales and make legends about your business? You don't have to invent anything.

Just take what’s ready, add your own, and get a great promotion. Where to get it from? From the list below. There are more than 15 ideas for every taste and willingness to take risks.

Promotions

Before we get into the specific list of stocks, I want to warn you that everything should be in moderation. You can’t live on stocks alone, just as you can’t live without them at all.

Your company should have everything: , and other important elements of a successful company.

And only after your business has become sufficiently harmonious can you move on to advertising campaigns.

Yes, they all have their own goals, but there is a common and basic one - to attract attention and smooth the corners on the purchase decision.

But, an important point, if your seller “Petya” screws up and does not work with, then there will be no money in the cash register.

I also want to say that if you are planning to hold an action, you need to promote it well (of course it is good, but it is not enough).

You need to use a sufficient amount, otherwise you will make a premature conclusion that promotions to attract customers do not work, and in general this is not your thing.

For example, you can notify visitors to your website about a promotion using an online consultant.

Or if you actively use Instagram to promote your business, then the “Direct Mailing” function from the Tooligram program can help in communicating information about promotions.

And yet, people get tired of the same type of promotions. In addition, if they are carried out constantly, they begin to classify you as a company that increases prices and then lowers them. Therefore, you take breaks or do not include new collections in promotional items.

Performance action (nerves of steel)

And now that the word to go has been given, we can start. Let's start with those who have strong nerves and are not afraid to take risks. These are the most interesting, eye-catching and unusual promotions that attract customers.

In this section, I will rather describe to you the approach (strategy) with examples, since not everything is so simple. But further you will see ready-made examples.

One of the most successful, memorable and increasing sales was the advertising campaign of the well-known Euroset store - come naked and get a cell phone for free.

The effect was intended primarily to be shocking. Since then, all store owners who have the courage to promote their store at the expense of human greed have been trying to repeat such an action, in one way or another.

A recent example is a sports store in Germany, which organized a similar promotion on its opening day.

You could come and dress from head to toe in whatever you wanted in the allotted time. Completely free. True, there was a small condition - you had to come completely naked.

Moreover, in order to hold such a promotion in a store, the business does not have to be large and famous.

For example, in Irkutsk, at the opening of a small youth clothing store, a promotion was held - tear up the jeans/trousers you are currently wearing and choose new ones completely free of charge.

A married couple lived in one of the IKEA stores for almost a month. They slept there, cooked, ate and even washed there. A lot of people came to see these extraordinary people (read: eccentrics).

Do you think this has had an impact on this store? You’re right, it did have an impact 😉

We discussed the performance of the action in more detail in a separate article. Be sure to study it if you are hooked by such a crazy technique. Just when implementing, think not only about the short-term, but also the long-term, how this will affect your business.

Almost a freebie

Quite an old example of a successful promotion. The Tekhnoshok store began selling video cassettes at cost (at half price, almost at a loss), very aggressively talking about it. There was no time to deliver the cassettes to the store.

Crowds of people stood to buy a cheap video cassette. And at the same time they were sold a new VCR, TV, antennas and much more.

This promotion applies to almost any business. All you need to do is find one in your company and start attracting people to it.

You don’t have to sell it at a loss; you can simply not earn anything from it. But you must do it.

Totally freebie

We organized a similar promotion in our client's store. They gave out free socks. Good, high-quality socks and completely free.

Moreover, you didn’t even have to buy anything. Just walk in, fill out and get your pair of socks. You may start to swear that you will not give away anything for free. So appreciate the whole idea.

Firstly, we gave away free socks, which cost us 20 rubles (quite little), and this figure was much more profitable from an advertising point of view, since from other advertising sources one visitor cost us at least 35 rubles.

Plus, you understand that in addition to the socks, they offered a discount on the main assortment, a coupon for a repeat purchase, in general, a lot of things. The result is an increased customer base and promotion, with more than 400 percent.

Or here's another example of a good implementation. The target audience will react absolutely accurately.

Example of a Freebie promotion

Search for treasure

Quite an unusual and interesting event. You are pawning/burying a valuable treasure somewhere. The location of the promotion can be, for example, the shopping center where your store is located or even the entire city.

As soon as the treasure is found, news will be published about it (for example, in) and information about the next one will be given.

This is what one bank did, for example. They put in dozens of treasures with real gold coins and began to actively promote it. There were also successful cases for food delivery services.

The certificates were hidden for a year and a search was organized with the help of radio presenters. People are very willing to get involved in such advertising games and promotions because they love interactivity.

Give a discount/gift to the client for what he rolls on the dice. You can even make a stage game. For example, if a person throws once, he is guaranteed to receive a gift of up to 1000 rubles.

And if he rolls three times and scores more than the nth value, he will receive a super prize, or he will be left empty-handed.

A variant of the super game from Field of Miracles. By the way, instead of cubes, there may be a spinning drum. The rules of the event are left to your discretion and imagination.

Example of the Cubes promotion

WE ARE ALREADY MORE THAN 29,000 people.
TURN ON

Typical promotions

Therefore, there is no need to rack your brains about which promotions can be carried out and which are not suitable. For the most part, they are designed for discounts and play on one of the main feelings of a person - the desire to save money, to purchase profitably (not to be confused with greed).

Two for the price of one (three for the price of two)

A standard promotion launched at most grocery and clothing retailers. When you buy two/three products, you get one more for free. Ideal for services.

Install a suspended ceiling in 2 rooms and receive installation in the hallway as a gift. Buy 2 apartments and get a parking space as a gift (what if!).

Example of a promotion Two for the price of one

This type of promotion is a good alternative to a discount. And we implemented this approach even in the wholesale business.

But as you already understood, it was not about pieces, but about containers. But in this way we succeeded significantly, and this is one of the main indicators when carrying out actions.

Discount on certain products

100% You have seen products with red/yellow price tags. This targeted promotion is actively used by retail stores.

But their services are undeservedly ignored, although with a large assortment it is almost a gold mine for them.

When we talk about a “color” price tag, it doesn’t have to be a discount. You can go the other way and make a purchase without extra charge/without VAT/at wholesale prices.

Or just a promotion for one of the items, for example: “Changing the oil in your car is free! You only pay for the materials.”

Also, we are not just talking about shop windows. You can highlight items in the price list or on the website with special colors.

And just an example of how we achieved an increase in sales through elaboration of the price list (including color), read in the article.

An advertising campaign is an event to attract customers. Promotions help increase sales, increase the level of trust in the brand and the percentage of repeat orders. To achieve high efficiency, you need to think through the organization of a promotion taking into account the characteristics of the industry and the target audience.

From today's article you will learn the best ideas for running successful promotions. You will see implemented examples from different niches.

10 ideas for a promotion

We invite you to promote your business through effective promotions. The ideas will be explained below in examples.

• “Bring a friend” campaign.
• “2+1” scheme, presenting a gift to the buyer.
• Conducting a complex competition.
• Prize drawing.
• Promotional campaign “Changing the old for the new.”
• “Product of the day” or “Happy hour”.
• Bonus for early booking/first buyers.
• Presentation of discount cards.

Examples of promotions

Let's take a closer look at the features of each idea and examples of its implementation.

Many brands use holiday discounts to attract customers, why not you too?

The bigger the discount, the more attractive it looks. At the same time, the promotion should not be at a loss to the company - you need to make calculations in advance. For example, how many perfumes need to be sold for a 50% discount on them to be beneficial to the company.

Make a targeted offer to your audience, taking into account the special features of the holiday. On Student's Day - for students, on February 23 - for men (or for gifts for men), and so on. Enter personal discounts for birthday people.

The online store of sports training equipment and home equipment FIT-SPORT annually gives discounts in honor of March 8 and to all mothers on Mother's Day.

Gamification involves introducing game elements into promotional activities. The main thing is to evoke emotions in the audience: motivation and involvement.

A more complex example of gamification is the online game “Spasibomania” from Sberbank.

Anyone can play with it and receive a million “thank you” to their bonus account. To do this, you need to register in the game and make moves by clicking on the cells.

Please note: such a promotion requires a separate platform for its implementation.

If you want to make a game on your website, invite visitors to run an online dice rolling game. For example, if a user rolls the dice once, he is guaranteed to receive a gift of up to 500 rubles. And if he scores more than a certain number of points three times, he will win a super prize or be left with nothing.

The Adams jewelry factory offered its customers to play a jewelry casino: roll a virtual dice to determine the size of their discount.

Other gamification options: conducting a survey or an online quest with a standings, the participants of which can win a prize or a big discount on your product range.

3. “Bring a friend” campaign

Offer consumers a discount for attracting new clients (for greater involvement, give a discount to both the new client and the one who brought him).

Adapt the terms of the promotion to suit your own goals and niche specifics. For example, the “Start” driving school had a “Bring a Friend” advertising campaign for three months. Each participant received 1000 rubles from the cost of training back to their account. This is a good move - to demonstrate not the abstract amount of the discount, but the specific amount that the client will save.

Booking, an online aggregator for booking accommodation, offers 1000 rubles to your account for inviting a friend.

4. Gifts

Two products for the price of one or the second product (related service) as a gift. Or the sixth coffee as a gift, as, for example, in the Kuzina cafe-confectionery. When you purchase coffee, you receive a coupon with a stamp stamped for each drink you purchase. Once you collect five seals, you will receive your next coffee for free.

At the Dobraya Chashka coffee shop, you will receive branded coffee as a gift if you subscribe to the company’s Instagram, and also take a photo in the establishment and post it with the appropriate hashtag. This is the best live advertising at minimal cost!

5. Competition

Competitions increase company awareness and improve its image. There are those without connection to the product and those that are directly related to it - to participate in the promotion, the consumer needs to purchase one or more products.

The auto company Pikhtin Auto offered to take customers a selfie or a regular photo against the backdrop of the company's automobile complex. Each participant was required to post a photo on Instagram with the appropriate hashtag - this increased brand awareness and increased loyalty to it.

Another example is the “My Best Vacation” photo competition from the Rive Gauche online store. The company gave the owner of the best vacation photo a bright suitcase.

6. Prank

A simplified version of the competition that requires a minimum of actions and time from participants. To participate online, you need to like, repost, and comment. The reward for this could be a small guaranteed prize or a discount.

When it comes to offline events, you can do like the power tool manufacturer AEG POWERTOOLS. Over the course of a month, the company gave participating coupons to customers who made a purchase over a certain amount, and then held a prize draw at one of its retail outlets.

7. Promotional campaign “Changing old for new”

This idea can be used in many niches: offering new TVs, gold jewelry, fur coats and cars in exchange for similar used products. Consumers like promotions like this because they can get rid of unnecessary junk and get a discount on the product they need. For a business, a promotion is useful in attracting customers and increasing sales.

Eldorado offers to hand over old household appliances for recycling and receive a discount ranging from 2 to 15 thousand rubles. As you already understand, this is not done at the expense of profit. In this way, Eldorado attracts the attention of potential customers, increases sales growth and increases confidence in the brand. In addition, the company makes money through participation in a program for the collection and recycling of old equipment.

Hello! In this article we will talk about promotions to attract customers.

Today you will learn:

• How to conduct promotions for;
• What types of shares exist and how to come up with a share;
• How to calculate stock performance.

What are “shares” and why are they needed?

During the height of the economic crisis in the country, the issue of attracting new customers faces almost every enterprise. The situation is aggravated by the high level in almost all areas of business.

In such harsh conditions, entrepreneurs are forced to resort to the most stringent measures to attract customers. One of these measures is sales promotion.

Sales promotion – a promotion tool aimed at short-term increase in demand with the help of various promotions that stimulate purchases.

Promotions will allow you to achieve the following goals:

• Short-term increase in sales volumes;
• Capture market share for a long time;
• Attracting new consumers:
• Poaching consumers from competitors;
• Stimulating large volumes of purchases;
• Retaining loyal consumers.

Advantages:

• Drawing attention to the company, brand and product;
• Providing information about the product and company to potential consumers;
• Significant increase in sales during the promotion period;
• Quick consumer response to stimulating effects;
• Sales focus.

Flaws:

• The short-term impact, as a rule, increases sales only for the duration of the promotion;
• Often have a negative impact on the image of the organization. If a high-level company begins to sell goods at a discount of more than 70%, it loses wealthy customers and attracts those who are ready to purchase products only at discounts;
• Significantly reduces company profits. A discount of even 5% has a painful impact on the company’s profits, which we will talk about a little later.

If these shortcomings don’t scare you, then let’s move on.

Promotion strategy development process

Any activity to attract visitors must begin with developing a strategy. Stocks are no exception.

The process of developing a sales promotion strategy includes the following stages:

• Formation of sales promotion goals;
• Identifying suitable stocks, which we will talk about a little later;
• Development of an incentive program: designation of the timing of the promotion, determination of the amount of the incentive (budget), determination of the conditions for participation in the promotion, methods of promotion and distribution of the incentive package, development of a mechanism for responding to the promotion, preliminary testing;
• Practical implementation of the incentive program through the use of various promotions;
• Evaluation of results.

Types of promotions to attract customers

At the moment, there are a very large number of different stock options.

The choice of one or another means of sales promotion depends on the following factors:

• Specifics of activity.
• Product type. For example, let's say you sell wedding dresses. It would be strange to give a second when buying one;
• Store format and location. For example, we own a stall selling pies at the station. There are three more similar stalls next to us. To attract consumers, we decided to hold a promotion. As a gift to a random lucky winner, we are providing a coupon for one free pie per day for a month. However, 90% of our consumers are passing through this place and they will not be interested in this promotion, and it will not help us resolve the issue with competitors;
• Activities of competitors in this area;
• Financial capabilities of the company;
• Purposes of the action.

Determine each of these parameters for yourself. Have you determined? Then let's move on to the types of shares.

Discounts

Discounts are the most popular and easiest way. Buyers are happy to buy goods with red price tags. The more you lower the price, the more purchases you will get. But be careful. Every percentage of the price hurts the margin of your products.

During the month of discounts, sales volume increased by 20% and amounted to 148 pies or 2,664 rubles. The pie margin for the promotion period was: 18-17.3 = 0.7 rubles.

Let's calculate the profit received during the month of the promotion: 0.7 * 148 = 103.6 rubles. Thus, thanks to discounts, we lost 209.4 rubles in profit with an increase in purchases by 20%.

Make it a rule to carry out such calculations before introducing a discount system.

Human psychology is designed in such a way that he practically does not notice a price reduction of less than 15%. Therefore, a 5 or 10% discount will not lead to a significant increase in demand.

Discount forms:

• Seasonal sales;
• Discounts for large volume purchases;
• Discounts in honor of a special occasion (customer’s birthday, store opening date, etc.);
• Discounts for purchasing a certain category of products.
• Discount on defective goods;
• Discount on “product of the day”;
• Discount when purchasing in ;
• “Bring a friend” discount.

Please note that the introduction of any discount must be tied to a specific occasion. If you simply lower your prices, the consumer will think about the quality of your product. It is discounts that tend to negatively affect the image of an organization if they are applied ineptly.

Gifts for purchase

This is also a very popular type of promotion. You can give away both your own products and those of your partners for purchase. In the first case, you will again have to calculate the change in sales volumes and profits so as not to go into the negative. But the second option is very tempting.

Find a partner company that needs to promote its product or brand and offer cooperation.

Example. Since the idea of ​​discounts at our pies stall failed, we decided to give gifts for purchases. To do this, we agreed with the store opposite that we would attract our customers to their outlet by issuing them a coupon to receive free tea from them. The store agrees, since the likelihood that a visitor will buy some product from them by going for free tea is very high.

Types of “gift with purchase” promotion:

• The second lowest priced product is free;
• Bonus from partners;
• Lottery;
• Discount card for purchase.

Loyalty cards

Almost everyone has several cards from their favorite stores in their wallet. They allow the buyer to benefit from shopping in this store.

The following forms of discount cards are distinguished:

• Discount cards– provide the client with a fixed discount. It does not change during the use of this card. Aimed at retaining visitors and linking them to the outlet;
• Savings cards– often the amount of benefit depends on the total quantity of goods purchased in monetary terms. The more you bought during the entire period of using the card, the greater your discount. Aimed at increasing the number of purchases and retaining customers;
• Club card– provided to special customers, for example, for a large purchase volume. It carries certain privileges, including: the opportunity to participate in promotions, permanent discounts, gifts.

You can’t just give out cards; time their donation to coincide with some event or set conditions.

Here are some options for you:

• Store birthday;
• Large purchase volume;
• Issuance of discount cards to first visitors;
• Issuance of cards for participation in the competition;
• Selling cards.

Competitions and giveaways

This type of stock is actively gaining momentum. Hold a prize draw, come up with a competition, the winners of which will receive your products as a gift. This will allow you to increase company awareness and consumer loyalty.

There are two types of competitions:

• Related companies. In this case, the buyer must purchase a certain quantity of goods to receive a surprise. For example, buy 10 bottles of soda to collect the caps from them and get a prize. Aimed at increasing demand and attracting attention to the company;
• Unrelated to product. The consumer performs a task without having to purchase the company's product. For example, a consumer must write a story about their day at school in order to receive a free school supply kit.

Tasting

As a rule, it is carried out in large supermarkets. Moreover, this type of promotion is aimed not so much at increasing the sales volume of the product being tasted, but at increasing the sales volume of the supermarket as a whole. According to statistics, consumers who have tried a product buy 25% more than they planned in that store.

We will talk about calculating the effectiveness of this type of promotion a little later.

How to come up with a promotion to attract customers

To come up with a promotion to attract customers, you need to go through the following steps:

• Define your advertising campaign goals. What do you want to achieve? Increasing sales, increasing customer loyalty, attracting new customers or retaining existing ones. Write down all your goals;
• Determine the participants of the marketing campaign. Who exactly do you want to influence, who will influence it, who will control its implementation. Discounts can scare away wealthy clients from your company and attract consumers in the middle and low price segment. A club card may have the opposite effect. Promoters, salespeople, and customer service managers can influence consumers. The entire process will be controlled by a director or administrator. All personnel involved in the action must be trained: familiarized with the conditions, and given instructions.
• Determine the motives of each participant. The consumer is interested in additional benefits, the seller is interested in premiums or bonuses for good results, the administrator is interested in fulfilling the plan, increasing sales volume. Correctly identifying the motives of each participant will allow you to effectively manage the process.
• Work to identify your customers' needs. What exactly might interest them?
• Think about when your promotion will be most relevant. For example, ice cream in winter will not cause such a stir among consumers as gingerbread cookies and hot chocolate.
• Decide on the type of promotion. It directly depends on the one for which you are holding the promotion. It is also important to determine the value of the gift. Remember that a large number of small bonuses attract consumers more than a few expensive gifts.
• Make the terms of participation in the promotion clear and short, otherwise the client will suspect deception or simply will not study your proposal. There shouldn't be too many conditions.
• Communicate with your consumer, answer his questions, play with him. This way you will gain precious trust.

Analysis of the effectiveness of the campaign

We have already discussed how to evaluate the effectiveness of discounts; evaluation of the effectiveness of the implementation of loyalty cards, gifts and competitions is carried out in the same way.

Remember that an increase in sales does not at all guarantee an increase in profits, because you lose on a discount or gift. In this case, when calculating efficiency, the gift should be considered as a discount (the cost of the gift = the amount of the discount).

Example. For the purchase of 5 pies at a time, we give chewing gum. The promotion will last one week. The price of chewing gum is 2 rubles. Let's assume that only those who initially wanted to buy them will buy the fifth pie, and we have 10 out of 50 people a week. Thus, thanks to the promotion, sales volume will increase by 200 rubles or by 10 pies. Our margin before the promotion was 2.7 rubles. The sales volume before the promotion was 90 pies. We calculate the profit for the week before the promotion 90 * 2.7 = 2 43 rubles.

Let's calculate how much additional profit we will receive from the promotion: 2.7 * 10 = 27 rubles. And we will lose: 2*10 = 20 rubles. Thus, the promotion will allow us to increase profits by only 7 rubles.

Now let's learn how to calculate the effectiveness of tastings.

Let's say we are conducting a tasting of our pies. The promotion will run for 2 days, 3 hours a day. The price of our product is 20 rubles. The cost is 17.3 rubles.

We plan to reach an audience of 20 people. The number of pies required is 20 pieces. In addition, we need a tray costing 200 rubles and a package of napkins costing 30 rubles.

Thus, the cost of carrying out the campaign will be 576 rubles.

Let's calculate using the formula: Break-even point = total costs/margin = 576/2.7 = 213 pies. We will have to sell this number of pies based on the results of the tasting.

According to the rule of information dissemination, everyone who tastes the pie will tell three of their friends about the product, and each of these three will tell three more.

Thus, the maximum number of buyers who will come to the stall based on the results of the tasting will be 180 people. We don’t know how many pies they will buy, but according to pessimistic calculations (everyone will buy only one pie), this number of buyers is not enough. The project is risky.

Examples of the best stocks

Promotion at the airport.

A couple of years ago, an American airline held a raffle for travel packages. The conditions were as follows: a person waiting for a flight was asked to press a button, after which the computer randomly determined the country to which the lucky person would go. In this case, all travel expenses were paid by the airline.

Free lunch.

One of the Chinese sites ran an interesting promotion. For a month, every hour for 1.5 seconds a button appeared on the resource page, by clicking on which the lucky person received a free lunch. By the way, the number of site visitors increased 4 times this month.

An example from Russia.

The Moscow Geocafe holds a promotion every day. Its conditions are as follows: at 18:00 Moscow time, a drawing for a free dinner was held between cafe visitors. The winner was determined randomly. Second and third places were also determined and received a bottle of wine and a 50% discount on their order, respectively.

Promotion in the store.

In one of the Vilnius denim stores, the following promotion was held: all customers who came without pants were given free jeans of their choice. As a result, on the day of the promotion, a line of freebie lovers lined up in the store. However, be careful with such promotions, otherwise you may face legal consequences.