Promotion in Marketing
Communicating a product or service’s benefits is an essential strategy for gaining marketplace attention and convincing customers to buy. One key step in promotion in marketing is to determine your target audience. After identifying an offering’s potential audience, businesses can tailor their messages to convert prospective customers into buyers, resulting in sales growth.
Traditional and digital promotions can work together to maximize a marketing campaign’s success. Below are a mix of traditional and digital marketing strategies that can help businesses reach customers and generate sales:
Email marketing: One of the first digital promotional tools, sending emails directly to prospects and customers remains a highly effective strategy. Email marketing campaigns aim to convert prospects into customers and build brand loyalty.
Public relations: The aim of public relations is to spread favorable information about a business and its products to people and organizations who can influence potential customers — for example, newspapers with a large subscription base, or social media influencers with many followers. The goal is to impact public perception, garner attention, and generate interest.
Advertising: This traditional promotional tactic involves paying for the opportunity to market a product or serviceExternal link:open_in_new to a media outlet’s viewership or subscriber base. Today, digital advertising comes in many forms, from interactive videos to in-app sponsorships.
Content marketing: The primary aim of content marketing is to create content of relevance and interest that target audiences share organically, spreading marketing messages without paid advertising. When memes, videos, and social media posts spread virally, they generate interest in a product or business without the costs of traditional advertising.
Social media: Any digital tool that allows users to quickly create and share content is considered social media. A tactic in social media marketing is to leverage influencers to share messaging about a product or service to their followers. Some major social media platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
Contests: Contests such as sweepstakes and giveaways capture leads, who provide their information for a chance at a prize. Although a longstanding traditional promotional method, contests have also become popular in digital marketing.
Customer referral incentive programs: This strategy relies on the power of word-of-mouth marketing, offering discounts or promotions to existing customers who recommend a product to their colleagues, friends, or family members. Referrals can be effective, as prospects are often more likely to consider buying a product if someone they trust recommends it.
Point-of-sale (POS) promotions: Traditionally, point-of-sale displays are placed near checkout counters to draw customers’ attention to products they did not enter the store to buy. This strategy is highly effective for seasonal or holiday-time sales. Digital customers can also receive point-of-sale promotions in their digital checkout carts.
Customer appreciation events: This tactic gives businesses an opportunity to show that they appreciate their customers by offering them gifts, incentives, or special deals. The primary aim is to strengthen customer loyalty.
Surveys: Surveys allow businesses to capture the opinions of their customers and improve their products and services to meet their needs.
