7 Tips for Running Successful Special Offer Promotions
Special offers continue to be big news as consumers continue to strive to do more with less. Groupon, KGB Deals, and a host of other coupon sites continue to be exceptionally successful.
Running special offers successfully is a challenge for some businesses that are struggling to cover the associated financial costs. While coupon code sites have taken steps to help owners, it is essential to understand the risks and run the right promotions without affecting your business.
Below is a list of tips to help you avoid some of the pitfalls:
1. Define the offer. One of the biggest risks is devaluing your normal offer; For example, a restaurant positioned in the premium market that regularly runs 60% off promotions could be perceived as having an unnecessarily inflated original price. Special offers can also lead to confusion among customers. Avoid them by:
- Define if the objective of the offer: encourage personalized repeat, generate new customers, increase sales or sell out overstock/tickets
- Base the special offer on a specific event: a launch, a holiday, a change of season, a day of the week, end of line, early booking
- Make promotion as simple as possible. Use recognizable offers that customers understand: 2 for 1; 50% off; First night free
- Do not run ongoing specials
- Don’t run a non-special special, customers are wise about it, they’ll notice and comment
2. The Offer and its General Strategy.
- Does the offer match your position in the market?
- Is it a desirable offer, will customers value it?
- Does the offer make sense?
- Is the offer consistent with your marketing?
- Identify how you are going to turn this first visit into a repeat personalized visit
3. Includes Terms and Conditions.The Terms and Conditions will vary depending on your business. However, some terms and conditions to keep in mind are:
- Include a start and end date
- Restrict offer to one redemption per customer
- It can not be used in combination with any other offer
- Define what is included
- Define what is excluded, if you are including wine but excluding Champaign; make sure the offer states this in advance
- New customers only
4. Road to the market. How will you communicate your special offer to potential new customers?
- There are various marketing channels such as newspaper ads, daily deal sites, Facebook or other social media channel, Google ads. You need to evaluate the most effective channel for new customers.
- Understand channel costs. A newspaper advertisement has a definite cost; however, some channels will have more complex cost models, such as charging a commission on all sales.
- Understand the timeline. Some channels will have a delivery time, if you are using a daily deals site; make sure you have built in a time frame for set up, approval and negotiation.
5. Budget.There are stories of companies running special offers and struggling financially during implementation. Be sure to avoid this pitfall by:
- When calculating your delivery cost, consider whether you can afford the “worst case” scenario where you can’t sell any items anymore. What if 1,000 or 10,000 customers accepted your offer and bought nothing else?
- What are the costs of raw materials and personnel? Does the income cover these? If not, can you afford it?
6. Preparation and management of rescues. Running a special is all about creating a repeat habit, how can you ensure a consistently high level of service is provided to each new customer? Consider:
- Use early booking – this will help you plan and manage resources, but will ensure that the system can keep up with demand
- Limit the number of customers who can accept the Offer, for example, the first 50 people to register. Please note that you may need to prove execution or you could be breaking advertising laws.
- Make sure you have enough staff, properly trained in your processes
- Respond to customer inquiries
- Respond to a customer who attempts to violate the terms of the Special Offer
- How to increase sales
- How to encourage repetition of the habit
- Make sure you have enough materials/stock.
- Don’t run too many specials at the same time.
- Make sure your venue and other communication channels have consistent messages
- Instructions provided on their website.
- Include signature at time of redemption
7. Tracking and tracking
- Considered an incentive for regular customers.
- Add a tracking code and balance your books after the promotion.
- Was the special offer successful?
- Did you see an increase in traffic?
- For how long?
- Were they the kind of clients you’re looking for?
- Will they become repeat business?
- Will they recommend you to a friend?
