CuriousOwl

If you are interested in marketing, one of the most common phrases that you hear must revolve around promotion strategies. It is essential to have a promotion strategy.

The marketing mix comprises 4Ps, including product, place, price and promotion. Promotion is an integral part of the marketing process because, without promotion, you will not have consumers who are willing to buy your product. If you want to create a customer base, you need to make people aware of the services and products. Promotion is how customers are made aware of the product or service that you have to offer. 

If you are looking for ways to promote your business, you should understand the promotion mix. If you have a good product but fail to promote it properly, it is bound to flop in the market. Please don’t take this step lightly; even though promotion is the last step in the marketing process, it is not the least. Read this article until the end to know more about the different promotional strategies and the various tools you can use for a flawless process. 

Why Is Promotion Strategy Important?

Before delving into technicalities, it is essential to understand why a promotion strategy is important. A promotion strategy lays out the steps and processes you need to take to let others know about your products. Depending on the product you are offering, you have to develop a promotion strategy. For example, if you are a luxury brand launching a new product, you would look for high-end magazines and advertisements to reach a wide range of people. But if you are a small business manufacturing, let’s say, hair accessories, like scrunchies and bows, it is better to go for social media marketing because your intended audience would be young people between the ages of 15 to 30. 

Moreover, in this modern world, competition is high. You will not be the only one producing a particular product or service. It is an open market, and there is no limitation to the number of competitors you might have. This is why you must promote your goods efficiently to get an edge over the rest of the brands. No one will be willing to spend money on a product/company that they have never heard of. 

There is no set formula for a successful promotion strategy. Your strategy is affected by factors like what your product is, your intended audience, what your budget is and so on. Various tools make up a promotion mix, and there should be a perfect balance among them for a successful promotion strategy. Advertising, Personal Selling, Sales Promotion, Public Relations and Direct Marketing comprise the Promotion Mix Tools that you can use to make your product popular among your potential customers. 

Types of Promotion Strategies

In this section, we take a look at the various types of promotion strategies, and after going through all of them, you can decide which one works best for you. 

There are two types of promotion strategies, under which all kinds of promotion strategies can be divided:

• Pull Strategy: These activities are visible to the consumers and keep them in mind. This includes activities like digital marketing, advertising, etc. The main idea is to attract or ‘pull’ the customers to the business.

• Push Strategy: These activities are unknown to the customers because they are done discreetly and involve wholesalers, retailers and distributors. It involves activities like wholesaler activities and secret promotions. For example, if a shop stocks more goods from the same brand, it might indicate that he is getting money for selling that brand to the people. But these processes are not known by the customers, so they don’t realise they are a part of a marketing strategy. The main idea is that the people in the supply chain push your business to the customers.

Any marketing strategy you look up would fall under these two types. There are various promotional strategies that you can check out to help you with your system.

Examples of Promotional Strategies

This section looks at the various promotional strategies you can use.

• Social Media Promotion: Nowadays, this is the most common form of promotion. Many people use social media, and it is easier to reach a wider audience. Whether your intended audience is young or middle-aged, you would be able to find them on social media. The popularity of social media figures has led to the popularity of influencer marketing, wherein influencers are roped in to promote different products.

• Contests: This is a frequently preferred form of promoting your goods to the audience. People will notice if you sponsor contests or organise a game for people to purchase your product. That is the main idea behind this strategy. For example, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the golden ticket appealed to the consumers. They started buying the chocolates to win a golden ticket and visit the chocolate factory.

• Giveaways and Free Samples: It is human nature to be happy about freebies. No one willingly refuses something that they are getting for free. So giveaways are a sure-shot way of being noticed. You can post an advertisement talking about the free giveaway on social media. This would help you reach many people, and more and more people would try to participate.

Free samples work on the same logic. You would have noticed that ice cream stores or food companies usually offer free samples to their customers before launching a new product. You might be at the supermarket, and they might be giving out free samples for a recent dip that will be found soon. There will be people who will like the dip, and they will eagerly wait for the product to be launched to buy it.

• Mail Order Marketing: This promotion tactic concentrates on the customers you have already taken under your wing. You ask your customers to fill up surveys and return something in return. This is an excellent way to understand your target audience and what they might want or not want from your product. MyGlamm follows this same tactic: they offer free lipstick to people who complete the survey.

Point-of-Sale Promotion and End-Cap Marketing

These are promotion strategies adopted by shops and stores. The end cap is the section at the end of the aisle, and this section has products that the store wants to promote quickly. The Point-of-Sale area lies near the check-out points, and customers usually buy the products placed here on an impulse as they wait to check their goods out.

• Customer Referral Incentive Program: Nowadays, you might frequently come across the term ‘referral code’, which is a strategy under referral programs. Brands might give you a cashback, brand credit or a gift for every new customer that you bring in. Usually, these new customers are asked for a referral code during their purchase. As soon as they fill in your code, it is established that you referred them to the product, and you get your gift.

• Causes and Charity: Try to get your brand involved in a charity event or support causes that resonate with the masses. For example, Mahindra supported the cause of the farmers by initiating a crowdfunding campaign with the hashtag, Seed The Rise. Involving your brand in these activities helps promote it and creates an image of a socially responsible company that is willing to support causes that matter. People love to get involved when they realise that it is more significant than themselves.

• Branded Promotional Gifts: Instead of a simple pamphlet or a business card, it would be more effective if you get your customers gifts like cups or fridge magnets with your logo. Since people will use these products (as opposed to throwing them in the trash, as people do with cards and pamphlets), your brand will stay fresh in the customers’ minds.

• After-Sale Customer Surveys: Don’t think that once your product is sold, work is over. If you want to create a solid and loyal customer base, it is crucial to ensure the happiness and satisfaction of your customers. Once you have sold your product, check in on your customers from time-to-time, and ask them how the product is working. You could ask them to fill up a questionnaire or take a survey to understand how the product functions and what can be changed for a better experience. 

Conclusion

A good promotion tactic is a secret to success. But a promotion tactic is not set in stone. You need to customise a strategy for yourself and keep on changing as the market changes. There are various promotion strategies out there, and you can model your promotion strategies on them. But the most crucial requirement is your awareness. As a producer, you need to be constantly vigilant of market trends and think on your feet. Any shift in consumer sentiments is a sign for you to up your game. So, be attentive to the market, and keep updating your promotion strategy for the best results!