As the old saying goes, “when something looks too good to be true, it usually is”. Business owners or their customer service team and marketers must ensure that their promos and marketing campaigns paint an accurate picture of their offering.
These days, customers are well-informed and can smell a false advert or promo a mile away.
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A Nigerian internet service provider ran a promo that gives customers a buy-one-get-one-free subscription.
So if you pay for a month’s subscription within the promo period, you’ll get a free month bonus.
As mouth-watering as this sounds, I was sceptical because, in recent times, this service provider’s network has been having hiccups.
Their network is good, but it was apparent that their system was struggling to keep up with the demand during the promo period.
The hiccups were becoming worrisome, making me remember the above proverb and not join the bandwagon.
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Though I have no data on how many people in their customer base took advantage of the promo, I’m sure that I’m not their only customer who noticed the hiccups. This incident inspired me to write this post.
Business owners and marketers (in particular) need to make sure we do our level best to make our promos and marketing campaigns more appealing.
Coincidentally that week was Customer Service Week! This event inspired me to highlight who should be the primary focus of any promo or marketing campaign you embark on, i.e. your customers!
So, what can you do to make your promos and marketing campaigns more appealing? What can you do to improve customer interactions, customer feedback and customer satisfaction? Here are four quick tips:
Focus on Your Customers
Many customers are tech-savvy and tough to sell. We should view customer service not as a department but as an attitude.
Customers these days avoid pushy, generic, sleazy and sales promos and campaigns like the plague. Can you blame them?
As business owners or marketers, we need to be more creative and put the customers’ needs ahead of our own. Customer experience, customer feedback and customer satisfaction should be paramount for us.
If the ISP mentioned above had put the needs of their existing customers ahead of their own, they would have ensured that their services could scale and absorb the influx of new customers without any negative impact on service quality for their existing customers.
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Be More Creative
Brands need to be more creative in their promos and marketing campaign. Yeah, this is easier said than done, more so when you have several other things you need to do to keep your business afloat.
Creativity is one reason you need to consider outsourcing your advertising campaigns, promos and marketing campaigns to a digital agency to leave you with sufficient time to focus on other areas of your business.
The level of creativity in promos and marketing campaigns these days is mind-boggling. Take Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
As you can see from the above, the most creative and successful promos and campaigns have used social media strategy, User-Generated Content to spread the word and reach their business goals, with some incredible results.
To develop a creative campaign, you need to focus on your ideal target audience once again. Gather as much information about what your target audience likes and what your target audience appreciates about your brand.
Also, it would help if you focused on the goals of your promos and marketing campaigns, e.g. driving traffic to your website, growing your email list, increasing your social media communities, etc. Use your goals to shape your campaigns.
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In our digital age, there are a few ways you can be creative:
Online Ideas
- Host a photo, video, voting or caption contest.
- Host a sweepstake.
- Join hashtag themes like #FollowFriday #ThrowBackThursdays, #MondayMotivation, etc.
- Host your free webinar. You can even partner with another business (not your competitor) in the webinar.
- Vouchers and Coupons: your customers can redeem online on your website.
- Online sales and discounts.
- Your email marketing efforts.
- Your product demo, product launch or getting your customer support teams to answer common questions from your user base.
- Your advertising strategy.
The list is endless. It would help if you strived to be creative.
Offline Ideas
- Promote your social media account on your traditional marketing materials.
- Go “old school” by strategically using flyers, posters, newspaper or magazine ads, billboards, tv and radio ads where applicable (if you’ve had success with them in the past).
- Publish physical books or digital eBooks.
- Causes and charity. Look for areas where you can give back to your local community through sponsorships and other corporate social responsibilities. Sponsorships and CSR will help get the word out about your brand while doing some good for your local community.
- Free product sample giveaways, Free branded promotional gifts, etc.
- Vouchers and Coupons: for your customers to redeem in-store.
- Customer appreciation parties or events.
Again, the list is endless, and you need to be creative to make old-school tactics work in our digital age.
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Plan and Budget
Before you embark on any promo or marketing campaign, you need to take time to plan and set your budget according to what you can afford.
Business owners and marketers that fail to plan and budget have suffered significant losses due to the imbalance between the increase in sales from the promos or marketing campaigns and the actual cost of the promos or campaigns themselves.
I would suggest that it’s better to err on the side of caution! Don’t be like my ISP mentioned above, whose customers suffered poor internet connection during their promos because they had possibly signed up more new customers than their network could handle.
Before you invest a significant portion of your budget towards a grandiose promotion, first test the waters with smaller, more cost-effective promotions.
You’ll get a better feel for how your potential customers might respond, and you won’t risk your company’s future to do so.
Integrate Offline with Online Campaigns
A strategic marketing campaign must integrate online and offline activities to boost brand loyalty.
Also, remember that whatever promotion and campaign you embark on must adapt to mobile devices.
People spend a lot of time on their mobile devices, making phone calls, etc. Therefore, it only makes sense for your promos and campaigns to capture their attention on their mobile devices.
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Conclusion
Regardless of whatever creative promo or marketing campaign you embark on, make sure you keep these four tips in mind.
You will make your promos and marketing campaigns more appealing if you do. Creative promos will translate into a win-win situation for happy customers and growing businesses.
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Do you want to know more about how to make your promos and marketing campaigns more appealing? Schedule a consultation.
