Product promotions are used by the companies to attract customers and increase their sales. The article below presents to you some marketing promotion methods.
The slogan of ‘Customers are the kings’ is religiously followed by every business, and it is indeed the absolute truth. Where and how would businesses without customers, anyway? The marketing departments of every firm fight tooth and nail to lure customers and increase the sales of their products.
Promotional methods are important and efficient marketing strategies of various companies. While millions of dollars are spent on advertising methods, promotional marketing methods are relatively less expensive and can be more effective.
Promotional Marketing
- Promotional marketing is a business tool that is designed to pull customers to buy the products of a company.
- Generally, promotional marketing is carried out by companies to launch their products or attract more potential customers.
- Before devising any strategy for promotional marketing, firms must ensure that they allocate a budget to the promotional marketing and set a target that gives them maximum return on the invested money.
Promotion Strategies
- There are basically two promotion strategies; the push strategy and the pull strategy.
- According to the push strategy, the marketers give generous discounts and benefits to the customers so that the sales can be increased drastically.
- This is one of the most successful strategies, and the method of giving discounts is often successful for most of the firms.
- The main focus here is to reduce the costs of advertising.
- The pull strategy, on the other hand, minimizes the use of different channels, and the major focus is on advertising the product.
- Its goal is to create a potential market for the products of the firm.
Advertising
Advertising is an expensive method of promotional marketing, wherein, the products are made to reach a large number of people. For example, by using electronic media, TV, radio, press and outdoor hoardings, advertisers target the audience and try to create an impact on customers.
Personal Selling
One of the oldest ways of direct promotion is to sell the products by direct interaction between the seller and buyer. It is believed to be the most difficult form of marketing, as it requires skills of persuasion and excellent communication skills.
Contests
One of the effective, popular, and preferred form of promotional methods is to arrange certain contests for the customers. We all will agree to the fact that winning surprise prizes in a shopping mall or fashion store is simply exciting. One of the most attractive marketing strategies, organizing contests among the customers is a brilliant way to promote the products.
Pamphlets/Coupons
In the quest to attract more customers, companies distribute coupons and pamphlets about the products. The customers are either given basic information about the newly launched products or they are provided with discounted coupons on the purchase of some accessories/apparels. Coupons make for an effective marketing plan for small business units.
Free Samples
The idea of distributing products freely sounds weird and crazy for any company, however, there is a certain element of truth in the fact that marketing firms have gained substantial promotion through the idea of free samples. While it is not logical to just distribute your products, you can devise a strategy such that the idea of free samples doesn’t incur losses for your firm.
While evaluating different methods of promotion in marketing, one should realize these strategies are not set formulas or recipes for the successful launch and eventually high sales of the product. No doubt, these strategies are effective, but there are various market forces that can affect the sales prospects of firms.