What's the difference between marketing and a promotion?
You might think of marketing as all of the activities that ultimately attract clients to your business. A promotion is a specific activity designed to stimulate action to buy your products or services.
On August 1, 1984 I launched my business. And it's now become a tradition this time of year to do a special promotion for my anniversary. As of tomorrow I'll have been in business 23 years!
There are two purposes for today's eZine. One is to launch the anniversary promotion and the other is to share some ideas on how to make promotions work for your business.
Here are a few things I've learned:
Have a Reason
A promotion always needs to be associated with a reason for the promotion. It might be an anniversary such as this one; it could be on a specific holiday or upon a significant event in your business such as the launch of a new service or product.
The truth is, reasons are somewhat arbitrary. But have one anyway. A promotion based on "...just because we feel like it," doesn't work to well. It ought to be tied to something positive.
Offer a Discount or Special
Your promotion needs to give a reason to take action now, not later. And the best way to do that is to offer a time limited discount or special. If you don't offer a good deal that needs to be taken advantage of now, people won't act.
The discount or special that I'm offering is a 25% discount on any of the Action Plan Marketing products or services listed on my web site. This includes the InfoGuru Marketing Manual, the Web Site ToolKit and all my recorded TeleClasses.
Offer a Bonus
This is something extra on top of the discount or special. You can offer one or several. Just don't make it confusing. And make it something that is relevant to your business. Often this bonus can be more compelling that the discount or offer itself.
The bonus I'm offering is the recording of an Interview with Pamela Slim on "Secrets of Promoting Your Business Through Blogging." Pamela has developed a successful blog that is now the source of ALL her new clients. Pam will share her blogging techniques that have gotten great results.
Make the Promotion Time Limited
Your promotion can't go on forever, it has to have a beginning date and ending date. This creates a sense of urgency. Ever pass a business that always has a "For Sale" sign in the window? Not a good idea, as it cheapens your image.
My Anniversary Promotion starts today (July 31) and ends on Friday, August 3 at midnight Eastern time. After that the discount ends.
Remind People of the Value
If you're offering a good deal, spell it out for people. Don't assume they will calculate the value for themselves.
In my Anniversary Promotion, 25% off my major products (all are $79) means you'll be only paying $59.25, an almost $20 saving per product. Plus the bonus interview on blogging which will be sold later for $29. So that's a saving of almost $49.
Promotions for Services
This Anniversary Promotion is simple because it's based on products, not services. But you may be asking, "What promotion could I do if I don't sell products?" Good question, as a promotion where you gave 25% off your consulting or coaching services may not be as effective.
I recommend doing a promotion based on an event. One of my most successful was held a few years ago when I launched the InfoGuru Marketing Manual. I held a free one-day workshop and about 180 people showed up.
I gave away a lot of value that day, but I also introduced the Manual and launched the first version of my Marketing Action Groups. Both of these formed the foundation for my business for many years to come.
Tell People What to Do
Never assume people will do what you intend unless you direct them. Too many offers are confusing when they could be designed to be very simple.
To take advantage of my Anniversary Promotion with 25% off all my products, just click on the link below. You'll be taken to a page where you can order the products and get the discount.
The link is:
Remember, the Action Plan Marketing 23rd Anniversary Promotion starts today and ends on Friday, August 3.
What promotion will you do for your business?
The More Clients bottom line: If you want to get fast results with your marketing, hold an occasional promotion that offers real value for a limited time. It's a great way to gently nudge prospective clients and customers to take action.
What promotions have worked for your business? Please share on the More Clients Blog.
Jon,
Many service professionals wouldn't want to discount their prices because it lowers perceived value. But there are unlimited campaigns one can do to increase business that aren't price-focused. Here are just a few ideas:
Publicity: (1) Send press releases whenever you get a new client. (2) Write up case studies -- success stories -- of your dealings with current clients and send them with press releases. (3) Give some of your time and expertise to a local charity and let your community know about it. Newpapers LOVE this for human interest stories! (4)Send releases relating to your specialty that spin off news stories.
Robert's keep in touch campaigns: (1)Send newsletters or e-zines regularly. (2)Send articles of special interest to your client. (3) Give clients a phone call for no other reason than to say "Thank you for your business." This is powerful! Don't tell them to call you if they could use help with anything, don't try to slip in a new sale. Just say, "I was thinking of you today, and wanted to call to say thanks for your business, and I hope you have a great day! Then shut up, and let things unfold from there. Works wonders!
Writing campaigns: (1) Learn how to write simple articles, such as "How To" and list articles, and submit them to trade magazines your clients read. Seeing your name in print in articles rather than ads carries a HUGE amount of credibility, and you're suddenly catapulted from the status of "vendor" to "guru." (2) Your articles and press releases can be submitted to online companies that blast them all over the Web, which will help SEO for your website immensely, and spread your expertise much wider.
These are just a few ideas. There are any number of promotions a service professional can come up with that lets you increase the value of your work, instead of discounting it.
Have fun thinking them up and spinning them out!
Kammy
Posted by: Kammy Thurman | August 28, 2007 at 07:45 AM
I think there is a way to look at pricing issues with services too. After applying and interviewing many coaches, and marketing experts over the past few months, I began to see a pricing pattern quite clearly, along with all the similarities in discounts, limited offers, etc.. So even with a service business, there is a way to figure out what the "average" prices are like and how a discount is measured against those services. Wouldn't it be better to use this with existing clients? And if you offer a promotional discount on a seminar or workshop, that's a way to sell more of a product as well as a service, no? In retailing, promotions I've done were finicky at best, never knew if it was the photo, the text, a combination, and it was hard to duplicate w/o using the same thing. But now that I know certain ad campaigns were used for 40 years, I wish I'd kept the same campaign that I knew was working. I figured people would tire of it? Is it wise to mail customers the same campaign with slight variations? Or is that a success only when the customer is a new one?
Posted by: Renata | August 07, 2007 at 01:29 PM
Hi Jon,
As I said this week, promotions are more appropriate for products, not services. But the parallel for services are campaigns. The point is not the discount but the organized plan to get your product or service in front of your audience.
Robert M.
Posted by: Robert Middleton | August 07, 2007 at 09:46 AM
I disagree with Robert here I'm afraid (gosh that's brave of me whom am I to question this marketing guru?) Promotions in my experience rarely work with professional services.The reason being is that clients can't make a comparison between normal pricing and a promotional price. If I am buying a sofa and its discounted by 25% I can see the value, but with a service I haven't experience yet, I can't tell if the normal price is value for money. I may think its only worth the promotional price. How do you over come that? In addition, does having a promotion smack of desperation? If business is doing well why discount? I think you can only be left with the thought that something isn't shifting whether that's units or sofas or hours with clients, so let's have a promotion. What do you think ?
Posted by: Jon Hall | August 07, 2007 at 03:48 AM