Promotional marketing: what is it, types and how to create effective campaigns?

No company can survive successfully in today’s world without a strategy that gives it visibility and differentiates it from the competition. In this reality, promotional marketing promotional marketing, an effective tool to attract and retain customers and increase sales. We give context to this concept and show you the keys to optimize the effectiveness of your company’s promotional campaigns.

We analyze the most relevant aspects, following this structure:

• Definition of promotional marketing and its functionality.
• What is a promotional campaign?
• The different formats adopted by promotional marketing.
• The main advantages that this promotional strategy brings to a company.
• Step by step to develop effective promotions.

We review the concept of direct marketing and the tools it uses.

All strategies to publicize a company and encourage the purchase of its products are important in a highly competitive and globalized market. But each one of them pursues an objective and serves to cover a specific need. That is why it is essential to distinguish between them, in order to implement the most appropriate one at all times.

Thus, promotional marketing refers to the set of actions aimed at attracting the customer’s attention to a company or a specific product. Unlike other types of marketing, promotions are direct in nature and seek an immediate reaction to a specific proposal.

Specific goals that require very specific tools: personalization and the use of omnichannel communications. It is obvious that a promotional campaign has to target an audience potentially interested in what we present to them. But it is not only necessary to select the target audience. You also have to personalize the message, how you tell them so that it appeals to them more. And finally, use the channel preferred by each user, even combining several. We have to make sure that the offer reaches them, yes or yes!

It is interesting to review the concept of marketing and its benefits for companies.

It could be said that the objective of a promotion is to generate a specific stimulus to speed up and finalize a purchase. Of course, if the campaign is successful, the brand is reinforced and customers can be retained.

Typically, promotional campaigns are activated in connection with these situations. Here are some examples:

• An overstock in one or more products.
• Launch of a specific item or service.
• Reactivation of a certain product.
• Need to increase the company’s liquidity.
• To make a new brand known.

Promotions can be presented in different formats. This is an open field for creativity, because we must remember that the aim is to stimulate or awaken the interest of very different customers at specific times. What works for a company for a certain product may not work in another campaign. For this reason, it is interesting to manage different strategies, among which the following stand out:

• Price-focused promotions: direct discounts, introductory prices, partial refunds, classic seasonal sales or multiplier offers (3×2, XXL formats).
• Value-added campaigns: packs in which a complementary product is given away for free, promotions with a free matching item, free shipping, installation of a free service.
• Linked to an experience: food or beverage tastings, free samples or after-sales services.
• Interactive promotions: sweepstakes, games, immersive experiences (with virtual reality technology, for example).
• Loyalty: VIP benefits, electronic wallets where a percentage of the amount spent is accumulated, points redeemable for prizes.
• Strategic campaigns: collaborating with another company, linking the promotion to a social cause or launching a new product.

Discover how important it is for your company to be able to implement multichannel marketing strategies.

Beyond the increase in sales at the time of the promotion or taking advantage of the time the offer lasts, these campaigns have other benefits for the company that promotes them.

1. Attract new customers, you get to be known to an audience that did not value you before.
2. You increase loyalty. Your customers decide to stick with you because they have discovered more features or new products. Moreover, these regular users end up becoming the best ambassadors of your brand.
3. You increase profitability. An effective promotion usually has very high conversion rates.
4. Improve your company’s positioning. You have managed to differentiate yourself from the competition and that gives you more visibility.

Define your objective
Every promotion should be planned with your company’s ultimate goal in mind.

Segment your audience
Personalization is the key concept of a successful promotional campaign. You need to identify very well the type of people who may be interested in the product or service. Without this selection, it is impossible to generate the impact you are looking for.

Choose the type of promotion
You have identified the target and the ideal customer, two essential pieces of information to choose the promotional strategy that will be most effective in that context.

Design the message and the support
Again, thanks to the segmentation and identification of the potential customer’s profile, you can launch the most impactful and attractive message for that audience. Don’t forget to take into account the channel you use to send it. Everything must play in favor of the customer receiving the promotion, being interested in it and reacting to it.

Execute and measure results
Although the marketing world works with data and strategies that have proven to be effective, it is not exact like mathematics. It is imperative that you track the actual impact you have had, the extent to which you have met your expectations and any shortcomings that may have occurred. This measurement of results is even more effective if you can do it in real time, because it would allow you to rectify failures or make modifications even in an activated campaign.

The email marketing is an interesting tool to attract customers.

What do you need to create successful promotional campaigns? Let’s go element by element discovering the exclusive proposal that we make from MailComms Group. At the end, you will see that we have the most complete, integrated and innovative solutions for direct and promotional marketing.

• Data analysis and audience segmentation, in order to personalize your promotional campaigns. Our Communicalia technology platform is a unique and adaptable solution from which you can design, segment, generate, manage, distribute and archive omnichannel communications.
• Possibility of personalized multichannel communications, to reach everyone in the most appropriate way.
• Digitalization of multichannel communications, for greater agility and efficiency of messages. At MailComms Group we provide you with a direct marketing solution with comprehensive management.
• Follow-up and measurement of results, to check the success of the campaign. You will have an excellent tool for managing and analyzing interactions with your customers.

At MailComms Group we are a reference and leader in exclusive promotional marketing solutions.Contact our consultants and discover all our proposals!