How promotions help you connect with your customers

Promotions are great for businesses. In fact, promotions are the oldest form of marketing. They increase sales and help build connections with customers. Compared to increasing sales, connecting with customers is often overlooked as a benefit. But it’s just as important in the long run.

Discounts and coupons are the most common promotional techniques used to increase sales. This is because they actively encourage customers to buy products.

Compared to many other promotion types, discounts and coupons are very simple, both to implement and understand. It’s also easy to measure their benefits when reviewing sales figures.

Unfortunately, it’s harder to measure the effects of online promotions when it comes to building a connection with your customers.

The types of promotions which work best for building brand awareness aren’t necessarily the best for increasing sales. For example, free giveaways don’t impact sales, unless they’re included as part of a bundle deal. Instead they help build a brand’s reputation among existing and potential customers.

Unlike sales or promotion redemptions, neither are simple figures you can easily track. But the benefits of both become a lot more apparent in the long run.

Understanding why certain promotions improve customer-brand relationships and brand awareness is important. If you know the whys behind a specific promotional mechanism, you can adapt it to get the results you want.

The customer acquisition journey has many distinct phases. There are different promotion options that will be more effective depending on where a specific customer lies.

Knowing what kind of relationship to pursue at any given time is key to maximizing its value to your business. It also ensures customers are getting as much out of the relationship in return as possible.

A potential customer will have different needs than a customer who has been shopping with your brand for a long time. This means you need to alter the promotions you use to reach them.

A significant discount on a first purchase will bring in new customers. Meanwhile, personalized coupons or bundle deals are more likely to help you retain existing customers. 

The easiest way to grab a customer’s attention is an eye-catching deal. This kind of promotion is great for securing sales, especially from brand new customers. 

Nevertheless, discounts need to be strategically implemented, as hasty or steep discounting can negatively impact profitability. This is why many retailers have witnessed a decline in their stock prices when they announce increased discounting in an effort to sustain revenue, as it often leads to reduced margins and profits.

Brand loyalty is built gradually using many different promotional techniques. It doesn’t rely as much on immediate rewards. Instead, loyalty schemes tend to give customers points which they can exchange for rewards.

These points are usually awarded depending on how much customers have spent with your brand. Deferring the reward over a longer period of time helps establish a positive association with your brand.

Online promotional techniques come in all shapes and sizes. It doesn’t matter what end goal you’re aiming for, there’s always going to be a promotion to help you achieve it. You just need to consider what kind of relationship priorities you’re aiming for with each customer.