Gift promotions can only be the icing on the cake, not a lifeline. Promotions should arrive when customers are eagerly anticipating them!
Many people misunderstand gift promotions, thinking that promotions are just for boosting sales, and when sales decline, they think of running a promotion. Remember this rule: promotions can only be the icing on the cake, never a lifeline.
What does that mean?
Promotions should be launched when there is already a certain customer base, to give a final push to increase market share. Never expect to use gifts to stimulate customers to buy products that have no reputation or consumer base. Remember, any customer values the product first and the gift second. Everyone knows the idiom "buying the casket and returning the pearl" – if you treat consumers as such fools, you are greatly mistaken. Therefore, the timing of promotions is very important.
Choose the Right Timing for Promotions
You should launch gift promotions when the sales trend is clearly upward, and follow the principle of "more purchases, more gifts" – the more customers buy, the more benefits they get. Before the promotion, there must be a complete planning plan, determining the promotion theme, form, duration, budget, etc., and have a relatively accurate estimate of sales, with an error margin not exceeding 20%. That is, the sales forecast should be close to accurate; otherwise, once the promotion starts, you may end up losing money for applause (of course, promotions purely to counter competitors are an exception).
Accurate timing includes three aspects:
Promotion Theme: For example, anniversary celebrations, sales milestones, gratitude to loyal customers, etc. A theme is essential, and it should clearly hint to customers that such promotions are not available all the time.
Promotion Form: For buy-and-gift promotions, the choice of gift is especially important. First, determine the cost rate of the gift. I generally set the gift value at 6%–8% of the payment amount. That is, for a product worth over 100 yuan, the purchase cost of the gift should be controlled at 6–8 yuan.
Of course, this can be flexible. For example, design three tiers: buy 2 boxes, buy 4 boxes, buy 6 boxes. For buying 2 boxes, the gift cost is controlled at 2%; for 4 boxes, at 5%; for 6 boxes, at 10%. This conveys to customers that buying more means getting more gifts. The gift must have some relevance to the product and should have a certain brand foundation, at least giving the impression that it is a good thing.
- Promotion Duration: The duration should not be too long; if too long, it loses its stimulating effect and may break trust with customers. If too short, customers may not understand the promotion content before it ends, and the effect will be much worse.
So how long is appropriate?
You need to estimate well how much sales you want to achieve from this promotion. Simply put, how much you want to earn. Generally, sales during a promotion can reach 3–5 times daily sales. For example, if daily market sales are about 100,000 yuan, during the promotion, daily net sales should be 300,000–500,000 yuan. If the promotion lasts 10 days, net sales should be 3–5 million yuan. Based on your expected sales, it is not difficult to determine the promotion duration.
Perfect the Details of the Promotion
You must quickly assign tasks and urge employees to complete preparations within the specified time. For example, finance and warehousing departments prepare goods and gifts; planning and design departments prepare terminal materials and shoot advertising promotional videos; business personnel notify distributors and dealers of the activity policy; terminal stores and promoters publicize the activity policy, etc. All need to be coordinated and arranged in an orderly manner, and you must grasp the timing of each step.
Promotion Process Control
Process control mainly focuses on data tracking. First, has the net sales reached the expected value? Second, how is the distributors' stocking situation and cooperation? Third, how high is the participation of distributors (terminal stores) in the activity? Fourth, how is the terminal promotional publicity? These process controls require organizing personnel to go to the market for supervision; otherwise, execution may be incomplete.
If the promotion effect is ideal, or the trend of increasing sales is strong, you can temporarily extend the activity time. However, the extension should not exceed half of the normal activity time.
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