5 Effective Promotional Marketing Methods to Increase your Reach

Your promotional marketing methods are used to motivate customers to buy.

And it’s frustrating when they aren’t doing that!

It’s even worse when you are spending too much money trying to increase sales with little to show for it.

So, why aren’t your ideal customers buying?

Is it just the pandemic, or something else?

Chances are the promotional methods you are using are not reaching them. To connect with your clients, try implementing new promotional methods or adjusting your promotional mix.

By experimenting with different types of promotions, you can enhance your marketing system and get the reach and results you’re looking for.

To help you find an effective promotional strategy for your business, I’m sharing a break down of each method.

Promotions fall into five categories:

1. Public Relations

Definition: Used to earn public understanding, acceptance and trust from your ideal clients.

Public relations is a great place to start if you feel uncomfortable with the notion of “selling”.

Public relations is about you, your product, and how you positively contribute in the minds of your consumer.

You are building a mutually beneficial, long-term relationship with your customers.

An effective public relations promotion shows how your company can make a difference for your customers.

Some great ways to build a trust with your customers is:

• Donating to local organization and charities
• Volunteering at local events and fairs. (Including virtual ones!)
• Content Marketing– the process of engaging and building trust with your audience by giving away valuable, relevant, inspiring or entertaining content. *

2. Advertising

Definition: Paid, non-personal communication via media.

This is probably the promotional method your mind jumped to when you first thought of promoting your business.

It’s a great choice but can be expensive.

Often small business owners don’t have the money for advertising, or they spend too much money on advertising and get little in return.

Plus, it can be hard to track the effectiveness of advertising.**

For example, let’s say you decide to purchase advertising on three different billboards.

When a new customer comes into your shop, you can’t say for sure if that person came in because of your billboards.

Unless you ask them.

And that can be time consuming. Especially when you have to ask every person who walks into your store or visits your website.

And then, if you found out they did come in because of a billboard, you might not know which one. A customer could say something vague like ” The billboard near my house!”

As long as you consider cost and trackability, advertising can be an effective method in your promotional mix.

Plus, there’s lots of avenues to promote your business when advertising.

• Newspaper ads
• TV
• Radio
• Magazines
• Billboards
• Direct mail (Email)
• Web banners
• Targeted web
  campaigns

3. Personal Selling

Definition: The face-to-face promotion of goods and services.

Forget about surveys and data, if you love talking with people, this is the promotional marketing method for you.

Not only that, but it’s affordable as you want it to be.

Maybe you decide to join a networking group of entrepreneurs on Facebook. Which is completely free!

Then again, you could decide to invest a little more.

For example, I flew to Prague for an international coaching conference. It was an amazing experience. As a result, I built some strong business connections. For my company, it was worth the expense!

Here’s some examples of promoting through personal selling:

• Networking
• Volunteering
• Door knocking
• Scheduled meetings (in person
  or video online)
• Friends and family
• Social Events
• Trade Shows

Now, your probably thinking, how do I decide on what to spend on personal selling?

The way you promote your business depends on how your target market prefers to communicate, connect and intake information.

Also, it’s important to ask yourself, “Do I enjoy doing this?”

Running a promotion that you dislike drains your energy. Which means you’ll have less to give to other activities in your business.

And even if you do drag yourself through a promotional process, your promotion won’t be as effective as you hoped. People will sense your unease and disengage.

Find something that fits you!

4. Direct Marketing

Definition: Marketing messages that are sent directly to consumers for immediate response.

This is a great option if you want to grow an email list or social media following. As well as directly selling your product or service.

With direct marketing, you are asking customers for an immediate action in response to your promotional material.

Plus, a benefit of direct marketing is it’s easy to track**.

Suppose that you want more customers to visit your website.

So, you decide to peak people’s interest by sending an email promoting your website. In the email, you refer people to a website URL.

Then, the recipient takes immediate action by clicking on the link.

Meanwhile, your CRM (Customer Relationship Management System) tracks how they got to your website.

As a result, you don’t have to guess how a person reached your website. (Unlike our advertising billboard.)

Another key aspect about this promotional marketing method is you can target specific leads and clients. It’s as simple as calling them, texting them or emailing them your promotion directly.

Among many others, you can use direct marketing for:

• Announcements
• Special offers
• Order confirmation
• Feedback.

5. Sales Promotions

Definition: Used to stimulate consumer purchases.

You can use sales promotion in your marketing mix to supplement advertising and public relations.

Much like direct response marketing, sales promotions drives action and asks for immediate purchase.

The difference is sales promotion focuses on selling your product over building a customer base.

And sales promotion tends to have a more substantial delivery method than an email or phone call.

Examples:

• Trade shows
• Special deals
• Catalogues/Brochures
• Coupons
• Samples
• Contests
• Bonuses
• Special events

Creating a Powerful Marketing System.

With the right mix of promotional methods, you can create a strong marketing system that motivates your customers to buy!

And when choosing your promotional mix, conduct a strategic evaluation of your product and consumer. An informed decision will yield a high return of investment.

Plus, you can prioritize the methods that you like too! Have some fun connecting with the people you are excited to help.

Let me know in the comments what type of promotion works best for your company!

Until next time,

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