Do Discounts and Special Offers Work?

Special offers are everywhere now.

From discount prices to BOGOF’s, consumers are looking for that little bit extra for their money.

Customers are enticed by special offers which will give them something extra – who wouldn’t want 50% extra free when buying an item and this has led to a decrease in customer loyalty over the years.

Businesses need to be able to offer these discounted prices, special purchase deals or extra thrown in freebies in order to be able to convince people to buy a products.

How they work:

Special offers create a sense of urgency.

They are mostly time limited so people will want to buy them whilst they are available.

This creates the need to buy on the spot rather than come back later and will help give that extra push to buy your product.

Advertising the offer:

If you have a special offer make sure you market it throughout your business.

Email signatures need to advertise the offer as well as having marketing material with the offer details available.

And advertise the offer widely – you need to reinforce the offer throughout your business to gain as much presence as possible.

Target Audience:

The special offer needs to take the customers from the stage of looking to buying.

This will be based on a lot of factors such as environment, brand reputation and type of customer.

You need to make the offer specific for the market you are targeting – such as new customer, repeat customer or one-off customers.

Ongoing Offers:

A lot of businesses are targeting loyalty in customers with their offers now by offering long term or permanent offers.

For example, you will often see customers offering tokens with their products to save and use to purchase certain items.

These type of offers ensure people buy the product over and over as well as not compromising profit margins on the product.

Ongoing offers can be a great way to secure loyal customers.

By offering an all inclusive product price you can give customers security about the end price they will be charged.  For example, Promo Gifts offer their promotional products at a set price which includes delivery, set up and artwork.

This means you wont get hit by any nasty surprises later down the line.

Timing:

The main aim of any special offer is to boost sales so offering a deal which customers find appealing at that time is often key.

Olympic freebies at this time of the year are a good idea to play off a popular sporting event.

But you also need to watch what competitors are doing.

There is no point offering 25% off your product at the same time as a competitor is offering 30% off.