The concept of marketing is quite broad, for sure, but the main goal remains the same: advertising a business in order to strengthen the brand and increase sales.

Among the various possibilities of advertising is promotional marketing.

It can be applied to all types of market, but it’s considerably relevant in the digital market, considering how dynamic interactions are.

One of the direct consequences of applying promotional marketing is the increase of the company’s Return on Investment (ROI), in addition to other benefits that we’ll talk about later.

Do you want to learn more about promotional marketing?

Well, read on!

What is promotional marketing?

There are several different concepts for promotional marketing.

One of the most comprehensive definitions is simply:

Promotional marketing is a patchwork of strategies applied with the purpose of building a brand, increase sales, prospect customers and build loyalty.

This is all done based on direct actions that encourage the interaction between the brand and consumers.

In other words, promotional marketing actions are those that bring values, ideas, company concepts, and products to customers in a non-invasive and interesting way to the target audience.

Promotional marketing is often seen as a form of merchandising, since it directly connects the company and customers, through offers, discounts, and other actions.

Would you like a practical example?

When a company offers product trials or free samples to visitors, it is using promotional marketing.

As the name implies, a promotion or offer is held with the purpose of alluring customers.

But the promotional marketing action options go beyond the offering of free samples. There’s a wide range of options that can be implemented by the manager based on the business’ reality (we’ll talk about them later in this post).

Advantages of promotional marketing

In order to know if promotional marketing is interesting and advantageous for your business, you need to analyze what it can offer.

Let’s take a look at some of the real benefits that can be gained from promotional actions.

1. Attracting new customers

One of the highlights is the attraction of new customers.

Those who operate in the market, especially the digital market, know that the actual cost of attracting a new customer is high.

Promotional marketing actions allow you to reach new customers, the ones who might not be aware of the brand’s existence.

By creating a promotion, you can pique the curiosity of new customers while spending far less than you may have thought.

2. Loyalty of existing customers

In addition to helping to attract new customers, promotional marketing contributes to the loyalty of existing customers.

By creating promotions that are truly interesting for your persona, you can keep them interested in your product.

3. Getting new fans for your brand

Does your brand already have fans in the market?

One of the main benefits of promotional marketing is that those who are targeted by the campaigns can become much more than customers, they can become actual fans engaged in promoting your brand.

This means that they could start recommending your product to other people, which would increase your brand’s reach.

4. Building a solid customer base

In addition to everything else, you can also build a solid customer base willing to get to know more about your company’s services and products.

How to apply promotional marketing

This is one of the most important stages, the application of promotional marketing.

In order for the results to be as expected, it is essential that there is throughout planning and coordination of actions.

The goals must be clear and outlined in advance.

To ensure that the promotional marketing actions reach the right people, the audience must be analyzed and its characteristics must be very well defined.

To whom are the strategies intended?

What is the profile of your ideal customer?

This targeting helps people reached by the promotional actions to be most likely to make a purchase.

After you understand who your persona is, it’s time to take action.

We’ve put together a few ideas that can be applied to any business:

Giveaways (in pre and after-sales)

Giveaways are small gifts offered for free by companies to their customers, so as to entice potential customers and build customer loyalty.

They can be offered both during the pre-sale as well as during the after-sales, the difference here is the final goal.

When this promotional marketing strategy is implemented in the initial phase, it intends to attract customers so that they make a purchase, without migrating to competitors.

When it’s applied in after-sales, it has the purpose of ensuring customer loyalty, demonstrating a unique feature of the company in dealing with its clients.

Both moments can be explored by the company. Giveaways are inexpensive and bring a series of positive results to the business.

Trials

One of the most used promotional marketing actions during the prospecting phase is trials.

Nothing better than allowing customers to enjoy the benefits of a product or service for a while and for free.

This strategy is used by major brands.

An example of this is Microsoft, which makes all of its tools in the Office 365 package available for free for 30 days.

All you have to do is create an account and establish the form of payment. Cancellation before the end of the promotional period prevents the collection of payment.

If customers decide to keep the package, the first payment will take place at the end of the trial.

Often, the purchase isn’t made due to lack of knowledge. If customers don’t know the product and its advantages, the chances of buying are slim.

By allowing trials, the company offers customers a unique opportunity to enjoy all of the product’s advantages, which attracts them without having to spend a lot with it.

Offers

Offers are strategies employed in all market sectors. And that goes for digital businesses also.

But after all, what are offers?

They are discounts or promotional packages that allow customers to make purchases while paying less for them.

This practice is quite common in supermarkets and clothing stores, which always announce products at a great price, considering inventory availability or close expiration date when it comes to perishables, for example.

Actually, this is one of the basic characteristics of an offer: it must give the idea of urgency, leading customers to take advantage of their last chance of making purchases for such a special price.

In order for this strategy to really work, it is essential that the offer is legitimate, offering real advantages.

In addition to the urgency, it is also possible to use other mental triggers when creating an offer. Use your creativity!

Sweepstakes

Unlike offers, sweepstakes are not directly linked to a product or service, although they might be associated in some way.

In this promotional marketing strategy, companies offer a prize to be drawn among the customers.

There are many options: a cash prize, store credit, a product or service, etc.

In addition, sweepstakes can be held for all customers or only for those who have made more than one purchase from you. It’ll all depend on your goal.

For example, for every 100 USD in purchases, customers receive a number to participate in the sweepstake. The more customers spend, the more chances they’ll have of winning. And the better the prize, the greater the customers’ interest in trying their luck.

Sweepstakes can be held at any time, but the best results are obtained when they’re linked to a commemorative date.

Whether it’s the digital business’ anniversary or the hundredth or thousandth sale made, all are interesting moments to explore sweepstakes.

Contests

Contests are also part of the promotional marketing strategies.

They are usually created to encourage customer participation, who can interact actively.

In this mode, customers are compelled to compete for a prize. It’s very similar to sweepstakes, with the difference that here, in order to win, they have to win a contest or perform an action to stand out.

Contests can be directly linked to your business or be entirely disassociated, aiming only to the public’s participation as a form of fun, amusement and the improvement of the relationship between customers and the company.

Interactive promotional campaigns

Interactive promotional campaigns happen in real time.

One of the clearest examples of how this promotional marketing action works in practice are TV shows that allow viewers to call in live.

During a show, customers call aiming to obtain a prize or advantage.

The same rationale applies to the digital market.

You can, for example, create a space where customers can actively participate in a live stream, either commenting, liking or sharing a post.

As you can see, promotional marketing gathers a set of strategies and actions that are able to build customer loyalty, in addition to increasing the number of sales made.

However, promotional marketing is merely one of the various strategies used to make a business take off.

Would you like to learn about others? We have a full post with 11 marketing strategies to attract customers.