Promotions contests with prizes. What actions to take to attract customers

A promotion is an event to attract customers. Promotions increase sales, increase brand confidence and repeat orders. To achieve high efficiency, it is required to think over the organization of the promotion, taking into account the characteristics of the industry and the target audience.

In today's article, you will learn the best ideas for running successful promotions. See implemented examples from different niches.

10 ideas for a promotion

We offer you to promote your business with effective promotions. Ideas will be disclosed below in examples.

• Action "Bring a friend".
• Scheme "2 + 1", presenting a gift to the buyer.
• Conducting a difficult competition.
• Prize draw.
• Promotion "Change the old for the new".
• Deal of the Day or Happy Hour.
• Early Booking/First Buyer Bonus.
• Presentation of discount cards.

Examples of promotions

Let us consider in more detail the features of each idea and examples of its implementation.

Holiday discounts are used by many brands to attract customers, why not use it for you?

The bigger the discount, the more attractive it looks. At the same time, the promotional action should not be at a loss to the company - you need to make calculations in advance. For example, how many perfumes need to be sold so that a 50% discount on them is beneficial for the company.

Make a targeted offer to your audience, taking into account the peculiarities of the holiday. On Student's Day - for students, February 23 - for men (or for gifts for men), and so on. Enter personal discounts for birthdays.

The online store of sports simulators and home equipment FIT-SPORT annually gives discounts in honor of March 8 and to all mothers on Mother's Day.

Gamification involves the introduction of game elements into the promotion. The main thing is to evoke emotions in the audience: motivation and involvement.

A more complex example of gamification is the Spasibomaniya online game from Sberbank.

Everyone can play with it and get a whole million "thanks" to their bonus account. To do this, you need to register in the game and make moves by clicking on the cells.

Please note: such a promotion requires a separate platform for its implementation.

If you want to make a game on the site, invite visitors to start the game with online dice rolls. For example, if a user rolls a die once, they are guaranteed to receive a gift of up to 500 rubles. And if three times and at the same time score more than a certain number of points, he will win a super prize or be left with nothing.

The Adams jewelry factory offered its customers to play a jewelry casino: roll a virtual die to determine the size of their discount.

Other options for gamification: conducting a survey or an online quest with a standings, whose participants can win a prize or a big discount on your assortment.

3. Action "Bring a friend"

Offer consumers a discount for attracting new customers (for greater involvement, give a discount to both a new client and the one who brought him).

Adapt the conditions of the promotion to your goals and the specifics of the niche. For example, the "Bring a Friend" advertising campaign was running for three months at the "Start" driving school. Each participant received 1,000 rubles from the cost of training back to their account. This is a good move - to demonstrate not the abstract size of the discount, but the specific amount that the client will save.

Booking, an online aggregator for booking accommodation, offers 1,000 rubles to the account for inviting a friend.

4. Gifts

Two products for the price of one or the second product (related service) as a gift. Or the sixth coffee as a gift, as, for example, in the Kuzina patisserie. When buying coffee, you get a coupon, where a stamp is placed for the purchase of each drink. After collecting five seals, you will receive the next coffee for free.

In the Dobraya Cup coffee shop, you will receive branded coffee as a gift if you subscribe to the company's Instagram, take a photo in the establishment and post it with the appropriate hashtag. This is the best live advertising at the lowest cost!

5. Competition

Contests increase the recognition of the company and improve its image. They are not tied to the product and those that are directly related to it - to participate in the promotion, the consumer needs to purchase one or more products.

Pikhtin Auto offered customers to take a selfie or a regular picture against the backdrop of the company's car complex. Each participant was required to post a photo on Instagram with the appropriate hashtag - this increased brand awareness and increased brand loyalty.

Another example is the “My Best Vacation” photo contest from the Rive Gauche online store. The owner of the best vacation photo was given a colorful suitcase by the company.

6. Draw

A simplified version of the competition, requiring a minimum of actions and time from the participants. In order to participate online, you need to like, repost, mark in the comments. The reward for this could be a small guaranteed prize or a discount.

When it comes to offline events, you can act like the manufacturer of power tools AEG POWERTOOLS. For a month, the company issued participants' coupons to customers who made a purchase for a certain amount, and then held a drawing of prizes in one of its outlets.

7. Promotion "Change the old to the new"

This idea can be used in many niches: offer new TVs, gold jewelry, fur coats and cars in exchange for similar used products. Consumers like these promotions because they can get rid of unwanted junk and get a discount on the necessary product in return. For business, a promotion is useful in attracting customers and increasing sales.

Eldorado offers to hand over old household appliances for recycling and receive a discount in the amount of 2 to 15 thousand rubles. As you already understood, this is not done at the expense of profit. Thus, Eldorado attracts the attention of potential customers, increases sales growth and increases brand confidence. In addition, the company earns money through participation in the program for the collection and disposal of old equipment.

One of the most burning topics for owners and marketers of any business is promotions.

What would you come up with to increase sales, and legends began to be made about business? Yes, you can not imagine.

And just take the finished one, add your own, and get a chic promotion. Where to take? From the list below. There are more than 15 ideas for every taste and willingness to take risks.

Promotions

Before we move on to a specific list of stocks, I want to warn you that everything should be in moderation. You can't live on stocks alone, just as you can't live without them at all.

Your company should have everything:, and other important elements of a successful company.

And only after your business becomes harmonious enough, you can move on to promotions.

Yes, they all have their own goals, but there is a common and main one - it is to attract attention and smooth out the corners to making a purchase decision.

But, an important point, if your salesperson “Petya” messes up and does not work with, then there will be no money at the checkout.

I also want to say that if you are planning to hold an action, you need to promote it well (of course it’s good, but it’s not enough).

You need to use enough, otherwise you will prematurely conclude that customer acquisition promotions do not work, and in general it is not yours.

For example, you can notify visitors to your site about a promotion using an online consultant.

Or if you are actively using Instagram to promote your business, then the “Direct Mailing” function from the Tooligram program can help you communicate information about promotions.

And yet, people get tired of the same type of shares. In addition, with their constant conduct, they begin to attribute you to a company that winds up prices, and then throws them off. Therefore, you take breaks, or do not include new collections in promotional goods.

Action performance (nerves of steel)

And now, when the word on the road has been issued, we can start. Let's start with those who have strong nerves and who are not afraid to take risks. These are the most interesting, eye-catching and customer-attracting unusual promotions.

In this section, I will rather describe to you the approach (strategy) with examples, since not everything is so simple. And here you will see ready-made examples below.

One of the most successful, memorable and sales-increasing was the promotion of the well-known Euroset store - come naked and get a cell phone for free.

The effect was designed primarily for shocking. Since then, in one way or another, all the store owners who have the courage to promote their store at the expense of human greed have been trying to repeat this action.

A recent example is a sports store in Germany that ran a similar promotion on its opening day.

You could come and get dressed from head to toe in whatever you want in the allotted time. Absolutely free. True, there was a small condition - you had to come completely naked.

Moreover, in order to hold such an action in a store, the business does not have to be big and famous.

For example, in Irkutsk, at the opening of a small youth clothing store, an action was held - tear the jeans / trousers that you have now and choose new ones for free.

A married couple lived in one of the IKEA stores for almost a month. They slept there, cooked, ate and even bathed. A lot of people came to look at these outstanding people (read, eccentrics).

How do you think it affected this store? You think right, it affected 😉

We have covered the performance of the action in more detail in a separate article. Be sure to study it if you are hooked by such a reckless technique. Only when implementing, think not only about the short term, but also about the long term, how it will affect your business.

Almost a freebie

Quite an old example of a successful promotion. The Technoshock store started selling video cassettes at cost (half the price, almost at a loss), talking about it very aggressively. Cassettes did not have time to deliver to the store.

Crowds of people stood to buy a cheap videotape. And at the same time they were sold a new VCR, TV, antennas and much more.

This promotion is applicable to almost any business. All that is required of you is to find in your company and start attracting people to it.

It is not necessary to sell it at a loss, you can simply earn nothing on it. But you must do it.

Quite a freebie

We arranged a similar promotion in our client's store. Handed out socks for free. Good, quality socks and completely free.

And you don't even have to buy anything. Just walk in, fill out and get your own pair of socks. You may begin to swear that you will not give away anything for free. So evaluate the whole idea.

Firstly, we gave away socks for free, which cost us 20 rubles (quite a little), and this figure was much more profitable in terms of advertising, since one visitor gave us at least 35 rubles from other advertising sources.

Plus, you yourself understand that in addition to the socks, a discount was offered at the moment for the main assortment, a coupon for a repeat purchase, in general, a lot of things. The result is an increased customer base and promotion, with more than 400 percent.

Or here is another example of a good implementation. The target audience will react exactly.

Freebie promotion example

treasure hunt

Quite an unusual and interesting action. Pawn / bury a valuable treasure somewhere. The location of the promotion can be, for example, a shopping center where your store is located or even the whole city.

As soon as the treasure is found, news will be released about it (for example, in) and information will be given about the next one.

So, for example, did one bank. They put dozens of treasures with a real gold coin and began to actively promote it. There were also successful cases for a food delivery service.

Certificates were hidden for a year and a search was arranged with the help of radio presenters. People are very willing to get involved in such promotional games and promotions, because they love interactive.

Give a discount / gift to the client for what he rolls on the dice. You can even make a staged game. For example, if a person throws it once, he is guaranteed to receive a gift of up to 1000 rubles.

And if he throws three times and scores more than the n-th value, he will receive a super prize, or even remain empty-handed.

A variant of the super-game from the field of miracles. By the way, instead of cubes, there may be a spinning drum. The rules for conducting are already at your discretion and imagination.

WE ARE ALREADY MORE THAN 29,000 people.
TURN ON

Standard shares

Therefore, there is no need to wrestle with what actions can be carried out and which ones will not work. For the most part, they are designed for discounts and play on one of the main feelings of a person - the desire to save money, to buy profitably (not to be confused with greed).

Two for the price of one (three for the price of two)

A standard promotion launched in most grocery and retail clothing stores. Buying two/three items, you get another one for free. Ideal for services.

Install a stretch ceiling in 2 rooms and receive installation in the hallway as a gift. Buy 2 apartments and get a parking space as a gift (what if!).

This type of promotion is a good alternative to a discount. And we implemented this approach even in the wholesale business.

But as you already understood, there it was not about pieces, but about containers. But in this way we succeeded significantly, and this is one of the main indicators when holding actions.

Discount on certain products

100% You have seen products with red/yellow price tags. Such a targeted promotion is actively used by retail stores.

But their services are undeservedly ignored, although with a large assortment, this is almost a gold mine for them.

When we talk about a "colored" price tag, it does not have to be a discount. You can go the other way and make a purchase without markup / without VAT / at wholesale prices.

Or just a promotion for one of the positions, for example: “Changing the oil in a car is free! You only pay for the materials.”

Also, it's not just about the windows. You can highlight items in the price list or on the website with special colors.

And just an example of how we achieved an increase in sales through the study of the price list (including color), read in the article.

Hello! In this article we will talk about promotions to attract customers.

Today you will learn:

• How to conduct promotions for;
• What types of shares exist and how to come up with a share;
• How to calculate stock performance.

What are shares and why are they needed?

During the height of the economic crisis in the country, the issue of attracting new customers is faced by almost every enterprise. The situation is aggravated by the high level in almost all areas of business.

In such harsh conditions, entrepreneurs are forced to resort to the most stringent measures to attract customers. One such measure is sales promotion.

Sales promotion - a promotional tool aimed at a short-term increase in demand with the help of various promotions that stimulate purchase.

Promotions will allow you to achieve the following goals:

• Short-term increase in sales volumes;
• Capturing market share for the long term;
• Attracting new consumers:
• Lure consumers from competitors;
• Stimulation of large volumes of purchases;
• Retaining loyal customers.

Advantages:

• Attracting attention to the company, brand and product;
• Providing information about the product and the company to potential consumers;
• Significant increase in sales during the promotion period;
• Rapid response of the consumer to the stimulating effect;
• Sales focus.

Flaws:

• Short-term exposure tends to increase sales only for the duration of the promotion;
• Often have a negative impact on the image of the organization. In the event that a high-level company starts selling goods with a discount of more than 70%, it loses wealthy buyers and attracts those who are ready to purchase products only at discounts;
• Significantly reduces the profit of the company. Even a 5% discount has a painful effect on the company's profits, which we will talk about a little later.

If these shortcomings do not scare you, then let's move on.

Equity strategy development process

Any activity to attract visitors should begin with the development of a strategy. Stocks are no exception.

The process of developing a sales promotion strategy includes the following steps:

• Formation of sales promotion goals;
• Determination of suitable stocks, which we will talk about a little later;
• Development of an incentive program: designation of the timing of the action, determination of the size of the incentive (budget), determination of the conditions for participation in the action, methods for promoting and distributing the incentive package, developing a mechanism for responding to the action, preliminary testing;
• Practical implementation of the incentive program through the use of various promotions;
• Evaluation of results.

Types of promotions to attract customers

At the moment, there are a very large number of different options for stocks.

The choice of one or another means of sales promotion depends on the following factors:

• Activity specifics.
• Product type. For example, you sell wedding dresses. It would be strange when buying one to give the second;
• Format and location of the store. For example, we own a stall selling pies at the station. Next to us are three more of the same stall. To attract consumers, we decided to hold a promotion. As a gift to a lucky random person, we are providing a coupon for one free pie per day for a month. However, 90% of our consumers are passing through this place and this action will not interest them, and it will not help us resolve the issue with competitors;
• Activities of competitors in this area;
• The financial capabilities of the company;
• Purposes of the action.

Determine for yourself each of these options. Determined? Then we move on to the types of shares.

Discounts

Discounts are the most popular and easiest way. Buyers are happy to buy goods with red price tags. The more you lower the price, the more purchases you get. But be careful. Every percentage of the price hurts the margin of your products.

During the month of discounts, sales increased by 20% and amounted to 148 pies or 2,664 rubles. The margin of a pie for the period of the promotion was: 18-17.3 = 0.7 rubles.

Let's calculate the profit received for the month of the promotion: 0.7 * 148 = 103.6 rubles. Thus, thanks to discounts, we lost 209.4 rubles of profit with an increase in purchases by 20%.

Make it a rule to carry out such calculations before introducing the discount system.

Human psychology is arranged in such a way that he practically does not notice a price decrease of less than 15%. Therefore, a discount of 5 or 10% will not lead to a significant increase in demand.

Discount forms:

• Seasonal sales;
• Discounts for large volume purchases;
• Discounts in honor of a special occasion (customer's birthday, store opening date, etc.);
• Discounts for the purchase of a certain category of products.
• Discount on defective goods;
• Discount on “product of the day”;
• Discount when buying at;
• Refer a friend discount.

Please note that the introduction of any discount must necessarily be tied to any occasion. If you simply lower your prices, the consumer will think about the quality of your product. It is discounts that tend to negatively affect the image of the organization when they are ineptly applied.

Gifts for purchase

Also a very popular type of action. You can give away both your products and the goods of your partners for the purchase. In the first case, you will again have to calculate the change in sales and profits so as not to go into the red. But the second option is very tempting.

Find a partner company that needs to promote their product or brand and offer cooperation.

Example. Since the idea of ​​discounts at our stall with pies failed, we decided to give gifts for the purchase. To do this, we agreed with the shop opposite that we would attract our customers to their outlet by issuing them a coupon for receiving free tea from them. The store agrees, since the likelihood that a visitor will buy any product from them by going for free tea is very high.

Types of promotion "gift for purchase":

• The second product at the lowest price is free;
• Bonus from partners;
• Lottery;
• Discount card for purchase.

Loyalty cards

Almost everyone has several cards in their wallet from their favorite stores. They allow the buyer to benefit from shopping in this store.

There are the following forms of discount cards:

• Discount cards- provide the client with a fixed discount. It does not change during the use of this card. Aimed at retaining visitors, their binding to the outlet;
• Savings cards- often the amount of benefit depends on the total amount of the purchased goods in monetary terms. The more you buy during the entire period of using the card, the greater your discount. Aimed at increasing the number of purchases and customer retention;
• club card- provided to special customers, for example, for a large purchase volume. It carries certain privileges, including: the opportunity to participate in promotions, a permanent discount, gifts.

It is impossible to issue cards just like that, time their donation to some event or determine the conditions.

Here are some options for you:

• Shop birthday;
• Large purchase volume;
• Issuance of discount cards to the first visitors;
• Issuance of cards for participation in the competition;
• Sale of cards.

Contests and sweepstakes

This type of stock is actively gaining momentum. Hold a prize draw, come up with a contest, the winners of which will receive your products as a gift. This will allow you to increase company awareness and consumer loyalty.

Competitions are of two types:

• Companies related to the product. In this case, the buyer, in order to receive a surprise, must purchase a certain amount of goods. For example, buy 10 bottles of soda to collect caps from them and get a prize. Aimed at increasing demand and drawing attention to the company;
• Product unrelated. The consumer performs some task, while he does not need to purchase the company's product. For example, a consumer must write a story about their day at school in order to receive a free set of school supplies.

Tasting

As a rule, it is carried out in large supermarkets. At the same time, this type of action is aimed not so much at increasing the sales volume of the product being tasted, but rather at increasing the sales volume of the supermarket as a whole. According to statistics, consumers who have tried a product buy 25% more than they planned in that store.

We will talk about the calculation of the effectiveness of this type of action a little later.

How to come up with a promotion to attract customers

To come up with a promotion to attract customers, you must go through the following steps:

• Determine the goals of the advertising campaign. What do you want to achieve? Increasing sales, increasing customer loyalty, attracting new customers or retaining existing ones. Write down all your goals;
• Determine the participants of the marketing campaign. Who exactly do you want to influence, who will influence, who will control its implementation. Discounts can scare away wealthy customers from your company and attract consumers in the middle and low price segment. The club card can have the opposite effect. Promoters, salespeople, account managers can influence consumers. The director or administrator will control the entire process. All personnel involved in the action must be prepared: familiarized with the conditions, instructed.
• Determine the motives of each participant. The consumer is interested in additional benefits, the seller is interested in a premium or bonuses for good results, the administrator is interested in fulfilling the plan, increasing sales. The correct definition of the motives of each of the participants will allow you to effectively manage the process.
• Work to identify the needs of your customers. What exactly might interest them?
• Think about when your promotion will be most relevant. For example, ice cream in winter will not cause such a stir among consumers as gingerbread cookies and hot chocolate.
• Decide on the type of action. It directly depends on the one for which you are running the promotion. It is also important to determine the value of the gift. Remember that a large number of small bonuses attract consumers more than a few expensive gifts.
• Make the conditions for participation in the promotion clear and short, otherwise the client will suspect fraud or simply will not study your offer. There should not be too many conditions.
• Communicate with your consumer, answer his questions, play with him. This is how you gain precious trust.

Analysis of the effectiveness of the campaign

We have already discussed how to evaluate the effectiveness of discounts; the evaluation of the effectiveness of the introduction of loyalty cards, gifts and contests is carried out in the same way.

Remember that an increase in sales does not guarantee an increase in profits, because you lose on a discount or a gift. In this case, the gift should be considered as a discount in the calculation of efficiency (the value of the gift = the size of the discount).

Example. For the purchase of 5 pies at a time, we give chewing gum. The promotion will last one week. The price of gum is 2 rubles. We will assume that only those who initially wanted to buy them will buy the fifth pie, and we have 10 of 50 people like that per week. Thus, the volume of sales, thanks to the action, will increase by 200 rubles or by 10 pies. Our margin before the promotion was 2.7 rubles. The volume of sales before the action was 90 pies. We consider the profit a week before the promotion 90 * 2.7 = 2 43 rubles.

Let's calculate how much additional profit we will receive due to the action: 2.7 * 10 \u003d 27 rubles. And we will lose: 2 * 10 \u003d 20 rubles. Thus, the action will allow us to increase profits by only 7 rubles.

Now let's learn how to calculate the effectiveness of tastings.

Let's say we hold a tasting of our pies. The promotion will run for 2 days, 3 hours a day. The price of our product is 20 rubles. The cost price is 17.3 rubles.

We plan to cover an audience of 20 people. The number of required pies is 20 pieces. In addition, we need a tray worth 200 rubles and a pack of napkins worth 30 rubles.

Thus, the cost of the action will be 576 rubles.

Let's calculate by the formula: Break-even point = sum of costs/margin = 576/2.7 = 213 pies. We will have to sell such a number of pies according to the results of the tasting.

According to the information dissemination rule, each tasting pie will tell three of his friends about the product, and each of these three will tell three more.

Thus, the maximum number of buyers who will come to the stall based on the results of the tasting will be 180 people. We do not know how many pies they will buy, but according to pessimistic calculations (each will buy only one pie), this number of buyers is not enough. The project is risky.

Examples of the best promotions

Action at the airport.

A couple of years ago, an American airline held a drawing of tours. The conditions were as follows: a person waiting for a flight was offered to press a button, after which the computer randomly determined the country to which the lucky person would go. All travel expenses were covered by the airline.

Free lunch.

One of the Chinese sites held an interesting action. For a month, every hour for 1.5 seconds, a button appeared on the resource page, by clicking on which the lucky person received a free lunch. By the way, the number of visitors to the site for this month increased by 4 times.

An example from Russia.

The Moscow cafe Geocafe holds a promotion every day. Its conditions are as follows: at 18:00 Moscow time, a drawing of a free dinner was held between cafe visitors. The winner was determined randomly. The second and third places were also determined, which received a bottle of wine and a 50% discount on their order, respectively.

Promotion in the store.

In one of Vilnius denim stores, there was such a campaign: all customers who came without pants were given free jeans of their choice. As a result, on the day of the action, a line of freebie lovers lined up in the store. However, be careful with such promotions, otherwise you may face legal consequences.