17 special offer techniques will win customers

17 Special Offer techniques that will win you customers

Here at Eggshell we regularly work on tactical marketing campaigns for our customers. These frequently involve the use of customer offers and incentives, so I thought it might be helpful to highlight some of the techniques that can be used.

Offers and incentives can be a great way to help replace the 10 - 15% of customer base that every small to medium sized business loses each and every year. Whilst the profit margin can sometimes be slightly smaller, offers stimulate repeat purchases from existing customers and attract a new set of customers.

Here are 17 special offer ideas which you can potentially use to get your customers talking and most importantly - get some extra revenue flowing!

1. Buy One, Get One Free – We all use these offers, mostly used for low cost products rather than services. It has been shown that the ‘BOGOF’ offer works far better than ‘50% off’.

2. Competitions – Highly successful when promoting high priced products and services as the more desirable the incentive the more people will enter the competition.

3. Free Delivery – Particularly useful for fast food businesses or even large businesses. This offer is becoming more and more popular on E-commerce websites such as eBay and Amazon.

4. Gift Vouchers – Vouchers can be used to give the recipient a money-off discount on a product or a service, or be used to claim a free gift.

5. Loyalty Cards – Loyalty cards have been hugely successful over the past 10 years with the increase of fast food chains and low cost restaurants. Companies such as Nando’s, Starbucks and Subway have particularly used loyalty cards to their advantage.

6. Free Workshops – Good for businesses which provide training on their products.

7. Student Discounts – Student discounts have been used successfully for years now and they are particularly good for high street brands which students see as ‘in fashion’. You will find that many clothing, fast food, restaurants, social businesses like cinema companies and online stores and businesses offer student discounts of around 5% to 20% to attract one of the highest spending demographics in the UK. 8. Free ‘X’ If You Buy Before ‘Y’ – Can be great for companies like gyms or other monthly paid membership companies. For example gyms can offer a free months personal training sessions with every membership sign up 9. Free Trials/Try Before You Buy – Often used because the customer doesn’t fully trust the product or understand it therefore the company offers them a trial period to see the benefits of having it so they buy it at a later date - trying a free sample often leads to a purchase.

10. Free ‘X’ When You Buy ‘Y’ – This offer has been used by car companies successfully for a number of years, with many offering a free years insurance with every car purchase. This incentive has also been used by supermarket chains which also have a fuel side to their business. For example, many supermarkets give discounts on fuel depending how much their customers spend on other items in store. This offer can be a great way to get new customers or steal customers from the competition.

11. Loyalty Points – This offer is great for stimulating repeat purchases. One company which is probably the king of this offer is Tesco. Tesco paved the way for this offer to become successful and since then retailers like Boots and other industries such as airlines have introduced a points reward system.

12. Random Rewards – This incentive is great for keeping your customers happy!

Most companies make the mistake of putting all their efforts into getting new customers but not focusing on the ones they have . Vodafone are particularly good at this, they give their valued customers great rewards like free football match tickets or F1 days. The better the reward the more valuable your customers will consider your products or services..

13. Gift Cards – Gift cards can be a great way to get customers in the door, they can be particularly great seasonally. For example, one of the best ways to use gift cards is around Christmas.

14. Package Deals – You can bundle a group of products or services into a ‘package’ to get people to spend more than they would otherwise. An example of this would be food outlets who sell packaged ‘meal deals’, in which customers can buy a sandwich and get a drink and a bag of crisps free..

15. Better Payment Terms – For example ‘buy now pay, next year’. This offer was made highly successful by companies like DFS, car companies and high-end technology companies such as Curry’s and PC World. This offer allows customers to purchase a product and either pay the full amount a year or two later (with some added interest) or pay a fixed monthly amount. For business-to-business products or services you could offer terms such as pay on delivery, pay on results, or pay on completion.

16. Free Initial Report Or Consultation – This offer will help make your customers feel comfortable with your services, once they work with you for a short period, their fears about whether you can really help them and whether they’d be able to get on with you will be hopefully be laid to rest.

17. Price Match – In recent times many companies have adopted this offer because of the tougher economic climate. Helps to reassure customers that they are getting the best possible deal and is therefore a strong influence on the purchase decision.

Most of these techniques will be well known to you, but you may have got locked into using a particular type of offer or incentive that after long promotional exposure is losing its effectiveness.

If you’d like to talk through some of these possible options then just get in touch with us for a free initial consultation – which, of course, is offer 16 in the list!!

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