A good specific special offer can be a great way to bring in new customers, bring old customers back or help them buy more profitable items / services, below are areas which it is worth thinking about when it come to special offers:
THE OFFER: It might sound obvious but the better the offer the more change of it working, so think carefully about what your offer is, a free product, service or gift is often better that an percent off i.e. FREE Fitting, FREE Flat Screen TV, Buy-One-Get-One-Free, FREE England flags or a Free meal for two is often better than 50% off the second purchase or 5%, 10% Off final bill, saying that a % off will attract certain customers so why not try both. The key to a great offer is to be creative, why not see what you and your team can come up with, the more imaginative often the better.
TIME FRAME: Always have a offer expiry date, this will give the customer a ‘call to action’ in other words if you have an offer which ends in 6 months then a customer will think there is no hurry or urgency, but having it ending in a week’s time and they will be motivated into action. An offer with no expiry also gives the impression that it is not an offer but a sneaky sale trick so this is to be avoided. The final advantage to a limited offer is that you can alternate the offers, i.e. have one offer this month and a different one next this will keep the interest coming, the computer giants Dell do this very well, a free hard drive upgrade this week and free shipping the next, they keep ensure you think you might miss out if you don’t act now.
TARGET AUDIENCE: It is important to make sure you know who you want to attract with the offer, flowers attract bees because bees like nectar, so think about your target audience and make the offer fit them. One of the best we have seen is Free Blu-Rays with a Blu-Ray player after all there is nothing worse than getting something home and then disappointingly not being able to use it. Another good example of this is hairdressers, women in the main are not loyal to their hairdressers they try different ones all the time, some hairdressers offer a loyalty discount card, just collect 5 stamps and get X% off or a free service, however men often just use the same hairdresser so there is no need for this offer however if you are quite on a Thursday afternoon they why give an offer which attracts custom on a Thursday. Offers should also match the likely spending power of the customer, a free Beef Burger with a 5 course vegetarian meal may not work!
VALUE: Value is often perceived, this means that 50% may not sound as much as Buy-One-Get-One-Half-Price however it is actually more as you have to buy two rather than one to get the saving. Restaurants often have this as they know two people’s drinks and extras will make up a lot of the value of the free meal. Also it is worth remembering that people like free things, Staples and other large stationery retailers often like to give things away which are in no way connected to stationery sometime it will be a radio other times a picnic sets or a coffee makers this is because they know that stationery person or the company owner will take it home for the family, they will make sure the order will reach the minimum spend and be in by the deadline date so they get the Free gift, however often its value is small and they don’t even think that another stationer will be cheaper. In addition to this it is a good idea to have 2 offers running together as this will give a choice especially if one is a % off and the other is a FREE gift.
RESULTS: Always keep a record of the offers and how effective it is, this will allow you to use the right kind of offer to attract your perfect customer again and again, however always make sure you try new offers just in case you stumble upon an even better one. Also work out the effect on your profits, one offer may be bringing in new customers may not be very profitable, so do a speculative Profit and Loss before it goes live. However you should not forget to think about the lifespan of a customer, the life time value of a customer should always be looked at, a good example is the fitness industry, a free months membership will often bring in members who will stay with them for months after the free introductory offer has ended, so even though in month one it may seem a bad idea by months 3 or 4 they may well have clawed this back and more...
HONESTY: Always ensure your offer is an honest one, people see right through fictitious 50% off or 75% off, they know that the price will have been loaded at the start to be able to offer this amount off, or that there is a catch somewhere, most people understand that a business must run at a profit, buy they want to tell their friends and family how reasonable it was or how much they saved, otherwise they may still use you but they will not trust you. Build trust with a good honest offer and with reasonable conditions and then they will tell other people about it and come back themselves...
Offers should help your business bring in new customers and help retain old ones, after all everyone loves to save money or get a free gift. Done properly it will help your business grow and often a good offer will be passed on again and again.
thebestof Altrincham gives the option for all its business members to offer discounts and money saving vouchers via e-mails, printed door drops and with printable online vouchers, however offers are just one of the ways we help our business members.
For help with Special Offers or other aspects of business promotion please drop us an e-mail Altrincham@thebestof.co.uk or give us a call.
The Best Of Team