Running successful online promotions and marketing campaigns can be tricky. It’s a balancing act of audience segmentation, timing, and pricing. Get one of those wrong, and all your hard work gets obliterated. But how do you know the culprit? Looking for what’s killing your campaign can be like a murder mystery.
Watch this week’s #SellMore video to learn how to identify online promotion assassins! Not only will we help you identify the culprit and their weapon of choice, but we’ll show you how to defend your promotional campaigns next time around. Scroll down after the video for a deeper dive.
How to discover what’s killing your online promotions
Discovering what’s killing your store’s sales and marketing campaigns can be a lot like the popular board game Clue. Let’s play!
There are 6 deadly weapons that can annihilate any ecommerce promotion:
- Wrench
- Revolver
- Candlestick
- Knife
- Noose
- Lead Pipe
Let’s do some sleuthing into how they can kill your campaign. Here are the clues:
1. There was a wrench in getting customers to return to your site once the promotion ends.
- Culprit: Wrench
- Defensive move: Follow up after the promotion ends with an email. You can also include an insert in the packaging that encourages them to come back to buy more.
2. Customers have been shooting you a ton of emails to ask when your next promotion will be.
- Culprit: Revolver
- Defensive move: Bob and weave by mixing up your promotions to lure different shoppers in with multiple hooks. Try tactics like running a clearance sale to get rid of some inventory, a store-wide sale, and even a simple discount.
3. You’re profit margins for you promotion were too tight.
- Culprit: Noose
- Defensive move: If you haven’t been making enough on your sales to make the effort worthwhile, try better segmenting your customers. Target the right promotion to the right people at the right time. Large promotions for bigger repeat spenders and smaller discounts to pull in new shoppers from social media.
4. You only see new customers drawn like moths to your promo-flame.
- Culprit: Candlestick
- Defensive move: Repeat customers are key to a strong, successful business. Consider targeting existing customers with offers tailored specifically to them via marketing channels like email, your blog or social media.
5. You’ve had successful promotions before, but your last campaign wasn’t as lively. It felt beat down and haggered.
- Culprit: Lead pipe
- Defensive move: If you aren’t getting any response to your campaigns, ask your customers what they want, you silly business owner! Take to social media and emails and talk directly to your customers to find out what kinds of promotions they’re interested in.
6. You’re website is only sharp and selling when you’re running a promotion.
- Culprit: Dager
- Defensive move: Is your site a dead zone when you aren’t running a promotion? Try creating a preferred customers club for your store and invite folks to join. You can also tap into communities relevant to your industry, both online and off.
Hopefully you were able to fill in the blanks and find your campaign killers with no help from us. If not, no worries! You’re now better armed and ready for the next go around. If you’re looking for even more ways to run a successful promotion, check out last weeks’ blog post with more tips on how to run a successful marketing promotion that traps sales.
Want to ask a question or suggest a topic for a future #SellMore video? Tweet @Bigcommerce or comment below to let us know! Tune in next week for our next #SellMore video for tips just like this!
PS: Special thanks some of our expert clients including; Melanie of Poppy Sports, Jennifer from The Eczema Company, Christopher from West of Cali, Melissa from Mel Jens Design and Taryn from Picture it Creations for your words of wisdom during our recent hangout on online sales and promotions best practices.
