What is Promotion?
The promotion of products and services includes communicating with consumers, advertising to them, developing positive public relations, and personally selling to consumers as well. Let’s take a closer look at each of these critical parts of promotion.
Using Communication to Promote Products and Services
Effective communication must take place in order to promote the products and services that businesses offer to consumers. If it is not, then closing out sales tends to not take place. In order for effective communication to occur, companies have to evaluate different forms of communication techniques. Once an evaluation is completed, businesses can choose the best way to communicate with their targeted audience.
Using Advertisements in Promotion
Advertising is also an essential part of effective promotion. Almost all businesses use some form of advertising to help attract new customers.
This aspect of promotion should be thought of as a direct way to communicate with consumers. It should be noted that this part of promotion can sometimes be costly, especially if a business chooses to advertise its products and services through television commercials and billboards.
Forms of advertising that tend to be more cost-efficient are online ads, promotional items, newspaper ads, and more. Every business should have a portion of its marketing budget set aside for advertising purposes.
Promotion through Public Relations
Another important part of promotion is public relations. Through positive forms of public relations, a business can make for itself a good reputation in the eyes of the general public. An excellent way to develop good public relations is by using news releases. If a company struggles with matters relating to public relations, it should consider partnering with a public relations consultant or firm.
Promotion through Personal Selling
Personal selling should always be included within the promotion of products and services as it helps to develop good relationships with consumers. In most instances, companies that use personal selling tactics will hire a sales team to communicate directly with current and potential customers. One of the most advantageous reasons to use personal selling is that it can help create returning customers.
What Exactly is Promotional Advertising?
There are several different types of advertising tools that businesses use to lure consumers into buying their products and services. A very popular tool is called promotional advertising. This form of advertising provides consumers with incentives with the intentions that they will follow through with purchasing a product or service. In most instances, promotional advertising takes place through the giving away of promotional gifts.
Even though promotional advertising does usually involve having to make an investment on the front end, due to the customer loyalty that it can build, businesses tend to increase their profit levels from using it.
Promotional advertising should be included within a marketing plan because it is a great way to initially begin advertising a product or service. This form of advertising can be viewed as a way for consumers to take advantage of products and services at bargain prices. All in all, this form of advertising helps companies increase their success rates, which of course helps them stay in business for many years.
What are Giveaway Marketing Campaigns?
Giveaway campaigns are an excellent technique to use within any type of marketing plan because they allow consumers to receive some type of product or service for free. Upon receiving the free products or services, consumers tend to develop a positive view about a company’s brand. This helps turn potential consumers not only into customers but also into returning customers.
Using giveaway campaigns within a marketing plan is also advantageous when it comes to getting consumers to try new products and services. For example, if a company has developed a new line of perfumes and colognes, it can give away free sample-sized bottles of them to consumers.
In doing so, consumers will have the opportunity to try the products for free. If the consumers enjoy the product that they receive, many times, they will then purchase it. Giving away items is an excellent way for a company to increase its brand awareness.