50 Marketing and Sales Promotional Plans - Next Set of 15

Hi, we are back again with more promotional plans. Our '50 Promotional Plans' have been compiled to help retail businesses reach out to their target market more effectively. Since there are so many creative promotional models out already, retailers can use the best fit to get the maximum visibility, better cost-effectiveness, improve branding and achieve greater sales.

We had previously discussed promotional ideas such as Happy hours, Free trials, Customer care, Complimentary products, Group discounts, Cross promotion, Motivational offers, Fun offers, Group offers, Free service, Spares with product, Selling attractive packages, Freebies, Free shipping, Referral schemes and Block renewals. These promotional ideas were well received by our readers and now we are back again with the next 15 schemes for you.

1) Senior Citizen Discounts: Special discounts for senior citizens, a gradually increasing segment with specific needs, is a great idea. In fact, there is a site entirely dedicated to this segment - seniordiscounts.com. Through senior citizen specific schemes you can promote any product or service that senior citizens may need and build a whole new market segment. For example Super Religare Wellness had a scheme where it gave 10% off to all senior citizens. Even Ayurcare offered special discounts to senior citizens for its therapies and detoxification programs.

2) Discounts to Niche Customers: Select the target segment you wish to focus on - say, a particular membership card holder that suits your profile - and offer them a discount. For example, a top end restaurant providing discounts to Club Mahindra holders would bring exclusive focus to an attractive, new segment.

3) Tie-ups with Banks: A tie-up with banks to provide special discounts for customers who use their bank cards at your retail outlet provides access to many potential customers at negligible cost. Several banks are ready to do this.

4) Early bird customers: How about early bird schemes where customers get special discounts for buying early? Such schemes prod customers into buying early to avail the discount. From travels to wellness centres and even corporate training programs, early bird incentives are always a great way to promote your products and services. Wild Frontiers, an adventure travel site offered a 5% discount for early bird registrations while VITS Wellness Centre, Andheri offered a limited period special discount for early bird couples.

5) Reward the customer for his efforts: Reward your customer for the efforts they put in for their own good. 'Fitness First', a fitness centre, rewarded its customers for losing each kilogram, with a Rs. 500 discount for each kilogram lost.

6) Use short codes effectively: Let your customers participate in an on-the-spot contest, and in the process get their mobile numbers too. Give a freebie or a discount to whoever participates in the contest. Subway used this scheme by asking customers to enter a contest: Subway gets the customers contact details such as mobile number and email id while customer gets discounts or freebies.

7) Special Event promotion: A special event such as an anniversary, festival or a special day like Valentine's Day is a great time to offer a promotion scheme. Give a special discount to anyone who registers or buys on occasions such as Children's day, Mother's day, Father's day, Teacher's day etc. For example Gold's gym offered a special discount for couples who joined the gym on Valentine's day and Big Cinema gave away free tickets for women patrons on Woman's Day.

8) Price guarantee: When real estate prices are falling and people do not buy because of uncertainty, a promotional scheme that offers to pass on the price benefit in case of lower prices in the future, drives sales. A limited period offer for those who book during the period, protects those from future price fluctuations. Aparna Constructions in Hyderabad has offered such a promotional scheme in view of the uncertainty in the real estate market to assuage fears of the customers and provide them with a window of opportunity to invest.

9) Surprise gift: Offer a surprise gift along with a service. Getting something free in the most unexpected of times always remains etched as one of the most memorable experiences for customers. It does not matter whether it is a small gift or a big one, what matters is that you have made the customer feel like the lucky one. For example Jaipan sells a combo package of home appliances such as a vacuum cleaner, toaster, blender and roti maker and throws in a a surprise gift!

10) Social causes: If your service has a social element to it, offer a promotional pricing with it. For example, Times Matrimonials, offers a discount for those who wish to advertise in their matrimonial column without a dowry requirement (or without a caste and religion bar). Similarly they offer discounts for senior citizens and widow/widowers and differently abled customers.

11) Environmental cause: A environmental cause like energy efficiency could focus on a specific scheme targeted at its customers. For example the Bureau of Energy Efficiency in India had called for a specific segment, the BPOs, to provide a star rating for BPO buildings for energy efficiency. To promote the scheme, the Bureau has announced a waiver of a hefty registration fee of Rs. 1 lakh for the first 100 applicants!

12) Buy more, get more: Buy 1 item get 10% off, 2 items and get 20% off and 3 items and get 30% off. The more you buy, the greater the discount you get. 'Allen Solly' offered this deal in Chennai for its menswear and women's wear sections. Similarly Bombay Dyeing did this for its bed sheets!

13) Old for New: This is an attractive scheme especially in times when consumers are buying more. Every thought of replacement comes with the problem of what to do with the old. Big bazaar has launched a scheme where the customer can take the old and exchange it for new stuff. It takes care of two problems for the customer - getting a new product and getting rid of the old.

14) Establish a strong relationship with your customer: To find out who is buying your products and to establish a relationship of trust with them is what all retailers wish to do. Ranbaxy offered an innovative promotion scheme of a scratch card + SMS for its medicines. When customers buy medicines, they are provided with a scratch card that has a unique code, which must be SMSed to Ranbaxy. When the customer purchases the same medicine three times and SMSes the unique code each time, he gets a PIN, which he can use to get the fourth medicine free. Ranbaxy also provides the option to the customer of receiving reminders on taking the medicine - a nice way of being in touch with the customer and reinforcing the thought that you care.

15) Attractive add-on charges: A nominal Re. 1 charge for a normal service such as making charges for jewellery attracts customers - even more than a free service campaign. Reliance jewellery recently offered a Re. 1 making charges scheme on jewellery bought at their stores.

50 Promotional Plans First 15

Visit : Buy Best Price Buy Best Price Automotive Parts Video Clip Review 3D LCD TVs Netbooks Black Friday

Facebook Marketing Strategy - How to Use Facebook For Business

We've all heard the buzz about Facebook and if you've been around for a while you'll have heard how easy and how essential it is to have a social media marketing strategy for your company. After all, with over 300 million users on Facebook it must be easy to find a handful of customers almost each and every day, right? Wrong.

It's far from simple and you only have to speak to a few different people who have tried to build a successful marketing strategy on Facebook and you'll realise that the vast majority of marketers pushing their products on the Facebook platform are making few if any sales from their ever increasing activity. Why is this? In short, no clear marketing strategy. This article will provide you with the knowledge to develop a simple yet effective marketing strategy for Facebook. Here goes;

1. Branding

Know who you are, who you are not and where you are going with your business in the next five years (or at least where you plan to go) before starting out on Facebook. This will allow you to create a strong brand which tells your potential customers and business partners exactly who they are dealing with.

2. Networking

Decide on a plan to network in specific areas. Draw up a list of groups in your niche that you can find quickly each time you go onto Facebook in order to add value, comment on and share content and information within the group discussion board and network with other group members to build relationships and exchange ideas.

Find a few business pages of leaders within your industry and become a fan of the page. By doing this you will be able to see exactly what your competitors are up to on Facebook and also who else is a fan of your business rivals. In addition, you can also comment on updates made by the fan page administrator which will be seen by everyone who follows the page, offering you free advertising in the process.

Add relevant contacts to your list by carrying out a quick search of the Facebook platform to see what type of people are out there talking about your industry. This is really simple to do but very powerful; simply type in your chosen keyword or search term into the search tab at the top right hand side of your Facebook profile page, hit the search symbol and then work your way through the results column on the left hand side of the page,, providing you with search results from a range of different sources across the Facebook platform.

3. Sales

The final frontier in many ways and an increasingly difficult place to arrive at when using social networking sites to build your business but if you get this part right it can pay off big style. As the saying goes, if you don't ask, you don't get and Facebook marketing is no different. The best way to make a sale is to plan for it and with a little modification to your user profile you can set up a unique opt-in form on your profile page to offer people the chance to subscribe to more information from you about your product or service. If you want to go one better, then why not set up a Facebook page for your business and add a shopping cart facility to allow people to buy straight from your door, without ever having to leave the great land of Facebook?

Whatever you decide to do when marketing on Facebook for your business, remember the one rule of thumb; people don't frequent social networking sites to be sold to, so don't sell them on anything and you might be surprised how many sales you can actually make!

Related : Civil Engineer Bored pile Foundation Concrete Engineer

Agency Marketing For the Private Investigator

Given the current state of the US economy, we at InfoQuest wanted to do what we could to help our fellow investigators across the country. Therefore, we put together an introductory list of successful marketing steps that have served us and close colleagues well. This extremely short version is our "article" version. For the full report - which we distribute for free - please visit our website.

With the current "financial crisis," all of us with investigative agencies are feeling the crunch as everyone is hanging on to their money with an iron grip. But, for those who know how to look, the jobs are there to be found. However, finding new clients is just like working a case. It's all in how you use your S.M.A.R.T.S.:

Salesmanship - People really do need your services, but how do you make them realize it?

Media - How many forms of "advertising" do you use? How many can you use for free?

Association - Beyond your PI association, who do you network with and how?

Reinvestment - Do you only work one type of case or have you added to your repertoire?

Time Management - Do you work too much to market? Do you market too much to work?

Service - Can you improve what it is you do and generate both new and repeat business?

SALESMANSHIP

In this instance, salesmanship is communicating in such a way as to help those who truly do need your service realize they do. It's a win for both of you. Let's look at some points to consider:

- Tough financial times actually mean an increase in theft, fraud, infidelity, and workplace violence.

- Focus on the potential client's need. Your prices and other benefits are important, but in the eyes of the client, their need is of primary importance. Focus on that first.

- Never compare yourself to the competition. Leave them out of the discussion entirely. Focus on you and the unique benefits and abilities you can offer the client based on their specific need or case.

- Be honest with yourself. Do you have a way with people or not? If so, put it to work and market. If not, do you have another agent who is more charismatic and could bring in more cases?

- If you need some material to improve your interpersonal relations and the way you deal with people, your local library should have copies of works by Dale Carnegie, any of which could help.

MEDIA

In our own focused marketing discussion "media" refers to the multimedia communication tools at your disposal that you may or may not be using. Many of these are actually free and easy to use.

- If you don't have a website, get one! At the very least set up a blog. Offer educational posts related to your area of expertise. Also, mention your location and your investigative specialty frequently in your posts and profile. When clients look for an investigator with your capabilities in your area, the search engines should show you fairly high on the list.

- Also take advantage of the free social and business sites: Search for the main pages of LinkedIn, Twitter, Squidoo, Facebook, and MySpace. (Be sure to download our full report for links to tutorials and newsletters telling how to use each of these to their fullest potential.)

- Write a column for the local paper offering "consumer tips" related to your area of investigation. Identity theft prevention is an important topic these days, as is "employee theft prevention."

- Print newspapers are feeling the financial crunch too, so it's easy to negotiate ad costs (especially if you're writing a column for them).

- Create an email newsletter and send it to current and former clients. Watch the spam laws though and make sure the clients want you to contact them. A good email newsletter opt-in system can be found at either Constant Contact or Aweber.

ASSOCIATION

A sizable portion of your marketing is dependant upon who you associate with on a regular basis. Sure, it refers to being a member of an investigative association, but it means so much more.

- Network with fellow investigators to swap cases falling outside your area of expertise.

- Speak at target audience functions. For example, if white collar crime is your specialty, speak to business owners and tell them how to prevent some of the more common forms of embezzlement.

- Join business sharing or referral groups.

- Offer to speak for free at business or civic group "lunch and learns" or their regular meetings. Are you a member of any civic groups?

- Though money is tight right now, in most areas it's a good return on investment to be a member of both your local BBB and Chamber of Commerce. Each can help you promote your business among its members in its own way.

REINVESTMENT

What are some ways to use the skills and equipment you already have to expand the services you offer?

- Do you have extensive camera equipment? Offer to do inventory or household cataloging.

- Criminal investigators might find work reviewing cold cases for police depts. also feeling the crunch.

- If you do domestic surveillance, you're one step away from doing workman's comp surveillance. Also, you could sub-out surveillance work to other agencies.

- Can you take an inexpensive local course to help you add a new investigative service?

- If you're looking for new training and/or equipment, check with your local Small Business Administration office to see if they have any applicable programs for you.

TIME MANAGEMENT

In a profession based on billable hours, time really is money. How well do you manage yours?

- Use a good day-planner and on-screen calendar such as found with Microsoft "Outlook."

- Group investigative activities by geographic area whenever possible.

- Confirm all case work and client appointments to avoid wasted trips.

- Keep home life and business life separated; especially if you work from home!

- Look for secure ways to outsource labor. For example, you could outsource your typing and report writing and free you up for greater money-making activities.

SERVICE

What are some of the simple things we can do to wow the client and either keep them as a repeat customer or get referral business from them?

- After taking a case, immediately send a confirmation letter to the client (where suitable and appropriate), reiterating the key points of the case and thanking them for their business.

- Even if nothing is happening, touch base with your client. Communication is reassurance.

- Your final report should be a work of art in and of itself, and all reports should be of equal quality. Paper Direct is one of many sources having quite a selection of brochures and presentation folders.

- Even your local office supply store should have enough to make your reports more professional looking.

- After receipt of final payment, follow up with a conclusion letter and thank the client for their business.

- Read our companion article "PI Should Also Mean Professional Image" found on our website.

Remember, this short article is just the tip of the iceberg. For the complete article and for our full - and free - report (containing over 60 outside sources), go to www.thecasefile.com.

โครงสร้าง ชนิดของโครงสร้าง