Promotion is a complex of marketing actions aimed at increasing the awareness of a brand strategy consulting services and its products. Increasing the target audience, as well as stimulating sales.
Low-budget marketing … The dream of any business owner. And also a “dream” – if, at the same time, the recognition of the company (product) would grow exponentially … and the sales curve would curve up steeper and steeper day by day.
But the reality is that marketing budgets (advertising, PR – underline the necessary) are made up according to the laws known only to the “layout designer” (read – marketer, advertiser …) laws … And, with rare exceptions, they are a weak reflection of reality and the company’s need for contacts with the target audience.
They say that the real professionalism of a marketer is to bring a company (product) to the market without a budget … Well, or with the minimum necessary cash injections.
Goals and functions of promotion
The main goals of promotion are to strengthen the brand’s position in the market, increase the demand for goods and services. As well as attract new customers. Only a well-thought-out marketing strategy allows you to build strong relationships. With the target audience and maintain their interest. One has only to disappear from sight for a while and customers will go to competitors.
Therefore, it is important to stand out from other companies, always be visible and provide a positive experience at every stage of the buyer’s journey. Promotion is the engine for any business. With its help, companies stimulate sales and motivate the target audience to choose a brand among hundreds and thousands of others. To better understand why this is happening. Check out the basic promotion features.
- Building an image. Promotion helps to form the desired brand image in the minds of consumers. With the help of positioning, the company sets itself apart from competitors and wins the favor of the target audience.
Delivering a message to potential buyers. Through promotion, the company talks about its advantages, advantageous product characteristics, promotional offers, loyalty program, and so on. - Popularization of the company, its products and services. Promotion motivates the audience to interact and stimulates word of mouth. The more a company advertises its products. The more buyers and potential customers say about them.
- Loyalty building. Moreover, with the help of promotion, companies increase the level of trust, as well as increase customer retention and brand awareness.
- Dealing with objections. A well-thought-out strategy helps to overcome the doubts of potential buyers by raising awareness of the company and its products.
- Information support. Through promotion, companies tell potential customers about points of sale, answer frequently asked questions, inform about sales, and much more.
- To convince the target audience to buy the company’s goods and services, it is necessary to think over a communication strategy. Moreover, сhoose communication channels and draw up a step-by-step action plan. Next, you will get acquainted with the tasks that the promotion solves.
Promotion tasks
Regardless of the size of your business or niche, there are three main three goals that you can achieve through promotion.
- Informing. Moreover, promotion helps to build communication with potential buyers, spread company news, deliver the right messages to the target audience and increase awareness.
- Belief. With the help of promotion, companies increase sales and convert leads into customers. To convince target audiences to choose a specific product or service, brands fight objections from potential buyers through content, social proof, and brand advocates.
- Reminder. Companies use different marketing tools to remind them of themselves and their products. Raising interest in a brand increases competitiveness and prevents the target audience from forgetting about it.
Now that you are familiar with the goals and objectives, it’s time to learn about the types and methods of promotion.
Types and methods of promotion
There are four types of promotion in total. Below we will go into more detail about each of them so that you can better understand how they work.
- Sales promotion. This type of promotion aims to increase demand through sales, promotions, and other short-term offers. To stimulate sales, companies develop loyalty programs. And hold contests and giveaways on social networks, send discounts via email or chatbots in instant messengers.
- Advertising. Companies use it to drive demand, attract new customers, boost subscribers, and more. To implement this type of promotion, brands use different ATL and BTL advertising tools. These can be billboards, newspapers, magazines, Facebook ads, and so on.
- Direct sales. Moreover, this type of promotion involves personal communication between the company and the client and the use of direct marketing tools. For direct sales, companies use telemarketing, SMS, email, social media chatbots, and other tools. With their help, brands segment their audience, send relevant content. And send personalized discounts.
- Public relations. PR marketing is a type of promotion that aims to increase awareness. Strengthen an emotional connection with a brand and create a positive image. To do this, companies develop landing pages, engage the media, use event marketing, conduct workshops, create viral content, and much more.
As you can see, there are many ways to promote and some of them you can start using for free today. To do this, define your target audience, choose communication channels. And develop a strategy and draw up a marketing plan that will help you achieve your goals.