Giving away to receive is a good tactic in marketing especially when it comes to attracting new customers. The essential metric you need to know is lifetime value of a customer, if the giveaway or “cost of acquisition” is less than this then you will make profit. For example, a new customer for Amazon.com spends 1,200 per year on average and gets Amazon about $180 in profit so, the as long as the cost of getting that customer is less than $180, Amazon is happy. Apply this same logic for whichever business you are in.

ECommerce.

For retailers online, the fight for new customers is hard and constant, not just getting them but keeping them in the notoriously fickle world of online retail. How can promotions and bonuses help these types of businesses. They have to be more regular to keep the brand in front of mind for customers. So, promotions such as percentage discounts, free delivery can be spaced out at intervals or during festive seasons like Thanksgiving and Christmas to jolt the customer into purchasing. Bonuses can keep them more loyal, such as member points accumulated for every purchase made or every review published that way, they have something in the bank that they will want to make use of and so ties them to your brand. Grab uses grab points to give you money off your next food order or grab ride.

High Street Retailers.

Retailers on the high street have a similar issue of competing for the hearts and minds of customers, they tend to be more loyal however and will continue to shop with a retailer if they like them. The local nature of retail also means a stream of regulars that are living or working in the area and go to the retailer for convenience and geography. Use promotions like fancy window displays showing the latest products or best sellers to attract their attention even when whilst the shop is closed. Have preview days for loyal customers who feel more special as they are getting to see the new stock first.

Bonuses could again be membership based with a member’s card or app that accumulates points to be redeemed for money off or free gifts. Boots has the Advantage Card, a long running points scheme that translate to money and instore credit read here why it’s been so successful.

Online Casinos

For online casinos like https://luckycatslot.com/, they benefit from from loyal customer base and regulars but still need to offer promotions and bonuses regularly to keep the punters betting and not shifting to a competitor. The most common bonuses are sign up bonuses where the first deposit can be multiplied 4 or 5 times to give them free bets. But why restrict this to new customers as the existing customers are your best customers so, incentivize them with deposit bonuses too or money back on losing bets. The same applies in sports betting where great promotions are odds boosters so that it differentiates you from competitors and gives the customer more value. Betfred for example, offer a free ACCA bet after 5 accumulator bets.

Theme Parks and Tourist Attractions.

Theme parks and attractions have had a hard time of it during lockdown and will continue to with social distancing and reduced capacity rules. So, how can they use promotions to boost visitors. The best promotions are the yearly passes that give purchasers unlimited visits, this is often used by the National Trust who will make more money on these annual passes than individual trips because many end up only using them a few times in the year, but extra incentives like a free programme or a friend getting in for half price if accompanied by a cardholder will get more visitors to buy these types of annual passes. Friends and Family passes are also very popular and help give visitors a sense of community because they may get things like queue jump or a free beverage on each visit.

Conclusion.

We’ve seen that marketing promotions are a necessary investment to grow sales and grow new customers. They should be seen as a strategic marketing cost sprinkled in with other branding and marketing campaigns to bring in new customers or stimulate old customers to buy again. Everyone loves a bargain and they can be used to give customers a feeling of getting more for their money and hopefully more reason to buy from you.