Promotional Marketing includes any marketing strategy that generates new leads or induces a customer to buy by giving something to a prospect for free. Examples include 2 for 1 coupons, product samples, and contests with valuable prizes that anyone can win.
This form of marketing can be a powerful sales tool, but even the most creative promotion can be mixed in terms of tangible, measurable results. That’s where social media comes in to expand the reach of promotions, generate interest in the company, and deliver tangible results.
Start a social media promo campaign the same way any promotional campaign should start. Have a measurable goal, whether it’s to generate a new lead list, build an overall customer base, reach new territory, or introduce a new product to the public. Once your goals are set, determine who your target audience is and decide on the type of promotion based on what’s most appealing to that demographic.
For example, coupons have proven to be most popular among women over the age of 35. For high-budget promotions where a lot is at stake, consider using a service like Quantcast to pull demographic info from recent converts. Next, set up promotions to target more of the same type of customer or previously unreachable audience. Time your promotions to precede major industry trade shows or new company website feature launches for greater impact.
After the type of promotion and target audience have been determined, now is the time to promote it through social media. Strategi marketing online saat ini di media sosial, bagaimana postingan produk bisa memiliki engagement rate luaxs, cara promosi di instagram menjangkau banyak orang dan memiliki tingkat interaksi dengan followers/subscribers tinggi. If the company doesn’t already have a Facebook fan page, create one and add a “Promotions” app to it.
This app works great for coupons, but it can also be used for different types of sweepstakes and contests. If the contest has a specific start and end time (which it should) add it to the events tab on the company’s Facebook page. Also post the rules and information about promotions on the Facebook page wall.
Keep in mind that posts with attached images always generate more shares than text posts. The idea is to create promotions in as many places on Facebook as possible with each page and tab revealing some new information about the company.
Twitter is another social media tool that can help in promotional marketing. Twitter’s micro-blogging platform makes it perfect for making promotional announcements. First, ask the contestants to follow the company’s twitter page. Consider posting contest instructions, promo codes, or other valuable information about promotions only on twitter. Search Engine Optimization This will give people more incentive to follow the company on twitter and facebook.
One company that has mastered the art of using social media for promotional marketing is Raven, an internet marketing company that specializes in SEO tools. They have run two successful promotional scavenger hunts called RavenHunt in which players pick up clues on Raven’s Facebook page and via twitter direct messages (one must be a follower to receive DMs) to search for hidden mail on Raven’s web pages, blogs, and reference sites.
At the end of the week, the letters can be scrambled to form a secret message. The first person to send Raven the correct message will win a prize (first winner of RavenHunt II gets an ipad.) This promotion is smart because it not only gets Raven hundreds of new followers on Facebook and twitter, but also educates someone about their company’s services while the game is being played.
If a promotion has a valuable prize and a good concept, people will invite others to participate through twitter posts, Facebook shares, diggs, and other social media interactions. Keep in mind that whenever a promotion is passed from one person to another, the company that created it gets free advertising.
One way to encourage mass sharing is to create a twitter-friendly phrase about the promotion (less than 140 characters) that people can “retweet” to their followers. For example, whenever someone finds a clue during RavenHunt, they are asked to tweet a message like, “@RavenTools I found the hint, send me the next clue, I want to win a free ipad!” When other people saw this message, they visited Raven’s twitter page out of curiosity and many of them ended up playing the game and following Raven as well.
It used to take weeks or months for word of mouth to help promote popularity, now with social media tools like Facebook and twitter, serious buzz can be generated within hours.
As a final tip, be sure to include some type of “opt-in” form on the company website as part of the promotion. Have a simple box asking people if it’s OK for the company to notify them of future promotions and special offers.
Do the same for new Facebook fans by sending them a thank you message for their participation and asking if it’s okay to stay in touch. With their permission, these people can be added to the company’s email marketing list and will likely remain customers long after the promotion ends.