.

Promotions that Add to Bottom Line Sales

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Tues, 10/06/2015

I’ll always remember arriving in Monticello, Utah for my first job out of college. Not because it was my first job, but that the radio station owner had me meet him at the motorcycle dealership in town, where the radio station was doing a weekend promotion. It was on that day that I learned about the benefits of adding promotion to a media schedule. I’ve never stopped endorsing the idea in almost four decades in the business.

An ad schedule is good, don’t get me wrong. And you can buy more than the competition to make sure your brand sticks out to your target market. However, adding a promotion that fits, will add exponential exposure on the short term, and exponential sales in the long run.

The key is to make sure that the promotion that is developed is one that fits the business, and one that also would be attractive to the target customer. A promotion that is memorable is one that gets talked about for many days, weeks and in some cases, months.

The motorcycle dealer in Utah was giving away a new motorcycle that weekend I arrived. He also was giving away several helmets, gloves, shirts, a branded jacket and more. Needless to say, it was very exciting for the radio station audience and for actual consumers who showed up at the dealership that Saturday and Sunday.

Try and make the promotion as simple as possible. You may come up with very creative ideas, which is great. At the same time, you don’t want to increase your costs by adding various elements that run up your bill. Use the creative team from the media you are buying. They will be able to help with ideas and execution. Then sit back and start counting your return!

What are your challenges when it comes to developing and executing sales promotions? I look forward to hearing your comments. Until next time…