This year is a particularly competitive one for businesses, as a ‘return to normal’ following the coronavirus pandemic meets a once-in-a-generation affordability crisis. With consumers and businesses alike feeling the pinch, shrewd offers and incentives can be the key to keeping old customers and finding new ones. But which are most effective to introduce to your online business?
BOGOF Deals
BOGOF stands for Buy One Get One Free and is a category of sales incentive that represents a high-value investment to any customer. It is a crucial mechanism for improving average spend and sales by volume, and also a powerful method for engaging new customers – particularly those at the ‘interest’ stage of your sales funnel.
BOGOF deals, in various guises, are a common find in high-street and online retail. Retailer booksellers Waterstones have a number of in-store ‘sticker’ offers allowing customers to purchase two books for a fixed sum, or three books for the price of two; Boots pharmacies offer similar sticker deals, where the cheapest of three items within the deal are free. Implementing such an offer to your online product range could incentivise customers to increase their average spend, improving both stock and cashflow.
Loyalty Schemes
While much is made of generating new custom, making efforts to retain custom can be doubly important for the longer-term growth of your business. Loyalty programs can be particularly helpful for your brand, as a form of incentive marketing that passively rewards continued patronage. Loyalty programs can take a number of forms, from the classic coffee-shop loyalty card to exclusive discounts for regular and pre-existing customers. This kind of offer can show that you as a business appreciate the custom that comes your way.
Competitions
For a more active way in which to engage a customer base, competitions are a shrewd choice – and can be adapted to suit a wide variety of purposes or aims. A competition could help you target a seasonal crowd, by offering a free suite of themed products or services to commemorate a holiday. Competitions are also key for engaging a digital audience and growing your business’ social media footprint; caption competitions on Instagram, or ‘follow-for-entry’ competitions with your product as a prize can bolster engagement and following alike, resulting in a larger business presence overall.
New Customer Discounts
Lastly, a simple but effective offer to incentivise new custom is the offering of an exclusive discount. New visitors to your online storefront, or new callers into your business, can be offered a one-off discount on their transaction as a form of good-will messaging. For digital storefronts, this could be offered as a discount code, or pop-up message following the creation of a new account. The easier you make it for a customer to redeem their first-purchase discount, the more transparent you will be as a company – and the more likely your new customer to remain loyal.