Crafting A Great Offer For Your Business

It's common knowledge that a solid special offer can give a boost to any business, big or small, and in some cases, it's just a case of cutting the price of a product or giving something extra with the purchase for a while.

In some situations, however, just throwing up some numbers isn't enough and you'll find you have to put a lot more thought into your promotion. Below are some top tips for making the most of your special offers.

Know Your Audience

The best offers come from those companies that have a deep understanding of who their customers are and what they need. If your customers aren't interested in what you're offering, it will fall flat every time, so doing your research and even building a target customer profile can make a big difference.

To see this done right, online casinos have mastered this element of marketing as they're able to provide precisely the things their players would like as extras. It's why the casino offers at Paddy Power and other providers always include free spins and bonus funds because they know their players want to keep playing their favourites. Offering those same players personal e-mail addresses or discounts on shopping simply wouldn't make any sense and would have little impact.

Time It Right

As timing goes, the rule is that the more detailed you can be with your planning, the more effective it will be. This doesn't just mean timing your offers to certain key days like New Year's or Halloween but also timing things down to specific hours of the day. There's a lot to be admired about the marketing strategy of Amazon, but a lesser-discussed element is their ability to time their marketing to exact points such as just after most customers would get home or just before major events in the day.

As part of this, you can also look at automating your offers so that they get triggered by certain user actions. In Amazon's case, a customer buying a birthday card could quickly trigger an email with a discount on chocolates or flowers as common gifts.

Keep It Simple

The fewer words you need to explain your offer, the better. It is a common pitfall for companies to make big, exciting offers which then turn out to have a dozen caveats that customers have to adhere to. Customers tend to appreciate when an offer is exactly what it says it is.

Companies like Dunkin' Donuts may have detailed marketing strategies but very often their most successful campaigns just involve giving out free coffees or donuts in the morning. Apart from being limited to one per customer, there are few rules or restrictions beyond that, making it easy for customers to both understand and appreciate.

Always remember that even the simplest offers require solid planning to be really successful, so get out there and start researching successful cases from elsewhere. Don't be afraid to take inspiration; if it works, it works!