Marketing incentives are special rewards given by an organization to encourage future and current customers to purchase products. These purchases could include repeat sales, initial buying, site visits, emails, and many more. If you give a customer incentive, it could be in the form of money, products, or any other kind of award that relates directly to your relationship with the customer. Some of the most common marketing incentives would be: discounts on purchases, free shipping, or a percentage off purchases, gifts, and so on. Marketing incentives may also be given based on customer loyalty and repeat business.
Social media marketing is an effective way to reward customers for their purchases through the use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Incentives here could be anything from virtual items given away, like t-shirts or coffee packs, to monetary ones like cash discounts. This could boost sales because the social media platform provides the feedback of the users about your company. This in turn would help you in knowing about your target market, what works for them, and which things don’t work for them. This is why social media marketing is so essential for all companies trying to make inroads into the market.
Another form of marketing incentives would be through rewards in the form of vouchers. This can be vouchers redeemable at specific retail outlets in return for purchases made at that outlet. This is a great incentive to customers who may not always frequent the same stores and can save money from redeeming a discount voucher.
Coupons could also be given through direct mail, or through online means. Either way, the goal is the same -marketing incentives that would encourage possible customers to make a purchase. However, coupons can be more effective than Rewards in attracting new customers, whereas Rewards may be more attractive to existing customers. Another great marketing incentive can be provided by giving discounts on purchases made in bulk. This will encourage repeat purchases, as those customers would have received bigger discounts than their single purchase counterparts.
You need to consider the type of your customer before deciding on the form of marketing incentives that you would provide. For instance, if you are targeting only parents for product recalls, it would be inappropriate to give away iPods or iPhones for free. On the other hand, if you are trying to attract teenage kids, you can give them a chance to win a trip to the nearest theme park. You must however carefully choose the form of incentives that you will be providing, lest you scare your potential customers away. If done right, your intentions will be clearly understood by your potential customers.
There are different types of incentives available and depending on the nature of your target market, you can use different incentive schemes to boost sales. Marketers can create a Rewards program that targets a particular group, for instance, moms who have small kids at home. A marketer may create an incentive scheme targeting mothers who have spent some time working in offices or other job settings. Whatever the form in which your incentive program is designed, you should ensure that it can increase the bottom line of your business.
