One of the most proven ways to draw more customers to your business while rapidly increasing your sales is by doing different types of sales promotions. You can choose to do a sales promotion to introduce or improve the awareness of a product or service that is new or that just needs more attention. Or you can also do a sales promotion to use popular products and services to draw more customers to your business so that you can introduce them to your other products and services.

Whatever pathway you choose depends on the nature of your business and how established your products and services are. Sales promotions work well for attracting new customers while encouraging your existing customers to spend more by supporting your business. They create a sense of excitement and urgency towards buying your products and services. This will enable you to increase your sales tremendously if done correctly.

In this article, I’ll reveal to you 12 Popular Types Of Sales Promotion Techniques that you can use to increase your sales.

Product Discounts

One of the most effective ways to do a sales promotion especially if you are in eCommerce is by doing product discounts.

To offer product discounts, all you need to do is markdown the price of one or more of your items and put them up for sale. When people see that you have certain products on sale periodically, they will be motivated to visit your online store now and again just to check and see what offer you’re having.

This can encourage more visits to your store. So introducing new items will be much easier. Also, you’ll find that many of your customers who are buying your discounted items also end up buying your other non-discounted items.

You can use this method for getting rid of old stock that you have so that you can make space for new item editions in your store.

Free Shipping and Returns

If you don’t normally offer free shipping and returns, you can have a promotion by offering free shipping and returns.

It is a well-known fact that most consumers will be inclined to purchasing products when free shipping and returns are offered to them. Providing them with free shipping and returns will give them a sense of security, knowing that if they do not like what they got, they can always exchange or return it. And the price they see displayed next to the item that they are interested in buying is all they need to pay as they do not need to worry about additional shipping costs.

If you’re worried that about the additional shipping costs that your business has to cover for the customers, then you can offer the free shipping only to those who have purchased up to a minimum-priced order.

Flash Sale

Having a flash sale can be one of the ways to create excitement and urgency amongst your customers. With a flash sale, you’re going to offer your products at really great discounted prices for a limited time only.

Make sure to let the customers know the duration of your sale so that they will buy your products before the sale ends. The shorter the duration of your sale, the more urgent your customers will feel about buying what you have on offer.

Make sure to have enough items on offer so that your customers will find it worthwhile dropping by your store to check out your sale!

You can also use flash sales to get rid of surplus stock so that you can bring in new stock.

Bulk Purchasing Deals

You can also increase your sales by having bulk purchasing deals for your customers.

There are some methods you can do this. You can either let your customers buy a product that is packaged with other things that complement that main product that they have bought for a really good bargained price. This can be done for eCommerce products, information products and also services.

If you’re in the eCommerce space, another way to get people to buy more is by letting them purchase more of the same type of products but at a highly discounted price.

Buy One, Get One Free

A buy one, get one free promotion also works well, especially for selling physical products.

Customers will be drawn to purchase products because the thought of getting one more unit of the same item for free will sound very attractive!

This is especially popular if you are selling perishable goods as they can be consumed in a period of time. This method will help you to finish up your stock before they expire or become bad.

Free Branded Gifts

Another way to attract your customers to buy more from you is by offering gifts when they buy products or services from you.

An effective way to do this is by having branded giveaways to customers who have bought from you up to a minimum amount of order. This not only encourages them to buy more from you but also helps you to increase the awareness of your brand when you give them gifts that have your company logos on them.

You can give them umbrellas, magnets, pens, keychains, or any other gifts that you feel best represents your brand.

Because these gifts are not available for sale elsewhere, your customers will treasure them even more. And whenever they use these gifts, they will be constantly reminded about your brand.

Loyalty Program Offers

You can also have loyalty programs for your customers to encourage a deeper connection with your customers to encourage more repeat sales.

Whenever your customers buy something from you, you can allow them to collect points through the loyalty program. And you can reward them by either giving a discount, voucher or gift whenever they managed to collect a certain number of points from their purchases.

To make your loyalty program members feel extra special, you can include them in exclusive member-only invites that let them buy your products or services at heavily discounted prices.

By making them feel special, they will enjoy going back to your business for their purchases instead of looking at your competitors.

Coupon Giveaways

You can also provide coupon giveaways to attract more people to buy from you.

This can be done either by doing an email campaign, SMS campaign, having a coupon code on your official website or by joining coupon code websites.

For your email campaigns, you can include those who have opted-in to receiving promotional materials from you and those who are already in your loyalty program.

You can also use this method to win back unhappy customers so that they will continue to buy from you.

Free Trials or Samples

You can introduce new products and services by giving free trials or samples.

By doing this, you will encourage your customers to try your newly-launched products and services so that they can see whether it’s a good fit for their needs.

And because they do not need to pay anything to start using your products and services, this will remove any hesitation that they have about buying what you have to offer before knowing the results of it.

When they use your products and services successfully, then they will want to buy it from you in the future.

This method is suitable for eCommerce, information product providers and services industries.

Competitions

Organizing competitions can create excitement that is needed to motivate your customers to increase their awareness of your business while using your products or services.

You can make it a requirement for your customers to buy products or services from you to join the competition. This will help you to drive up your sales rate.

Not only does this help with your sales, but it also helps you to increase your email opt-in rates because you will get to collect the details of those who have entered your competition.

And if you include social sharing in your competition entry requirements, you will be able to get more people to know about your brand when your contestants start sharing about what you offer.

Free Demonstrations

You can also encourage more people to buy from you by doing free product demonstrations.

If you have a physical product, you can have a video session showcasing to people how to use your product. If you have software that you wish to promote, you can do a screen recording to teach people how to use your software. And if you’re selling an online course, you can do a demonstration by conducting a free masterclass to give a glimpse of what you’re going to offer in your course.

Whatever products you are offering, this method will be great as it will help your customers to become more confident about using your products.

Seasonal or Holiday Promotions

Many people love to do their shopping during holidays and special seasons. So by having seasonal and holiday promotions, you’ll do your business a huge favour by boosting your sales.

You can get creative with your promotions and have different themes that represent different seasons and holidays.

And you can relate your products or services with that specific season or holiday that you are doing the promotion around.

You need not give huge discounts. You just need to give enough discount that will get your customers excited to make a purchase and feel that it’s the right to buy from you.

So I’ve now covered 12 Popular Types Of Sales Promotion Techniques that you can use to increase your sales. As every business is different, you will need to experiment to see for yourself which strategies will work for your business the best. Have you used any of these sales promotion methods before? If yes, which ones have you used and have they been useful in increasing your sales rate? And if not, do you have any other better sales promotion techniques you’d like to share? I’d love to hear from you in my comment section below.