When you’re an entrepreneur, you need to find every advantage you possibly can to outdo your competitors and bring customers to your door.
Of course, you should stop short of anything illegal or shady, because customers won’t appreciate you engaging in such behaviour and you could do irreparable damage to your brand.
Otherwise, though, everything is on the table, and one of the most common ways that businesses attract customers is by using promotional deals.
These could include beginner offers, loyalty programs, or limited-time events, all of which are designed to entice customers and give them a deal they won’t soon forget.
Here’s a rundown of why businesses offer promotional deals to customers, and why you should consider doing this if you want to improve your business!
Promotional deals make customers feel like they’ve stumbled on something special
One of the key reasons that promotional deals are offered by businesses is that customers feel like they’ve discovered something amazing when they come across a deal.
The iGaming industry is an excellent case study if we want to look at the reasons for this. Imagine an online casino that’s offering all the latest slots welcome offers can entice customers to play.
That casino is going to stand out among its competitors if it offers customers unbeatable promotional deals that will make them feel like the casino is going above and beyond.
When the customer feels like the deal can’t possibly be real, or that it’s too good to be true, you know you’ve stumbled upon the right kind of promotional deal.
You’ll build customer loyalty
If you offer customers lots of different kinds of promotional deals – not just beginner offers, but loyalty rewards as well – then customer retention becomes significantly more likely.
Think about it. If you’re looking for a business to give your custom to, you’re almost certainly more likely to pick the one that has offers up for grabs more regularly, right?
Customers like it when they feel like a business is treating them with respect and valuing their business, and that’s why promotional deals often ensure that repeat custom is all but inevitable.
If you want to create a lasting brand, then one of the best ways to do that is to build a loyal customer base, and promotional deals can help you do that.
You’ll create good word-of-mouth
It’s not just about your KPIs and your metrics. If you’re a savvy business owner, you’ll know that qualitative, unquantifiable stats like word-of-mouth reputation are just as important as hard numbers.
Promotional deals will help you to build good word-of-mouth, because customers will tell other customers about great deals they’ve availed themselves of, which could potentially drive more business your way.
When customers are telling other people about the amazing offers and discounts they’ve received just by signing up to a mailing list or even just visiting your site, then good word-of-mouth must naturally follow (assuming the quality of the product is there, of course!).
You could increase sales
Many beginner entrepreneurs don’t realise that increasing sales isn’t just a matter of asking more people to buy more things. There’s an art to it, and that art often involves promotional deals.
Think of it this way. You’ve got a product sitting on the shelves that costs £100, and you sell around ten of this product per month, which puts you at around £1000 in revenue from this product (this is naturally a simplified way to look at things, but it’ll do for our purposes).
If you reduce the price to £75 per purchase and sell 20 of that item, then suddenly, your profits skyrocket to £1500. It may look like the item costs less, but in theory, you’re actually raking in more cash.
Promotional deals don’t just benefit the customer; they often benefit you as a business owner as well, and not just via good word-of-mouth or reputation gains!
You’ll increase website traffic
When you’re offering knockout deals, that almost certainly means that more people will visit your website, which, in turn, means more people will see your products.
That doesn’t just mean they’ll see the products you’re offering promotional deals on; they’ll also see everything else on the site, and they may even be inspired to buy something they didn’t know they needed.
Promotional deals therefore have a knock-on effect, showing customers that it’s not just the product with the discount that’s attractive, but everything else you offer as well.
Next time you set up a promotional deal, keep an eye on your pageviews and conversions for other products as well. We’d be surprised if they didn’t go up!
You’ll look better than your competitors
If your competitors aren’t offering the same kinds of deals that you are, then you can bet that offering promotional deals to your customers will give you a competitive advantage.
As we said at the beginning of this article, every business is looking for whatever advantage they can claim, but many business owners simply aren’t smart enough to realise that discounts can mean increased profits.
They cling to the value of their products or services, never once realising that customers want high quality at the lowest price they can possibly get.
This means that many business owners don’t realise promotional offers can boost their sales, so if you’ve come to that realisation, congratulations; you’re poised to enjoy a big advantage over your rivals.
You could reconnect with lapsed customers
We’ve all received emails from businesses we haven’t used in a while, right? They usually attempt to entice us back with deals and promotional offers, and there’s a good reason for that.
If it’s been a while since a customer availed themselves of your services, then sending an email detailing all of the attractive offers you’re currently running could tempt them back.
It may even behove you to offer lapsed customers particularly hefty discounts or appealing offers, because when a returning customer rejoins the fold, that represents a big win for your reputation (and potentially your bottom line as well!).