Incentive Marketing

Who doesn’t love receiving a free gift or discount? Your business can easily apply this concept to your marketing strategy by offering incentives to motivate your customers.

Now you may be wondering what an “incentive” is when it comes to marketing. A marketing incentive motivates customers to do something such as make a purchase, subscribe to your newsletter, or share your posts. The goal is to entice your current and prospective customers to do what you want them to do.

Marketing creates a solid foundation for your company to build its success. Without a marketing strategy in place, your business will miss significant opportunities and valuable leads. Marketing doesn’t have to just benefit you; it can also bring value to your customers. It is proven that people are more likely to support a business when they receive something in return. It could be something as small as free shipping to a chance to win a large giveaway. Incentive marketing can open many doors for your company to increase customer awareness, sales, and brand identity.

Now that you know what incentive marketing is, how can you implement this strategy into your current plan?

Three Incentive Marketing Ideas you should Implement:

1. Loyalty Programs
   Loyalty programs offer an excellent way for your customers to be rewarded for supporting your business. The more purchases they make, the more points they receive, which earns them savings. These programs will improve your customer retention rate if you give them the right promotions. Your loyalty program should offer something of unique value to your customers. Many loyalty programs fail due to a lack of specific goals, so it is crucial to determine why and how this program will benefit you and your customers.

2. Discount Codes
   Discount codes are successful in motivating consumers to make purchases. There are several different ways to use discount codes to benefit your business. One way would be to offer a code when a customer signs up for your newsletter or SMS messages. This ensures they stay updated with information about your brand and new offers. This is especially important as people often lose track of brands, and emails are a great way to bring their attention back and encourage a purchase. Another method is referral codes. When someone refers a friend to your business, they will receive a discount on their services or products. Referral codes are great for generating leads and finding new customers. The best part is the customer, and your business gains something from this tactic.

3. Contests & Giveaways
   Contests and giveaways are a creative way to increase your brand awareness and engagement. This serves as a more interactive way to capture the attention of current and prospective customers. This method focuses on promoting your brand in a way that provides a unique opportunity to customers without sounding like a sales pitch. When customers enter the contest or giveaway, they are giving you their contact information so you can further market to them even after the promotion has ended. This method also leads to increased referrals as people will share this unique opportunity to win something of high perceived value with their friends.

Two of Our Successful Incentive Marketing Campaigns:

1. The Rowe Boutique – Discount Codes
   • We tested our social media conversion ads with and without offering a discount incentive for purchase.
     • When the discount code was not promoted on the ads the conversion rate was over 50% less than with the discount incentive advertised.
2. Turbine Engine Consultants Inc  – Giveaways
   • For TECI it is valuable for us to capture customers’ aircraft fleet information.
   • We offered an Amazon gift card to clients and potential clients to fill out the form.
     • After advertising the gift card with a completed form, that increased our completed form intake by 90%

Summary

Marketing incentives are proven to motivate your current and potential customers to complete desired actions or conversions. When choosing your incentive strategy, ensure you have your desired goal selected. It is important to ask yourself, “What do you want to achieve from these incentives?” and “How will you promote these incentives?” Incentive marketing is for you whether your goal is to retain current customers or seek new ones. The best part about this strategy is both you and your customer will benefit.