by Cyndi Walker
http://www.promotionalcurrency.com
©
2009
Online promotions continue to gain momentum as marketing
budgets shift from conventional advertising methods toward more efficient promotional
channels. Interactive and cost-effective, they can include online instant win
games, contests and sweepstakes offers. The challenge is to leverage online promotions
in a way that effectively strengthens your company's brand while building loyalty
in your existing customer base. It is not a simple task.
Below,
we'll explore how you can use online promotions to build your customer database
while reinforcing your brand. We'll also explain how web-based sweepstakes and
games of chance can help your company achieve your marketing objectives. Lastly,
we'll briefly describe how you can easily manage the budgetary risks of online
promotions.
Online Promotions Attract Demographic Information
Demographic
information is a key asset for consumer-driven companies. All markets are comprised
of groups that can be segmented by ethnicity, income, education, and a host of
similar data points. Once such information has been compiled, purchasing trends
become apparent.
Online promotions, such as interactive
sweepstakes and games of chance, can be used as a marketing tool to attract demographic
data. Whether entrants are driven to your promotional site by a retail point-of-sale
call to action or wide-scale mail drop, they are required to enter personal data
to participate. To further market to your target demographic, this information
can be stored in a database for future use.
Branding And
Customer Loyalty Through Online Promotions
If crafted well
and executed properly, interactive promotions can reinforce your company's branding
objectives. However, too often, companies will deploy them haphazardly without
giving sufficient thought to their long-term effects. Online instant win games
and sweepstakes offers should fortify your company's winning proposition. To be
sure, it is easy enough to offer prizes and incentives for your target market's
participation. However, doing so in a way that yields long-term value is far more
complex. It requires the knowledge and expertise of an experienced online promotions
agency.
Just as branding objectives can be accomplished
through a shrewd deployment of online promotions, so too, can sweepstakes and
games of chance develop stronger customer loyalty. However, it is critical that
you match your promotional objective with the campaign. For example, suppose your
objective is the development of customer loyalty within your market. In this case,
offering online promotions focused on points-based rewards would be more appropriate
than offering free samples of your product.
Managing The
Promotional Risk
Companies that are considering promotional
sweepstakes and instant win games are often concerned about their potential exposure
to budgetary risk. This is especially true for wide-scale online promotions deployed
throughout a broad market as well as promotional campaigns in which the prize
value is significant. This risk can be easily managed. Your company can secure
promotional risk coverage that insulates it from loss. By using such coverage
to smooth the risk variance of online promotions, you can offer more attractive
prizes and incentives. In doing so, your company will attract a far greater number
of registrations.
Online promotions are a valuable marketing
strategy for reinforcing your brand while increasing loyalty in your customer
base. The key is to partner with an experienced promotional agency that can design
campaigns for maximum long-term value.
