Do you know how to plan a promotion? It’s not just about printing off signs and placing them around your store. To really be effective, you’ll need to set a budget for your sales promotion strategy, understand your audience, and provide a compelling offer that can’t be ignored.
Sound complicated? These tips will make planning a retail promotion as easy as possible.
Contents:
- Defining Your Objectives & Audience
- Choosing the Right Promotion Type
- Setting a Budget
- Developing a Promotion Calendar
- Creating Compelling Displays
- Giving Your Promotion a Head Start
Define your objectives and audience
The first step in planning a promotion is to decide what you’d like to achieve. Do you want to clear inventory, promote a new product, boost sales, or raise brand awareness? Your target audience will also affect your sales promotion strategy. For example, young customers will be quicker to share social media posts and hashtags than older generations.
Next, consider what you’ll need for the job. Retailers often use point-of-sale (POS) displays to promote new product lines. For that, you may need a tough yet sustainable display material like Re-board. See the benefits of Re-board to learn more or check out our guide to using printed products as part of a sales promotion strategy.
Choose the right promotion type
When planning a retail promotion, you need to consider what resonates with your audience. Common promotion types include buy-one-get-one offers, loyalty programs, competitions, limited-time sales and discounts. Which one will get the most traction for your brand?
Each sales promotion type comes with its own benefits, so pick the one that aligns with your goals the most. For example, BOGOFF sales encourage bigger purchases, while loyalty programs build customer retention. Visit our guide to the 5 retail promotion types for more details.
Set a budget for your promotion
Your promotion must be affordable to work. Consider how generous you can afford to be, the cost of marketing materials, and any extra costs associated with your promotion. As part of the planning process, you should also note your expected return on investment (ROI).
If you have a lot of followers on social channels, then advertising online can be very affordable, but you’ll still need printed materials to get people through the door. You can find many of these at Raccoon’s branding store. It has everything you could need for your sales promotion, from posters to banners, pergolas, flags, vinyl stickers and more.
Develop a promotion calendar
Few companies go with a one-and-done approach. Instead, promotional planning and organisation usually happen throughout the year. One example is the fashion retailer Vivienne Westwood, who uses window graphics to promote their seasonal campaigns. You can view some of their eco-friendly window displays here.
Plan your sales promotions throughout the year to avoid overcrowding and long periods of inactivity. A carefully planned promotional calendar will also keep customers excited for your next sale or product launch. You should also think about staffing needs, possible supply shortages, and when to get your materials printed and delivered.
Make your displays clear and compelling
A strong promotion plan will have clear messaging sorted out before the launch date. For that, you’re going to need high-quality prints with clear text and bold colours that command attention. Think posters or banners, or you could lean into the power of window graphics.
Plan your promotional materials around your usable space too. If you have a large, spacious environment, then you can go wild with 3D re-board cut-outs, eye-catching banners, and maybe some outdoor display products like flags and pergolas.
Your promotion can be planned, organised and run effectively even with limited space. Here are some space-saving ideas to get you started.
Want to give your retail promotion a head start?
Now you know how to plan and organise your promotion. You’ve defined your objectives, set a budget, and decided how to reach your target audience. So, what’s next?
You can either visit our branding store to see the promotional materials available or get in touch for large format printing. We manage entire projects from start to finish and can even install your items for the time you need them – and it’s all custom-made to boost your brand.
