5 Steps To Promo Success
Plan Your Content – 8 Weeks Out
Not all small businesses need or want to have a promotional event for every holiday, special occasion or celebration
If you do you need to be thoughtful about what you want to accomplish and how you’ll go about it. First task – choose one promo for each quarter and lt the rest go. As your business grows you can always add more. But you want to be sure you don’t offer discounts you can’t afford. It’s nice to have support from family and friends, but you don’t want to build on their generosity alone
Write Your Content – 7 Weeks Out
Write out what you want to say and your clear offer. If it’s a discount, be sure your loss leader isn’t going to cause financial harm to your bank account. As small business owners, we dream of having lavish event, but those are for the big boys. Your promos should be about your long game. What do you want 3 to 5 years from now, lavish parties or 1,000 loyal fans? I’ll take the 1,000 loyal fans and the financial prosperity they bring to a small business. So start with something small, something affordable for you and your customers, and something memorable.
Post Your Content – 6 Weeks Out
Time to post your offer on your website, Facebook or where ever your fans hang out. Your offer needs to be clear, have your keyword in the text, and define any limitations (like while supplies last or limited to 1st 100 customers).
Link Your Content – 5 Weeks Out
It takes from 3-5 weeks for the search engines to find you among the billions of websites now online. Link your blog, landing page, or Etsy account (etc.) to your Social Media based on where your target market hangs out. If your fans are interested in your offer, you should start to see some action in 2-3 weeks before the day of your event. Be sure to provide a way to comment.
Track Your Offer – Last 2 Weeks
There are a number of ways to track your success.
The 1st, of course, is your sales, downloads, comments and other activity during your campaign.
2nd is your google analytics account. Sign up with Google if you don’t have one. They are free and provide an array of information.
And there are various software offerings available.
Whatever methods you have available, use them.
Conclusion – Count your Success
Take the Five Steps for Promo Success. Spend the time to plan, write, post, link and track your promotions. Not sure of the timing?