Tag: "service promotions"
Ethical Internet Marketing Practices – Creating Incentives and Promotions
Incentives and promotions are one of the most common tools Internet marketers use to acquire subscribers and customers.
Incentives can be used to entice someone to subscribe to your newsletter or to purchase your product or service. Promotions are used to publicize or promote a product or service.
You can create incentives or promotions your self or you can use someone else’s product.
Allow me to explain…
A classic example of an incentive is to offer new subscribers a free gift. This free gift is usually an informative ebook or report they can download immediately after subscribing to your newsletter.
The ebook or report coincides with the products or services you offer. For instance, if you offer health and wellness products, your incentive ebook or report would be on the topic of health and wellness. You wouldn’t want to offer an automotive book or a report on Internet marketing. That would defeat your purpose.
One way to obtain give-away e-books or reports is to purchase Private Label Rights (PLR). PLR allows you to purchase books that have been written by someone else and give them away or sell them on your website.
There are numerous private label rights programs, which provide e-books and reports on every topic known to man. Several of these companies are listed in “The Honest Marketer”.
Choose your incentives wisely. Don’t give your new subscribers a poorly written report that contains useless information. It’s not that difficult to compile a good report filled with beneficial information. And the pay-off can be tremendous if you take the time to organize a report or compile an ebook that provides people with the information they are seeking.
As mentioned earlier, people receive many newsletters and offers. While it used to be the “in” thing to offer a freebie, people are much more aware of marketing ploys and find the word “free” to be a turn-off. They assume there will be some catch.
Promotions are offers such as discounts; special deals such as buy one, get one free; free shipping; clearance sale; new product announcement; etc.
You might have promotions that coincide with holidays or awareness events, such as breast cancer awareness. You can run promotions daily, weekly, monthly, semi-annually, bi-annually, or annually.
I once knew a woman who offered a different promotion each day. She began offering daily promotions to test out various ideas she had written down in her marketing plan. She made them fun and irresistible.
For instance, one day she offered a 10 percent discount on products that had the color pink on the label and then donated 10 percent to a breast cancer awareness organization. Another day she offered the same discount on products that had the color green on the label and donated a percentage to an environmental organization.
Another day she offered free shipping on all orders that included at least one herbal dietary product. The next day she took 20 percent off all orders and included free shipping. She mixed her promotions up and you never knew what she would do next.
Her promotions piqued my curiosity and I visited her website frequently. Her deals were always great. She was prompt in shipping the product. She had excellent customer service. In the five years I did business with her, I never had a problem. Today, she sells her product line on QVC.
My point is, in order to make it big in Internet marketing; you have to be creative and unique with your incentives and promotions. You don’t need a lot of money to offer incentives and promotions. In fact, you don’t need any money at all. The only thing you need is to let your imagination run free and don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone.
Always keep your incentives and promotions above board. If you say you are donating a percentage of your profits to an organization such as breast cancer, you would be wise to show a copy of the check you submitted to the organization.
You’ll find other valuable tips in “The Honest Marketer.”
