Let’s Start From the Beginning: What is Promotion?

Promotion is an important part of the marketing mix that helps build brand-customer relationships, introduce new products, increase brand awareness as well as generate interest, win customers, and drive sales.

It's a little bit like dating. You don't propose on the first day, but first introduce yourself, show off your best qualities, prove you're trustworthy, and gradually build a connection with the person. Pretty much the same is with brands and customers.

When you do promotions right, you are basically taking someone from "who are you?" to "I like you, take my money". And if you're extremely good at it, you may even convert your customers into brand advocates, who promote and vouch for you on your behalf!

There are quite a few different types of promotional activities that we can use to achieve different goals. To decide which is the right mix to use, we need to evaluate different variables for a specific brand and target audience.

13 Ways to Get Noticed

1. Advertising

This is when you pay to put your message in front of people. Could be an Instagram ad, a billboard, a radio spot, or a YouTube pre-roll that people can't skip fast enough.

You don't necessarily need a million-pound budget. A £10/day Instagram ad targeting your local area can also work. Just start small, test what works, and scale up when ready.

2. Sales Promotions

Think limited-time offers, flash sales, "Buy 2 Get 1 Free," early-bird discounts, etc. Anything that makes people think "I better act now or I'll miss out."

These work great for quick cash flow, but don't overuse them. If you're always on sale, people will wait for the sale. That means you'll be training them to never pay full price.

3. Direct Marketing

This is you reaching out directly to specific people. Personalised emails, targeted mail campaigns, promo messages via DMs on Social Media. In other words, just you and your potential customer having a conversation.

This is where data and segmentation is essential. The more you know about your audience, the better you can personalise your messages. If you reach out this way to people who are very unlikely to be interested in buying - you're just wasting your time.

4. Public Relations

PR is about getting other people to talk about you (preferably in a positive light, but negative can also work). Think press releases, charity sponsorships, getting featured in local news or magazines, etc.

Local newspapers and bloggers are often looking for interesting stories to write about so you might find success pitching to them if you have got an interesting or unique story about your product.

5. Sponsorships

If you sell yoga mats, sponsor a yoga festival. If you sell craft beer, sponsor a music event. Put your brand where your target customers already hang out.

But you don't have to sponsor a stadium. Most companies will not have budget for that. You can sponsor a local 5K, a school event, or a community fundraiser. Just think what can get your name out there.

6. Product Placements

Ever notice how everyone in your favourite show or a movie drinks the same brand of coffee or use the same laptop? Or how social media personalities just happen to own the same specific water bottles? That's product placement.

Micro-influencers (people with 5,000-50,000 followers) and small content creators are often more affordable and have highly engaged audiences. You can work with them and see that it can sometimes be just as effective as working with well-known influencers, without spending thousands on one Instagram post.

7. Social Media

Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, X - so many to choose from! Post engaging content, build community, respond to customers, and show the human side of your brand.

And you don't need to be on every platform. Simply choose 1-2 where your audience actually hangs out, and focus on them until you start getting traction.

8. Personal Selling

This may sound a bit old-school now but still powerful. Whether you're at a farmer's market, on the phone, or meeting clients in person, one-on-one selling lets you address specific concerns and build genuine connections. This is not typically an average marketer's strength as it's very direct, but if you have an opportunity to use the skills of an experience sales person - it can do wonders!

9. Guerrilla Marketing

An unconventional way to bring public attention to the brand and its products. It can be viral campaigns, graffiti, unexpected events in town, public flash mobs, etc. The only limit here is your own imagination.

It's high-risk, high-reward kind of activity, however. If you do it well - you'll look like a genius. If done poorly? You risk becoming a meme!

10. Word-of-Mouth

This is when customers are so happy they tell their friends about you without you even asking them. It's free, authentic, and extremely powerful. It's the most trusted form of marketing out there.

How to encourage it? Exceed expectations, surprise, make your customers feel special. In other words, give them something worth talking about.

11. Affiliate Marketing

Give people a commission for sending customers your way. Many bloggers, YouTubers, and even happy customers will be happy to promote your products in return for a small cut of the sales.

You can start with something as simple as "Refer a friend and you both get 20% off."

12. Field & In-home Marketing (product sampling)

Think free samples at events, pop-up shops, demo stations. Anything that lets people try your product without buying it. In-home marketing is when brands send their product to people to try at home for free.

It works because people are more likely to buy something they've already tried and loved. Plus, free stuff makes people happy.

13. Spamming: Please, Don't!

You know those emails you get seventeen times a day from that company you bought from once? That's spam. Don't be that brand. That's annoying and everybody hates it.

The key difference between effective marketing and spam is relevance and permission. If consumers signed up for it and it's useful, then great - go ahead. If you bought an email list and are blasting everyone daily - please stop. They will hate you for it and your brand will suffer.

What Should Shape Your Strategy?

Okay, you know the options, but which ones should you choose? Well, that depends. Here's what you'll need to consider:

1. The budget available - Not everyone has a budget to run ads during the Super Bowl even if they really want to (wait, does it really cost millions for a 30-second commercial?!). No budget? You can try TikTok videos instead, they cost nothing but time.

2. Stage in the product cycle - If you're launching a new product category, then customers will need more information about it. If it’s something that's already established - a simple reminder that you exist might do.

3. The type of product - Some products, such as cars or large kitchen appliances, will require a different promotional mix than something simple like coffee and chocolate.

4. Target audience - Think what your target customers like, what they read, where they go, what they use to stay in touch with friends, what are their pain points, etc.

5. Competitors - Don't copy them but check what they are doing too. Does their strategy work well for them? Could it be done better?

6. Legal - Some industries have restrictions. For example, you won't be able to advertise alcohol or tobacco on TV and magazines in certain countries. Do your research.

7. Media availability - Some TV slots for commercials may be too expensive or sold out; magazines’ lead times might be too long; social media might be perfect, but the target audience might not use it. You'll be restricted by what you've got.

So How Exactly Does It Work?

To run successful promotions, marketers need to know what specific SMART promotional goals they need to achieve. As an integral part of an overall marketing strategy, promotional goals can range from building brand awareness, introducing new products to the public or reminding people of their existence to persuading consumers to switch brands, encouraging them to buy, and strengthening brand-customer relationships. You will need to figure out what metrics to track to know whether the promotions worked as expected or not.

Many marketers use AIDA model (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action), which identifies cognitive stages of a purchasing funnel that people need to go through during their buying process. It enables marketers to know what, where, how, and when, they should communicate with their customers at different buying stages. It’s useful to think about this model when thinking about promotional goals. Why? Because you can use many of the same promotional activities for different stages, having different goals in mind. Here's how it works:

Attention: First, they need to notice that you exist. Grab their attention with something interesting, surprising, or valuable.
Interest: Now give them a reason to care. Why should they pay attention to you specifically when there are so many other options?
Desire: Make them want what you're offering. Show benefits, create emotional connection, use social proof.
Action: Make it super easy for them to buy. Clear buttons, simple checkout, limited-time incentives.

Remember, you can use the same promotional channel at each stage, just with different messaging. Your Instagram might start with a funny post to grab attention, then a carousel ad, explaining your product's features and how it works (interest), then you may run ads there with testimonials (desire), and finally provide a discount code valid for a limited time (action).

The important idea here is that promotions are not all about the immediate sale but about a relationship that's being developed between a brand and a potential customer. It's about mapping out the whole journey from introducing a product to letting people know that they can trust the brand enough and buy from them when the time comes.

Promotional messages are two-sided and interactive (yes, even advertising) because each message that is sent out to the world and consumed affects receivers in some way. They might like or dislike it, they might feel inspired or motivated, the desire for the certain product might increase, etc. Each promotional activity and the response it gets from the receiver greatly influence how successful the subsequent promotional activities will be. In other words, each promotional activity and the receiver’s response to that activity are both a cause and an effect, governed by all their actions and reactions to each other.

Setting Promotional Goals

As mentioned above, promotional activities should never be just about driving quick sales. They can be, but if that's all you do, then you're leaving money on the table. Marketers understand that each promotional activity is successful and effective not only for acquiring the immediate sale (short-term goal) but also for how well it prepares the audience to receive subsequent promotions (mid-term goal). Most importantly, how well it represents the brand’s image and develops the desired relationship between the brand and its customers (long-term goal).

Short-term Goals

These are related to the desired immediate outcomes, such as responses, interactions, actions, and behaviours, that a person should ideally be motivated to take/have after encountering a certain promotional message. These goals can be achieved relatively quickly – in a matter of days or weeks.

For example, when businesses need to acquire short-term sales to generate short-term revenue quickly, they can use sales promotions and offer coupons and discounts. Other goals might be as simple as encouraging people to visit the website (increase traffic), learn more about the company, enter the competition, or engage on social media, and they may use ads, content marketing, or ads to do this.

Do consider, however, what you direct competitors do and how your promotional activities will fit with their current communications. The thing is, it’s possible to run a bad promotional campaign, which, due to some sort of similarities, can confuse one’s brand with that of competitor’s or make it difficult for people to differentiate between the two or choose what they like more.

Mid-term Goals

Mid-term goals focus on ensuring that the promotions sink in and that people can differentiate your brand from competitors. Such promotions require some extra effort and take a bit longer to achieve as they focus on ensuring that customers remember the brand and want to interact with it again in the future. For example, marketers might try to evaluate how often their target audience should be exposed to certain messages so that it stays in their mind for longer.

Common mid-term goals successes include the audiences’ ability to recognise the brand’s name and logo, its key attributes, and position in relation to competition. Consumers should be receptive to these promotions and more likely to recognise the brand in different settings, too.

For example, customers might be more willing to consider the brand’s products on POS (point of sale) displays or acquire and use coupons and discounts to try them out after they have already developed interest and trust in it via prior communications.

Long-term Goals

These goals are about building brand equity and creating loyal customers who choose your brand over the competitors every single time. Long-term goals take a long time to achieve.

Marketers dealing with promotional strategies will know a clear brand vision and mission as well as the relationship it desires to have with customers. This knowledge and understanding allows marketers to organise and oversee suitable promotional messages, visuals, and activities so that everything is always on-brand, ensuring that potential customers develop trust and loyalty.

Now, if promotional activities effectively achieve long-term goals, it means that they succeeded in creating a consistent brand image and a strong position in the market. Customers now may favour this particular brand over the competitors. Even better, they might become loyal customers and brand advocates who vouch for this brand to their friends.

***

So whatever you decide to do, make sure you consistently position the brand in the right way. Every touchpoint should reinforce the same brand personality, values, and message, even if executed through very different channels. If one ad says you're professional, and the next is wacky and irreverent, people will get confused. And confused people rarely buy.

And no, you don't need to have a huge budget to win. You can be successful by truly understanding your customers, showing up consistently, and building genuine connections.