Did you know that 40% to 45% of consumers who participate in promotional campaigns opt-in for future marketing emails? Using chances to win that spark interest in your brand can help to quickly increase your database numbers.

Let’s first define what we mean by a promotion.

A promotion, in a people-based marketing world, is not simply a discount, but a short-term “do, get” interaction.

These incentive-based calls to action with a chance to win or guaranteed reward are offered in exchange for the consumer’s registration and participation. Promotion channels and tactics vary, but promotions always leverage proven game mechanics to spark emotion and drive behavior. The result is a moment of value for both the brand and consumer.

For instance:

• Motivate registration and opt-in with press-worthy experiences fueled by aspirational prizes.
• Encourage consumers to refer friends by offering bonus entries, threshold rewards, and other special opportunities.
• Quickly convert calls to action from both owned and paid channels. Provide easy entry points across channels via text, hashtag or URL, as promotions drive 30% to 50% increases in media response rates.

Enhance Your Data for Personalized Communications

Collect new insights about your consumers each time they visit a promotional campaign, allowing you to get to know their preferences and add an engagement layer to your data. This will help you build a connected identity for your customer and enable you to use people-based outreach strategies.

Some examples may be to educate consumers about your product or service thought trivia and personality tests. Whether it’s learning their wardrobe style or matching their personality to the perfect vacation spot, give them the opportunity to explore your brand and socially share their results with friends. Another could be to allow people to build holiday wish lists with your products; this is actually a gift to you as it provides insight into consumer preferences. To drive even more activity, you could add a bonus offer with the potential to win the entire wish list.

Improve Engagement and Activation

Build social followers, motivate repeat visits, and go beyond the coupon to drive purchase by creating other reasons for consumers to engage with your brand. On average, consumers will return to a campaign two to three times, spending about four to six minutes engaging with this content. Drive both online and offline engagement with targeted experiences to motivate desired behaviors, such as app downloads or awareness of new products.

Immerse your audience via a content hub with activities to reward engagement: playing trivia, watching a video, sharing content socially, etc. This creates a sustained presence for a product launch or major event and drives on average 8 to 12 minutes of interaction. Activate your brand mission socially with user-generated content: Encourage consumers to share their point of view, holiday moments, or things they are thankful for. This drives awareness of your brand and engagement among their friends. Additionally, leverage brand partners: Everyone can use some new introductions, so work with your partners to cross-promote and grow each other’s databases.

Want to learn more about taking a unified approach to CRM and Promotions? Check out Merkle’s Q3 2019 Customer Engagement Report here.