How Discounts & Promos Help For Online Business Growth

Discounts For Business Growth

Regardless of the scale, region, or field, businesses rely on one similar attribute – “MARKETING.” May it be large-cap companies pouring out billions in Television adverts or a small corner store using word of mouth/offline marketing; one thing is for sure, businesses cant flourish without proper and optimized marketing. And as enterprises strive to shift online -accredited to the pandemic, marketers have more audiences than ever to experiment with.

There are a hundred and one marketing strategies used by specialists, PPC, Influencer, and Affiliate marketing are to name a few. A great tried and tested marketing strategy used is called discount marketing which involves offering discounts for business growth and increasing outreach.

NOTE: For the sake of simplicity, “Discount offers” will be used collectively for discounts, promo codes, coupons, sales, etc

Definition Of Discount Marketing

 It refers to offering goods or services at a price lower than the original one generally with the motive of 

• Boosting sales
• Catching eyeballs 
• Moving old inventory

This effective marketing strategy has been used by marketers for ages, with the first documented coupon dating back to 1888 published by Coca-Cola.

Discount Offers As A Marketing Strategy

To comprehend whether it is a good marketing plan for your brand or not, you need to look for the following attributes.

If you market your brand as a high-end luxury brand, then it’s not the one for you. The secret to success to such brands is tight control oversupply, creating scarcity and eventually high demand. On the other hand, if you are any other business rather than the one discussed above, chances are offering discounts for business growth might work for you, especially if you have big fat profits and substantial growth targets.

Reasons Discount Offers Boom

Almost all businesses offer discounts of some sort and up to some extent. This is due to millennial and Genz consumer’s dedication towards getting the best value for the buck, which makes them move miles to save pennies, creating an opportunity for businesses to offer discounts for substantial business growth. 

Let’s dive deep into the reasons which make discount marketing appealing for brands and how discounts contribute to the growth of businesses

• FOMO

Thanks to Social Media, the term FOMO ( fear of missing out ) is thrown around casually a lot nowadays. It refers to a feeling of not being involved in an interesting or exciting event. What discount offers do is create a sense of FOMO in the recipient’s mind. This creates a sense of hurry in one’s mind, making him spend more than he naturally would. 

For this very reason, we see these slogans being thrown around in the marketing world.

“Once in a lifetime offer”  “Hurry up! Limited time offer” only for the first 100 people.”

•  Encourages bulk buying

Driven by FOMO, a customer generally goes over his means to cash on the offer he is presented with, helping the brand move stock faster. One can use this strategy to fulfill quarterly and monthly sales. And for this very reason, Discount marketing is seen in high gear during quarter ends and year ends.

One usually comes across these taglines every now and then.

‘Buy 2 get 1 Free’ or “Free Shipping on Order Above 2000.”

• Winning over competitor’s patrons

 No matter which market a brand is selling in, your customer base will overlap, forming rivalries and competitors. Usually, brands devote tremendous amounts of resources to gain a competitive advantage over others, and These discount offers are enough to tip over a customer to your side. This can grow your client base by large, providing an opportunity to retain them in the future.

• Talk of the town

If your discount offers are crazy high and unique in approach, it will make you the talk of the town, which means being talked about at parties, suppers, lunches, etc., which essentially is free word of mouth marketing. 

These are a few reasons that incentivize brands to lean towards offering discounts for business growth rather than their counterpart strategies.

Add-ons Of Running Discount Offers

Along with the primary benefits of running discount offers, you can churn out many other secondary advantages from running such campaigns. Some of these are 

• Save marketing budgets

As counterintuitive as it may seem at first glance, Running discount offers can save you on marketing budgets if done correctly. 

The news of good offers spreads like fire in the woods; Certain people seek such offers whole year-round. And when they are provided what they are actively looking for, they act as your “official marketers,” chanting about their experience in their whole social circles. These “offer natzis” spread the message with such effectiveness that none other strategy can, resulting in an avalanche effect of new buyers, long term.

• Drive traffic to your official site

Brands are now moving towards providing exclusive discount offers and promos on products bought directly from their official site. This means more organic traffic, better site ranking, and tighter control over customer’s experience. Additionally, It has a few secondary benefits as well.

Firstly it enables brands to exhibit the whole product line to a potential customer. A person looking for a conditioner might also buy shampoo of the same brand if there are no other brand options on-site and if he gets a discount worthy enough.

Secondly, It is beneficial for both customers and brands to cut a middle man like Amazon, Flipkart, or Food panda. The commissions these middlemen charge can be transferred to the end customer, resulting in a heavier discount. Also, having a patron on your own site gives you more liberty to collect specific data and funnel out their interests which will help you better optimize the target audience. 

Needless to say, building an online store and running discount offers and promos for rigorous business growth should be the go-to strategy for brand marking in 2021.

What To Know Before Running Discount Offers

As no strategy can be termed perfect, the same goes true with giving discount offers also. A considerable demerit that comes along is one might get a boost in sales temporarily, but the shoppers might not be loyal long-term ones. And you might gather a different consumer base than expected.

Additionally, if your offers are seasonal, they might encourage shoppers to wait for a specific term of the year to shop with you. This problem needs to be tackled somewhat warily and innovatively As you can gather masses through different marketing strategies but can only retain them through quality service and value addition.

Conclusion

So the main takeaway from the whole read should be, One Can and should experiment with running discounts for business growth and rapid sales, but the strategy should be tailor-made for the specific brand. Innovative ideas, fresh offers, and creating ease for customers can make this marketing strategy boom. But remember, one cannot solely rely on this marketing strategy for too long due to the reasons discussed in detail above. Nevertheless, this strategy is all good for getting a jumpstart and fulfilling quarterly sales targets.