Advertising special offers is a key way that retail businesses, of all sizes, entice customers into stores. These are sometimes referred to as lost leader schemes, i.e. profit on one product is sacrificed in the hope that customers taking advantage of the special offer will also buy other products. Lost leaders work great in supermarkets, where customers are unlikely to just buy one product, and once they are in the store will probably buy several products, whether they are on offer or not.
Weather your special offers are lost leaders or not they are a highly effective way to draw customers into stores. One of the challenges is to advertise your special offers to potential customers. Here are a couple key ways to advertise special offers:
You can use banners. These banners can be placed in store or even outside your store, and can be personalised so that they carry the relevant information, e.g. 50% off, Half Price etc. You can use cheap banners if you’re a smaller store. Personalised banners are great because they get the message across in a simple, easy to understand way.
Many businesses now use the internet to advertise special offers. There is now a thriving “culture” for voucher codes, and these can be spread via social networks. Using the internet is great for spreading news of special offers and sales, as for a minimal outlay you can achieve maximum outreach.
You could advertise special offers at point of sale. Perhaps when customers have bought from you, you could entice them to return customers with a voucher or other promotion placed alongside their purchased item. This method also works for online businesses.
