Bonuses and promotions are a way to enhance sales. In a competitive sales environment, they can be a lifeline. The text below discusses how they can help small New York businesses.  

Have you ever found a really good bonus or promotion that has made your day? From free shipping offers to huge discounts, bonuses, and promotions, do more than offer things for free. They can tap into the psychology of your customers, increasing your brand awareness. Yet get them wrong and the opposite can happen. 

Understanding the Basics of Bonuses and Promotions 

Promotions are generally used to increase sales of a product or to convince people to use a trial. In some cases, they may even be used for marketing, to get people to sign up, or to give personal details. They can be the focus of a campaign, such as a sale, or enhance campaigns such as offering discounts on new products.  

When you have a small New York business, you will need to know what your customer base is. Those who have transient tourist trade will be different from those who have recurring customs. This can help inform the type of bonus and promotion and how to deploy them.  

Imagining a Promotion That People Want

 The key to a promotion or bonus is making sure it is something people want. If not, your time and effort is wasted. It must be valuable enough to persuade people to perform an action. This could be making a purchase, visiting a store, or signing up to a mailing list.  

It must also be something they need. Ideally, it will solve a problem. Perhaps it will reduce the cost of an item. It could be something that makes a task easier.  

Always make it something related to a bigger proposition. For example, if you have a new product range, offer a bonus related to it. Launching a new store? Make sure the first ones through the door get a promotion.  

Finally, make sure it is easy to access. Your customers don’t want to trek to the end of the earth for your promotion. Make it printable, downloadable, scannable, or anything else that will facilitate easy conversions.  

Examples of Good and Bad Promotion

Great examples of how to use bonuses and promotions can be found in the online casino industry. This is a very competitive field, with lots of operators all vying for new customers. Very often this is made more difficult by casinos operating in multiple areas, such as different jurisdictions, states, and even countries.  

Thus, bonuses have become an integral part of what casinos use to attract new customers. They often include free spins on slot machines and matched deposits, which are essentially credit to play games. For example, learning about stardust casino promo code gives you both free spins and multiple bonuses.  

This ticks multiple boxes when considering the promotions mentioned above. People want it as they’re probably already thinking about joining a casino. It is related to a bigger concept, the online casino itself and its game selection. Finally, it is easy to access as it is provided upon signing up to a casino.  

There have been some terrible promotions in the history of sales and marketing. One of the worst was run by the British vacuum brand Hoover in the early nineties. It offered two round tickets to the United States for anyone who bought over £100 in Hoover products.

Not only was this a financial disaster, but it was also a poorly executed decision. Why would someone buying household cleaning devices want or need a flight to the US? The company also deployed a difficult application process to deter people from taking up the offer, making it inaccessible. This damaged their reputation vastly.  

How to Offer a Promotion for Your New York Small Business

Deciding on what to give and how depends on your business. Retail small businesses will need to make different offers to service-based ones.  

Classic schemes for retail customers can involve taking tips from the aforementioned casino examples. Try giving things away for free, such as samples, or provide credit that can be redeemed for money off goods. It is simple but effective. Other ideas include buy one get one free offers, which are good if you are in a restaurant or hospitality business.

A more targeted method is to give lifestyle discounts. These can be for people who are students, retirees, veterans, or other sub-sections of society. You may do them at specialist times, such as Veterans Day, back-to-university season or during Pride Month.   

Service-based businesses in New York will need a different approach. You could try using time as an incentive, offering coaching sessions or advice for free. You could also provide learning materials online and give these away as a free promotion.  

 At the core of all this, you are aiming to turn people into customers for your New York business. Know your audience and your business, and then follow the rules above by making them desirable, relatable, and easy to access. By choosing the right offer, you should soon see conversions come fast for your small New York business.