Promotional incentives represent a powerful motivation tool. When used properly, they can increase brand awareness within a target market, drive traffic to a company's website, and create a lift in sales. What's more, they can be integrated easily through point-of-sale freebies, in-pack bonuses, broad market mail drops and a variety of other distribution channels. Promotional incentives are an effective vehicle for tapping into new markets or expanding an existing customer base. They can be used to support customer loyalty programs, motivate sales staff, or launch new products.

In this article, we'll focus on the use of promotional incentives in the context of driving online traffic, increasing brand awareness and lifting sales. As you'll see, these three objectives converge to encourage recipients to take a predefined action.

Using Promotional Incentives To Build Awareness

One of the ongoing challenges that companies face in competitive spaces is to penetrate new markets with their products. Whether launching a new brand or expanding the market penetration of an existing one, companies must find a way to build awareness in their target audience. Promotional incentives offer a cost-effective platform through which to open these new markets.

For example, suppose a sports equipment manufacturer has traditionally catered to college and high school athletes and wishes to penetrate the "over 50" space. By offering promotional incentives designed to reach that specific demographic, the manufacturer can increase brand awareness for select lines of equipment. Similarly, an athletic shoe manufacturer may want to introduce a new line of dress shoes to executives. A cosmetics company might wish to reach a younger audience. In each case, promotional incentives can be tailored to generate excitement and improve market awareness.

Promotional Incentives Drive Traffic And Increase Sales

Traffic and sales are inseparable. Customized promotional incentives can increase the former and generate a boost in the latter. For example, consider a razor company that wants to produce a lift in blade sales within a particular big-box retailer. In-pack promotional incentives offering a free pack of blades can be included with each razor. The customer would be directed to the razor company's website to register for the freebie. A special coupon or promo code could be emailed to the customer directing them back to the retailer for redemption.

Promotional incentives can also be designed to generate online traffic. Mobile promotions content such as wallpaper images, ringtone promotions, and mobile games can be offered free in order to trigger an action within a target market. The predefined action might include an opt-in for future promotions, registration or a purchase decision.

The use of promotional incentives is a proven strategy for driving traffic, increasing brand awareness and lifting sales. They provide a channel through which companies can tap into new markets or further penetrate existing markets. Success is found in the design. The incentives must accommodate audience desire in order to trigger the appropriate response. For companies that wish to generate excitement and sales by delivering relevant value, this form of marketing can be an ideal solution.

Promotional Currency (PC) is a digital promotions firm that merges digital technology, artist licensing and promotional risk coverage to deliver turnkey, fixed-cost solutions that meet the unique needs and budgets of the brand marketing or b2b marketing client. Among product offered are: promotional incentives, unique customer loyalty programs, online promotions and mobile promotions.