Promotions?

[Adventurelife]

Just doing my January list off offers and was thinking

What is best?

Two For One
Buy One Get One Free
Half Price

To me I would go for Buy One Get One Free but I am sure others will be different.

I intend to offer this in the Stag and Hen marketplace so it will be a UK first as the vast majority in this marketplace are resellers and cannot offer this.

I can only do it as I supply the end product. The idea is

Book and pay deposits in January for 2008 Stag or Hen Weekend
Do weekend during 2009
Get Free weekend in 2010 as a reunion of the event.

First 50 to book will be offered their free reunion weekend 2009 in Morocco instead of Scotland. Vice versa for those going to Morocco this coming

Thoughts please

 

[Power Lunch Club]

Just doing my January list off offers and was thinking

What is best?

Two For One
Buy One Get One Free
Half Price

To me I would go for Buy One Get One Free but I am sure others will be different.

I wouldn't suggest you make offers like this at all. It make you look really hungry and desperate for business. You then set the expectation is that the service/product is worth only half it's true value.

What I would suggest is an early bird offer instead, with a smaller discount (but don't use the phrase discount). Say something like, Pay before the 31st of Decemeber and get a 20% early payment bonus deal (bonus sounds more of a real benefit than the word discount).

 

[brandmantra]

you can also add gift coupons with the purchase of a certain amount.

 

[hypnotist]

I would offer them ALL. It is a bit like if someone was buying a car. Instead of "do you want to buy a car", it turns into "Would you like a red one or a blue one?"

So cannot give you the exact wording you could use, but it could mention something like, would you prefer 2 for 1, a case of wine or free Christmas Dinner for 2 complete with a bottle of wine.

The advantage of the last one is that they come back...and they probably wont turn up with empty pockets, so likely to go to the bar.

Another advantage is customer comparison and word of mouth. If venue A is offering nothing, or no real choice...and you are....then this will certainly help with word of mouth.

Hope this helps.

Scott Burke
MoneySavingHypnotist.com

 

[Former Member 1]

I'm pretty much with Gordon on this. The corporate market simply doesn't respond to 'splash' marketing the way that the consumer market does. And there's a real danger of de-valuing your brand by seeming just 'too' desperate for work.

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Isn't this going to be aimed at the Stag and Hen market?

I'm actually with Scott on this. Offer them the choice providing all the options actually cost you the same or as near as

 

[Former Member 1]

Isn't this going to be aimed at the Stag and Hen market?

I'm actually with Scott on this. Offer them the choice providing all the options actually cost you the same or as near as

If it is then perhaps a brand should be developed for that side of the operation.

The Corporate market can be quite sensitive about being seen to be frivolous. Therefore the market for such things is built on ROI just as is the case with any business product. Engaging team-building and/or change management professionals to help with your staff development strategy is one thing. As indeed is taking potential clients on a team building exercise to help cement a business relationship.

Taking the lads on a random jolly is another!

One's an investment where you really DON'T want to be hiring monkeys. The other's something you'll buy pretty much on price/bang-for-the-buck in the same way you would a trip to Alton Towers....

Now; some corporate clients won't be sensitive to this and an 'Alton Towers' type setup will absorb a bit of corporate 'action'. But others (possibly a majority) will want to be sure they're really in the hands of professional team building agents. And they WILL baulk at anything that comes across as just too frivolous or consumer-oriented. There's a bit of Irony here in that you can be offering great value, and seriously undercutting the competition, but by doing so actually CAUSING clients to walk straight past your 'window' and even damaging your brand. It's not that the price won't be attracting positive interest. It's simply that it will worry people, and there's a need to assure them they're buying a legitimate corporate service.

There definitely SHOULD be 'slack' in a rack rate to allow for discounting. But for corporate clients this is better expressed as offering 'agency rates' to regular or repeat clients; or even as a sweetener for new clients. And I feel there's a REAL need to make sure corporate clients realise they're getting a DIFFERENT product from consumers.

For those reasons I'd suggest that IF you are to have a 'bargain bucket' it really needs a different label and a bit of distance from the main corporate activity.

 

[GC001]

Hi

everyone has given good advice and different points of view.

At the end of the day if someone is booking a stag or hen event and looking at two similar offerings. If you are offering 2 for 1 and the competitor is not then logic would dictate.

Why dont you stager your offerings and then monitor the results.

 

[Adventurelife]

Quick update on above

This combined with a spread of other actions have increased our January enquiry rate by just under 100% in £ value with a few days left in the month. If runrate is maintained we will exit January with a 102% uplift on last january. Should be but I will reserve judgement until end of qtr 1

Peter

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

102%! Good Times :thumbup1:

Care to elaborate on how the strategy panned Peter? What elements helped in achieving such a huge increase over last year?

 

[Adventurelife]

102%! Good Times :thumbup1:

Care to elaborate on how the strategy panned Peter? What elements helped in achieving such a huge increase over last year?

Sure

Probably the major upside was me deciding to do some work for a change

I normally travel in January but have delayed that due to economy etc

Specific actions that helped ( please excuse list format, it is how my brain works!)

1. Seo has improved a lot in targeted sectors due to work in 2008

2. PPC again on targeted sectors I know still have money to spend

3. Stopped chasing corporates as they will be hard business this year and focused on business from councils/schools/courts/military basically anyone who gets paid by the tax payer

4. Big focus on stag and hen as people still get married in a recession

5. Massive increase in use of film and social media marketing

6. New booking and reservation system installed in Dec that has improved productivity a lot

7. More partnership deals stuck with accommodation providers/coach companies/third party sales agents

8. Increasing focus on the business being a flexible low cost business with a core team who are excellent and a large part time team and freelance guide base that we call in on demand.

9. Reduction of anything that is not core to the business. This and number 8 above has resulted in more man hours being focused on driving the marketing and sales and also freeing up cash for marketing and sales.
10. Improving response time to enquiry. Now under 5 minutes.

The increase in business is also 82% new business

Other projects that are ongoing that should payback

1. Complete overhaul of websites to focus on conversion more

2. Use existing customer database ( over 100k contact details) We have never sent a news letter or contacted any of these :w00t: I know! We have been ignoring a gold mine. 100% my fault as I like doing new business but we are going to get on top of this

3. Merging of booking system with website to increase productivity and customer ease of use

4. Introduction of head cam technology that will increase film use on social media sites

5. Complete overhaul of social media strategy into a focused thought out strategy that is actioned on a daily basis.

6. On going SEO work targeting sectors I know are still spending

7. New strategy of customer photos. We currently give them away on a CDR when they leave us. Going forward they will get a thank you email the day after their trip with a link to their photos and films. Inviting them to comment on their trip. The trip report from their guide will already be on the site. This will encourage social interaction and drive a huge amount of new content onto the websites.

8. Increase our beermat distribution this year to 200k

Hope above may be of some help

Regards

Peter

 

[Kasumi]

Hi

everyone has given good advice and different points of view.

At the end of the day if someone is booking a stag or hen event and looking at two similar offerings. If you are offering 2 for 1 and the competitor is not then logic would dictate.

Why dont you stager your offerings and then monitor the results.

Totally agree

I would also advise that you monitor the results of your offers, so see which is driving the most traffic to your website, which is giving you the best conversion rates etc...

From a marketing point of view and with valentines day fast approaching I would push any offers as quickly as possible to create better online visibility in what will be a competitive period for businesses within your market sector.

 

[Adventurelife]

Totally agree

I would also advise that you monitor the results of your offers, so see which is driving the most traffic to your website, which is giving you the best conversion rates etc...

From a marketing point of view and with valentines day fast approaching I would push any offers as quickly as possible to create better online visibility in what will be a competitive period for businesses within your market sector.

We do monitor and also doing a lot more split testing etc. Seems to be working.

Valentines day is not a great business driver for us. We have a lot of couples coming who we have did packages for with local hotels etc but it means you are chasing business that is only two people in number. We are group driven so marketing efforts are much better focused on targets sectors that can produce large group bookings

Peter