close
  • Home
  • Business Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • Budget Friendly Fixes
    • Online Growth Partner
  • Digital Services
    • Website Redesign
    • Email Marketing
    • SEO
    • Small Business Training
    • Web Design & Development
    • Multimedia
  • About Social Light
    • Meet Nicole Krug
    • Client Case Studies
    • Work With Social Light
    • Contact
  • Business Rules
  • Blog
  • Schedule a Meeting
  • My Account
  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  LinkedIn
  •  YouTube
  •  Pinterest
Social LIghtSocial LIght
  • Menu
  • Small Business Solutions
  • Digital Services
    • Website Redesign
    • Email Marketing
    • SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
    • Small Business Training
    • Web Design & Development
    • Multimedia
  • About
    • Web Design Portfolio
    • About Social Light
    • Meet Nicole Krug
    • Work With Social Light
    • Contact
  • Business Rules
  • Blog
  • Schedule a Meeting
  • Account Login

11 Promotional Ideas to Help Small Businesses Grow

By Nicole Krug,

May 11, 2022
promotion time: 11 ideas to increase engagement

Promotional campaigns are a great way to gain exposure and get people excited about your business. Most people think of a promotion in terms of a discount, which is a super way to drive sales, but promotions come in all shapes in sizes.

Here are 11 types of promotions to help grow your email list, increase social media engagement, and drive sales.

 

promotions To build your email list

1. Enter to win content

This one is quick and easy, as all you need is a prize and a way to collect email addresses.

Cash is ALWAYS king, so offering a gift card will help you cast the widest net, though you should know that not everyone will stay with you for the long term.

2. Wheel of Fortune

Creating a promotion in which people “spin to win,” is a lot of fun, as the element of chance often attracts people to enter just to see what they’ll get.

The idea is that you have a handful of prizes, and everyone who spins will win something, but they have to enter their email address to get their prize.

Prizes can be a mixed bag of discounts (amount off, BOGO, free period) with free swag.

3. Sports

Creating a promotion around Fantasy Football or March Madness can be great for service-based companies. These longer promotions can help you build relationships during the promotional period – especially if you get people talking along the way with chat or a smack talk board.

 

Promotions to increase engagement on social media

4. Photo contest

Asking people to share a photo and tag you, or your contest hashtag, is a great way to spur engagement, especially on Instagram.

This is especially effective method of gaining exposure if you have a product that people can snap pictures with.

5. Photo caption

The idea here is that you take a funny picture, pop it on social media and ask people to add a caption. This might be a silly animal picture, or a shot of someone on your team with an awkward look on their face.

This one isn’t really about your products or services, but it is a way to humanize your brand and help build relationships.

Generally, you’ll only run this for a day or two, so a simple prize like a free t-shirt, or $10 gift card is totally acceptable for a prize.

6. Trivia

Simple and straight forward: pop a trivia question on social media, and the first person to write in the correct answer gets a prize. Like the photo caption, it’s fairly quick and simple, so simple prizes will work.

This one is most effective if it’s turned into a regular series, so you teach people to “tune in” on a certain day (Trivia Tuesday or First Friday) and drive engagement in the long-term.

 

 

Promotions to drive sales

 

7. Discounts

Everyone likes a deal, so the simplest way to encourage people to buy is to give them a discount.

You can run this promotion for a specific period of time, or make it conditional:

  • 25% off all sales during the month of May.
  • Enter your email address to receive 10% off your first purchase.

8. Flash Sale

Flash sales follow the same principles of discount, just for a short period of time because it forces people to take action immediately, or suffer from FOMO.

If you are a product–based company, using flash sales to clear out inventory, such as odd sizes or colors, can be extremely effective.

9. BOGO

Offering a two for the price of one deal is a huge attraction for many people, especially if you tie it into some kind of holiday shopping.

  • On Mother’s Day you might say buy one for you and one for Mom!

This also works for subscription services – buy one month and get the second free.

10. Free Period

If you offer some kind of subscription service or membership site, giving people the chance to take a test drive is a great way to bring them into the fold.

11. Philanthropy

This type of promotion combines a drive for sales with a way to show your social responsibility. The idea is that you will make a donation of some sort for every sale during a certain period.

  • You’ll plant a tree for every purchase made on Earth Day.
  • You’ll donate 10% of sales to breast cancer research during the month of October.

Unless you are offering a low-cost product, this one may not generate a huge amount of new sales. What it can do is help tip the scales for someone that’s been considering working with you.

If this got your creative juices flowing, but you need help pulling it off, we’re here for you! Contact us today to discuss options to get your promotional campaign up and running.

Tagged:email marketinggrowth strategieslead generationmarketingPromotionssocial media engagement

Post navigation

← PreviousIntroduce Yourself at Networking Events: 6 Tips for Success
Next7 Steps to Create a Promotion →

Subscribe to blogEmail Updates



FacebookSocial Light on TwitterSocial Light on LinkedInrss_50rss_50  

  • Small Business Solutions
  • Digital Services
    • Website Redesign
    • Email Marketing
    • SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
    • Small Business Training
    • Web Design & Development
    • Multimedia
  • About
    • Web Design Portfolio
    • About Social Light
    • Meet Nicole Krug
    • Work With Social Light
    • Contact
  • Business Rules
  • Blog
  • Schedule a Meeting
  • Account Login

Social Light quoted in Mashable





 

  Huffington Post



 

Social Light quoted in USA Today








© 2022 · Social Light · All rights reserved.
Silver Spring, MD 20914
Privacy Policy | Consumer Data Request

Contact Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

Send this to a friend