It’s no secret that EVERYONE is always on the hunt for a great deal. It doesn’t matter if you are looking for a great deal on jeans for Fall or to save a few bucks on your registration for a great event, camp session, work conference, etc. It’s no secret if you are on the business and sales side of things that offering promotions, discounts or coupons can often mean more business, or at the very least, most interest in your business.
When looking specifically at marketing to possible registrants, there are a few kinds of promotions that work well at bringing in more business. These promotions can be applied in many ways:
- To say thanks and/or rewards loyal existing customers.
- To bring in new business.
- To encourage multiple/family registration.
Offering promotions is also a great subject line for your marketing materials – email newsletters, fliers, posters, ads on Facebook or in your local paper (depending on where your audience is), and beyond.
Below is a list of the 5 best registration promotions to offer and try out during your next marketing season.
Special New Customer Promotions
A classic promotion – offering a special price for new customers is always a great way to get people in the door. No one can resist a great deal. The options for new customer deals are many and depends on your business. If for example you have a registration fee, consider offering to waive it or offer a percentage off. Consider offering something for free. If you have a 5 day event for example, offer the first day free as a way to get people to try out what you have to offer and hope they love it enough to commit to more! An early bird price is also a great way to grab new and old clients alike to register before you’re down to the wire filling places.
Loyalty Discounts
The saying “keeping a client costs a tenth of getting a new one” is sort of a given truth but in order to keep clients the first thing you need to do is not take them for granted. This starts by treating your existing customers well. Loyalty discounts encompass many things. Birthday discount, a certain percentage off each time they renew, sign up for an event, etc. Another idea? Offer a discount if they sign up for more than x amount of sessions or events.
The best way to give a great loyalty deal though is to look at what your customers value most and offer that! This will really depend on your business and what your registrants are like. If you are a conference, consider offering a free meal, a discount on the keynote event or a nice discount when they register for your next event in advance. As mentioned above, an early bird discount is also a great idea. Consider offering a special previous customer only early bird discount. You don’t need to convince them that you are great, they know that already. But this can convince them to commit early on. Win for you, win for them!
Refer a Friend Programs
A classic promotion – referring a friend offers a discount to both the referrer and the referee (the person receiving the referral, not the black and white striped sports moderator! 😉 . But seriously, this type of promotion is great because it’s both a great way to get new customers, who are most likely pretty awesome since they are referred by your existing clients AND to reward existing clients for bringing in new people to the fold. Everyone wins, since existing customers have an incentive to spread the word, and you get access to your specific target audience without much effort or financial investment.
Multiple Promotions – Session, Season, People!
This works for any kind of organization. If you have an event or conference with companies attending, offer a discount or some sort of promotion when you register and pay for multiple people at once. For a camp or sports league, offering discounted family registration is always a great thing and can convince families to register more than one child.
You can also consider offering a discount if a company or family books more than 1 session or more than one event at once. Remember people hate passing up a good deal, so they might not be ready to commit to another session, but if there is a discount to do so, they might take you up on it!
Age Discounts
This doesn’t always apply to every organization, but it’s something to think about. Offering a senior discount, or a youth discount can save money for registrants and might entice them to pull the trigger if they are on the fence.
Conclusion
One piece of advice I often give that I don’t see talked about a lot is: Check out what your competition is doing! What kind of offers are they putting out there and what seems to be your industry standard? Whatever you do, offering discounts to certain groups of people and running promotions as part of your marketing strategy will never backfire. If you are in need of fresh new ways to bring in new customers, you want to thank your current clients for being awesome and you just want to give a boost to your registration season, create a plan for promotions, play around with them and see which give you the most bang for your buck. Because hey, that’s what your clients and potential registrants are doing too!