Promotional Planning Basics

By Killeen M. Gonzalez

There are so many things that go into proper promotional planning that it would be impossible to include them all into one article. Therefore, this article will briefly touch on six basic steps that should be part of all proper promotional plans.

Step One: Ask yourself what it is specifically that you want to promote? Be very detailed in your answer as this will make your promotions easier to plan, easier to run and easier to measure the end results.

Step Two: Take the time to know your audience. Many promotions fail because the business owner doesn’t know enough about their customers. The more customer- centric your company is, the easier it will be to target your promotion to the consumer.

Step Three: Decide how to attract attention. Once you know what your promotional goal is and who the promotion is meant for you will need to decide on an event. As yourself what kind of event will attract the attention of your targeted market and has the best chance of delivering the desired results.

Step Four: Be creative with a purpose, not just for creative’s sake. Consider your customer and your goal and then creatively design your promotion to reach your customer in such a way as to compel them to act. Be sure to choose your media and construct all of your promotional collateral with the idea of motivating your customer to act.

Step Five: Remember timing is important. Your customer should be the most important factor in timing your promotion. You must reach your audience not only at a time when they will be around to be reached, but at a time when they will be most receptive to your message.

Step Six: Conduct proper follow-up including measurement. After the promotion you will want to be sure to follow up on any sales leads generated and to measure the actual results of the event to what you projected them to be. In other words, did the promotion achieve your goal?

Promotional planning can be a complex and daunting task for the uninformed. If you would like more information or assistance in planning a promotional; event contact your local marketing professional. If there are no marketing professionals in your immediate area you can search for one online at sites such as guru.com or liverperson.com.