SAB Promotion Strategies

When it comes to promoting a product or promotion there are definitely tools and tactics that work best. Much of the success of these tools will depend on when in the promotion cycle they’re implemented, the type of product and of course your target audience.

Earlier this month, I received an email from a fellow demonstrator.  I had never opted in to receive information from her so  I’m presuming she has me in her address book and just blanketedly sent out an email. The email was to promote the SAB. The email subject line was SAB and the email message said…here is the SAB catalog (as an attachment), let me know if you have questions.  What do you think?  Is this the proper way to promote the SAB promotion?

Assuming you’re marketing to an opt-in list, here are a few suggestions I have to make this product promotion better.

Make sure your content is valuable and beneficial

Email communications, like ezines and newsletters, are meant to be informative first and promotional second. That doesn’t mean you can’t promote in them, but it’s important to keep it to a minimum. A general rule of thumb, and this is by no means a hard and fast rule, is to make sure at least 80% of your content is valuable and informative.

How to articles, reviews, case studies and so on are great ways to provide value to your opt-in list. The other 20% can be promotional content. This can be an advertisement, links within your content, promotional message at the bottom of your content and so on.

One excellent strategy to provide 100% valuable content to your audience without any hard sell is to provide a review of one of the products in the SAB brochure. Reviews, particularly if they’re written in an unbiased tone, give your reader insight to a product. A well-written review will summarize the product’s purpose, highlight the strong points, perhaps tell a story about your experience with the product and then list a drawback or two.  Take it a step further and provide interesting facts about how they can use the new product to better their life or someone else’s life.  Give them a little teaser so they feel excited about learning more.

Time your promotions properly

While your opt-in list expects and accepts that you will be promoting your business products and services, they don’t want to be inundated with promotions all the time. Time your promotional content right so that it coincides with launches, special promotions and even the holidays.

Sending the SAB catalog in December is not the right time to promote the catalog.  If fact, I’m not even sure it follows Stampin’ Up! policies.  You want to sell products in the current product for the holidays. Your customers can’t buy from the catalog so what’s the point really.  It’s like showing candy to a child and saying next month you can have this.  YIKES!

What is an action a customer can take in December for SAB?  They can sign-up to host a workshop.  So plan your promotion on providing clear information about how to do that and why.  Give them teasers only with the carrot being the SAB Brochure.  Let them know that if they sign-up to have a workshop in January they will be the first to see and show their friends the new clear mount stamps.

Clear actions

Our customers are short on time so tell them exactly what it is you want them to do. I’ve heard that demonstrators don’t want to be pushy.  Sending the SAB catalog and saying contact me if you have questions is not really helpful either, is it? At least offer your email address and/or phone number by saying something like “You will be amazed at what our Sale-A-Bration promotion has in store for you in January.  Schedule your workshops today by contacting me at xxxx and give me a few dates that work for you“.

Your subscribers have come to expect the best from you, and product promotions are going to be held up to the same high standards. Treat them with respect, continually offer value and time your promotions well, and you’ll be on the road to more profits and a growing subscriber list. If you need help, take a look at my Newsletter Service Offering at http://newsletters.craftyperson.com.