A gift-with-purchase campaign is a smart way to increase sales without devaluing your brand. When run successfully, you can entice your customers to buy MORE, to buy NOW, and to then SHARE about their buy with others.
{The Gift-With-Purchase: Why Your Brand Should Be Offering One}
But you need to be strategic about what you offer — and how. Follow these 6 steps to run a successful gift-with-purchase campaign.
1. Remember: It’s a Gift-With-Purchase Campaign, NOT a Giveaway
First, understand the difference between a giveaway and a gift-with-purchase campaign.
A giveaway is a nice extra, but it doesn’t add any value to your customer’s purchase. For example, if you tuck a piece of candy into your shipments, it will be a nice surprise for your customer. But it won’t entice anyone to purchase anything from you.
Likewise, if you sell shoes, adding a pair of shoelaces is a tiny giveaway. A customer might appreciate the addition of free shoelaces in their order. But the promise of shoelaces certainly isn’t going to motivate them to buy from you.
A gift-with-purchase (GWP), on the other hand, will motivate someone to purchase from you and not somebody else — or to purchase today while the gift-with-purchase campaign is running.
For example, a pair of high-quality socks with each shoe purchase would increase the value of your offer, and your customers would feel like they’re getting a deal.
2. Your Gift-With-Purchase Campaign Must Fit Your Brand
When considering what to offer as your GWP, make sure you choose an item that goes along with your brand.
Make it easy for your customers to see the value. Offering a random item as a gift will be confusing at best, and a major turnoff at worst.
For example, if you sell wine tours, offer a bottle of wine and a custom wine glass. This increases the value of what you’re selling, and you can feel confident that your customers will find that gift-with-purchase enticing. Don’t offer a pair of flip flops. That just doesn’t make sense, and it distracts from who you are as a brand.
Which brings us to our next, related point:
3. Give Your Customers Something They Truly Want
You’ve done the research on your customers. You know what they fear, desire, and hope for — and you use that information in all of your marketing campaigns. Now, use that information to help you choose the right GWP.
Think about items or services your customers are already putting in their shopping carts — whether they’re ultimately buying or not. Think about what they’re eyeing and researching. Think about why they might come to your company.
And then offer them that item as a GWP. When you think this through successfully, your GWP offer will be tantalizing enough to help your customers finalize their purchase.
4. Stock Up
Be prepared with enough stock to meet the additional purchases in your gift-with-purchase campaign. This means you need to stock up not only on the GWP item, but also on the main unit.
For example, if you’re offering a free T-shirt with every Bermuda shorts purchase, you’ll need to have plenty of both items in stock.
You don’t have to go overboard on your stock. Try to estimate accurately, but you can also advertise that you have a limited quantity available for this promotion.
5. Consider Shipping Costs
If your company is online, you need to think about shipping.
Before you finalize plans on the item you’ll be giving away with a purchase, consider how much it will add to your shipping costs. Try and choose an enticing item that is lightweight and small, so that you aren’t losing money with the shipping.
6. Promote Your GWP Campaign Clearly
The purpose of your gift-with-purchase campaign is to create an offer so tantalizing that customers won’t be able to hold back from buying from you.
Be sure to promote your campaign clearly so that your offer is something people will go out of their way to take advantage of. Use social media to your full advantage. Display banners on every page of your website. Send an exciting email to your subscribers.
Be clear about the parameters of your campaign. How much do your customers need to spend to get the free gift? What items do they need to purchase? When does the campaign end? Is there a limited supply? Do they have to live in a certain country to be eligible?
Don’t leave any surprises for your customers. Make it easy for them to want to follow through with their purchase from you.
When you consider each of the above 6 steps carefully, you’ll be able to increase sales, boost your brand image, and create loyalty with the right gift-with-purchase.
Ready to get started? Talk to us at Impact Marketing and Design. We’re the experts at figuring out what your client wants, needs, and covets. Let us help you put the right gift-with-purchase in your customers’ hands so that they’ll become loyal, raving fans. Give us a call at (888) 441-1233, or contact us online.
