In July, online retail giant Amazon celebrated the second annual “Prime Day” with record sales estimated at between $500 million to 600 million in a single day. Whether or not you have millions of products, clients and annual revenue of more than $60 billion, your company needs its own version of this online retail event to drive excitement, loyalty and sales.
Make Your Clients Feel Special
Whether or not Prime members found a great deal during this annual sale, it serves a great purpose: to create a sense of exclusivity among members that shifts the question from “What did you buy?” to “Are you a member?”
Creating a true sense of community takes time and dedication but you can begin by deciding which audience will receive the offer. This might be current clients (giving them an incentive to continue their services), all past clients (reminding them to come back) or even a special group like card holders (Think of special drink deals just for Starbucks Gold Card holders or car accessories when you get a new quote from AAA.) Create your audience lists and make sure you can reach these customers with emails, direct mail or text notifications. Bottom line: Don’t just share this opportunity with whoever comes in the store that day or week. Reach out first!
Identify Your Best Offer
Finding the products or services that your clients love is the first step to generating excitement. Product based companies may find this easier since your inventory may already have complementary items, such as lotion and body wash or blankets and throw pillows.
Related: Spread the client love year round
In service business, you want to consider how your client likes to spend or save their time. You could bundle a manicure and pedicure together for an exclusive pampering package or use the “buy one, give one” model so when your client buys a gift card they get a discount or service to use themselves.
Remember that the goal of making the offer and creating a “Prime Day” is to encourage and inspire loyalty, so think of ways to increase your value per client while saving them time and money. That could be an annual car maintenance package with 12 oil changes plus 1 free at the lowest price you offer. Or you could add a full-day spring cleaning when you buy 12 months of house cleaning services.
Promote Early
Just like a Black Friday promotion, you’ll want to announce this special day to your audience early and remind them in the week leading up to the big reveal. Your lead up strategy can be a couple weeks of sharing to build excitement or even a “big announcement on Monday” a few days before. Most likely this will depend on the cost of your deal since larger purchases may require more decision making time. Keep some of the offer a surprise to encourage engagement and be prepared to answer questions, take orders and fulfill right away. If all goes well your people will be excited, ready to buy and look forward to the next “Prime Day” from your business.
And, just like Amazon, you don’t need to arrange this around an existing holiday!
Choosing a random date allows you to get more attention, prepare your team and assets. If you’re uncertain where to begin, think about the slower times of year when you may have some extra time to prepare this promotion and need a cash influx. Above all, have fun celebrating your business, clients and growth and be sure to say “thank you!”