5 Questions to Ask for Successful Promotional Planning

As a small business owner, you probably already know that seasonal promotions will help you meet or exceed your sales goal for a certain time period.

But before you begin, it’s helpful to ask yourself these questions first:

1. What do you need to accomplish? 

Yes, you want to increase sales, but you need to make sure your goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time Specific. Instead of having “Increase sales” as a goal, expand it to say you want to “increase average ticket by 5% during the holiday season from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day.” That’s SMART!

2. What activities will you use?

Basically, how will you achieve an increase in average ticket by 5%? You could run a special sale or offer, hold in-store events, or partner with local businesses, just to name a few ideas.

3. What is the customer-relevant theme?

The theme is what makes your promotion most interesting to your customers and it should be the focus of your promotion. There’s a chance you might have more than one item or service to feature, but you need to decide which one is the most important and focus your attention there.

4. What tools will you use?

These could include traditional marketing venues like signage, eNewsletters, social media, employee t-shirts and speaking points, or something else completely!

5. How will you track your progress?

Obviously, there are the quantitative metrics – are your sales increasing? However, don’t forget to look into qualitative measurements, like customer interactions, employee morale and other outcomes of your new promotion.

For even more guidance on building the perfect promotion for your business, join LSMGuide today, and get access to our Promotion Planning & Building Guide!