Incentive Marketing: A Way of Attracting and Keeping Customers
The word incentive refers to something that is given to someone for free and is usually a form of a reward. This is not something new in the society because there are so many companies that give incentives to their employees every time a certain goal is hit or achieved. Some companies even give incentives when their employees are able to perform their jobs very well. But when you say incentive marketing, it has to do more with the clients or the customers rather than the employees of the company. This one way of making sure that your customers will choose your product among others products that are of the same kind and keep coming back for more.
Just like the first step that should be taken for effective marketing in general, you should set a goal or target that you should achieve through incentive marketing. It has to be something that’s realistic and achievable. Do not set a goal that is very impossible to reach because it will only cause you frustration. A simple goal is better especially if the people who will participate in achieving it have a complete understanding on what they have to do. Next in line with the goal is the target market. You should be able to determine this part properly because this is when you can base your decision on how you are going to influence the target market and what kinds of incentive should be used.
But before you decide on the incentives to be given, you have to create a good and effective program first. In the process of coming up with a program, you should have a clear estimate on how many people should be involved and how long will the program last. You have to keep these things in mind because you cannot just launch a program and end it in an instant without giving any notice to your customers or clients. This is the part where all the expenses should only be according to the budget allocated.
On the other hand, making a decision on what kinds of incentive should be given to the customers or clients is another important thing to look into. You will be able to find a very wide variety of choices if you look for items to be given as incentives and this is when you need to also assess your budget. For incentive marketing, there should be a certain amount of budget allocated for the incentives, aside from the program itself. The incentive itself should already be inviting and motivating for the customer or clients.
A lot business, especially stores regardless of the size are making use of incentive marketing to attract new customers and to keep their existing customers excited and loyal to them. This is basically because it is already to proven to very effective in achieving a simple and realistic goal. Thus, you should also consider this for your own business, who knows that it can do the same for you.
Author Bio: Hannelore Willingham enjoys writing for Riverrocksvcs.com which offers information on bank marketing and marketing gifts as well as a host of additional services.
Category: Marketing
Keywords: incentive marketing,give incentives,incentive refers,keeping customers