It's that time of the year again, when people call me because they are sponsoring an event and need some stuff to give away. We then make our recommendations, taking into consideration their budget and their usually tight time frame. But, the first thing we do is to ask: what is the goal of your program? What do you really want to do?
Many times the answer to that question is that there isn't time, or that the sponsorship money exhausted the budget. What it usually boils down to is that they just think they need to have something in the bag to participate and get their name out there.
Giving stuff away without a promotion or call to action is like whistling in the wind. If your freebie is going to be sitting at the bottom of the bag, how will it stand out? Is there a compelling enough call to action? Is the product driving traffic to your website? Is it generating a lead? If not, your giveaway is not using your tight budget to its best advantage.
Many times the answer to that question is that there isn't time, or that the sponsorship money exhausted the budget. What it usually boils down to is that they just think they need to have something in the bag to participate and get their name out there.
Giving stuff away without a promotion or call to action is like whistling in the wind. If your freebie is going to be sitting at the bottom of the bag, how will it stand out? Is there a compelling enough call to action? Is the product driving traffic to your website? Is it generating a lead? If not, your giveaway is not using your tight budget to its best advantage.
A call to action is essential to the success of your marketing efforts. You need only look to the following examples to see how well it's working for other companies!
7 Steps - How to Create an Effective Promotion
Solve a problem: We'll handle all of the paperwork for you...
Show people the benefit to responding to your call of action: Complete this form and download a free report on how to....
Use an incentive to make your offer more attractive: Donate $25 and get a free t-shirt.
Tell people exactly what you want them to do by using action verbs: Call - Buy - Donate - Register. Keep it simple; don't get too complicated with too many choices.
Create a sense of urgency - get them to act immediately: Limited time offer, Offer expires date. Order Now!
Follow up! What happens after someone responds to your call to action? The Almighty Follow Up Process -The process needs to be clearly defined. This step is taking the lead and converting it into your client. This is the end game. You have the ball in the red zone, now you have to take it into the end zone. Convert the lead.
Measure your success. If you don't know how well it works, how can you improve it? Marketing is testing. Effective marketing is taking the test results and tweaking the results for improvement.
A successful promotion is more than a giveaway. Using an effective call to action is the cornerstone of your marketing efforts. Done well, it does the heavy lifting - making your marketing investment pay off by driving leads to your website, email and phone.
Article Source: Lynn Pechinski
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