If your goal is to grow your online business, it may be tempting to slap a “sale” graphic on some of the items you offer, enticing your visitors to take advantage of lower rates. However, if you’ve ever tried this in the past, you’ve likely already learned that the simple offering of a discount isn’t always enough to get your consumer to make the buy.

When Sales Fail

If your sales tactics aren’t working, there could be multiple reasons why. One is if your price is still higher than your competitors. In this case, you have two options. You can either lower your price to be more competitive or you can share all of the reasons someone should order from you instead. This may include having better customer service, easier returns, or anything else that differentiates you and makes you stand out from all of the other companies offering the same product.

Sometimes sales fail because you haven’t provided a clear value of the item you’re selling. If your website visitor can’t quickly tell what benefits your product offers—not what features it has, but how it is going to make their lives better, happier, or easier—it doesn’t matter what you price it. They won’t see a need for that particular item.

Other reasons sales fail include having a website that is difficult to use, creating a lengthy checkout process (such as by making them create an account or not offering the ability to go back to the previous screen if they need to make changes to their order), or not having a website secure enough to make your customers comfortable enough to share their payment information.

How to Create Effective Sales Promotions

When deciding your specific discount offerings, there are a few things you can do to create more effective sales promotions. For instance, if you’re not sure how well a particular product will sell, offer it on a presale status to see how much interest it brings. If you get a lot of people putting their money down before it’s even released, you know you have a product that can help your online business grow.

Another option is to create different sections on your website based on the type of sale. Amazon is a great example of this because, under the “Today’s Deals” tab, you can search based on the site’s deals of the day, lightning deals, sales, coupons, and Prime early access deals. Trending sales are available too. 

You can also improve your sales results by creating urgency, such as by offering a 24-hour sale. This works because, if a customer feels that the purchase doesn’t have to be made right away, there is no real reason to make it at that particular moment. 

Other Promotional Sales Tools

There are also other things you can do to make your online sales even more appealing. One option is to offer samples. For instance, if your consumer purchases one product, you could include a free sample of another product in their order to allow them to try one of your newer items, thereby promoting a future sale.

Additionally, if you have a product that is more technical or harder to understand, demonstrations can help with this. You can do this by placing a video on the product page that shows someone using that item. This helps consumers picture themselves using it as well while also highlighting the benefits that the product provides.

Promotional sales are a great way to grow your business, and here are just a few ways to make yours more effective.