post by Stephanie Nelson
I see it every day: A company is running one special in their email blast, another special on their Facebook page, another special in-store, and so on and so forth. While the argument can be made that this can help track where a sale was made based on the discount, you may be losing more than you’re gaining using that strategy.
Years ago, the marketing adage was that folks had to see a marketing message at least 3 times for it to stick. Enter social media and lessening attention spans, and the latest number I heard was that number had gone from 3 times up to 7 to 10. If you’re using a different special on each outlet, chances are you’re never getting your message to stick. How many sales are you missing because your special isn’t remembered or associated with your company because of your oversaturating your clients with offers?
There’s also the customer confusion factor. While customers may actually remember that they saw X offer on email and Y offer on Facebook, and Z offer on Twitter, they may not connect that they’re all offers from YOU. Take it a step further: Say you do get a sale from this customer. They remember X offer, and that’s what they ask for. When they connect the dots and realize Z offer would have been better for them, you’re setting yourself up for a customer service issue at some level. You could be facing either a return (on the easy end), a bad review (because – rightly or wrongly – your staff didn’t advise that customer to go for a different offer), or a full-on PR nightmare (if things go REALLY wrong).
Do yourself a favor. Any special you want to market, market it across the board. It lightens the load for you and your staff. It leads to a better customer experience from start to finish. It’s just a better idea.
