128 Sales Promotion Examples You Should Steal

Need sales promotion ideas for your next marketing campaign that you already KNOW will work? We’ve got you covered! Here are a whopping 128 marketing offers already proven to drive leads — organized by industry…

Find yours here:

Accounting
Chiropractor
Construction
Dental
Education
Financial
Fitness
Food and Beverage
HVAC
Insurance
Jewelry
Lawn Services
Medical
Physical Therapy
Real Estate
Retail
Roofing

But, first things first.

Why Killer Marketing Offers Are CRUCIAL (and how to write a discount offer)

Marketing offers aren’t just another element of your marketing campaign. And they’re NOT just aimless ways to offer discounts on your products and services…

So here’s the deal:

It may seem counterintuitive to give your customers a price break when and if you’re struggling with your revenue, and it may seem even crazier still to give them one when they’re already lining up to pay your normal rates, but there is more to it than meets the eye.

Allow me to explain…

There are 2 major functions that marketing offers (aka: special rates, sales, discounts, etc.) play in your marketing campaign.

1. They entice NEW customers to try our your business
2. They reward your current customers and ensure future loyalty.

In a successful marketing plan, these are basically your 2 goals!

Neglect prospects, and your business will plateau, but ignore your current customers, and your business will see high customer turnover and plateau —

Right before it drops off a cliff!

Before I show you our list of successful sales promotions examples, I want you to understand how to write a discount offer of your own.

So here’s the lowdown on how to write a discount offer that drives in leads, calls, and fresh new sales!

Let me start with an example…

Here’s a Marketing Campaign with NO Offer:

Let’s say you spend $3,000 and get 100 leads.

That means your cost per lead (aka, “CPL”) is $30, right? ($3,000 ÷ 100 = $30)

You close 25% of your leads (so 25 closes) and let’s say your profit per customer is $300. That’s $7500 in profit from the campaign that cost your $3000. Not bad.

Now the Same Marketing Campaign with a GREAT Offer:

Now, let’s say you add an offer for a $15 gift card to everyone who calls in from your postcard, and instead of 100 leads, you now receive 200 responses — DOUBLE.  

Your cost per lead is still $30 ($15 per response, but then add in the $15 gift card), BUT this way you receive TWICE as many leads —

You still close 25% of your leads (so 50 closes) and your profit per customer is still $300. That’s $15,000 in profit from the campaign that cost you $3,000. Even better!

So what’s the lesson here??

Your special marketing offer should act to generate as MANY leads as possible. The more leads you have, the more you’re likely to close, and depending on your profit-per-customer, you’ll simply generate more income the more leads you have to close…

And that’s the value of a killer marketing offer!

Driving in TONS of leads you wouldn’t otherwise have.

Successful sales promotions examples all have a few things in common, and here they are:

HIGH PERCEIVED VALUE

Your marketing offer must have a very high perceived value but only cost YOU a reasonable amount to give.

So many things are free these days that we as consumers expect amazing offers.

Think about it…

• GOOGLE is free.
• Facebook is free.
• Wifi is free at coffee shops and cafes

Get my point?

I recommend you really do your homework on this point…

Survey your customers and find out what they would find valuable that you can give away.

(Note: this doesn’t necessarily mean free. I talk about “Low Cost” next!)

Here’s my main point:

If your marketing offer isn’t considered valuable, it will not entice people to respond.

Worse, it could make them feel like you are out-of-touch or simply do not really care about getting their business.

So here’s the next one…

LOW COST MARKETING OFFERS

Your prospect needs to feel as if they are getting a STEAL —

Especially if they’re trying something for the very first time.

A steal doesn’t mean you need to give something away for free (but don’t be afraid to offer a product or service for free if you can, it is VERY effective!). Your marketing offer could be a steep discount or something similar.

Here’s the main takeaway:

The profit you gain from a lifelong customer FAR outweighs the price of a great promotion.

Now here’s the last attribute of irresistible marketing offers…

BELIEVABILITY

Prospects are very wary of marketing offers from companies they are not familiar with.

You do not want to try to trick people into thinking your offer is better than it really is.

Avoid having to use the dreaded asterisk if at all possible! This only decreases a prospect’s trust with you.

State the offer clearly and accurately, and make it believable.

“FREE* 2012 Mustang” isn’t fooling anyone.

The following successful sales promotions examples show 128 new, proven marketing offers that generated leads and sales for many of my clients.

So here we go — feel free to steal any of these!

8 ACCOUNTING SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

Need accounting marketing offer ideas to generate new tax prep and financial clients?

REAL LIFE CASE STUDY:

This California CPA’s postcard design, using a 30%-off marketing offer, generated a whopping 265 responses and $60,000 in revenue. See the design and strategy here.

6 CHIROPRACTOR SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

Need some proven-to-work ways to offer discounts for chiropractors?

Grab one of these and go!

Check out these gift certificate discount offer ideas that helped one Texas chiropractor generate over $29,000 in revenue!

6 CONSTRUCTION SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

Yes, we have discount message examples just for construction businesses!

90%…

That’s how much of this construction business’s sales come directly from postcards —

Watch this case study video here to see what the owner of GreenTree Construction, Inc. says!

11 DENTAL SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

Check out the best sales promotions just for dentists!

See how Patuxent Dental generates over 2,000 new patients every year using this marketing strategy.

10 EDUCATION SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

Yes, we even have marketing offer examples for educational organizations!

Real Life Case Study:

Lakewood College DOUBLED their enrollments and grew from making $120,000/year to $2.3 million.

See their strategy and postcard design!

8 FINANCIAL SERVICES SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

Here are sales promotion ideas just for CPAs, financial services, and more!

8 FITNESS SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

Sales promotions examples just for gyms, fitness studios, even yoga…

Save up to 25% off was used by Sentara Center For Health & Fitness to grow their gym…

See their exact postcard design and mailing strategy here!

9 FOOD & BEVERAGE SERVICES SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

Even restaurants need ways to offer discounts —

Here you are!

This butcher shop and deli mailed postcards and generated 178 new customers — a 253% return on investment!

Here’s their design — see their mailing strategy here!

8 HVAC  SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

There are many types of marketing offers for HVAC professionals, here are 8:

Case Study:

Climate Master Mechanical Contractors of Illinois generated 322 jobs totaling $258,040 in sales from their postcard campaign — see the surprising design here!

8 INSURANCE  SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

Here are some creative ways to offer discounts for insurance agents and agencies!

Need even more successful sales promotions examples for insurance agencies?

We wrote 23 here.

5 JEWELRY  SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

Here are the best sales promotions for jewelers:

Want to see REAL jewelry campaigns that have already generated leads and sales for other shops?

Here’s an entire gallery!

10 LANDSCAPING  SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

Discount offer ideas just for your lawn service and landscaping business!

See how this colorful postcard design raked in $50,000 in revenue for this landscaper!

7 MEDICAL  SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

Discount offer ideas just for medical professionals —

Case Study:

This medical care center mailed postcards integrated with online Google follow-up ads and generated 131 phone calls and 54,000 views of their online ads using DirectMail2.0 Regional.

4 PHYSICAL THERAPY  SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

ATTN: physical therapists! Use these offer name ideas just for you:

We have over 5 successful campaign video case studies just for physical therapists — watch them here for even more sales promotion ideas!

5 REAL ESTATE  SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

Copy these real estate sales promotions examples for your next campaign:

FREE report: Grab these REAL real estate marketing campaigns AND see their results

7 RETAIL  SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

Check out these discount ideas for retail businesses:

CRAZY —

This retail postcard campaign resulted in 2,867 responses, generating $277,563 in sales!

3 ROOFING  SPECIAL OFFERS IDEAS

Here are 3 sales promotions examples just for roofers!

Want more results-driven marketing campaigns that have already grown other roofing businesses?

Here’s an entire gallery just for you!

Follow these simple tips, and you’ll see your marketing offer will do the work to bring in more sales and build loyalty!

Remember:

If you give a little, you’ll get back a lot!

We track the marketing offers that work in many industries.

If you don’t see yours above, call one of our marketing consultants at (800) 628-1804 to find out what’s working NOW in your industry. Our advice is always FREE!

Best,

Joy