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Nick Ferris - Marketing Tips, Incentives for life

Nick Ferris continues his discussion on marketing tips and tricks with insights into incentives.

 

Incentives are everywhere. In fact over 50% of the time anything you buy will have some kind of incentive attached. A price reduction is usually the main incentive. Why does so much of modern marketing use incentives though? Simple. It is human psychology. At its most base level everyone loves a bargain or to feel good about their purchase and incentives are a way of reinforcing those base animal instincts.


Scroll through American TV channels, Nick Ferris recounts, and within minutes you'll see dozens of infomercials using dozens of incentives whether it's 'buy one get one free' or 'order within the next 10 minutes and we'll double your order' or 'this offer is not available anywhere else'.


Incentives are literally everywhere in marketing. But don't simply jump on the bandwagon and copy everyone else. As with anything, test, test and test as different incentives work for different markets and products recalls Nick Ferris. If you are selling a car, an extended warranty can work wonders. If you are selling cat food, not so much.


Nick Ferris advises to be clever about your incentives. They can be simple and based on time or based on money savings or a combination (order now and save X) but incentives can also include additional products, additional access, something hyper personalized (order this CD and the artists will sign it) and so on. Most importantly you need to look at the data while you test. For some people a 10% discount won't make an impact but a 15% will. There's a reason why the Google logo is the way it is as every color and variation was tested tested tested over and over.


The same can be said for incentives. Nick Ferris recalls over the years he has tested hundreds of incentives. From free air miles to holidays to chance to win a car, to a meet and greet with a celebrity to a bunch of flowers sent to the person of your choice. The trick is there is no real trick. Just think outside the box and don't copy. Be original.


Nick Ferris is a global marketer with over 25 years of B2B and B2C marketing experience. For more marketing tips and insights check out his other articles.