The goal of any business owner is to grow their business and make more money. Isn't it?
It's the #1 reason any of us are even doing this entrepreneurial thing, I don't care how much passion you have for what you do. You started it as a business because you wanted to make money from it. If you can't admit that m-o-n-e-y is the true goal for your business, you should probably stop reading now. The rest of this post will bore you because it's all about growing your business and making more money.
But...
If you are in business to grow and make money this post is going point you towards the enormous marketing game-changer that will be sure to make 2020 (or whatever year you're reading this) the Best Year Yet for your local small or medium-sized business.
When it comes to increasing your sales, seeing a better return on your marketing and advertising efforts, and just getting more excited and engaged customers in the door, you need to accomplish two things:
You need to have something that gives you a significant advantage over all of the alternatives your potential customers have (and sometimes the alternative is doing nothing).
You need to have something that gives your potential customers a compelling reason to choose you and your offering over all the alternatives.
It's pretty standard thinking among local small business owners to believe that having the lowest price or giving a big discount is the way to get more customers... In this day and age, that thinking is flat out wrong -- or at the very least, tired and played out.
Don't get me wrong, discounts have their time and place and reason in a marketing system, but they don't accomplish either of the two points made earlier in order to increase your monthly profits, so they shouldn't be the foundation of any growth strategy. It just doesn't work.
No, when you want to gain a significant advantage and be the compelling choice ... nothing quite measures up to Incentive-based Marketing!
What Is Incentive-Based Marketing?
The easy explanation: It's attaching compelling premium bonuses to your core offerings to drive their perceived value higher and generating a significant amount of additional sales because of it.
The even easier explanation: Two similar businesses have two equal offers but one of them is giving you a free iPad when you buy and the other one isn't -- chances are, you're going with the free iPad every time.
THAT'S Incentive-based Marketing!
You've been sitting on the sidelines watching big corporations and large companies use this incentive-based strategy for marketing and sales and employee actions for the last 30 years!
... Get your iPhone from Sprint and get a year of Hulu -- Incentive.
... McDonald's Monopoly game -- Incentive.
... Free shipping on orders over $____ -- Incentive.
We see it all the time from the viewpoint of a consumer!
Now, it's been made available to entrepreneurs to take advantage of in their local small businesses. The smart marketing and sales professionals are going to use it to get you the significant advantage you need to grow quickly in your market and dramatically increase your sales.
With the right type of incentives, you can finally stop trying to "win" the race for lowest price, no matter what market, niche, or business you're in!
So, how do you know what's "the right" type of incentives for your particular business?
Obviously, you have a ton of different options and you could spend a bunch of time trying to figure that out... but, in my opinion, the hands-down best incentive that has the widest appeal to the most amount of people are...
Luxury Vacation Incentives!
Don't believe me? Check this out!
*Learn more about how they got their vacation incentives and boosted their sales here
Why Vacation Incentives?
Here's a fact:
Before they're customers (or employees), they're people... and most people LOVE to travel.
Another sad reality is that most people don't get to travel enough.
If they're looking at making a buying decision, whether it's for their business or their personal life...
The prospect of receiving a luxury vacation as a bonus for something they have to do or buy anyway is a far greater influence on their decision to act than just another discount!
According to a Wichita State study in the Journal of Economic Psychology:
"... the thought of receiving a “gift” that the participants [customers or employees] wouldn’t necessarily go out and buy themselves created more excitement and enjoyment. In other words, these items [luxury vacations] are seen as unexpected treats to indulge in."
Here's a few points to consider when thinking about an incentive-based marketing strategy using luxury vacations:
Discounts and cash incentives can be useful to any business, but they really don’t make the emotional connections required to be an effective motivator for customers or staff. Winning $300 is great for anyone until the moment it’s gone to a bill. But to a surf enthusiast or a Nascar fan… a trip to Fiji or Daytona Beach is a priceless 'win' in their minds! The perceived value is much higher with a luxury vacation as the motivator.
Cash and cash incentives like Amazon or Visa gift cards can easily lose their appeal and emotional value once the high from the initial win evaporates. It’s likely cash reward will be spent on bills or other mundane expenses so it’s not as enticing as a luxury vacation is towards creating long-lasting associations and behaviors. For example, a credit repair service offers a Cancun vacation incentive to their clients who add 100 points or more to their score by the end of their 90 day program. Doesn’t that sound like a better reason to buy to a potential client than something like a $100 rebate?
Luxury vacations to dream destinations are an indulgence that a customer or an employee can really sink their teeth into. Let’s face it… even if they got a $350 cash bonus, it’s likely they’d feel totally irresponsible, even selfish, if they spent it on something like a luxury vacation instead of the bills or other obligations. This makes the vacation incentive a much more desirable and significant reward to encourage intended buying behavior.
People can feel comfortable boasting about how they won a free vacation just by eating at a pizza parlor a few times a month or performing well on the job. If someone wins a hundred bucks, it’s likely already spent by the time they post about it on social media. But a vacation gives them much more of an opportunity to feel good about themselves and (humble) brag about it 😉.
Luxury vacation incentives are valuable rewards that allow a person to create memorable experiences with family, friends, and loved ones. These are the kinds of rewards and incentives that drive positive experiences and consumer / employee loyalty to the company that awarded it to them. (“Bobby’s Burgers just gave me and my family a trip to Hawaii!”)
When people get a big discount or a cash reward, they somehow feel entitled to always get that discount or to keep on receiving that amount or more from you in the future. But when someone wins something big (like a trip to Paris), it feels like a real “win” and it’s seen as an added bonus -- icing on the cake -- for achieving something or a job well done.
Luxury vacation incentives encourage participation of family, friends, and loved ones, no matter if it’s consumer-driven or employee-driven. Everyone will support winning a vacation, especially if they get the chance to benefit from it, too! It gives your business a more generous appeal and elevates the positive viewpoints for people peripheral to your intended audience.
How To Use Luxury Vacation Incentives To Get New & Loyal Customers Tuned Into Your Business
It's pretty difficult to ignore something like getting a free vacation for a customer and it's just as hard for a competitor to contend with a luxury hotel stay when all they have to offer is a free sandwich or a percentage off a bill.
On the other hand, just tossing around free luxury vacation to every Tom, Dick, and Harry for basically doing nothing can be just as bad for your business because it lowers the value and can even seem like a scam.
Getting new and loyal customers into your business using vacations relies on strategically placed incentives and super-persuasive offers along with several other factors that impact how people spend money and buy things, like buyer psychology.
In order to really get to the best strategic marketing plan for you and your business, book a "Best Year Yet" Creation Consultation call and let one of our local marketing experts create your FREE "Best Year Yet" Master Plan so you can see how you can best maximize all the benefits of an incentive-based marketing plan and the power of these luxury vacation incentives for the entire year.
P.S. If you're only interested in getting your hands on the free vacations and you don't wanna hop on a call to see how you can best implement them, you can head straight on over to the host marketing company that makes these luxury vacations possible for all of us and see if it's for you. If you're interested, but you want to test it out first before diving all the way in, schedule your call with me and let me tell you what packages we have that would better suit you.
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