Promotion beyond paid advertising

1. Advertising is the promotional method a business buys space for. Alongside it sit four more methods: sales promotion, public relations, sponsorship and social media.
2. They do different jobs. Sales promotion pushes customers to buy this week, while public relations, sponsorship and social media build how the business is seen over months and years.

Sales promotion: short-term incentives to buy

1. Point of sale displays: a stand, shelf-edge sign or basket by the till catches the shopper inside the shop and prompts an unplanned purchase, which is why Boots stacks small items at the queue. It costs the retailer selling space, and a shopper who has already decided what to buy walks straight past.
2. Two-for-one offers: buy one get one free and similar multi-buys shift stock quickly and get customers to fill the cupboard with your brand rather than a rival's. Giving product away is expensive, and a customer who has bought two will not need any more for a fortnight.
   1. Repeating the same offer trains customers to wait for it, so the product starts to look worth only its offer price.
3. Free gifts: a gift attached to the pack, such as a toy with a children's magazine, adds value without cutting the price, so the price the customer pays is protected. The gift has to be bought and packed, which raises the cost of every unit sold.
4. Samples: handing out a free taste or trial size, as Lucozade does at stations, removes the risk of trying something new, which suits a launch. The business gives away product to people who may never come back, so the cost for each customer gained is high.
5. Coupons and money off: a voucher or app code, such as the discounts Domino's sends its customers, cuts the price for the people who bother to use it and shows the business exactly how many responded. Every coupon redeemed comes straight off the profit on that sale.
6. Competitions: an on-pack competition, of the kind Walkers has run for years, creates interest and gets customers to buy the pack to enter. The prize and the administration cost money, and some entrants buy once for the chance and never again.

Public relations

1. The methods include press releases about a new product or shop, launch events, charity work, sponsoring a local school team and responding openly when something goes wrong.
2. Coverage earned this way is cheap and it is believed, because the story reaches the customer through a newspaper or news programme rather than from the business itself.
3. The business gives up control in exchange. It cannot dictate what is written, the story may never run, and bad news travels through the same channels just as fast.

Sponsorship

1. The business buys repeated exposure to a large audience that is watching willingly, on shirts, hoardings, tickets and every mention of the competition's name.
2. It also borrows the image of whatever it sponsors, so a bank that backs a national competition looks established and trustworthy, and a sportswear brand that backs an athlete looks serious about sport.
3. The drawbacks are the price, which puts major sponsorship out of reach of small businesses, and the risk that a losing season or a scandal involving the team or player rebounds onto the sponsor.

Social media

1. The business's own channels: posting photographs, videos and offers costs nothing but staff time, reaches followers who have chosen to follow, and lets the business answer questions and complaints in public. An account needs feeding constantly to stay worth following, and a complaint left unanswered sits there for every other customer to read.
2. Influencers: paying someone with a large following to use and recommend the product borrows the trust their audience already gives them, which is how Gymshark built its customer base. The business cannot control what the influencer says or does next, and paid recommendations must be declared.
3. Content customers share: a post funny or useful enough to be shared spreads at no extra cost, which is why Aldi keeps a playful voice online. Nothing guarantees that it spreads, and a complaint or a bad review spreads by exactly the same route.
   1. Social media suits a small budget and a young audience, but a business whose customers are older or offline still needs press, radio or leaflets to reach them.