Incentives and offers 'can increase sales'

Making use of incentives and offers can help encourage more sales, an industry expert has said.

According to Mark Haslan of Overnight Prints, offering good quality promotional material is an excellent way to maximise sales by generating solid leads.

He explained that companies can persuade customers to buy through sales techniques such as offering discounts, promotional items, free merchandise and free shipping.

Mr Haslan highlighted figures from Direct Magazine, which show that the promotional merchandise approach typically generates returns of around five per cent. Meanwhile, for many direct mail campaigns, response rates hover around three per cent.

He went on to point out that the potential number of customers that can be acquired and the two per cent sales lifts generated by a promotion should be carefully weighed against the cost of the actual items.

"By utilising lucrative offers, entrepreneurs may be able to encourage customers to make purchases they wouldn't have made otherwise," Mr Haslan said.

"The promotions businesses offer consumers is one of the three pillars on which successful direct mail campaigns stand."

Writing on npost.com, industry specialist Laura Patterson recently advised companies to divert emphasis on their buying pipeline by optimising their offers, prices and product placement within the market.