In episode 47 of the Customers Who Click podcast, I had a fantastic chat with Robin Coles about promotional strategies.

You know me - I’m all about adding value to the customer wherever possible as opposed to heavy discounting, although I’m not completely against promotions as long as they’re used correctly and sparingly. Offer discounts too often and without a strategy in place, you’re cheapening your brand. Play it right tough and you’re on the right path to driving engagement and loyalty. 

You see, many brands tend to drop  15% or 30% off here and there, hoping it’ll encourage the customer to come back and use it. But it doesn’t work like that I’m afraid - the promotion has got to be personalised and targeted at each customer group individually. 

Think about their purchase history, wishlist, browsing history and channels they prefer. Do they want an in-store promotion? Would they prefer to receive their promotions via SMS or even direct mail? With the technology available these days there isn’t really a good excuse for not doing this, at least at a basic level.

Robin is the Managing Director EMEA at XCCommerce which is a leader in transformative, state-of-the-art, cross channel, promotion solutions. He’s been involved in retail for about 35 years, helping brands improve their omnichannel strategies. Robin is currently responsible for expanding XCommerce into the UK and Europe. You can connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.