Sales promotions can get messy quickly.You have to deal with all the numbers and logistics involved in customers participating in your contests, raffle draws, or whatever promo campaign you’re doing. But with the right sales promotion tools, things are a lot easier.
And while there are very few reasons to be glad it’s 2020 (we’re looking at you COVID), at least there are some awesome sales promotion tools to choose from.
From rebate management to sweepstakes software, there are tools out there to help you crush your sales goals.
To that end, here are some of the best sales promotion tools that you can use to boost sales right now.
We’ve grouped them into three categories (based on three types of consumer sales promotions): rebate management software, sweepstakes or giveaway tools, and more trade promotion software solutions.
1. Rebate management software
Looking to increase sales volume without affecting your price point? Rebates are the way to go. Here are three of the best software choices out there.
I. Koupon
What’s great about Koupon (yep, that’s us):
Koupon's rebate programs are fantastic for consumer-facing promotional campaigns. We should add a bit about how quickly and seamless it is to get rebates up and running.
Rebate campaigns have the fastest turnaround time of any of our solutions. Brands can get rebate campaigns live in just a few weeks and Koupon handles all of the setup and backend work.
The most valuable feature is that Koupon provides real-time rewards to the customer via PayPal, Venmo, or merchandise codes. For inexpensive CPG products, this is a game-changer!
Think about it. Shoppers are not motivated by a $2 rebate requiring them to fill out a paper form, send it in through a direct mail, and wait for a check. It’s just too much stress for consumers, especially if they’re new customers whose loyalty you haven’t earned yet.
But if they just snap a photo of their receipt and receive the money straight into their account, that’s a different story. It’s the kind of promotion that impacts consumer behavior.
And if you need more than just rebates, Koupon also offers digital promotion solutions that allow consumers to receive a discount directly at the point of sale.
Whether you want to launch a cash-back or buy one, get one free campaign, we’ve got you covered!
You can also take advantage of Koupon’s network of over 45,000 c-store locations. Even better, our insights and analytics team helps you focus your efforts to gain a competitive advantage.
Nestle enlisted Koupon to coordinate a one-month promotion and trial of its new product Acqua Panna. We ran a robust mobile offer campaign and coordinated distribution. At the end of the month, sales were up 7.3% for this particular product.
Features:
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Your customers get real-time reward delivery via PayPal, Venmo, or merchandise codes.
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Your company will have full control over branding, budget, and duration of promotions.
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Brands get access to retailer-owned channels (loyalty apps, SMS, social media, etc) through Koupon’s network of c-stores.
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Promotions are designed to integrate seamlessly with retail apps, websites, and outside channels.
II. Voucherify
What’s great about Voucherify:
Voucherify is an API-first sales promotion engine. It allows companies to build personalized coupons, price discounts, rebates, and loyalty campaigns faster.
Their rebate management software automates and tracks the entire incentive management lifestyle. Your company is able to use different types of rebates and personalize them for existing and potential customers on a 1:1 basis.
Features:
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You can track rebate payouts.
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Their software generates automated reports for your sales force and finance teams. These include overall sales and margin performance based on rebate redemption.
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You can personalize incentive programs based on customer attributes like profile, activity, purchase history, and more.
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Their software can launch many types of sales promotions including digital coupons, in-cart offers with special prices, referral points, loyalty programs, gift card rewards, and giveaway campaigns.
III. FlintFox
What’s great about Flintfox:
Flintfox is a brilliant solution if you’re a wholesale distributor, manufacturer, or retail company.
Its automated tracking and payout system eliminates your need for complex spreadsheets, saving tons of administrative time, and improving accuracy.
It allows you to target specific product lines based on profit margins or to offer rebates with volume targets.
Shop Direct (an online retailer in the UK) enlisted Flintfox to streamline their rebate management program with an extensive network of suppliers.
Now, instead of manually updating 28 large Excel spreadsheets to track data, Shop Direct has one automated source with no limits on scalability.
Features:
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The Flintfox software manages payouts automatically.
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Users can choose “inclusions and exclusions” for rebate programs. This means including rebates on higher-value products and excluding rebates on products with lower margins.
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Users can offer rebates with volume targets.
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Rebates can be based on a percentage, a flat rate, or loyalty points.
2. Sweepstakes and giveaway tools
If your goal is to increase engagement and brand loyalty, social contests can help do the trick. Here are three tools to get you going:
I. Shortstack
What’s great about Shortstack:
Shortstack is an all-in-one, customizable contesting software. It’s ideal for businesses running frequent, regular contests because of its robust toolset.
With their software, you can “build fun, effective, and stunning interactive marketing campaigns without worrying about the tech behind them.”
Great Lakes hosted a Facebook giveaway with Shortstack that generated over 200,000 entries, growing their Facebook followers by 200 percent in just three weeks!
Features:
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You have full flexibility with branding and design. So you can create unique landing pages for each campaign, tapping into Shortstack’s ready-made templates or opting for full customization.
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There is a wide variety of contests available on Shortstack including Instagram or Twitter hashtag contests, Facebook giveaways, sweepstakes, photo contests, quizzes, voting contests, retweet contests, instant-win contests, and more.
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The software is user friendly, so you don’t need tech or coding skills to design or manage your campaign.
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It gives you full data and analytics for each campaign.
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The software manages all aspects of the contest — from random winner selections to organizing hashtag content.
II. Woobox
What’s great about Woobox:
Over 4 million brands use Woobox to provide “experiences that boost engagement.”
It’s very similar to Shortstack and can be used for a wide variety of contest promotions.
Lights4fun (a UK company that sells Christmas and fairy lights) held a contest on Woobox to raise awareness and fan engagement. At the end of the contest, their Facebook following had grown to 8,000, an increase of 40%.
Features:
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You can create unique landing pages for each campaign using a drag-and-drop builder.
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Woobox customers have access to ready-made customizable templates that are.
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You have full control over branding and design.
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Woobox is great for hashtag contests on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook giveaways.
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Like Shortstack, the software manages all aspects of the contest.
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You can view analytics during the contest, allowing you to tweak your campaign in real-time.
III. Wishpond
What’s great about Wishpond:
Wishpond is a great choice if you want a comprehensive marketing tool that also handles contests.
The company Diamond Candles (a specialized candle company) hosted a contest using Wishpond and generated 30,000 new leads and over 145,000 Facebook fans in just six weeks!
Features:
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Wishpond offers ten different contest options, including sweepstakes and hashtag contests.
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You can create unique landing pages for promotions using a user-friendly WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor.
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You choose between templates or custom designs, each with complete branding flexibility.
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You can publish your contests anywhere (website, Facebook, mobile, etc.)
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Analytics are available as soon as your campaign is published, allowing you to optimize your contests in real-time.
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Wishpond’s software allows you to download data into Excel after the contest is over. This is especially useful for creating targeted emails for all those fresh leads!
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They have conversion optimization tools you can take advantage of like A/B testing, countdown timers, custom CTA, pop-ups, and more.
3. More trade promotion software solutions
I. Eversight
What’s great about Eversight:
Eversight is a trade promotion optimization tool. They use real-time AI-powered experimentation to continuously optimize promotion activity.
Typically, promotional calendars are based on the prior year’s successful campaigns. But as consumers adjust and change, sales promotion techniques lose their effectiveness.
With Eversight’s real-time data, you can stop looking at the past and “invest in promotions that actually disrupt shopper behavior and drive business results.”
Talk about competitive advantage!
A leading CPG company (unnamed in the case study) recently implemented Eversight on a national scale. The results? A whopping 23% incremental promotional sales lift.
Features:
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Eversight’s AI tests thousands of offers on shoppers in real time, uncovering better options for your company’s products.
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Eversight recommends high performing promotions for you to deploy in-store and through digital channels.
II. Promoboxx
What’s great about Promoboxx:
Promoboxx is an innovative platform allowing brands to engage retailers with brand-specific digital marketing campaigns.
Here’s how it works (in a nutshell): Brands upload marketing campaigns and invite retailers. Retailers then customize and promote products on their channels.
Clearly, this is a win-win. Brands get access to retailer-owned channels while retailers get access to pre-made, brand-approved content. And both benefit from increased sales thanks to reaching the target audience through trusted retail channels.
Take Mohawk Flooring, for example. They used Promoboxx to connect with retailers during their award-winning “Love Your Floor” sales campaign. After promoting digital content, Mohawk retailers received paid ad dollars via the Promoboxx Local Ads program. At the end of the campaign, Mohawk reported a 50% increase in directly attributed sales.
Features:
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Promoboxx allows brands to upload existing digital marketing campaigns.
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Brands can invite retailers to access the campaign.
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Brands can provide ad dollars to retail stores as incentives.
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Retailers can customize the campaign and then promote on their channels (social media, website, loyalty apps, etc).
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Both brands and retailers have access to reporting and tracking data.
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Retailers have the ability to schedule or automate posts.
III. RevTrax
What’s great about Revtrax:
RevTrax is an “Offer Management Platform” that uses AI to recommend optimized offer values for CPG and retail brands.
Their tagline tells it like it is... “Stop giving away money: Deliver discounts with RevTrax Offer Management Platform.”
The idea is that by running smarter offers, brands will get more value out of their digital marketing campaigns.
An amazing thing about RevTrax is that it can track and score each consumer’s promotional sensitivity. This means that if a consumer only needs 10% off the regular price to get her moving, there’s no need to send her anything higher. Amazing.
Men’s Wearhouse implemented the RevTrax OMP system with impressive results:
Features:
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RevTrax includes several security features to ensure that only targeted consumers can access offers.
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They also provide advanced reporting and analytics. For example, it connects information about the audience, media channel, and other key attributes to each conversion. This is especially useful when tracking digital promotions that convert to in-store sales.
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The software can be used seamlessly with your website, brand apps, organic traffic, email, search, social media, video, affiliate, SMS, etc.
Conclusion
So, what are you hoping to achieve with your sales promotions this year?
Whatever your goal, we hope one of these promotional tools will make your life a little easier.
We also hope it drives your sales through the roof!
