Win with LTOs!
This past July, Amazon’s Prime Day occurred. If you’re not familiar with Prime day, the short-term sales promotion offers members exclusive discounts for various household goods. Years ago, this was just an Amazon thing amongst the major U.S. e-commerce retailers. Now you’re hard pressed to find a serious online shop that isn’t launching their own online holiday to grab your attention and get your money. You know why? Because they work! And it’s not just an Amazon-thing; Alibaba holds their Singles day event annually on 11/11. Last year the one-day promotion generated $30.8 billion in sales. This year they are anticipated to eclipse $50 billion in sales.
There’s no longer debate whether limited-time offers and promotions work; they are a must for any successful e-commerce enterprise moving forward.
The OG Energy-Efficiency LTO Shop
TechniArt has been playing on customer’s FOMO, or “fear of missing out” for about a decade to drive sales conversions for just about any product type from lighting kits to advanced power strips to smart thermostats. That kind of makes us sound devious, right?
Well, we’re not. We just were first in the utility space to develop a proven limited-time offer platform that over time has been fine-tuned for digital marketing (email, social, search, and other forms of curated content) to engage customers and generate sales. You see we learned early what’s common knowledge now: customers hate missing out on a good deal (especially one they don’t have to think hard about) and often get drawn in by digital marketing they can access through their phones.
LTOs in the Amazon Age
Although first to market, selling energy-efficient lighting and products through utility and energy efficiency programs still has its challenges. We’re not talking about customer validation and reporting requirements; we’re talking about meeting customer expectations (basically, the cost of doing business in the Amazon age). Customers EXPECT fast delivery and 24/7 service and support. That’s attainable for publicly traded companies that set the standard. Small businesses like us, and many of our competitors, have challenges adhering to them.
What we have found in trying to compete against the big shops and adhering to the expectations they have created, is that we can do so only in partnership with our clients. Tactics like increasing frequency of customer communication, making it more personalized and conveying empathy, go a long way in winning over customers and making them loyal to your brand. Those are the standards that small businesses set and still abide by whether they are on Main Street or on the WWW.
Trust ALSO goes a long way
Another lever, or tactic, in this partnership is the notion that customers trust their utility to inform them what to buy and use in their home. Think about it: customers take your service for granted. They trust when they flip the light switch, the lights come on. That’s huge. Why would then shun or avoid recommendations coming from the company who keeps the lights on?
When you combine a well-oiled machine in our limited-time offer platform with heightened customer service and product recommendations from a trusted authority, playing on a customers FOMO is just as relatable to what Amazon and Alibaba can do through their dedicated sales holidays.