MY 5 RULES FOR RUNNING A PROMO
1️⃣. Never forget that most people get paid on Fridays.
Plan accordingly (always, always start WEEKEND SALES on Fridays. Friday – Sunday (or Monday if it’s going well and you feel like you’ll be better off extending for a day).
The weekend is Friday, too! Why have 2 strong days when you can have 3? Or, 4? (Again, if the winds are at your back let it ride!)!
2️⃣. Always turn free opportunities into deeper discounts.
If you normally anticipate a $50 CAC and get the opportunity to do something for free (like a free OOH posting, a free booth at an event, a podcast appearance where you can speak about your product), don’t just turn that free experience into a ZERO BUDGET experience. Instead, create a $50 DISCOUNT CODE and pass that $50 CAC onto the end listener / audience.
Appearing on a podcast is great, free exposure. Appearing on a podcast and providing the listeners an exclusive, GENEROUS discount code is leaving nothing on the table. We are chasing new customers. Run while you chase.
3️⃣. Site-wide wherever possible.
This happened to me a lot this weekend when shopping Father’s Day sales. I’d see an ad for 30% off, I’d click the ad, build my cart, and then realize that the thing I wanted wasn’t on sale. I’d then abandon ship, buying nothing and with a bit of a ‘tude.
There had to be a better way! (Hint: go site-wide). Even if the discount is slightly less generous, test if you’re better off.
P.S. Update your hero homepage, popup, and email flows EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU GO ON SALE. Match the messaging, match the creative, put effort in here. If you land on the site after seeing a 30% off ad and then get hit with an evergreen 10% off popup because someone forgot to change it, that’s bad.
4️⃣. Run your ads BEFORE you need your sale to start.
Ad buying is a game of momentum. If you have a promo scheduled to start on a Friday, do you build out your ads on Friday and let them get stuck in learning? NO!
You deploy on Thursday. Because it’s better to be too early than too late every single time. (Turn the sale live on site without flipping over to promo messaging / don’t send out your emails / SMS ’til the sale is “actually” supposed to go live, and don’t post organically until go-time either. This is for paid ads, and it is always a better call to have your ads ready 1st.
5️⃣. Bank an order PERSONALLY before $1 is spent + before 1 email is sent.
Here’s what I mean: it’s not an option to have a fuck up snafu on a promo day. It’s not an option to look at a landing page and approve it based on how it looks. If you are shown something that is promo related, you need to bank an order. Because there’s no other way to know for sure that something works.
Yes, someone on your team can check this, too. But, when you personally check every promo – you never have to worry that your campaign is broken.
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It’s so peaceful! Anti-aging!!!!
P.S. You only have to submit 1 order but can you please test across mobile and desktop? All the way to checkout, please! I always submit on mobile at minimum.
P.P.S. The time to test this is not 5 minutes before a sale starts. Give yourself an hour at the very least – what if you find something is wrong??
^ ANTI-AGING.
