{"id":62593,"date":"2017-11-14T09:35:53","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T14:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acscreative.com\/?p=62593"},"modified":"2017-11-14T09:35:53","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T14:35:53","slug":"lessons-learned-amazon-prime-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/?p=62593","title":{"rendered":"Lessons Learned from Amazon Prime Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to doing business online, especially e-commerce, Amazon<\/strong> is a safe bet to admire. Since the site\u2019s inception in 1994, Amazon has single-handedly changed the internet\u2019s entire landscape. They\u2019ve had a few flops and plenty of successes over the years, but one fact remains true: There is no better company to gather marketing inspiration from in today\u2019s online marketplace.<\/p>\n

Amazon\u2019s\u00a0annual\u00a0Prime Day<\/em>\u00a0promotion got off to a rocky start in 2015.\u00a0With a combination of public\u00a0confusion and lackluster product selection, many\u00a0considered the event somewhat of a failure. Amazon was\u00a0determined to redeem\u00a0themselves over the next couple of years, and they did so in epic fashion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With\u00a0its third annual Prime Day subscription promotion this past summer,\u00a0the shopping giant\u00a0boosted global orders by 60%<\/strong>\u00a0during\u00a0Prime Day in July of\u00a02017.\u00a0Amazon\u2019s\u00a0U.S. orders rose by\u00a0more than 50%\u00a0and Prime\u00a0membership sign-up experienced its highest day ever.\u00a0Even more surprising:\u00a0Amazon Prime Day sales beat out 2016\u2019s\u00a0Black Friday\u00a0<\/em>and<\/span>\u00a0Cyber\u00a0Monday<\/em>\u00a0numbers combined! It was the\u00a0company\u2019s biggest day ever\u2014and\u00a0that\u2019s saying a lot. They also earned these sales in mid-July\u2014a notoriously\u00a0slow retail month. Needless to say, Amazon Prime Day is a brilliant promotional\u00a0success. Some say they got\u00a0lucky. We say they got savvy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hidden Objective, Clear Results<\/h3>\n

Major brands like Amazon routinely take advantage of promotional strategies<\/strong> to achieve their own desired objectives. This is in addition to any ongoing advertising initiatives.<\/p>\n

Amazon Prime Day is just one of those promotions. This theoretical holiday allows Prime members to enjoy exclusive deals on a wide range of merchandise. Amazon\u2019s goal is to increase Prime memberships. The added sales are a mere bonus.<\/p>\n

Why is Prime subscription the goal? Because prime members are more likely to buy from Amazon all year long with the promise of free, two-day shipping. So a specific consumer goal yielded a bunch more loyal\u00a0Prime customers plus a jaw-dropping increase in sales. And that\u2019s the key to a successful promotion: driving a clear, measurable action.<\/p>\n

The Difference between Advertising and Promoting<\/h3>\n

If you go looking through a thesaurus ($11.95 on Amazon.com) \u201cPromoting\u201d and \u201cAdvertising\u201d come up as synonyms. To most people, they mean the same thing: hawking your wares and\/or services to consumers. However, to a keen marketing maven, promoting and advertising are more like fraternal twins. Sure they come from the same place, but they can look (and be) vastly different.<\/p>\n

By nature, advertising is an ongoing, brand-building effort<\/strong>. It\u2019s a marathon without a finish line designed to keep your company top of mind, recognizable and ahead of the competition. In contrast, promoting is a sprint. It\u2019s an intense effort with a specific goal<\/strong> in mind. When executed properly, the two can work together in beautiful harmony!<\/p>\n

Promo Strategy 101<\/h3>\n

To make the most out of your promotions toolbox, you first want to hone in on the goal you want to achieve. Is the objective to introduce a new product to the market? Boost subscriptions to your service?<\/p>\n

As mentioned earlier, promos work best when you have a specific action you want consumers to take. Once you know your desired outcome, you can then use your advertising campaign metrics to decide the best way to achieve that goal. What kind of advertising do your consumers tend to respond to best? Use your long-term advertising findings to dictate your promotional strategy. Your promotion will be more successful if you fish where the fish are.<\/p>\n

Brainstorm<\/h3>\n

Promos are catchy<\/strong>, memorable<\/strong>, and encourage prompt action<\/strong>. Ideally, you want your promo to spread wide and fast among your targeted audience. So set your creative team to work dreaming up various promos to achieve the goal you set. Then choose the most strategically sound one. Heck, even make up your own holiday. It worked out pretty well for Amazon!<\/p>\n

Plan and Launch with Purpose<\/h3>\n

The timing of your promo is critical. For example, launching a gift-wrapping service the day after Christmas might lead to an epic promo fail. Now this is an exaggerated scenario, but you get the picture. Consider both consumer behavior and seasonal influencers to determine the right time to launch, and then launch your promotion with everything you\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n

Spread the word on social media. Create digital campaigns. Buy some billboards and ads. In general, push your promotion through whatever medium will best reach your target audience. Again, fish where the fish are.<\/p>\n

Why this Matters<\/h3>\n

You would be hard pressed to think of a company that needs to offer a special promotion less than Amazon. Their advertising is everywhere (including people’s doorsteps). They follow customers around the internet with highly-targeted remarketing campaigns until a purchase is complete. Financial experts say Amazon is the only company that could ever feasibly buy Google someday. Their stock market position is consistently healthy and nearly all of their sub-products (streaming, hosting, music, fresh delivery, home services, etc.) make a huge impact to the bottom line. The question is WHY? Why would a global giant with more revenue than they know what to do with host a one-day promotional sale? The answer is simple: because it works<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The lesson here is that promotions should be an integral component of all your marketing efforts. A good one can have lasting effects on your bottom line. So get brainstorming. Your customers will love you for it, and you\u2019ll surely love them back!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to doing business online, especially e-commerce, Amazon is a safe bet to admire. Since the site\u2019s inception in 1994, Amazon has single-handedly changed the internet\u2019s entire landscape. They\u2019ve had a few flops and plenty of successes over the years, but one fact remains true: There is no better company to gather marketing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[11,24,16],"class_list":["post-62593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights","tag-business","tag-e-commerce","tag-strategy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acsredux.acscreativedev.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}