Article is written by Michael, a member of the editorial team at Leads At Scale. His main areas of expertise include business growth, inbound, and outbound marketing & sales.
He is a walking wanderer and a travel enthusiast.

The Best Proven Marketing Campaign to Drive Sales

Giving marketing advice is something everyone is comfortable doing these days. However, most of those tips and tricks are repetitive and don’t work in real life.

Below you will find 5 ideas that are proven to drive sales and can help you stand out from competitors.

#1 INSTAGRAM STORIES

The features that Instagram stories provide are obvious to everyone: use poll, quizz, question stickers to drive engagement, add location tags and hashtags to increase reach, etc.

But as everyone is using these opportunities, businesses have to come up with something more creative and unique. Here are a few examples that are competitive and have the power to drive sales:

1. “The deal is available until the end of the story”

This is a perfect method to create urgency as stories last only for 24 hours.

2. “Show the screenshot of the story and get a [discount, gift, etc]”

Your Instagram followers will be excited as you are offering deals that are available only to your Instagram audience. Posting similar stories will encourage users to view your stories regularly. It also one of the great ways to get 1000 Instagram likes organically and fast. Applicable for businesses with physical locations.

3. “React to the story to get access to [new collection, checklist, etc]

This is a strategy that will work both for B2C and B2B lead generation. B2B companies can promise a free resource that is available only to their Instagram audience. B2C companies can announce that by reacting to the story or instagram reels hashtags, users will get a link to a new collection of products or discounted products.

4. Story puzzle or “Stop the video at the right moment, send the screenshot, and get [whatever you promise]”

You have probably seen stories where the parts of the images are moving and you have to stop the video at the right moment. This is a tactic that businesses use and promise to reward with a discount, marketing gift, etc.

#2 TEXT MESSAGES

With email marketing performance relinquishing, there are text messages that come to complement email messages.

One of the problems online stores face these days is cart abandonment. And SMS marketing is a loyal assistant when it comes to reaching out shoppers and encouraging to complete the purchase. Cart abandonment emails convert at around 7%, while text messages convert at 21% on average. The difference is big!

You can use text messages for sending discounts, coupon codes, and any kind of offers that are meant for closing. People receive more emails than SMS daily. And that’s one of the reasons that your text message will be opened and read by your subscribers.

Brick and mortar stores also use “Show this text message to the cashier to claim your discount” technique to drive sales. People understand that similar offers are available for SMS subscribers only and would like to take the chance and buy.

#3 GAMIFICATION METHODS

People love games because they make our day more interesting and full of a positive challenge. That’s why marketers don’t hesitate to include elements of games in their strategy and thus reward their customers.

Some of the most popular gamification methods are

• rewarding users with points after they make a purchase or take a certain action,
• rewarding users with a few dollars after they refer a friend and their friend makes a purchase,
• allowing users to spin the wheel and win any of available rewards (e.g. discount, buy on get one, gift for online stores or free consultation, free resource, discount for service-based companies)

By strategically implementing these ideas, you can create powerful campaigns that guide your audience through successful marketing funnels, leading to increased sales and stronger customer engagement.

Gamification methods help not only drive one-time sales but also build customer loyalty and drive referrals.

#4 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND IMPACT PROGRAM

Now the planet is facing ecological and social issues, and businesses have a responsibility to make people’s lives better through their online marketing efforts

Some businesses have made donating, volunteering, taking care of nature part of their marketing strategy and showcase themselves in a positive light. People are likely to buy from a brand that has an impact program than from a brand who sells identical products at similar prices but doesn’t support any cause.

Bombas is a sock brand that donates one pair of socks for every pair of socks sold. The customers of this brand know that by making a purchase, they help another person in need have warm socks and feel valued.

Not all companies can approach social responsibility the same way. For example, a food company may announce that their products are made from pure ingredients and don’t contain hormones.

Other companies may take care of nature by reusing plastic, donating to environmental foundations, using solar panels, etc.

Textedly, an SMS marketing company, donates to Rise Against Hunger, a hunger relief organization for every text message sent by its customers.

Service-based companies can follow Textedly’s suit and collaborate with a non-profit who is trying to mitigate this or that issue. For example, you can help children with disabilities, homeless animals, victims of family violence and abuse, etc.

If you can’t afford regular donations to nonprofits, you can at least allocate X percent of your Christmas campaign or Thanksgiving campaign revenue to support a certain cause. Shoppers will prefer your service/product also because you help others in need.

#5 PRODUCT REVIEWS BY INFLUENECERS

Nearly 40% of Twitter users say they’ve made a purchase as a direct result of a Tweet from an influencer. The role of influencers is even bigger on Instagram and users on this platform are even more engaged. But how to make your cooperations with influencers actually succeed?

You can ask an influencer to dedicate one of their posts to your product/service. But it shouldn’t be a random image with a salesy caption that will piss their followers off. Instead, you can ask the influencer to share an authentic review or show him/her using your product in real-time.

At the end of the review, the influencer can offer a discount or an extra product/service for free that will be available only to his/her followers and for a limited time.

Seems that influencer marketing doesn’t work for B2B companies, but B2B lead generation services know how to make that wish come true.