by The STORE EXPRESS Team on 07/04, 2025

What is The Purpose of Sales Promotion? Examples of Sales Promotions and Key Points For Success

When a company or store offers a product or service, the important thing is how to attract customers and motivate them to purchase the product or service. Sales promotion is an indispensable way to enable this and lead to increasing sales.

However, there may be many people in charge of sales promotion who do not know what methods to attract customers, or who are struggling to make progress.

We will introduce the importance and purpose of sales promotion, as well as the key points for making it successful.

Table of contents

• 1. What is sales promotion?
• 2. Difference from Marketing
• 3. Purpose of sales promotion
• 3.1. Raise awareness of products and services
• 3.2. Encourage customers to purchase products
• 3.3. Increase repeat customers
• 4. Examples of offline sales promotion
• 4.1 Flyer distribution
• 4.2. Holding Events
• 4.3. Coupons distribution
• 5. Examples of online sales promotion
• 5.1 Internet advertisements
• 5.2 Sending an e-mail newsletters
• 5.3 Using SNS
• 6. Key points for successful sales promotion
• 6.1 Targeting
• 6.2 Timely proposals
• 6.3 Utilize sales promotion materials
• 6.4 Effect measurement
• 7 Effective sales promotion leads to sales

1. What is sales promotion?

Sales promotion is a marketing strategy to boost the sales by increasing the interest and demand in its product or service. There are many possible ways to conduct sales promotions, such as distributing samples and special offers, sending direct mail, and so on. Training employees and improving products are also types of sales promotion.

No matter how good the product is, it should be difficult to get customers to recognize if you don’t promote it.

In addition, there are more and more ways to collect information, such as through searches using the Internet and social networking services. In order to get people to choose your products from among the many available products, it is important to appeal the attractiveness of your products through sales promotion and to differentiate your products from those of other companies.

2. Difference from Marketing

A similar term to sales promotion is “marketing”. Marketing is all activities that reach out to customers in order to sell products. Therefore, sales promotion, as well as advertising, sales, and sales, are part of marketing.

It is difficult to clearly distinguish between these activities because they are all part of the same process, but sales promotion seems to have a strong meaning for raising awareness of a product and creating an opportunity for customers to purchase it.

3. Purpose of Sales Promotion

The purpose of sales promotion can be divided into three major categories. Here is an overview of each of them.

3.1 Raise awareness of products and services

One of the purpose of sales promotion is to make consumers aware of products and services. In order to get consumers who do not know the product to buy it, it is necessary to increase awareness of the product. Sales promotion is an important measure not only for new products, but also for appealing to customers who have never used existing products.

3.2 Encourage customers to purchase the product

Even if awareness is raised, it does not mean that consumers will buy the product. The purpose of sales promotion is to appeal the attractiveness of the product and encourage customers to purchase it.

For Customers hesitating to purchase a product, you can encourage them to decide by offering discounts or coupons, or by running promotions that are limited to new customers.

3.3 Increase repeat customers

The more repeat customers you have, the more consistent sales you can expect. In order to increase repeat customers, it is necessary to prevent existing customers from switching to other companies’ products and new customers from leaving after a single purchase.

In addition to acquiring new customers, increasing repeat customers is another important purpose of sales promotion.

4. Examples of offline sales promotion

Sales promotion methods can be roughly divided into two categories: “offline sales promotion” and “online sales promotion. Offline sales promotion is a sales promotion method that does not use the Internet. Typical examples include flyer distribution, street advertising, and TV commercials.

Online sales promotion is a sales promotion method using the Internet, such as Web advertising, SNS marketing, and e-mail newsletters. Here are some examples of offline sales promotion.

4.1 Flyers distribution

Flyers, pamphlets, and postcards, such as newspaper inserts, flyer distribution on streets, and posting, are used to attract customers. This is an effective method when you want to attract customers in a specific area.

4.2 Holding events

Holding events such as in-store tasting, demonstration sales, new product launches, and free trials of services is another offline sales promotion method. By allowing people to experience and see the product or service, it is easier to appeal to the product or service.

Another advantage is that the distance between the company and the customer is close, so it is expected not only to make people aware of the product or service, but also to make a good impression of your company. However, it may cost more than flyers distribution.

4.3 Coupons distribution

Distribution of coupons is another typical sales promotion method. By distributing discount coupons or gift coupons, you can easily facilitate the acquisition of new customers and repeat customers.

It is also effective to distribute samples to customers who are interested in a product　but hesitating to make a decision. By having them use the product, you can lower the hurdle to purchase.

5. Examples of online sales promotion

Sales promotions can be conducted online as well as offline. The following are examples of online sales promotion.

5.1 Internet advertisements

Online sales promotions include placing advertisements on the Internet. Examples include listing advertisements placed on a search results pages and affiliate advertisements placed on blogs.

These ads will be shown on search results and reach the people who search for a certain product, or who live near the store, thus narrowing down the target audience. Although it costs more to advertise, the advantage is that it is easier to expand awareness.

5.2 Sending an e-mail newsletters

Sending information on products and services to registered customers through e-mail newsletters is also an effective method. Although the number of target customers is limited, it is possible to send information to all registered users at the same time.

Users who have originally registered for a mail magazine are likely to be interested in the product. Sending limited-time services, useful information, and members-only special offers can help retain customers and encourage repeat purchases.

5.3 Using SNS

We recommend using social networking services such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. Information can be expected to be spread by consumers through “likes” and “retweets”.

Specific measures could include running follower-only campaigns or giving away products for following and retweeting.

However, it is important to note that the main user segments differ depending on the type of SNS. For example, teenagers use short videos on Tik Tok and reel videos on Instagram, people in their 20s use X, and people in their 30s and older use Instagram, followed by X and Facebook, which are also widely used for business purposes, X is highly diffuse and suitable for real-time information dissemination. In order to be effective, it is necessary to use the appropriate SNS for the product and to change the appeal method for each SNS.

6. Key points for successful sales promotion

In order to attract customers and conduct efficient sales promotions, it is important to keep the key points in mind. Here are some of the key points for successful sales promotion.

6.1 Targeting

First, clearly define the target audience to whom you want to deliver your product or service. For example, elderly people and younger people have different lifestyle patterns and media that they see on a daily bases. If you do not conduct your sales promotion based on the target group, you cannot expect your measures to be effective.

In addition to researching market needs and competition, it is important to narrow down sales promotion methods based on factors such as the target’s age, gender, region, and family structure.

6.2 Timely proposals

Products and services change in value with each season. If sales promotions are conducted after the season or trend has passed, they will not be highly effective because consumers’ needs have changed. Be sure to conduct sales promotions in a timely manner in accordance with the season.

6.3 Utilize sales promotion materials

Promotional materials are all types of items used to promote products and services to customers and motivate them to make a purchase. They are created to increase awareness, promote purchases, and reinforce brand image.

These include posters, flyers, pamphlets, signs, banners, digital signage, POP, and panel stands. Novelties distributed at events, such as calendars, wet tissues, are also types of promotional materials.

Depending on the location, the purpose of distribution, and the occasion, be sure to use appropriate promotion materials.

6.4 Effect measurement

It is also important to verify the effectiveness of the measures after they are implemented. Simply conducting a sales promotion measure alone does not allow you to clearly determine whether it was a success or a failure, and cannot be applied to the next measure.

It is important to analyze how many inquiries, product page views, and member registrations increased and how much sales changed after implementing the measures, and to improve the measures based on the results.

7. Effective sales promotion leads to sales

As mentioned here, sales promotion measures are essential to increase sales of products and services.　However, there are various methods of sales promotion, each with different expected effects. Depending on the target and objectives, it may not be effective. It is important to establish a plan with clearly defined goals and improve the measures accordingly.