8 Sales Promotion Examples for Freelancers

Black Friday is just around the corner. And while the origin of this spend-crazy day is rooted in retail and holiday shopping, there is no reason that freelancers can’t get in on the fun.   Believe it or not, Legiit saw about an 800% increase in sales on Black Friday last year. So if you are wondering how you can cash in on the season of spending, or just want ideas for running deals throughout the year, here are 8 sales promotion examples for freelancers for you to consider.

#1 Buy One, Get One (or BOGO)

The grand daddy of sales promotion examples, customers just can’t resist the good old-fashioned BOGO. The concept is simple: if a customer buys something at the normal price, they get something else at a reduced price.

The reduced price can be whatever makes sense for you, but keep in mind that most customers aren’t going to be persuaded with a mere 10% discount. Most BOGOs usually cut the price in half at least. And the most irresistible of all is the coveted buy one get one FREE.

The “Get One” deal can be the same service or different. Think about creative packages that your ideal buyers would drool over. For example, if you do web design, you might offer a free service page design with the purchase of a home page. If you do SEO, you could give everyone who orders a link building package a discount on on page seo.

#2 New Customer Discounts

A lot of clients tend to cling tight to a freelancer once they find someone reliable. So it can be tough to get your foot in the door if you’ve arrived late to the game. You can ease the risk that a client is taking with you by offering an extremely generous deal to all first time orders. Think something like 75% off or more.

You will probably be taking a loss on these orders, but if they earn you a lifetime customer, then the initial cost is definitely worth the long term payoff.

#3 Loyalty Discounts

Just because you’re fishing for new clients doesn’t mean you have to neglect the ones who have been loyal to you. In fact, fostering that loyalty is a good way to prevent your faithful customers from being sniped by another freelancer.

The best way to run a loyalty discount is somewhat randomly. If you do them on a predictable schedule, then they might just turn into a long term loss for you because your clients might wait to order until you run a deal.

Instead, consider randomly messaging some of your repeat clients out of the blue with a rewarding yet reasonable discount offer.

#4 Too Good To Be True Discounts

Too good to be true discounts are one of the sales promotion examples that you’ll probably see a lot of on Black Friday. If you were a used car salesman, these are the sorts of deals that you announce by shouting “I must be going out of my mind to offer these prices!”

You’re aiming for something like 90% off here, maybe even 95%.

Basically, you are offering a discount so big that buyers realize you are taking a loss. It’s irresistible to them, though, because even though it looks to good to be true, it really is just a good, honest deal.

#5 Coupon Codes

Coupon codes are just a convenient way of delivering your discounts. While you could manually adjust the prices of all your services, that can get tedious, especially when it’s time to end the promotion. On Legiit, you can set a coupon code to automatically expire after a certain date or number of uses to avoid a lot of that hassle.

On the subject of coupon codes, let’s talk about wording them. Keep it simple, memorable, and easy to read…

• Bad idea … CdX0o57
• Good idea … FIFTY
• Bad idea … newcustomerpromodiscountCODE
• Good idea … NEWDEAL

You get the idea.

#6 Freebies

People love getting stuff for free. The freebie has been a part of marketing strategy since the first time a caveman threw a sabre-tooth tiger pelt in with a handful of berries he was trying to barter. (Okay, maybe we made that last part up).

Freebies can be the perfect way to convince a hesitant browser to become a buyer. It’s not exactly the same as a BOGO, because your freebie is usually something that is low or no-cost to you.  

Information products work great for this purpose. Once you have it created, you aren’t losing anything by giving it away. For example, if you sell logo design services, you might offer a guide on “Best Practices for Building a Website” for free to every buyer. If you sell backlinks, you could offer a “Complete Guide to On-Page SEO”.  

Think of what your customers probably need that is tangentially related to the services you sell. The prospect of free info on that is going to convince many of them to hit that order button.

#7 Joint Promotions

A joint promotion is when you team up with another seller in order to promote each other’s services. The best bet is to find someone who offers a service that you don’t offer but that would probably be needed by a lot of your clients.

For example, if you write sales copy, you could partner with someone who designs landing pages. You can work out a deal that offers customers who order your writing services a discount on the other freelancer’s web design package. Typically, this can be arranged simply by sharing a secret coupon code with the client.

#8 Fear of Missing Out

No list of sales promotion examples would be complete without a word on FOMO, the fear of missing out. FOMO is a marketing principle that relies on people’s innate need to not miss out on a good thing.

Anytime you see “TODAY ONLY!”, “Offer only valid for the first 5 customers”, or “FLASH SALE!”, you are witnessing fear of missing out marketing.

You can capitalize on this with just about any promotion you run. All you have to do is set some sort of restriction on the deal that gives people a reason to buy immediately. It could be time sensitive or only available to a few customers. Whatever the nature of the restriction, the message to buyers is clear: if they wait, they might miss out on the discount.

Go Make Some Money!

With these sales promotion examples for freelancers in mind, you’ve got everything you need to run a successful discount. So get out there, win some new clients, and make some money.