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    Home > News > Is Your Digital Marketing Company Guilty Of Pavlovian Marketing?

23^th Jan 2012 | Author: Maria Appleton

Is Your Digital Marketing Company Guilty Of Pavlovian Marketing?

Pavlovian marketing is a negative form of digital marketing, through which customers are metaphorically trained to wait for discounts before making a purchase. A digital marketing company can be considered guilty of Pavlovian marketing, if they send customers monthly coupons offering big discounts. Companies that offer quarterly digital marketing discounts are also guilty, unless customers require your product many times during a quarter. If they do, then they may make purchases all through the quarter, but keep big purchases pending till a coupon is released.

A digital marketing professional is also guilty of Pavlovian marketing if they offer creative promotional offers, in constant ways. For examples, some companies send discounted coupons to customers after they notice that a shopping cart has been abandoned. Such special offers usually offer customers a digital marketing discount of around ten percent, if they purchase the items in their cart. Even if this tactic is applied only once, it is enough for customers to figure out that they will be offered a discount whenever they abandon their shopping carts.

Many retail brands that originally offered ‘abandoned shopping cart discounts’, later stopped announcing such offers, when they checked their digital marketing data, and noticed a trend that customers were deliberately abandoning their carts to get discounts.

What about ‘reactivation’ offers? Does your digital marketing strategy include sending coupons to dormant customers to get them to make a purchase? If yes, you are basically teaching your customers not to make purchases too frequently. When customers learn that they will be offered huge savings if they lay low for a while, they may pretend to be dormant until they receive a discounted offer.

According to various digital marketing studies, promotions launched in the last quarter of the year (holiday season), often lead to stagnation in the first quarter of the next year. Hence, it is important for companies to design their year-end promotions with care. The main aim of your promotional offers should be to get Christmas shoppers to remain loyal in the coming year, rather than just inducing them to make last-minute purchases.

If you train customer to buy only because of the discounts, you’ll witness a huge drop in revenues after the promotional period ends. Smart digital marketing professionals use coupons to focus on brand image and customer retention, which is improved by offering shoppers a wide selection of products, personalised service and better customer service.

Qudos Digital is a leading digital marketing consultancy, and can be contacted on 0845 388 5583 or info@qudosdigital.co.uk.

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