An improvised promotion usually costs more than it brings in. You cut prices, publish three posts, sales tick up, then fall back. When the dust settles, your margin has evaporated and almost no new customer stayed.
A properly built promotional campaign is the opposite: a chosen moment, a calculated offer, an organised rollout and numbers you can actually use to do better next time. Here is a method small and medium businesses in Geneva, Lausanne and the Lake Geneva region can apply in 2026, with example figures in Swiss francs and a reusable countdown plan.
Step 1: pick the right commercial moment
Timing matters far more than the size of the discount. A 10% reduction placed at the right moment converts better than a 30% reduction launched during a slow patch, simply because it meets buying intent that already exists.
The windows that work in French-speaking Switzerland
- Back-to-school season, late August to mid-September: budgets unlock and postponed decisions come back on the table. Excellent for business services, training and equipment.
- End of quarter (March, June, September): sales targets have to be met, on both the seller's and the buyer's side. Decision cycles naturally get shorter.
- Clearance: once a product has been sitting for more than 90 days, it ties up cash. Losing 40% of your margin beats holding 100% unsold stock.
- A product or service launch: a limited launch offer creates an immediate reason to buy and surfaces valuable customer feedback.
- Your company's founding date: a credible pretext that belongs to your brand and that no competitor can copy.
- Your low season: filling a quiet period is often worth more than adding volume when your team is already at capacity.
- The end of your financial year: useful with B2B clients who need to commit a budget before their books close.
Read your own numbers before deciding
Pull your sales for the last twenty-four months, month by month. Identify your two weakest and your two strongest months. The rule is simple: launch a promotion just before a natural peak, to amplify it, or during a structural trough, to fill it. Never at random.
Then add an operational constraint. Your team must be able to absorb the volume: a campaign that generates 40 orders delivered late destroys more value than it creates.
Step 2: build an offer that holds up
Calculate the margin before announcing the discount
A fictional example: take a small business with an average order value of CHF 180 and a 50% gross margin, meaning CHF 90 per order. A 20% discount removes CHF 36 from the selling price: the margin drops to CHF 54, which is 40% less margin on every single order.
To generate the same total margin as in a normal period, you therefore need roughly 67% more volume (90 ÷ 54 = 1.67). That single calculation, done before the campaign, tells you immediately whether your target is realistic or wishful thinking.
Five mechanics, from the most costly to the most protective
- The percentage discount: clear and effective, but the most expensive in margin and the easiest for a competitor to copy.
- The conditional fixed amount: "CHF 30 off when you spend CHF 150". It protects your margin and lifts the average order value.
- The bundle: two complementary products or services at a package price. Perceived value rises without breaking your reference unit price.
- The threshold: second item at half price. Extremely effective for clearing dormant stock without devaluing the whole range.
- The included service: delivery, installation, or one month of support thrown in. Low real cost, high perceived value, list price untouched.
Three non-negotiable safeguards
- A short, clearly stated duration: ten to fourteen days. Beyond that, urgency disappears and the promotional price becomes your new reference price.
- A cap: "the first 50 orders". It protects your cash flow and your production capacity.
- Written terms: stacking rules, exclusions, exact dates. A clear terms page prevents disputes that cost far more than the promotion itself.
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Step 3: roll it out in the right order
Distribution always follows the same hierarchy, from the cheapest channel to the most expensive.
1. Your customer base
Reactivating an existing customer costs far less than acquiring a new one. Plan three messages: an announcement two days before, the opening on day one, and a reminder 24 hours before the deadline. At a minimum, split active customers from those dormant for more than six months, with a different message for each.
2. A dedicated page on your website
Not just a banner on your homepage, but a real page: the offer, the terms, one single call to action and a visible deadline. This page receives all your paid traffic and is what lets you measure results cleanly.
3. Organic posts
Three to five posts across the duration of the offer, no more. One piece explaining the benefit, one showing the product or service, one reminding people of the deadline.
4. Paid advertising
A fictional example: CHF 600 invested over twelve days at an average cost per click of CHF 1.20, which buys roughly 500 visits. With a 4% conversion rate, that produces 20 orders at CHF 180, meaning CHF 3,600 in revenue and CHF 1,080 in margin after the discount. Once the CHF 600 media budget is deducted, CHF 480 of net margin remains, plus the customers gained for the future.
In practice, retargeting visitors of the dedicated page is often one of the most profitable line items. Depending on your audience, Meta advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram suit consumer offers, while a Google Ads campaign managed from Geneva captures buying intent that has already been expressed.
Step 4: measure what actually matters
Revenue on its own tells you nothing. Five indicators are enough:
- Campaign net margin: revenue minus cost of goods, minus discounts granted, minus media budget, minus the value of internal time spent.
- The number of new customers, counted separately from customers you already knew.
- Average order value during the campaign, compared with your usual figure.
- The cannibalisation rate: how many of those sales would have happened without a discount? A good approximation is to compare with a segment of your base that never received the offer.
- The 90-day repurchase rate: this is what separates a profitable promotion from a plain transfer of margin.
Record these five figures in a single table, campaign after campaign. After three rounds, you will know precisely which mechanic and which window work for your business.
The six-week countdown plan
- Week -6: sales analysis, choice of window, a numeric target expressed in margin rather than revenue.
- Week -5: building the offer, calculating the volume required, writing the terms.
- Week -4: dedicated page, visuals, copy and email sequence.
- Week -3: setting up tracking, with distinct codes per channel so you know where sales come from.
- Week -2: proofreading, testing the purchase journey on mobile, briefing the team.
- Week -1: a discreet warm-up to your customer base.
- Weeks 0 to +2: rollout, budget adjustments every two days, then a full numbers review within seven days of the closing date.
Six weeks sounds long. That is exactly what separates a campaign that pays for itself from an operation thrown together in two days that gives your margin away.
The mistakes that cost the most
- Promoting the entire catalogue. An offer covering three products is understood in three seconds; an offer covering 300 is not understood at all.
- Running one operation after another. Beyond four campaigns a year, your customers learn to buy only on discount and your full prices stop converting.
- Neglecting mobile. A large share of traffic arrives from a phone: a slow checkout wipes out the entire media budget.
- Planning nothing for afterwards. Prepare from the start the message sent to buyers two weeks later, to turn an opportunistic buyer into a regular customer.
In summary
An effective promotional campaign comes down to four decisions: the right commercial moment, an offer whose margin is calculated in advance, a rollout that starts with your own customers, and five indicators tracked honestly. Everything else is execution.
If you would like help framing your next campaign — offer, dedicated page, advertising, measurement — let's talk. Our quotes and support packages are clear and designed for small business budgets.