How to Effectively Leverage Portal Banners for Sales Promotions
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. So many brands miss out on untapped revenue from the most valuable shoppers in their network – their customers. For brands that run subscription programs, your subscribers are truly your VIP customers. But time after time, we see DTC brands so deeply focused on acquisition during sales and promotion periods, that they forget about maximizing revenue from those VIPs.
That’s where Customer Portal Banner Ads come in to the conversation.
Implementing a customer portal banner ad is one of the most effective strategies for getting promotional messaging in front of your subscribers, and nudging subscriber behavior to drive AOV.
During your brand’s – or the market’s biggest sales periods, presenting subscribers with an optimized customer portal experience can drive major profit gains.
Ready to make some money while making your subscribers feel special? Let’s dig in to the best strategies for leveraging customer portal banners during promotional periods.
What is a Customer Portal Banner Ad?
A banner ad is an uploaded graphic that displays within the customer portal. With Stay Ai’s customer portal, you’re able to drag and drop portal components wherever you like – meaning you can place this ad at the very top of your subscription management page, or further down as subscribers scroll.
Stay’s banner ad displays at a 16:9 ratio on desktop, and a 4:5 ratio on mobile, meaning this is ample space to design a graphic that highlights a sale you’re running, exclusive subscriber discounts, or promotional offers currently available for customers.
Additionally, Stay Ai’s banner ad is transactional, meaning that when customers click on the banner ad, they can directly add a featured product to their upcoming order. Within the merchant portal, you’re able to select which product you’d like linked to your banner ad, and if you’d like to offer it as a one-time purchase or a recurring subscription item.
Ultimately, banner ads provide you the space to highlight the promotion of your choice, while enabling subscribers to make a purchase within just two clicks. Check out the example from Lifeboost Coffee below.
How to Use Customer Portal Banner Ads During a Sale
Banner Ads offer a great opportunity to highlight limited-time offers, seasonal promotions, or holiday sales.
PS: If you’re new to banner ads and looking to learn more about different use cases for implementation, you can check out this article we wrote a few months ago.
Subscriber-Exclusive Sales
Reward your most valuable customers with early access to promotions before they hit general public. Using the banner ad, feature the products with applicable promotional offers, and make sure to link the most popular product to enable that two-click purchase. Then, optimize your upsell carousel to feature all of the products with a special discount, so subscribers can quickly add those to their upcoming order.
Example: Clean Skin Club
Clean Skin Club ran an awesome subscriber promotion for BFCM 2023, offering their most loyal customers early access to incredible discounts. Each discounted product featured in the banner ad is accessible for one-click add-on via the upsell carousel.
VIP Loyalty Discounts
During major market-wide promotional periods (like BFCM or the holidays), your customers are likely browsing offers across multiple brands. In order to keep them in your corner, it’s up to you to surface the most captivating deal. In combination with your email & SMS flows, get in front of subscribers’ wandering eyes with an exclusive subscriber-only loyalty discount. Not only will this result in more cash in your pocket, but will also incentivize subscribers to stay retained, rather than churning for one of your competitors.
We recommend generating a subscriber-only discount code and featuring it prominently in a unique, visually compelling banner ad. From there, subscribers can quickly enter that code into the discount field within their portal.
Example: Vita Coco
Vita Coco leveraged their customer portal banner to offer a subscriber-exclusive discount on customers’ upcoming orders during BFCM.
Example: UCAN
UCAN offered subscribers 30% off their next order during the entire month of November – an even juicier discount than the 25% listed on their website.
Example: OLIPOP
OLIPOP is using their customer portal banner in Q4 2023 to celebrate subscribers with a thank you discount! Subscribers can input a discount code in the customer portal to get 30% off their upcoming order.
Featured Product on Sale
In case you missed it, we recently dropped an article on unique subscription program benefits for boosting subscriber acquisition – and this banner ad strategy is where one of our favorites come into play! If you’ve got a specific product that you’re trying to sell more of, sell out of, or want to promote a limited-time SKU to see if it has evergreen potential, that’s a great time to engage your subscribers. Promote that product at a discount in your customer portal banner ad, so subscribers can add it on to their orders in just a few clicks.
Example: MYSA Natural Wine
Around the Thanksgiving holiday, MYSA offered subscribers a bundle-and-save exclusive. This banner ad featuring their most popular wines that pair well with Thanksgiving dinner, and presents a subscriber-only discount that they can add to their upcoming order.
Free Gift Offers
If you don’t want to provide additional or deeper discounts to subscribers during promo periods, we highly recommend offering a free gift with purchase instead. With this strategy, you can delight your subscribers with a little something to show your appreciation, and enhance their brand loyalty. Implementing this tactic during sales seasons will strengthen your connection with your subscribers and foster a sense of community, reinforcing their positive perception of your brand.
Example: Manukora
In November of 2023, Manukora is gifted their subscribers an automatically-applied free gift to celebrate the holiday season. All orders that fired in November automatically included the gift. Their banner ad encouraged subscribers that didn’t have a subscription order set to fire in November to change their delivery cadence, so they could cash in on the free gift!
Example: Truvani
During BFCM of 2023, Truvani ran an awesome Black Friday promotion that included a free shaker bottle with each new order. For existing subscribers, no purchase was necessary – they could add on a free shaker bottle to their upcoming order using the customer portal banner ad.
Wrapping It Up: Using Customer Portal Banner Ads for Sales
Banner ads in the customer portal are a powerful tool for engaging subscribers and scaling your subscription revenue. Combining the right offers and the right messaging can help you effectively drive average order value and loyalty among your most valuable customers. Additionally, the portal provides a unique opportunity to cultivate a sense of exclusivity and appreciation among subscribers, further strengthening their connection to the brand.
Ready to take something live? We love checking out your banner creative. When you whip up something awesome, be sure to send it our way! You can always tag us on social @GetStayAi.
Want to customize your subscriber portal, but don’t feel like spending thousands on development resources? We’ve got your back. Stay Ai’s no-code customer portal allows you to fully customize the subscriber experience, as well as take advantage of AOV-boosting features right out of the box.
