Coupon marketing has been an advertising staple for a very long time. However years ago the word ‘coupon’ stirred images of cutting dotted lines in the newspaper and magazines. This style still exists but the coupon world has moved on in a significant way since those days.
Apps like Groupon provide a search engine for various coupon deals that are updated daily for a range of different products and services delivered directly to people’s phones. Amidst this change, the power of coupons has not wavered over time, because at heart people still love a good deal! So we’re going to look at some of the best tips for coupon marketing.
Coupon Wisely
Bargain-hunters are out there and the last thing you want to do is have one person stock up on a year’s supply of toilet paper because they’ve got 50 versions of your coupon.
This really comes down to profit margins and desirability. It is important to choose products that have high profit margins, so that your company doesn’t lose too much money if there is a high redemption rate of your coupons. The opposite goes for products with low profit margins. This brings us to the next point, which is the desirability of the products being discounted.
If you want to give coupons for products that are highly desirable (and therefore would have a high redemption rate), make sure there is a limit to how many can be redeemed. For example the coupon could say, “Get $100 off if you’re one of the first 50 customers” or you could only send the coupon to a select group of customers, or run the campaign for a limited time only. You can also set a minimum spend amount before the coupon is redeemable. Or you could limit the number of coupons that can be redeemed per customer.
On the topic of ‘small print,’ it is important not to be unreasonable or confusing with the finer details of the coupon. A high proportion of negative coupon reviews on sites like Yelp! are concerned with small print sneakiness. It simply isn’t worth alienating or tricking customers in order to make more money because the information will hurt your business when they tell everyone to avoid you.
Team up with a Distributor
Sites like Groupon, Ozbargain and Shopadocket can be useful for targeting your customers directly. These sites have search bars and listed categories that can help customers who are interested in your products find your coupons.
As a side note, try to avoid emailing coupons that need to be ‘printed out.’ Most people will not redeem coupons that do this, as it is extra effort and not everyone has access to a printer. This is why distribution sites are good, because most have Smartphone capabilities (which almost everyone has access to).
Also another great way is to generate Coupon Codes (like 10% Off) that customers can activate when they checkout from your online store.
Get people to share
This carrot-and-stick approach is a great way to get free advertising for your products and deals on social media sites. Ask customers to share a certain message or advertisement on their social media page in order to receive a coupon for a product. When customers come in store you can ask them to prove that they have shared the link by asking to see their post on their smartphone.
Keep records
Records of your coupon’s success should always be recorded. Whether it’s the complex analytics provided by third party coupon distributer sites or simply counting the amount of coupons that are redeemed in-store. Recording the success rate, redemption rate and items purchased, is like recording your own little personalised market research data. The information you receive during a coupon campaign can be vital to further business decisions down the road.
Coupon marketing is a great tool to attract customers to your business and add some real ‘buzz’ to your advertising campaign.