Discount coupons have become an integral part of today’s marketing tools – they not only garner the attention of existing/potential customers and drive sales, but also help in building customer loyalty and branding image. In addition to these advantages, discount coupons can even be used to track data for customer relationship management to build and enhance marketing efforts in general.
Here is a word of caution before we start talking about strategic ways businesses can make use of discount coupons – the way you run discount coupon campaigns should always be consistent with the way the marketing department of your business works. Moreover, it should be in complete alignment with the pre-defined marketing goals. There are a lot of websites who would promote and market your coupons for almost free if you plan smartly.
Effective Ways For Businesses To Smartly Use Coupons
Target the Right Customers with Personalized Offers
Believe it or not, segmentation and personalization are two primary marketing strategies implementation that a majority of marketers somehow fail to consider. You should always make sure that the discount codes to be sent to customers are complemented using the segmentation and personalization features of your email marketing automation platform.
Start experimenting with a wide range of email list segmentations through customer data like location, demographics, and transaction history and group those with similar denominators. Then, you can send personalized emails for promotional codes to existing as well as potential customers based on what you know about their preferences and buying behavior. For instance, businesses can send unique promotional codes to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries and make customers feel special, valued and remembered. This can easily translate into a wonderful opportunity for the business to cross-sell and upsell.
Send Coupons at the Right Time
When you’re sending promotional coupons to customers, it is important that they are sent to the right customers, at the right platform; at the right time. Timing is everything!
For instance, you can bring out freebies or promotional codes for discounts during a “slow” season to make your products and services more attractive and value-oriented for customers. Similarly, you can send out promo codes to customers during the “peak” or holiday season to encourage customers to do business with you instead of competitors.
The use of a trigger for cart abandonment can also be tried if you are running an eCommerce store. It can be used to send reminders or promo codes to buy abandoned items at a discounted price. This will surely give customers more than just a reason to complete their transactions.
Create a Sense of Urgency
No discount coupon campaign can be a success unless it has an interesting subject, strong (engaging, useful, and relevant) promotional message, catchy call to action, and a sense of urgency. Remember – customers don’t want to miss out on a great deal. It makes perfect sense to push them to act them on impulse by reducing their decision-making process.
Send the Right and Best Offer
Sending the right offer is just as important as sending the coupons and discounts to the right customers at the website at the right time. There is no denying the fact that customers – irrespective of their geographical location or buying habits – are attracted to discounted deals. Moreover, a large majority of customers find free shipping to be one of the biggest motivations to finalize a purchase.
It is important for you to always remember that customers should never be flooded with freebies or discounts in the form of promotional codes. The point is to carefully and smartly plan your promotional strategy. You can try out a professional email marketing automation platform that comes powered with advanced features and functionalities. This will help you send personalized and targeted promotional codes and discount coupons to the right customers. It will surely help you retain existing and acquire new customers.
Acquire New Customers With Coupons
Apart from encouraging repeat business or retaining customers, promotional codes can help you grow your email list and acquire new customers too. For instance, you can send promotional coupons to your existing customers and ask them to use them after they have referred a specific number of friends, relatives, colleagues, or others to sign up for your offers. Similarly, you can give rewards (like instant discounts through coupons) to new contacts on your email list as incentives for their first purchase.
Never Use Discounts Out of Laziness
Remember that there right as well as wrong ways to go about your promotions. The wrong way is to provide a discount just because you are lazy or desperate. For instance, providing a discount to just sign up for the email list is nothing but lazy.
You may get some sign-ups, but this still remains a bad tactic because the email does not say what kind of emails will be sent to the recipient or why they should care. In short, the sender didn’t attach any value beyond just the discount coupon. Secondly, people who may have just subscribed to the email list will take no time to unsubscribe just after they made a single purchase.
Finally, the fact that you are offering a discount to someone who has not even visited your site can come across as desperate. Some may even feel that you may be trying to bribe people to sign up with a discount because you didn’t have anything good to sell or talk about your products and services.
To avoid this, emphasize on creating value in the long term and keep your brand name prestigious and intact. You must communicate to your customers in easy, clear, and precise terms that they will be getting tons of value by joining the email list.
Remember, it is not the discount or freebie that cheapens your brand but the ways by which you make use of them. Discount coupons can significantly add to the bottom line of your business when used the right way – without devaluing the core products and services of your business in any way.
Gnanasekar is a Content Researcher. He also optimizes and implements SEO strategies to improve the website. He loves to make time for writing technical and non-technical related articles. Apart from work, He loves to play outdoor games