Entice Customers With Coupons | How-to Guides for running your business from Business.com
Guide to Enticing Customers With Coupons
Increase sales by offering special discounts
By Brian Luskey, Associate editor, Business.com
Coupon promotions are one of the most effective ways to advertise your retail store and help it grow. On the one hand, coupons can be an especially effective way to attract shoppers. According to the Promotion Marketing Association (PMA), 94 percent of shoppers used coupons in the past year, with many of them planning their shopping around coupons. Furthermore, coupons can be a particularly useful sales driver in a weak economy, as evidenced by a 20 percent increase in coupon use over the first half of 2009, according to the PMA.Even though many small retailers recognize the value of coupon promotions, creating a coupon campaign can be complicated. First of all, a coupon offer must be compelling enough to tempt customers, but sensible enough to let you afford the discount you promise. You must also protect yourself with a clear and simple offer that cannot be misconstrued or abused. Each coupon should therefore include an expiration date, relevant legal copy and any exceptions and limitations.
If it is constructed well, an effective coupon campaign will not only increase sales and attract new customers, but also gather business intelligence about shoppers, which can help inform your business decisions. In order to capture this data, make sure your coupons can be tracked — either manually or through bar codes — to provide non-intrusive information on buying habits.
Before you select the most effective promotional coupon campaign for your business, consider the various distribution methods available:
Online coupon codes
The Internet has made it simple to disseminate and share promotional offers. If you want to increase online sales, find out if your Web host or e-commerce software can accept coupon codes. If it can, there are many easy ways to distribute a promo code and attract clients. You can “tweet” a code to your Twitter followers, or add it to Coupon Tweet or twtQpon.com, two Twitter tools aimed at publicizing discounts. Alternatively, you can e-mail the code to your customer database or list it on a coupon search engine, such as RetailMeNot.com or Coupon Saver.But be cautious about handing out coupon codes online unless you are prepared for them to go viral. When a great retail deal is spotted online, it often gets posted on popular forums such as FatWallet or Slickdeals, which can cause an unexpected volume of new orders that you may not be able to fulfill, leading to dissatisfied customers.
Newspaper coupons
Although online coupons are the easiest to distribute and are often used by younger, computer savvy shoppers, newspaper coupons are still effective. According to the PMA, nearly 90 percent of all manufacturers’ coupons issued in the U.S. are delivered through the local newspaper or delivered with local retailers’ circulars. If you can’t afford the cost of distribution through the Sunday insert of a major regional newspaper, there are cheaper alternatives such as advertising in the local paper and using the ad to provide a coupon.Think beyond the paper
Newspaper advertising is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to paper coupons. Other options include posting a printable coupon on your Web site or listing it for free in your area’s annual Entertainment Book, which makes its money by charging for the book rather than making advertisers foot the bill.Direct mail campaigns are another route for retailers, but these often require a financial commitment in order to produce results. It costs just pennies to send each coupon, but that amounts to $500 to $1,000 per month if you’re sending tens of thousands of mailers. Advertisers recognize that “shared mail” or “cooperative direct mail,” like Valpak and RedPlum, often gets thrown away without being seen. Consistency is key with mailers; you must constantly saturate your market area with the mailers in order to get through to your customer base.
Bounce-back campaigns
A bounce-back coupon is one that encourages a customer to return to your store at a later date. You might, for instance, have your sales staff roam the store offering a future sales discount in exchange for an e-mail or mailing address. This way, you might get an immediate sale from shoppers in your store and you’ll be more likely to receive a second visit once you send a coupon.Bounce-back promotions can be instituted in-store or online. It’s common practice to ask online buyers at the checkout whether you can e-mail them special promotions. This allows you to establish a loyal customer base that keeps your business profitable.
Brian Luskey is an associate editor at Business.com, the web’s largest business-to-business searchable directory and home to more than 35,000 business how-to guides.
Find compensation design and planning solutions at Business.com, the internet’s largest business-to-business website. Business.com helps businesses reach 40+ million users monthly online and is home to more than 35,000 how-to guides that help business owners solve problems and realize opportunities.
Copyright © 2009 Business.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This is a great learning resource for business owners running online businesses. CouponGenie.net promotes all ethical marketing practices online.
Coupon Syndication from MyCoupons.com
You can carry all of the MyCoupons coupon codes on your site, or in your data feed, and get paid for use of the MyCoupons, coupon codes. We partner with several of the largest online websites, social networks, and affiliates to help provide them with valuable coupon content, for which they are paid.
MyCoupons is the world’s largest and oldest online source for coupons, coupon codes, printable coupons, and coupon related social networking! We have been in business since 1995 and have been covered by WTAE in Pittsburgh, and many other national media. Consumer interest in both coupons and online shopping continues to grow at a very rapid rate. Our focus is in creating the largest online resource for coupons. Partnering with MyCoupons provides you with access to thousands of pages of valuable content — valuable to your users and a revenue stream for you.
The key benefits of partnering with MyCoupons.com include:
- Access to the content that online shoppers are actively seeking — Thousands of coupons for thousands of stores.
- The ability to sell advertising on the content.
- A share of the revenue generated by your users.
- Flexible integration options, we can host the content and you can brand it or we can provide you with a simple XML feed that can be integrated more deeply into your current content.
Partnering with MyCoupons.com
Our content syndication program is very exclusive, your site must be able to generate a significant number of visitors to be able to qualify for our program. There is a minimum requirement of unique monthly visitors to your site. This can be generated from one or more sites under your control. Contact our business development team and get started today.
Have Questions? Contact our business development team: sales@mycoupons.com
This is a great site that has been around for many years and is a well trusted authoritive site in the Online Coupon Industry. Thanks, CouponGenie.net
Kohl’s & Old Navy Coupons: Affordable Graduation Dresses! | The CouponMountain Blog
Kohl’s & Old Navy Coupons: Affordable Graduation Dresses!
By Ritika on May 10th, 2010
Your graduation is worth celebrating! You have worked so hard to approach this next step in your life, so do yourself a favor and treat yourself to a new look for this milestone. Feeling good and looking good, doesn’t
have to break the bank, so check out these coupons when you’re looking for the perfect graduation dress for your special day. Keep in mind: a great dress will make you look absolutely beautiful in your photos:
- Kohl’s Coupons: Save 10% on your next order with a Kohl’s Charge.
- Old Navy Coupons: Take 15% off $75 or 20% off $100 at OldNavy.com. Enter coupon code ONSAVEBIG. Sale ends on 5/12/10.
- Target Coupons: take $5 off online orders of $50 or more.
Congratulations (almost) new grads! Coupon Mountain hopes that your big day is amazing for you and your family.
Image Source: flickr.com/photos/bdwaydiva1/2676105374
Related Posts:
- Old Navy Coupons – Deep Discounts on Kid’s & Baby Apparel
- Stock Up Sale at Old Navy – Buy More, Save Big!
- Old Navy Coupons – Take an Extra 50% Off Clearance Items with this Free Coupon
- Free Shipping and 20% Off at Old Navy
- Free Shipping Codes for OLD NAVY
- Last Minute Holiday Gifts: Outerwear from Old Navy
- Kohl’s Coupons – Save up to 80% Clearance Sale + Free Shipping Code
- Old Navy Sweater Event – Styles Starting at $15 + Free Shipping
- Old Navy 20% Off
- Sale on Prom Dresses at TJ Formal – Plus Free Shipping
- Back to School Sales – New School Fashions from Old Navy
- Graduation Gift Ideas: HP Laptop Discounts
- Save 15% Off at KOHLS.com
- Mother’s Day Gift Idea & Beauty Coupons
- Strategic Shopping: Macy’s Coupons
Tags: Class of 2010, codes, Coupons, discounts, Graduation Dresses, Koh’s, Old Navy, Target
Posted in Apparel, Deal of the Day |
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Here are some more great coupons from CouponMountain. Thanks, CouponGenie.net
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Free Coupons, coupon codes, online coupons and promotional codes – CouponCabin
$20 Off $75
This week’s CouponClub is from eBags.com, the world’s largest online retailer of bags and accessories for all lifestyles. This exclusive online offer is $20 off orders of $75 or more, but after 200 signups, the offer jumps to $25 off so make sure to spread the word. Don’t procrastinate – the signup period for this coupon ends May 24!
Sign Up Now–>
This is a Good Coupon Offer!
Take advantage of it while you can!
CouponMap – Local Printable Coupons. On a Map.
CouponMap – Local Printable Coupons!
This ia a great feature for Coupon lovers. CouponMap works the same way CouponGenie works. By ZipCode….search for deals in your areas!
Find Customers and Backlinks by Adding Your Site to Coupon Directories | Search Engine Journal
Find Customers and Backlinks by Adding Your Site to Coupon Directories
If you run an eCommerce site, submitting it to coupon code directories is a wise promotional method you might want to consider. You will benefit from this in a few ways:
- you will find new customers who frequent the particular directory to look for bargains in your niche;
- you will contribute to your brand reputation management (i.e. more positive listings for your [brand name] searches);
- you will get more conversions from your [brand name] search referrals (people seeing your coupon codes when searching for your company);
- you will get relevant backlinks from your site listings.
A few tips on how to make the most of your directory listings:
- always include your brand name in your listing title;
- always include your main keywords in your listing title;
- promote your listings at your site and via newsletters;
- diversify your listings (by different descriptions,deals, titles and keywords) – they will all pop up for your [brand name] search, so by this you increase your chance to convert;
- add several coupons for most popular directories and update your listing page regularly (remove expired coupons and add new ones).
Most popular coupon code directories:
- Coupon Cabin has some nice social features (e.g. sharing and reporting options); for each individual listing it also displays relevant categories and merchants.
- Ultimate Coupons also has a blog and newsletters to advertise in.
- Free Shipping primarily focuses on free shipping offers (see the example: JCPenney coupons).
- Deal Taker has built an awesome daily updated forums to take part in.
The full list of both free and paid coupon directories and forums can be found here.
Note: some of these directories do not have a submit form, so I either linked to a home page or contact form.
Written By:
Ann Smarty | @seosmarty
Ann Smarty is the Director of Media at Search & Social where she serves as the Editor of Search Engine Journal. Ann’s expertise in blogging and tools serve as a base for her writing, tutorials and her guest blogging project, MyGuestBlog.
More Posts By Ann Smarty
This is an excellent blog on submitting your site to Coupon Directories. Thanks
Coupons and Bargains – The Coupons and Bargains Homepage
Finding Double Coupon Stores
Frugal shoppers know where and when to shop so they can take advantage of the money they can save when getting double coupons. But if you are new to using coupons, doubling coupons and finding out what stores double coupons can be a bit of a mystery.
Grocery Savings Tools
about.com offers some good tips about Couponing and here are a few links to get started.
The death of the coupon – MSN Money
advertisement
Paper coupons
appear to be headed the way of the VCR.
Grocery chains, food and drug manufacturers, and even coupon marketers themselves are going electronic. The concept is almost as simple as scissors and the Sunday paper: Visit a Web site, type in your loyalty codes, and find all the coupons waiting for you, electronically, at a store’s cash register or on your cell phone.
The hope is that these electronic discounts
will revive the dying coupon business. Only 0.5% of the 285 billion coupons issued last year were redeemed, according to coupon processor NCH, down from an average of 1% a decade ago.
Part of the problem is that newspaper readership is declining, so fewer people are looking at the Sunday circulars. The younger shoppers sought by marketers read their news online. And fewer people these days have time to clip, organize and sort coupons each week.
But apparently, we all seem to make time to surf the Net and talk on our cell phones, so these areas are where the industry is casting its net for savers.
“We are committed to reaching our customers when and where they are most receptive,” says Jenifer Nunnelley, a Procter & Gamble
spokeswoman.
Should you ditch the Sunday paper?
Not yet. At least 75% of the coupons issued are still in the old Sunday circular, said Stephanie Nelson of The Coupon Mom, a site that helps shoppers combine these coupons with sale items to get the biggest discounts.
And grocery chains and food and drug companies have no plans to cut out these paper coupons until they see that enough people have migrated to the Web for discounts.
More from MSN Money
“I think it will be a long time before shoppers completely become online grocery coupon users,” Nelson said.
Yet the e-coupon
transition is attractive to retailers and manufacturers for reasons beyond shifting demographics:
- Redemption rates are higher, though the technology is so new that the industry won’t be more specific.
- Redemptions are easier and quicker to track.
- They get more information about who’s buying their products.
- They can be used to cultivate loyal customers.
- They’re more environmentally friendly.
How e-coupons work
To get these electronic discounts, shoppers must type in their loyalty-card numbers on a store Web site and click to load the coupons to the account. The discounts are subtracted after those items are scanned at checkout.
Grocery giant Kroger, which owns Ralphs, King Soopers, City Market, Dillons, Smith’s Food & Drug Stores and eight other supermarket chains, has coupons from Procter & Gamble on its store Web sites.
Video on MSN Money
The best supermarket bargains
Tired of spending all your cash on groceries? ‘Ultimate Cheapskate’ Jeff Yeager and ‘Coupon Mom’ Stephanie Nelson reveal their tips for saving in the aisles.Kroger shoppers can also go to Shortcuts.com to link their card numbers to a broader array of savings from manufacturers and print out a list of the coupons they have loaded.
“There’s no clipping and sorting and no forgetting the coupon at home,” says Sharon Baker, Shortcuts’ executive director. Baker says the site will have 75 to 100 coupons up by the end of the year.
Grocer Giant Eagle has partnered with SmartSource, one of the country’s largest coupon distributors, to allow its grocery customers to load SmartSource discounts onto their store cards on its Web site.
In the next six months, most major grocery retailers are expected to offer these kind of e-coupons linked to store cards, says Nelson, of The Coupon Mom.
Continued: Phoning in the discounts
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We are a good concept and we know it.
Now all it takes is spreading the word to as many people as you know.
Try it out for yourself……and tell your friends and family. Thanks
