People love coupons. All of us actively search for coupons when we are about to buy something, isn’t it?

There’s even a popular American TV show called ‘Extreme Couponing’ where they show ‘super coupouners’ who are extremely driven to get the best deals. That’s how much coupons are ingrained into our minds and our shopping patterns. Who says no to a good deal anyway?

In this article, we are going to look at how coupons work for businesses and the strategies that retailers can use to improve their couponing strategy.

6 ways in which coupons work for businesses:

Brings in new customers:

It acts as an unofficial recruitment channel to get new customers for your brand. When a prospective customer comes across a coupon on a product that they were thinking about getting, even the ones who were dilly-dallying with their purchasing decision will try their luck with your brand. These are people who would not have otherwise purchased from your brand.

The cost of acquiring a customer becomes less as the coupon doesn’t take away a lot in terms of the discount that you offer. Since businesses can’t keep giving on discounts all the time, coupons are a great way to offer something for customers. According to Clarus Commerce, 65% of retailers say that they get ROI in the first week itself when they run coupon campaigns.

Attracts former customers:

Coupons are also a great way to attract some of your older customers. They would have stopped buying from you simply because they forgot about it. Coupons remind them about your products, and it is also a great incentive for them to shop from you again. Once they become your customers again by re-establishing the relationship, they will not even need coupons to do business with you again. That’s the power of a well-established relationship.

Word-of-mouth recommendations:

Your customers will have no qualms about spreading the word to their friends and family about the coupons you have introduced. When customers spread the word on social media, there is even more traction. There are a lot of bargain hunters who find it their obligation to tell others about the deals they’ve discovered. People will keep talking about your brand when there are good offers going on.

Ability to upsell and cross-sell:

If you have a clever coupon strategy in place, it becomes easy to upsell and cross-sell. Assuming that you have a $10 coupon, you could persuade the customer to buy a more expensive and better-performing product. The customer will be getting a discount, and also a better product. Shoppers who use coupon codes are predicted to spend 24% more than shoppers who don’t.

No upfront advertising costs:

Thanks to social media, you can spread the word about your discounts, but you do not have to spend on anything else, unlike most promotions. You can easily get your brand name in front of thousands of people as they will be checking out what are the offers available in the coupon, all of this without spending a dime.

Measurable results:

If you use a coupon program, you can easily track the number of people who have redeemed the offer. You can also find out which are the items that had the most traction, which demographics used the coupons more (assuming you collect their data), any extra purchases, the value of the total money each customer spent, and so on. As you keep measuring, you will be able to gauge how many customers a coupon campaign brings in.

How can you make coupon campaign a success?

With Covid-19 still affecting the purse strings of most people, it makes sense for you to keep your coupon campaigns going on. Here are some tips on how you can make your coupon campaigns a success.

Use limited-time offers:

Marketing has an interesting principle called ‘scarcity’ that persuades customers to buy the products they want immediately before the offer expires. It creates a sense of urgency in the minds of your customers and they are more likely to make that purchase instead of postponing it like most people do. Customers do not want to miss out on an offer that is appealing to their budget and sensibilities. A limited-time offer is also a great way to create a lot of good noise on social media.

Leverage technology:

Technology can help take your business to the next level. Include a QR code on your ad so that people can access the coupon and add to their phones. It makes the entire process of accessing the coupon pretty simple. Another step that you should take is the use of a coupon code solution such as 99minds. It can help you run campaigns that are highly personalized and targeted to the interests of each customer.

Make coupons a part of your loyalty program:

Provide incentives for your customers who are loyal to you. It makes sense to add special coupons to some of your most loyal customers. Nielsen says that 84% of customers will stay loyal to a brand that has a loyalty program in place.

Coupons are also a greay way to get more online following as many consumers follow brands on social media just to make sure that they get to know as soon as any offers are available.

Use visually attractive designs:

If you want your business to stand out from your competitors, then you need to invest in a visually appealing coupon code. What’s the whole point, you ask? The coupon could also be used as a souvenir by the customers. But for that to happen, the coupons should be worth the effort. Add special effects on your ad, make it a stand out, and you will see people not only taking notice of the ad, but also find it interesting enough to keep it as a souvenir.

Strategize the type of deals that you want to offer:

Don’t feel limited about the kind of deal that you want to offer. It doesn’t necessarily have to be just a discount. Before you launch your coupon strategy, think about what really matters to your audience. Some of the coupon options could be the following:

1. - Free gift with every purchase
  - Abandoned cart savings
  - Free ship
  - Giveaways of special products from your brand or from complementary brands
  - Referral discounts

Since the preferences of your customers change with time, you need to experiment and see what your audience values the most at that particular point.

Employ gamification techniques:

Can you make the process of shopping into a game where customers can get coupons based on how they engage with the game? Sounds interesting, right. People love playing games. Imagine being told that you can save money while playing games. Your customers will love the shopping experience and it will also build their faith in your brand. You can use a lot of ways to gamify your coupon campaign.

Conclusion:

If you are finding it difficult to attract newer customers during these uncertain times, then adding coupons to your marketing strategy is a no-brainer. It is also a great way to build awareness, increase sales, engage with old customers, and so on.

The 99minds platform allows you to create coupons, gift cards, build loyalty programs, referral programs, and even perform location-based promotions for your customers. It has a plug-and-play interface empowers businesses to come up with powerful and personalized promotional campaigns. Get in touch with us to understand how we can help your brand with coupons.