I wanted to continue off my previous blog on running an effective coupon campaign. I previously covered how to write an effective coupon, but now what do you do with it? Here are a few tips on getting the most out of your coupons, and increasing the conversions.
Enhance Marketing Campaigns
Coupons are a perfect way to enhance any marketing campaign. If you’re promoting, or advertising a specific service or offer, add a coupon to the mix to give your customers that little extra push to bring them into your store. An example of this is something you see with fast food chains all the time. When they launch a new product its often accompanied by a coupon to encourage their customers to try it out.
Expire
Always expire your coupons. Coupons by their nature are limited time offers, you want to line them up with seasons, holidays, or marketing campaigns. For this reason you want the coupon offer to end when campaign ends. Granted, you can always refuse to honor a coupon, but it’s best to avoid that issue all together and make sure you use expiration dates.
Rotate
This is something we see often. If you’re selling a $20 pizza and have been running a $5 off coupon on that pizza for the last 5 years, guess what. You just artificially reduced the price of that pizza to $15. Coupons should be used to market a new product, or entice customers to try out your business for the first time. This doesn’t mean you have to think up new coupons all the time, but try to rotate them around and come up with some new ones from time to time. This way you can offer something different to the new customer that didn’t like the previous coupons, and entice your regulars to try something different on your menu.
Track
How do you know if your coupons are working or not? How do you know which offer is bringing in new customers? Did Coupon A lead to an up-sale? You can get all these answers if you effectively track your coupons. When you’re customers bring in a coupon staple the coupon to your copy of the receipt, or write down how much the customer spent on the back of the coupon. Later at the end of the day/week, write down how many times a customer used a specific coupon, and how much money they spent at your store. Using this information you can decide if this coupon isn’t working any more, and if you want to take it out of your rotation. Effective tracking can help you decide where in the rotation to put your coupons.
Coupons can be an effective tool in driving new and repeat customers into your business. But knowing when and what coupons to use is always difficult if you don’t have the right tools. Hopefully we were able to supply you with some knowledge to help you create and maintain an effective coupon campaign, that keeps customers coming back for more.
Michael Baaske is the Digital Product Coordinator at PowerSites®, and with over 7 years of experience in PrePress and print media, Michael has seen some good, and bad coupon offers. PowerSites® is an all inclusive website-hosting, creation, and marketing solution that helps local businesses establish their brand, drive leads, and track success, that’s a leading resource in print, online and mobile for hyperlocal advertising, and brand management with our Local Business Listings.
