Couponing For Businesses

Too many people think coupons are an old school way of marketing, right? The question is, how can coupons still be an effective piece of marketing in your business? How can they turn a potential customer into a returning customer? The good news is that coupons work for any type of business, big or small! Below are some couponing for businesses tips…

Coupons allow many opportunities to engage and potentially convert consumers into customers. Although you’re allowing your product or service to be sold at a cheaper price – an effective offer or coupon will not only encourage a purchase, but also potentially a repeat buyer.

Here are some solid tips on how to effectively promote your business with coupons:

1.    Be Specific

Tailoring your coupons is extremely important to you as the distributor. Finding the balance between an appealing offer for you and your customers is important. Don’t try and deliver too much with one coupon.

Coupons are intended to deliver something special to your potential customer, but you do not want to endanger your profit by giving away too much at one time.

Your goal as a business owner is to make a profit off each coupon that is redeemed. You can make a profit by limiting the coupon to only specific products or services, for example. This can help entice potential customers to engage your brand.

2.    Reward With Coupons

Be a smart business owner, and pay attention to what your customers are saying about you online. Consider sending a coupon to someone who offers a positive review, or even negative feedback (after fixing the problem!). This works well when trying to gain a following or develop some brand recognition.

This is a great way to build relationships with your customers. A little goodwill can definitely have a large impact on your business.

3.    Give Coupons During Communications

By now, I’m sure that email is one of your primary tools for communication among your customers. If it isn’t, get on it, and more importantly take advantage of it!

Whenever you have an extended email conversation with a customer, you may want to choose to end the conversation by throwing in a coupon to show your appreciation for their interest in your brand.

You can do this when interacting with bloggers, potential partners, or even with customers asking questions about some of your services or products.

4.    Reward New and Returning Customers!

It is very well known that it is a lot easier to sell to someone who has already bought from you, but it’s even hard to try to convince someone to come back as a repeat customer. It’s hard to think of a reason why they should come back, unless you tell them that need something else that you are selling.

For example, Localytics tells us that on the mobile app market, 26 percent of the time customers will never give an app a second try. That just goes to show how much a first impression can count. One of the best solutions for this problem, is to give the customer a coupon for after they have made their initial purchase, so they have a reason to visit your again.

5.    Limited Time Offers

Scarcity is one of the most powerful incentives you can use to your advantage as a business owner. With a limited time offer, you can not only encourage an immediate push to buy, but also track how effective your current marketing efforts are.

The next time your business decides to issue a coupon, put a time limit on its use. To find an ideal time period, consider how long it usually takes customers to come back to you. A shorter time frame works better – a shorter period to redeem can be encouraging to potential and current customers to spend!

Coupons can be a great way to attract new consumers and returning customers to your business. Sound intimidating? Consider that many online checkouts have coupon options readily available. Remember; provide a coupon that is truly valuable to your client.  Has your business started using coupons yet?

Coupons? Deals? Discounts? Get all the information about Couponing here.

Want more info on couponing? Download the Coupon Marketing Whitepaper here.

Michael Bickerton, Raven5 Ltd. April 2015

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