The idea of coupon codes emerged in 1887 by Asa Griggs Candler to promote his company, Coca Cola. This unique marketing tactic, coupon codes, changed the game for the Coca Cola Company and transformed it from a tonic to “the most popular soft drink”. When he started selling Coca Cola as a soft drink, the company didn’t get a good response from the public so he initiated a campaign and distributed coupons for a free glass of Coca Cola publically. He believed, if consumers try it once they’ll come back to buy another.
The majority of companies are now focusing more on promoting their online sales rather than offline sales, and also focusing on increasing digital coupons. Thus offering coupons to your customers can help your eCommerce store to grow rapidly.
Once you start offering coupons and deals, you will achieve the following.
Indirectly Acquire a Whole Unpaid Team for Marketing
Offering coupons to your customers will help you create an army to promote your products/services; like the Uber cab service got promoted when their potential customers get discounts to share Uber coupons with their friends and family. People love to help each other, and helping anyone to save their money is a good deed indeed.
If you are providing a worthy coupon, people will definitely discuss your offers and share it with their friends and family through social media platforms like Facebook Groups, SubReddits, and Instagram etc. You will also get benefit through word of mouth marketing which will eventually end up in promoting your store more rapidly.
Discover an Untapped Market
The overall eCommerce stores have not even covered 25% market share to sell their products online. There is a big opportunity for every small/medium enterprise to introduce them in the market and capture whole new markets as well. Out of 7.6 billion people, only 1.79 billion people buy goods online (23% of the world population only). The remaining market is left untapped and is forsaken for new businesses.
Use your offers and coupons strategies in educating people to buy online. Create your own formulas to force customers to buy online like offering free shipping to certain countries, free $10 coupons for first time buyers. Create a barter deal with influencers, coupon websites, and your customers, to share your coupons with their social circle. Look at sites like Consumer Mattress Guide, they’re providing coupon codes for people buying mattresses. There are tons of similar sites like this across almost every industry. Buy email lists and run email marketing campaigns with subjects like “Free $10 coupon code”, to gain new customers. Remember, online sales are always better than offline ones in terms of profits as you don’t need to pay rents.
Improve your Search Engine Ranking
There are hundreds of metrics involved to improve your search engine rankings and offering coupon codes to your customers is also one of them. Coupons can help you in getting backlinks, brand mentions and social signals to improve your rankings. Once you release a new coupon code, you can submit them at coupon websites to get new backlinks and brand mentions.
Coupon websites are also known as social coupon sites, and they won’t even mind adding your store with a direct link to your website, if you negotiate with them personally. You’ll also get social signals when your offers are shared on social media sites. Getting a ton of brand mentions and links from coupon sites will gradually improve your search engine ranking too.
Be Able to Gain New Customers from Coupon Sites
You need to join any good affiliate networks like ShareASale or Rakuten to get your store listed to thousands of coupon sites instantly, or you can contact them in person to add your store. Coupon websites have a large customer database which is sorted out by locations, genders, age, and other demographics. Your offer will be forwarded to a larger targeted audience, it will get a mass exposure and will be visible to 1000’s of new visitors from all over the world.
Take the example of the Gap store in USA which posted a “$50 coupon for $25”on Groupon and at day’s end 441,000 coupons were used through the power of social sharing. With the speedy promotion techniques of coupon sites, you can get new customers and also upsell and cross sell your other products with the offers like “$20 Off Over $100”, “30% Off When You buy 3 Shirts”. Coupon codes can be a game changer for any small or large business if used efficiently. Remember to create a budget sheet and calculate the cost, revenue and commissions before entering into the coupon games.
Use Psychology Of Discounts To Attract More
Take advantage of customers who don’t like to do math. For example, you are selling a product at $350, offering “$70 OFF” looks more attractive than 20% off. Repeat the process with different titles to check which type of offers your customers like better.
Make your offers “Time sensitive”. 83% customers make unplanned purchases when they’re bombarded with a limited time promotion. Portray your offer as scarce as possible and your coupons will be used more.
Make the font of the coupon or offer as large as possible with the color combinations of red and white if possible. The bigger the font is, the more importance it will portray.
Personalize the coupons for your customers, the process can be hectic but can produce great results. Send the exclusive coupons to your customers through email to show you care for them.
Some Worthy Statistics
- 49% consumers struggle and make sacrifices to find offers and deals to make ends meet (IRI)
- 85% consumers with salaries between $100k – $149k look for coupons and deals. (Hawk Incentives)
- 34% buyers search for online coupons weekly, (YouGov)
- 53% of Americans prefers to buy during sale seasons or use coupons (APA)
- 55% Millennials use computers to search for vouchers and deals (eMarketer)
- 91% of brand loyal customers use vouchers (Valassis)
woman holding coupons -DepositPhotos
