The deep recession we have all been reading and hearing about has had one serious side-effect – customers are using coupons for discounts and free products at an increasing rate! As budgets become tighter and tighter, consumers are actively looking for ways to make their budget stretch further – if you are able to offer a discounted price or even some free stuff, then you are in a very strong marketing position right now!

In the first quarter of 2008, coupon redemption increased by 10% – the first such rise since the early 1990’s and worth over $3 billion to consumers. As unemployment continues to rise and the recession bites even harder, coupon use is increasing from this turnaround point in coupon usage and trend.

An online coupon can mean different things to different people, so let’s be clear about what we mean by “online coupon”. An online coupon can be a click-able banner ad or promotional ad found on a website, they can be of the variety which need to be printed out and clipped just like a coupon from a newspaper, or they can be restricted offers to a distinct community e.g. a Facebook user who has become a fan of the business Facebook profile.

The first point to note is that you need to plan and operate effectively to maximize the return on your coupon strategy!

Step One: Choose the Discount and Promotion Period

You need to decide what level of discount you are going to offer and also, how long the promotional period is going to run for. It pays to be simple and straightforward – “20% off in March” or “Buy 2 get 1 Free”.

Step Two: Create an Online Coupon

There are some sites which will help you create an online coupon, however many are for big companies and not really suitable for small or local businesses. You can access sites such as Local.com and Craigslist which provide utilities to make an online coupon which can be printed out and physically used in the purchase.

You can also create a coupon by simply using your email program and asking the prospect top print it out and bring it with them as proof they are entitled to a discount you’re offering.

Step Three: Distribution

You must distribute the coupon widely and there are as many methods as you can think of to promote your own business.

Email blasts are a good way of doing this, as is offering your promotion on a company blog or other blog which deals with news and topics in your locality or industry sector. Use online directories to further promote the online coupon, e.g. Valpak.com and Local.com, but especially target Facebook and online networking sites to get the message out.

Step Four: Add a Coupon to Your Website

Even a simple text coupon works quite well, but a banner ad which has some graphic work or creative use of color is better. You should tie in the use of the coupon to your wider website and online presence so it is a feature of the users experience when they come onto your website. This means having the discount offer or a link to a landing page with this information, available everywhere and especially on the home and landing pages.

Step Five: Share the Coupon Love

Make sure you are clear on who can use the coupon. It makes a lot of sense to restrict the coupon to a particular purchase, for instance one per family or one free item per purchase, but it makes no sense to restrict other people from using the coupon simply because they git given the hard copy printed off from your website.

Make it clear that your coupon can be shared and that you will honor coupons from any source as long as you are authorizing them. Online coupons should also include a link to allow sharing of the coupon so they can quickly email the coupon link to their email and networking contacts – an excellent way of getting your marketing message to go viral

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Category: Business
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