The use of coupons can be a powerful tool for your online shop and can attract new visitors as well as returning customers. In the end, it’s all about creating those extra sales you’re looking for. Like all powerful tools, you need to be careful and set up the right strategy for you and your shop in order to take full advantage of what the coupon industry has to offer. In this article, you will find the best how-tos and tips on how to do this for your own online shop.
Reactivate customers
One of the main reasons for integrating coupons into your marketing strategy is giving your existing customers a reason to come back. Common knowledge dictates that it’s easier to keep an existing customer than to attract a new customer. A coupon is a good incentive for existing customers to re-engage themselves with your store.
You could, for instance, add a flyer with a coupon code to your customer’s order, e-mail a code as a present on their birthday, or use it for upselling purposes- if they buy a pair of shoes, you could always giveaway a coupon for shoe polish or new shoe laces. Who doesn’t like freebies? In other words, coupons can add to the excitement of shopping at your shop.
Example of a newsletter with a birthday coupon
Increase order value
When you already know what the average order value made on your shop is, or what the most popular order is, then you could use a coupon to push these numbers up. For instance, when the average spending amount made on your site is between INR 420, – and INR 480, – you could introduce a 5% discount coupon for orders that meet a minimum spending requirement of INR 500,- . If you see interest pick up, you can then decide to up the ante by creating another coupon for the most commonly observed order value on your site. Take for example INR 860,- as the most common amount to illustrate this point more clearly. A 10% discount coupon for order values that meet a minimum of INR 900 would be appropriate in this case and could consequently trigger an increase in the average order value observed in your shop.
Turn visitors into members
Everyone likes discounts – it doesn’t matter if you are young, old, dumb or smart- people tend to go the extra mile for that extra discount. That’s why leaving your email address for a newsletter subscription isn’t a hassle for most of us.
Visitors who are turned on by discounts are just as easily turned into members of your online shop once you make an association between the two. Therefore, give them a reason to subscribe to your newsletter by promising to deliver a coupon code with a much welcomed 5% discount. This way, you’ll win over a satisfied customer, see an increase in sales and gain an extra newsletter subscriber.
Example of a welcome newsletter registration with a coupon.
Improve tracking of offline and online campaigns
How much good impact have you seen come from your online or offline campaigns? Initiatives like this are hard to track, but if you make sure to add a unique coupon to go along with them, you can measure how often it is being used and how often your campaigns are given exposure. To that end, the attractiveness of your ad will also increase the number of consumers who respond to your campaign.
Increase of consumer range
Coupons are a great addition to your marketing activities and can attract a new niche of consumers. You could increase the reach of your exclusive coupons by making them available to different kinds of websites who tailor to different crowds you wouldn’t usually expect to see on a traditional coupon site. Look for websites who attract certain kinds of audiences and get extra exposure there through a blogpost, or become active on forums where consumers are enthusiastic about sharing news on recent deals.
Affiliate marketing also opens up the possibility for you to get published on various coupon sites. It doesn’t get more relevant than that, and these coupon sites are estimated to have 15 million visitors a month which could be really interesting for your online shop. Here you will find a complete list of Indian coupon sites where you could get published.
Example of a coupon site publishing discount coupons of Snapdeal.
Set up your own strategy
You need to think through what your goals are for your online shop. Do you want to increase your market value, gain more newsletter registrations and increase spending on your site? Perhaps you’re more interested in improving customer satisfaction and loyalty to your brand. With the correct use of coupons, you can manage these goals pretty easily. However, like most things in this line of business, patience is just as important as taking the initiative to try out different marketing strategies.
Once you begin the process, it’s important not to stop halfway on account of your first attempt not being the success you anticipated. It takes a well-structured and preemptive plan to measure which kind of coupon (a percentage or fixed amount/with or without a minimum order value) works best for your brand name and clients. Remember: consumerism doesn’t happen overnight. Most people need time to adjust to change, which means that you can’t expect everyone to respond positively to your new plan immediately.
Give your new strategy some time to settle within your business and trend setters will surely follow!
This post was originally written by Joanna for The Zepo Blog:The Ecommerce Blog for Small & Medium Enterprises
