Coupons should be a part of your local online marketing strategy. If they aren't, you should reconsider. They can drastically impact the effectiveness of existing marketing efforts by increasing the number of people who convert off your website, emails, social media accounts and more.
Online coupons can be used to attract new customers who may not be aware of your business and existing customers who either need a reminder to come back, or should be rewarded for their loyalty to help turn them into a champion of your business (especially on social media).
Online coupons make customers happy; science proves it
Recent research has correlated coupons directly with brain chemistry linked to happiness. People who receive $10 coupons have 38 percent higher Ocytocin levels, 32 percent calmer breathing rates, 5 percent slower heart rates, and 20x less sweaty palms. You can’t make this stuff up.
How do you choose the right online coupon for your business?
Choosing what to offer depends on your local business’ economics and what is attractive to customers. We like to start with your cost of acquisition. How much are you currently spending to acquire a new customer and what is their average lifetime value (the profit you see from a customer from their first visit to their last)? Those are metrics that many local businesses don’t track, but can be calculated on the back of an envelope pretty readily.
Make online coupons attractive for customers too
Studies show that there is a vast improvement in effectiveness when you offer at least 20 percent off. In the age of daily deals, less than that is more easily dismissed. Customers also like definitive amounts they can value, like $5, $10 or $20 off. They can understand those offers because they have concrete value.
The real coupon challenge is about controlling distribution
Your most important challenge is not creating the offer, but making sure it gets in front of potential customers. In fact, that’s why Groupon commands half of a pre-paid offer—they have a 30-million email customer email list and you don’t (yet). And that of course is why local Internet marketing is more important than ever.
Coupons improve the effectiveness of all your distribution channels
Coupons improve the conversion of each and every channel and they should be spread across all of them. On local business websites, we see 3-4x improvements in conversion by putting your coupons prominently upon them. We see similar effects on Facebook, Twitter and email as well as one other important effect—loyalty and retention increases.
Mobile geo-targeted coupons bring together acquisition and distribution
One great way to use coupons is to combine them with mobile marketing. Our studies have shown that mobile marketing currently has the highest return on investment (ROI) of any channel—even greater than email marketing. Taking an effective coupon as discussed above, you can target people in your ZIP code on their mobile devices as they walk or drive by or as they sit on their couches browsing their iPads.
Go forth and coupon!
So that’s the basis of a good online coupon strategy. We think that businesses should always have an active coupon (or coupons) to use across their distribution channels. Local businesses should always be increasing their email lists with mobile coupons, converting more customers on their website with coupons and offering their loyal customers reasons to come back with coupons. It’s a lot cheaper than the cost of acquisition and builds marketing assets that grow in value.
So what are you waiting for? Go forth and coupon!
Source: http://bizjournals.com
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