Coupons in the Digital Age
Like many physical things, coupons are now digitized and completely ubiquitous on the internet. This is great for consumers, who appreciate being able to easily search for deals online and find ways to save on the brands they trust.
According to one study, 93% of Americans shop with coupons, and 29% of Americans using mobile coupons.
As the economy has changed, so have consumer shopping habits. It’s no surprise that an increasing amount of American consumers have become more price-conscious with a volatile economy. On average, consumers spend about two hours a week searching for discounts online.
On top of that, it turns out that coupon use might even have a positive psychological impact on consumers. Research by the Neuroeconomics department of Claremont Graduate University suggests that coupons can directly impact people’s happiness and increase the ability to deal with stress.
Given the continued popularity of coupons in the digital age, many smart businesses are working hard to create savvy and desirable coupons and robust online coupon strategies.
The Benefits of Online Coupons
Online coupons allow the opportunity for lots of customer data collection, tracking, and measurement of coupon efficiency. With the right coupon intelligence technology, it’s possible to determine performance metrics like keyword, message, channel, device, segment, and location, to things like optimal offer value, the average number of days to redeem, how many people received the offer, and where the coupon was redeemed most.
Increase website traffic with promotions and discounts and build brand awareness. 40% of consumers share email offers with friends, and 28% of consumers share promotions via social media platforms.
Online coupons increase sales. Coupons can bring back former customers and convince an undecided customer to purchase their order. 63% of consumers would reconsider an abandoned shopping cart if offered a discount. People also tend to buy more when given discounts.
Improve customer loyalty with a rewards program. Reward programs are a simple way to promote customer loyalty. Customer loyalty increases the lifetime value of a customer, and in turn, increases revenue. 84% of consumers say they are more likely to choose a brand that offers a loyalty program. 66% of customers believe belonging to a rewards program changes their spending behavior with the company.
Online coupons attract new customers. The conversion rate of merchant sites offering a promotion or discount is 7%, compared to 0.2% for websites without any coupons.
Promote or trial a new product with online coupons. Online coupons allow companies the opportunity to promote a new product by offering it at a discount, encouraging their consumers to go ahead and try it.
Different types of Online Coupons
- Holiday Promo Code
- First order promo code
- Seasonal promo code
- Discount on a certain amount
- Sign-up discount
- Birthday discount
- Customer anniversary discount
- Flash sale
- Cart abandonment
- Customer service discount
- Retention incentive
- Referral coupon
Creating a Great Online Coupon Marketing Strategy
So how does a business adopt a successful online coupon strategy?
Visuals
One important first step is to make effective coupons. Coupons are just a request for customers to buy something of yours, so make it a visually attractive offer to stand out among the crowd. Customers appreciate good design; incorporating engaging graphics, colors, and text will make customers excited to redeem their offer.
Segmentation
Use customer data to segment audiences and give meaningful, relevant offers. Someone who owns a cat isn’t going to be excited about a coupon for a discount on dog food.
Messaging
Coupons should have clear, concise messaging and details. Online coupons that are overly complicated will frustrate consumers.
Expiration
Make sure the online coupon has an explicit expiration time or date. For example, you can set the availability of the discount from a few hours to a few days. Expiration dates inspire a sense of urgency, and prompt customers to act. 50% of millennials find this type of limited-time offer especially appealing.
Data Collection
Online coupons provide a valuable opportunity to collect data and to track the effectiveness of the coupons. It’s essential to have a good understanding of the data so that subsequent online coupon marketing strategies can benefit from knowing what works and what doesn’t.
Channel Selection
Decide which channels to distribute which discounts and when. Businesses that send online coupons through email report a 48% increase in revenue. But emails aren’t always opened right away; promoting on other channels can help maximize your reach, and even make new leads.
Rewards Programs
Promote customer loyalty by establishing a Rewards Program. Loyalty programs are an excellent way to inspire customers to keep buying, and the majority of consumers prefer to shop from a brand that offers a rewards program.
Online Coupon Marketing & Management Systems
Lastly, keep up with the latest technology. Online coupons offer an opportunity to know the consumer’s path to purchase. Many large brands today are “driving blind” when it comes to their digital offers. A good coupon management system should make every step of this process easier can even include smart recommendations for coupon values.
Enhance Your Online Coupon Strategy With RevTrax
RevTrax has the technology to take online coupon intelligence to a new level. Tracking and measurement are just the start of what RevTrax-empowered brands can expect. RevTrax clients gain unprecedented transparency and control when it comes to their digital offers with products like offer security, social sharing and optimal offer value optimization via A/B testing.
The RevTrax platform also has a uniquely powerful AI-based methodology that recommends and changes offer-values for CPG and retail brands across consumer segments with various engagement levels. AI offers recommendations that are based on over a decade of research studying consumer response to offers, and are based on state of the art machine learning algorithms.
