Last week one of our favourite tech blogs, Tech Crunch hosted an event featuring a session called Couponing 101. The session looked at the business side of how and why couponing, mobile coupons and collective buying sites are exploding with consumers and businesses alike.
The experts on the panel broke down their learnings into 10 Lessons for Businesses Using Coupons. You can read the full article here, or we have updated the list and added a few additional tips for Clip Mobile merchants. We hope you find them useful!
10. There are two types of shoppers: Planners and impulse buyers
Planners take time, make a list, look at the circulars, check coupon sites and clip coupons at home. The impulse purchaser prefers to make buying decisions on impulse while they’re in the store.
These two types need a two-prong approach to in order to best be reached when buying decisions are made: Home (planners) vs. Point of purchase (impulse buyers). For example, an impulse buyer needs an advertisement or promotion that calls out and draws attention to the product – i.e. “tell me how this will make my life easier.”
Clip is currently rolling out a door badge campaign with QR codes to capture mobile consumers attention and alert them to your deals on their phone. It is important to realize that mobile is an effective method of putting an offer in someones hands, but without a method of discovery and activation rooted in the real world, a mobile coupon is not so different from a paper coupon in that it can be easily forgotten. We are working with merchants to determine other POS and activation strategies for merchants. For more information about our door badge campaign or to discuss how to maximize customer engagement please drop a line to info@clipmobile.ca
9. Use Different Discounting Tactics for different types of Consumers: Loyals, Switchers, Non-Category User
Loyal: Encourage a loyal customer to continue purchasing in high volume, perhaps offering “buy two get one free” types of offers.
Switcher: Switchers are price sensitive, so even a small discount over your leading competitor can hook them and bring them into the category.
Non-Category User: Often times offering a trial of your product can give people incentive to continue using it.
8. Premium brands use coupons too, they just disguise them
Because high price points equal higher quality in the minds of consumers, premium brands need to be more delicate with their discounting, using promotions that are more targeted to an elite niche market. Luxury brands succeed by providing a high quality free sample, as well as cultivating a higher end look and feel.
7. Create promotional patterns to match purchase cycles
Each product has its own shelf life so businesses need to take into account when and what is the best way to reach their target consumer.
Clip allows merchants the unlimited ability to create, manage and analyze campaigns in real time so merchants can configure campaigns around specific products, events or promotions.
6. Consumer targeting: Know when to use a hammer and when to use a scalpel
Targeting is a double-edged sword — You don’t want to be too targeted because you don’t want to miss out on growing your market. Think about how often your customers purchase your products or services.
If you are promoting a high-frequency purchase, you would want to open the promotion up to many as many customers as possible, but maintain control to limit usage restrictions and also run shorter campaigns as this is the best way to see generate a sales spike.
Conversely, lower frequency or high-value purchases can be set up to be targeted to specific users and offers can be designed to increase the average transaction value of a customer. ie. Buy-two and get the 3rd FREE!
5. Redemption rates are not the only measure of success
Even if redemption rates are relatively low, when you launch a coupon campaign you are generating awareness. Customers that recall seeing a coupon promotion, so even though they might not be redeeming the offer, they are still purchasing your product.
4. Clear and Concise Offers work best
Because of the on-demand and on-the-go nature of mobile coupoons, as well as limited screen space to fit a message, being concise in your offer is key. Clip breaks up offers into 3 separate components.
The Header: this is your headline and should summarize the offer to get the attention of someone looking at your deals. We have found that headlines that break down savings by showing a percentage or ratio are some of the most effective at capturing users attention.
The Message Body: In one or two sentences, let the consumer know what the offer is and what they have to do to redeem it.
Restriction Text: This is where you can put any limitations or restrictions on how and when the offer can be redeemed. It is important to balance the risks of inappropriate coupon use with a message that is short and easy to understand.
3. 360 degree marketing works
With a growing mixture of owned, earned and bought media it’s now more than ever possible to interact with your customer at multiple touch points. In the context of mobile marketing this is using multiple touch points to activate users whether outside, in the store, at home or at point of purchase.
Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post on how marketers are using mobile as an activation tool like never before.
2. Remember, Coupons are Currency
Offering coupons and discounts are a great way to introduce new customers, attract repeat business or increase the average revenue from a transaction. However, when money is involved, things can quickly get complicated. Each campaign must be planned and executed to ensure all parties including the consumer and the merchant get what they need out of a coupon transaction. Take extra care to ensure that coupon restrictions are clear and simple to understand.
Clip is planning on making more information available to merchants on how to structure a campaign to reach specific goals or objectives as this is an important part of our value offering to Small Business Owners. While we work on this content, if you have any questions about your campaign or how to build a strategy for your business, please feel free to drop us a line. We’d be happy to help!
1. With Mobile Coupons, it all Comes Down to Creating a Great Experience
This is why mobile coupons are exploding. Providing discounts and promotions for shoppers has been around for generations. Our advantage is that we provide today’s consumers a really simple and effective way to find and transact on an offer.
Clip’s role as a technology partner is to provide the mechanism for new and existing customers to learn about and transact on your offers. Your role as a merchant is to make sure that once a consumer is in your store with the intent of purchasing with a mobile coupon, that process is as smooth as possible. You don’t want a consumer to give up on a purchase because the process is slow, or because there are issues or concerns at the point of purchase.
Our best defense around a bad experience scenario is education! We ask that all of our merchants make our How To Read and Redeem a Mobile Coupon Guide available to all of their employees as well as creating a communication strategy to ensure info about new campaigns and promotions are communicated to front-line employees.
