All About Coupons and Promotions and How To Create Your Own

Who doesn’t get excited about a discount or a certain promo? Well, it certainly makes many customers thrilled. They’ll cheerfully and strategically use any coupons and promotions you throw their way. But while it’s all good for customers, as a business owner, you might wonder how it all works out on the other side of it. This article will tell you all about coupons and promotions, and how to run them for our online store.

Coupon Marketing And Promotional Offers

As a business owner, you’d want to get into the trend and benefits that coupon marketing and promotions bring to your business. Businesses that offer coupons and give out promo codes have been known to earn more profit and customers. Even in the physical stores, coupons and promotions played a big role in the marketing strategies of companies. And with the emergence of technological advancement, online stores, and online shopping have taken the market by storm. Thus, digital coupons and promotions followed along with it. While the physical and digital coupons offer the same benefits (discount, free shipping, etc.), digital coupons are much cheaper because you wouldn't have to print them. You just attach them to your online store and you’re good to go.

Businesses that offer coupons and promotions have a tendency to overdo it, and that does more harm than good in the long run. If not used right, it might lead customers to reduce the value of your products in their minds. You might also accidentally be teaching them to wait for a better discount or another promo code and delay their sales - or worse, cause them to abandon their cart. Not to mention that there are some financial implications that come with each promo code or coupon discount your customers use. However, while there are these certain downsides to coupon marketing, it certainly is outweighed by the benefits. Coupons and promotions have been used by businesses for decades. It certainly has been proven and tested to be a good part of marketing strategies. Some of the many benefits that businesses get when they offer coupons are:

It satisfies the customers’ expectations.
It drives sales up.
It entices new customers.
It encourages old customers to purchase again.
It increases the chance of conversion.
It can help you sell specific products.
It increases the volume of sales for specific or multiple products.
It can be tracked and measured.
It boosts your brand image.
It gives your customers reason to share about your business.

Things to Consider When You Use Coupons and Promotions

Before implementing coupon marketing as part of your marketing strategy, you have to really think about its implications and how you would go about doing them. While there are indeed many benefits that you can get once you do this, you still have to consider whether it is the right time for your business. When you offer coupons and promotions at the wrong time or the wrong way, you might end up hurting your business rather than helping it. Carefully evaluate what kinds of promotions are right for your products and right for your business at the time that you made them. It is important to understand how each promo code or coupon discount works and how it can impact your business. While there is always a certain learning curve as you start your business, you have to be mindful of experimenting without proper research and ideas of what could work best for your business.

To give you an idea, here are some of the most commonly used coupons and promotions:

Percentage Discount - This promo code gives your customer a certain percentage discount from their purchases. You can dictate this according to what you deem necessary. It can range from 1% as a small incentive up to 50% to phase out any old products you have in stock. You can also attach it to other promotions such as “Buy two, get 50% the second one” or use it as an incentive for subscriptions and sign-ups.
Dollar-value Discount - This is like when you offer coupons for a percentage discount. The major difference is that instead of a percentage based on their purchases, you offer coupons and promotions that have a flat rate. This means that you set a certain amount that would be deducted from their purchase.
Free Gift - When you offer coupons of this nature, you encourage people to go through with their transactions. You can set this up with certain conditions or a certain volume or amount of purchase. Customers love free stuff.
Free Shipping - Shipping is a major part of any online business. And shipping costs are often a primary concern of customers, no matter where they are in the world. Therefore, free shipping is truly one of the customer favorites among all kinds of coupons and promotions.

You can think of and offer coupons that are unique to the ones mentioned above. The important thing is that you really consider what type works best for you, your customers, and your business. There are many to choose from and what’s best will vary from business to business. The way you market all of your coupons and promotions is also a vital part of coupon marketing. You can use email marketing or social media to spread the word. You can also partner with influencers and give them a code that they can give to their followers to promote your business and your products. Your website can also contain certain pop-ups that offer coupons, promo codes for certain products, or discounts on certain deals.

Be strategic about how you incorporate coupon marketing in your marketing plan. Design it in a way that boosts not only sales but also promotes other aspects of your business. You can gather customer feedback and measure the effectiveness of your site more easily when you offer coupons and promotions as incentives for their responses. Build your email list by encouraging your customers to share with their friends in return for getting a certain discount after they have done so. You can also stimulate sales during holidays or improve sales on off-seasons by using coupons and promotions that are redeemable only at a certain time or timeframe.