To encourage more shopping — at any time of year, promotional activities can be lucrative. With that in mind, we look at couponing practices.
For other insights into promotion, read these articles:
- Digital Activity by Generation
- Increasing Revenues with Special Offers
- Expand Your Brand with Digital Deals
How to Design an Effective Coupon: Couponing Best Practices
This post is guest written by Marielle Lee, on behalf of Coupon Chief, whose infographic appears below the text.
When it comes to creating the perfect coupon, there are a number of factors you should keep in mind. A well-designed digital coupon can increase traffic, drive sales, and boost your brand’s popularity among shoppers. On the other hand, a subpar coupon will leave shoppers scratching their heads and wondering what to do.
Coupon Chief created an infographic with some of the top things to consider when designing your next coupon campaign.
The Features of a Strong Digital Coupon
There are several important elements to include in a coupon. Included among these are an expiration date, a call to action, and a tracking code.
The expiration date establishes a sense of urgency, which encourages shoppers to use the coupon and finalize a purchase before the coupon expires.
A call to action persuades shoppers to take the next step in the process. This is usually a catchy phrase or message that encourages an action on the consumer’s part.
A digital tracking code lets companies track demographic data, consumer behavior, and performance metrics gathered from the coupon.
Tips for Creating Coupons That Perform
After you’ve checked the boxes on the key elements of your coupon, you can elevate the success of the campaign with these simple tricks:
Use pricing psychology to target underlying consumer psychology and improve clicks for your digital coupon. Charm pricing uses prices that end in “.99” rather than “.00.” Comparative pricing adds a new, discounted price next to the original price.
Utilize color psychology with a color palette that conveys specific meaning. For example, using red throughout the coupon could help encourage a sense of urgency.
Capitalize on the urgency principle to maximize on the tendency of consumers to make snap decisions and impulse purchases. Do this by adding an expiration date clearly to the face of the coupon.
The Infographic
I received a coupon yesterday from Donkin. It’s a $3 dollars card which can replace $3 by any situation. However I don’t think I want to cash that coupon. From the article I got there are several factors that coupon lack of. Which are very monotonous colors, small front size and too many words on the coupon.
I got a coupon from from Papa Johns, and it was a free medium cheese pizza.
Last time I ordered a pizza but it was not delievered on time. This coupon is a compensation from them.
I used that coupon and ordered some other snacks as dinner.
From the article, I think this kind of coupon targeted the right customers because it is the personlized offers based on customers’ purchase history.
The infographic is very helpful! The mobile/text fact caught my interest as I have seen many companies try to get me to subscribe to text marketing, Personally I hate it, but I can definitely see how it works. In addition, I have seen social media grow as a touch point for couponing this holiday season. In fact, I received an email from Instagram stating that there were retailers having sales specifically through Instagram.
The importance of the coupon is not only the discount but the illustration as well. The pictures, colors, texts are all visuals that catch the eyes of a potential consumer, enticing them to buy the product because it is on sale. With the rise of social media, online coupons have gained traction as well as email coupons too. With the tracking of social media nowadays, I was searching for a nice jacket, and then i saw coupons on instagram for North Face jackets for 30%. Its this type of marketing that will attract consumers to buy more.
There’s nothing I love more than discount shopping. Most of the time, the coupons I receive are 20-40% at any given time, but the discount is always a markdown of a marked up price, so you really aren’t getting a discount! BOGO deals always trick me into buying more of what I don’t need, since although I’m getting two for the ‘price of one’ – I probably didn’t need the first one anyway. I learned the Charm Pricing technique as the pretty number theory, but I never really understood how 99 was perceived as a more attractive number since it’s really just 1 cent less than the next whole number up.