Both online and offline small businesses can create and distribute product and service offerings very cost effectively with coupons that are designed to do all of the following things:
1- Collect the name and contact information of the respondent,
2- Provide an incentive for the user to contact your business,
3- Brand your company and it's products (services) with your unique tag line, logo, and web site URL,
4- Give the respondent something of value that he will hang on to until he decides to redeem the coupon,
5- Provide the means for testing your direct response product headlines, ad copy, pricing, etc,
6- Make it possible to do a joint venture with other businesses to take advantage of wider reach and new customer databases.
Are coupons really worth the effort and trouble?
Of course, the answer depends upon many factors including the drawing power of the offer itself, the pricing (or discounting), the effectiveness of the headline and ad copy, the scarcity factor (Can I get this same deal or a better one somewhere else?), the responsiveness of the mailing list or customer base that the coupons are distributed to, your company reputation for delivering value, and on and on.
Typically, coupons will return an average of $2 - $4 per dollar spent on the coupon campaign, making them a cost effective method of marketing.
Of course, that figure is only a broad industry average and your results could be significantly greater or less.
Coupons may even be considered a great success if the owner breaks even on the overall cost if the goals of the coupon campaign include building up a list of potential new customers, branding your company in the minds of the niche market prospects, providing some kind of value in the minds of your customers even though they may not respond to the offer, etc.
In Part 2, we'll discuss how to prepare your coupons according to some that have been very effective in using this type of marketing.
