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Using coupons can be very effective in a down economy. Remember an earlier post titled,  Coupons can be used to accelerate sales in down economy and in fact it is one of our most popular posts too.

But how often have you printed a bunch of coupons for your promotion and been left with extras when the promotion was about to start? Or worse when the promotion has ended?
Did you print too many? More likely you did not have a way to distribute the coupons for maximum effectiveness.

In today’s post I wanted to describe a few ideas around how to get your coupons to go viral.

• Display coupon offers in other Locations
  If you have multiple locations is the promotion you are running going to be for all stores, or only specific stores on certain days.
• Talk to local merchants on your street or block about promoting you
  Another way to get word of mouth marketing is to distribute coupons to other vendors. This week I was buying take out Chinese food at our local restaurant, and while I was waiting I noticed a coupon sitting on the counter for free bowling. The coupon was certainly inviting since I was just waiting around for the food order to be ready. And two I had not hear of the new bowling location in my area.
• Re-purpose the same offer on your website, or in your email newsletter
  Get the word out online or by email, with a forward to a friend option could help. Make it easy to forward the email version of the coupon to others, meaning that you may not want to personalize each coupon code for instance.
• Twitter or Facebook
  A lot of companies are encouraging sign ups by promoting incentives. For example, this offer is only available to our fans or followers.
  
• Encourage sharing to get the word out
  Bring a friend with you when you redeem this coupon and you eat free. That type of thing. Or require a certain level of participants such as a group or 3 or more.
• When giving out the coupons give out several to the same people
  Having extra coupons people will try to share the discount or offer with their friends. On several occasions this has happened to me while waiting in line and the person in front of me used up the maximum coupons they could. And gave the extras to the guy standing behind him.
• Send an SMS to mobile phones of your customers
  Perhaps this strategy is newer and not everyone is trying it yet. But hey there is opportunity there then right.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Defining Advertising Objectives for Small Business
• Consider Timing as part of your Marketing
• HubSpot Study: Small Businesses That Blog Get 55% More Website Visitors
• Scarcity Selling Works
• Does your business have a Tagline?

With less money to spend consumers are going to be looking for more value in tight times. Using coupons both offline and online can increase sales and provide just the right incentive to motivate a buyer to make  a purchase. Therefore using coupons could just be the key to get your sales moving, by providing value through discounts that consumers will perceive as getting more for less.

By using coupons you will be able to measure the marketing program’s success by coupons mailed vs. redeemed. Or if using an e-coupon online you can directly track that back to online orders or in store redemption. Using coupons for promotion also helps to introduce your store or service offering to new people who did not previously know about your business.

Also remember to create a sense of urgency by indicating an expiry date, indicating a limited time offer. This tactic usually helps to motivate anyone who is sitting on the fence and is unsure if they should buy or not. You may even noticed a recent trend to offer reduced pricing from your vendors or suppliers citing recent economic conditions as their motivation to discount prices. Ask yourself if this led you to increase spending to take advantage of the opportunity or to at least maintain your current spend.

But how do you distribute your coupons?

A recent study from comScore Media Metrix indicated, coupon sites were the fastest-growing online category in November 2008, up 32% from October to 35.6 million visitors.

One such example of a coupon aggregator is Coupons.com a site that allows consumers to select and print coupons that can be redeemed at stores offline.  Case in point the website had had 8.5 million visitors in November 2008. However Compete has since reported the site receives over 14 million unique monthly visitors which is a significant jump over last year.

Source:  Coupon Sites Grow at a Fast Click, eMarketer Feb 19

Coupon Promotion Tips

1. Name the product being offered at and at a discounted price. Example: “On Sale now for 20% off. ($X value)”
2. Add a start date if the coupon is mailed before the promotion starts. And remember to add an expiry date at a minimum.
3. Indicate if the discount is before or after adding tax. This will save alot of explaining later.
4. Limit quantities. Example: 1 per person/family
5. Define who should be receiving the coupon (New Customers vs. Rewarding Existing Customers)
6. Remember not to give away too much so you still make a profit even if honoring the discount.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Defining Advertising Objectives for Small Business
• Consider Timing as part of your Marketing
• Small Businesses still prefer Vendor supplied Business Advice
• HubSpot Study: Small Businesses That Blog Get 55% More Website Visitors
• How to get your Coupons to spread