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Coupon Marketing: What It Is and How to Use It for Your Ecommerce Store

Updated: Feb 23, 2023

Coupon marketing has more to offer for your business than you are already aware of. Incentives are always a great way to attract and retain customers for your business. They help you increase your engagement with customers. And this is where a coupon, one of the most widely used forms of incentives comes into action!


What is coupon marketing?


A coupon is essentially a discount placed on a product or service for a special occasion or a specific period. And coupon marketing is about leveraging these discounts and promotions to maximize your sales and customer engagement.


Coupons used for e-commerce stores are called digital coupons as they are distributed and redeemed digitally. Digital coupon marketing is an effective way to promote your online store and invite more customers to make purchases.


How to use coupons for your eCommerce store?


Every customer is always up for buying products/services at discounted prices. And this buying behavior can be tapped into by using the best coupon marketing strategies. But, how will it help you with your business? Let’s understand.


Increase in sales


Tempting offers can drive more customers towards your products and services. And they also help you get attention from new customers. Coupons can be a great way for them to try out your brand. The key is to make the offer sound as tempting as possible.


Get rid of old inventory


When your brand is all set to launch something new, it’s best to get rid of some old inventory. It can help you make space for the new ones. And rather than dumping, this old inventory can be repurposed using coupon marketing.


Increase in brand awareness


People will talk about your coupons more if they interest them and this gives an avenue towards increasing brand awareness. The more these coupons are spread across, the more people know about your brand.


Time-bound and measurable


One of the best parts about coupon marketing strategy is that you can decide their validity. Some coupons can be valid only during festive seasons and some can be valid for a year. You can discontinue a coupon by measuring its effectiveness.


What are some coupon marketing strategies that you can use for your online store?


Now that you understand what coupon marketing is, it’s important to know how to plan it effectively. It is not just about putting a discount or offer but the target audience, type, and validity of the coupon should also be well-defined.


Let’s go through some coupon marketing strategies that can help you boost your online store!


Use Coupons for first-time buyers


When someone visits your online store for the first time, they are yet to turn into a customer. You can use this potential by offering a coupon on their first purchase to convince them to make it.


Once they make the purchase using the coupon, you can use the opportunity to build brand loyalty, turning them into recurring customers.


Use Coupons during specific seasons


Christmas offer! Valentine’s week offer! Summer offer! Don’t they sound exciting? This excitement offered during special seasons will keep customers hooked to your online store.


They will keep visiting your online store for more announcements about the frequent offers. You can share these coupons on your website’s home page or even use email marketing to promote them. This will increase your web traffic as well.


Use Price-minimum sales to increase your sales


When you offer a coupon at a minimum price, your customers end up spending more than they intend to. Therefore, you must set a price that will help you maximize your profit the most.

Your customers will make more bulk purchases with minimum price offers only to avail of the coupons. These impulse purchases will increase your sales significantly.


Use BOGO offers to get rid of inventory


BOGO – Buy one get one free! And who doesn’t love offers where you get free things? Free items can draw attention at any time during the year. And they can also help you get rid of unwanted inventory.


Use Free Shipping Coupon


Free shipping can attract a large number of audiences at once. And this offer can be provided without any special reasons or seasons, with the sole purpose. Free shipping can be used as a sales promotion coupon.


How to promote your digital coupons?


You have decided on the type of coupon, its validity, size, and target audience. But what’s your plan to promote it? For the coupons to help your online store, you must promote them first.


Here is how to do it:


Social Media


For an online store, a strong social media presence is extremely important to drive traffic toward its brand and website. Once that presence has been established, you can use these platforms to promote your coupons to get the most out of them.


Website Pop-Ups

Pop-ups on websites are one of the most attention-grabbing ways you can use to inform the visitors of your website about the coupons.


Website Banners


Unlike pop-ups, website banners are always present on your website. They can be used to promote coupons even before they have been launched to make the visitor aware of them. This can make them come back and go through your website again once the coupon has been launched.


Email Campaigns


You can use your email list to send out information about all the ongoing or upcoming coupons. You can either use your e-newsletter or send individual emails that are not automated.


The Takeaway


There are plenty of ways to boost your online store and coupon marketing is one of the most effective ones. You can even use it during the times you feel your sales are “stuck” to get them going again and reactivate your brand’s online presence.

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