To most small business owners, coupon marketing sounds like an expensive process of mass-printing and distributing vouchers. As Alex Papaconstantinou, CEO of Wikigains.com explains, using vouchers entails paying local media companies big cheques to print and distribute your vouchers. Not surprisingly, new entrepreneurs working on limited budgets are being put off by the potential cost and would rather forget about marketing their products and services with printed vouchers.
“But you shouldn’t write off coupon marketing just yet”, says Alex, “if done right it can help give your business a profitability boost without costing a fortune”.
As a matter of fact, there are several ways printed vouchers can be used effectively without costing you anything more than a couple of pence per voucher and the time you put in it. Since 70% of consumers still look for traditional paper coupons for savings voucher marketing has still future. All you have to do is to cover the cost of the paper they are printed on.
Avoid mass distribution of vouchers. Give only a few vouchers to select customers
Do not spend hundreds of pounds to print thousands of paper vouchers and even more for postage or house-to-house distribution to unqualified customers. Print only a few vouchers using your own printer and include them in your mail to existing customers. Your existing customers are already qualified leads and they will convert on a much higher rate than unqualified prospects. Here is an example, if you are sending an invoice or a copy of your newsletter to a customer then include a coupon.
Exploit point-of-purchase opportunities
For instance, you can put the vouchers in the bags the customers use to make their purchases. Several businesses have even made every paper receipt into a voucher, such as the UK retail giant, Tesco.
Partner with your neighbours
You can get into partnerships with your neighbouring businesses when creating deals, or split your advertising and promotion costs with them. For instance, in a scenario where a movie theatre and a restaurant are neighbours, giving the customers 50% off cinema voucher with every meal on a special day like Friday could prove beneficial to both businesses.
Offer vouchers after providing professional advice
You may find yourself writing a column in the local paper, speaking in a community meeting, and even teaching a class. These are great opportunities to share a discount voucher to capitalise on the attention your business is getting from your audience. Since you an audience of people taking your advice that automatically makes them qualified leads. In most cases it will come very natural to pass around an offer for one your products or services.
Exploit the full sales potential of your business cards
Many people have their business cards with them, and they use them as a means to market their products and services. But many of these marketing tools waste their potential by not having a sales message or a call to action, such as a 50% discount on the customer’s first visit.
Join and association
There are numerous business associations where professionals can share deals and discounts on travel, car rental, stationary, phone services, and so forth. By contributing to the needs of such associations through your business services or products, you can get a chance to have your offers featured in a forthcoming newsletter publication.
Some of the tips discussed in this article have better money-making potential than others. However, the above voucher marketing tactics cost you very little, or nothing, and could mean earning several hundred dollars more from your business every month. As long as there is money to be saved using coupons, there will always be voucher marketing.