The Potential Of Online Coupon Marketing

As everyone involved in online marketing is aware, increasing brand awareness and maximising sales are two very important factors for all businesses. Apart from the usual forms of digital marketing (website optimisation, blogs, social networking etc.) many businesses are now signing up to promote themselves and their products via coupon websites.

Coupon websites are a huge growth market. According to comScore Media the overall growth of this sector was 162% for 2010. The way these sites work is to ask customers to sign up for a daily email.
Each day they receive one or more highly discounted offers or ‘deals’ from businesses in a town they nominate, usually their local one. Email recipients are encouraged to share deals with friends and contacts via social networking sites or email.
There are literally hundreds of coupon sites around the Internet, but as with social networking sites, some are better known and more popular than others. Top of the list is Groupon, which is said to be one of the fastest growing companies ever. Living Social is also well supported and no doubt Google Coupons will soon be a strong contender, especially with their policy of promoting businesses signed up to Google Places.
The turnaround on coupon sites is very fast. Each deal has a set number of vouchers available for each product, if they are not all sold then the deal is off. Deals are usually open for just 24 hours which has the added benefit of promoting a sense of urgency. The purchasers of a voucher would then receive it the next day by email ready to print off and use at their convenience.
Coupon sites are simple to sign up for and the financial outlay required is nominal. Businesses just need to decide on how many deals they want to participate in and an appropriate category for their products. Links to the deals can then be added to outbound emails and posted on social networking sites to obtain more leverage.
Once a customer has purchased a deal, it is essential to make sure that their experience of dealing with you is a good one. If that proves to be the case, hopefully there will not only be repeat business but recommendations to follow.
Coupon sites are an excellent way to get your brand out there. They email literally hundreds of thousands of people and target individuals living in the area of your business. While social media plays a part in reaching a broad customer base, a coupon site does a better job of targeting individuals who are specifically interested in the products or services on offer.
When thinking about marketing strategies for a business, using online coupon sites is definitely worthy of consideration. This type of marketing can be beneficial for many businesses, but especially new ones and those in the retail sector. The main idea behind using a coupon site within a marketing strategy is to create brand awareness with new customers and increase ROI.