Plan for a successful online coupon strategy – part 2

How to distribute your coupons online

With the advent of hundreds of affiliate coupon sites such as retailmenot.com or in Canada redflagdeals.com, not to mention crowdsourcing coupon sites such as groupon.com there is absolutely no shortage of ways to distribute your coupons online.

1. The simplest way to distribute your coupons would be through email. This only applies to you if you already have a list of subscribers who have opted to be on your email list.When you distribute your coupon through a mailing list it is critical to encourage your subscribers to share the coupon. Always provide links to allow the user to share the coupon via email, post it on Facebook, and Twitter. If you are working with a third party email distribution partner inquire whether or not they are able to offer your subscribers incentives to forward emails to friends such as “save an extra 10% if you forward this email to a friend”.
2. Depending on the format of your website,  one of the most affordable ways to promote your coupon is to display it on your website. You might decide to drive traffic to your website coupon using Google AdWords advertising. Google will list an ad describing your coupon and you only pay when someone clicks on your ad and visits your site.
3. Other simple and free ways to distribute your coupons are to post them on your Facebook group/page/profile or Twitter page.
4. It is also free to post your coupon on many coupon websites. In Canada some of the big sites are www.redflagdeals.com or www.smartcanucks.ca. These sites receive hundred of thousands of visitors each month looking for deals.One caveat with these types of sites is that you are marketing your product or service to a “bargain searching audience”. These types of customers may be willing to invest in your product and service while it is on sale but aren’t likely to want to pay full price which equals no repeat business. This is, of course, a risk when advertising discounts through any advertising medium.
5. The latest trend in coupon shopping are the dozens of social or crowdsourcing coupon sites such as Groupon.com, LivingSocial.com or WagJag.com In this model, the retailer offers coupons to local customers redeemable only if a certain number of people sign up for the discount.

Use coupons to capture new subscribers to your newsletters

Never miss the opportunity to use your coupon as a tool to grow your email subscriber database.

If your customer is redeeming the coupon online make sure that in the check out process, they are encouraged to subscribe to your newsletter to receive more coupons.

If the coupon is redeemed in store/ in person, ensure customers are encouraged to give their email to receive more great deals. If possible offer an additional incentive for customers who give their email. For example, an extra 10% off your purchase today if you sign up to receive our deals and coupons by email.

Measure the success of your coupon campaign

As with all online marketing initiatives, it is critical to measure your success to see if you are getting any return on your marketing investment.

If your website is equipped with an analytics tool then you can easily see how many times different websites referred visitors to your site to redeem the coupon and then pinpoint the most effective websites that post/distribute your coupons.

If you’re redeeming paper coupons you can always go the old fashioned route and ask your customer where they found the coupon online.