Advertising digital coupons on Facebook and Twitter is a great way of marketing for you business. Coupons are no longer pieces of paper that you get on magazines and flyers. Social media it is the cheapest and most effective way of advertising your coupons.
Everybody likes a good deal. Personally, I have tried a new restaurant just because I saw on Facebook a post saying “show us this post and you will get 20% off your meal!” Why wouldn´t you do it?
The same way that people engage with your brand on social media, they will definitely engage with your discounts! This will obviously bring you more customers.
There are some tricks you should use when advertising your coupons online.
One of the first rules it is to make it appealing. You have to understand that people like loads of brands on social media. These brands are constantly posting new stuff that not always is relevant or engaging for their audience. If you want to be noticed, especially if you are giving out discounts, you have to make it eye-catching. Use bright colours, images and just few words for the content, specifying what you are offering.
Another important rule is to target your customers. When posting something on Facebook for example, you can boost your post. You will have to pay for this feature, but it is definitely worth it to make sure you are reaching the right people. For example if you are promoting a meal deal on Wednesdays, make sure the people you target are not working or have enough time to go to your restaurant/café. There is no point paying for a service that will not be focus on your target audience. There is also an app that intercepts GPS signals from mobile devices, sending instant coupons from restaurants nearby your location, great way to engage potential customers using digital coupons. As a coffee shops owner, having the opportunity to text people walking by with an instant 20% 0ff on all your coffees, would certainly increase chances to persuade potential customer to just walk in.
Implementing these digital coupon promotions is very important for your brand, increasing its awareness via promotional offers. If you post or tweet a digital coupon, ask for people to share it. This is a great opportunity for you to involve other people to share and advertise your business for free. For instance, coupons can be redeemed only after following or liking your business page, which will help widen your audience (Hendricks, 2013).
Other digital channels can be used to advertise your coupons. These methods are equally important to increase customers’ volume in store. Offering coupons if signing up for your mailing list, is a great idea to gather customers’ phone number and e-mail address to advertise your engage with them later on to increase repeat buying. When sending emails you can provide a code which people have to present when ordering. This is also a smart way to identify which customer is engaging with your offer and who is not. Therefore, providing valuable information for the business for strategy optimization.
Tex messages are also a very important communication channel. It is a more personal way of reaching people, however do not overload customers with messages otherwise could have negative effects concerning your brand image.
If they are happy to receive your texts, great! Make sure you personalize them using their name for example. People will feel that you are offering a discount only to them and not to everybody. There are software’s that you can use to personalize multiple messages, so you don’t have to do it one by one (Belman, 2010)!
Digital coupons is the way to go for local businesses, either via social media or other digital channels, it is a very effective way to increase customers engagement and repeat customers. Finally, make sure that you create a feeling of exclusivity for each customer, and they will definitely revisit your store!
References
Belman, K. (2010). Creating Brand Loyalty Through Digital Couponing. [Online] Mindgruve. Available at: http://mindgruve.com/blog/advertising/creating-brand-loyalty-through-digital-couponing [Accessed 1 May 2015].
Hendricks, D. (2013) 7 Tips For Effective Digital Coupon Marketing. [Online] Forbes. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhendricks/2013/09/23/7-tips-for-effective-digital-coupon-marketing/2/ [Accessed 1 May 2015].