Trigger Marketing

What a great question.

Many advertisers use coupons as a way to track the results of their advertising. It can be a sound tactic, but the first thing you should ask yourself is what type of customer am I looking for?

You’ll probably say, any type of customer, I just need the sales.

Well, it’s true we do need sales to keep cash flow flowing, but there can be some long-term effects to your business if you don’t think this through.

We had a client that wanted to run a coupon. We asked why, he said “so I know if what you’re recommending works or not”. We said we understand that you want to run a coupon to track results, but what do you expect from the coupon?

He looked at me sideways and said, “What do I expect from the coupon? I expect sales”. Then we asked what kind of sales. Now he was really getting ticked.

We went on to explain that we were trying to determine what kind of customers he wanted to attract to his business with the coupon.

If he wanted immediate traffic to his store we would need to run a coupon that would attract customers that are looking for a deal, a great price, something that can’t be missed. But if he wanted to attract customers that are not looking just for the lowest price, we would have to create a value proposition that speaks to the customers need for quality, reliability, trust and expertise.

The other major difference is that the “deal” seeking customer will usually react quicker to the advertising, but they will switch just as quickly to another company if they feel there is a better deal. While the less price sensitive customer will repeat purchase as long as you continue to make the experience easy and less stressful.

So before you prepare your next coupon, ask yourself who are you attracting and if they are the right customers.

To learn more, download our free eBook "Seat of your pants marketing - The 10 biggest mistakes small businesses make and what to do about it"

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