Using Digital Coupons to Promote Your Business

If you have a website (of course you do) then you may have already experienced the power of digital coupons to drive business to your site and even to your brick and mortar locale.

Even if you don’t have a website, chances are good that you have downloaded a digital coupon once or twice, or dozens of times if you are my daughters. In fact, when my girls have to go shopping for anything that costs more than $10 they first go online to see what coupons are available. When they eat out, they look to their favorite restaurants for coupons offers. They check out the shoe store, the technology stores, department stores, specialty stores and more. They never leave home without at least a handful of coupons to use on their shopping “sprees.”

According to a marketing research study conducted by ICOM Research, coupon redemption rates rise when prices and unemployment go up. Knowing that and the fact that 67 percent of US shoppers say they are more likely to use coupons during a recession, it may just make sense to have a coupon program in place on your website.

The study goes on to say that digital coupons tend to have a much higher usage rate than traditional paper coupons. It sited that 58% of consumers responding said their coupon use would increse if they could download it from the internet to an electronically swiped frequent shopper card.

My newly designed retail website ~ Eden Florist ~ has a mechanism in place when anyone becomes a new customer they get a coupon as a thank you. They can use the coupon on their current purchase online or at a later date.

And lets not forget mobile coupons that you can download to you mobile device. Hundreds of merchants around the globe are already offering these to their clients and customers. Mobile coupons are a great way to gain new customers, offer specials to current customers, and grow your existing database. Mobile coupons are also a great way to reach prospects because they have instant access to them and don’t have to download or cut out coupons. They just carry them around on their cell phone or PDA to use when they need them.

Coupons also make a good incentive to purchase early and avoid the rush. What kind of coupon could you offer your customers to encourage them to buy now instead of later? Digital coupons can make sense to small business especially with the high costs of being in business, doing business and living today.

Here’s a couple of sites with digital coupons offered by hundreds/thousands of merchants around the country: DealWorker.com, Coupons.com and RetailMeNot. Check them out for ideas and of course to save money!

Heidi Richards Mooney is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of WE Magazine for Women, a WordPress Web Designer, the author of a dozen books and a social media consultant and trainer. Heidi has interviewed hundreds of experts on Social Media Around the World. In 2003 Heidi was named one of 50 women shaping the Internet by the International Virtual Women’s Chamber of Commerce. In 2009 she was named a Twitter Woman to Follow by Only2Clicks.com. She works with solopreneurs, professionals and small businesses in ecommerce, direct sales and retail. Follow Heidi on Google Plus