By Destini’s Director of Brand Activations Kyle Volenik
More and more, today’s consumers are using digital means to redeem coupons. Not to say that print isn’t a legitimate tactical approach to entice consumers to try a product, but too often print coupons can be misplaced, forgotten, or accidentally thrown out. Most of the time, though, people know where their phones are, which is why mobile and digital coupon programs with retailers continue to grow and take a pivotal role in winning strategies today.
One significant advantage of digital couponing is that it affords lots of room for customization to achieve your brand’s specific objectives. But with that freedom comes a plethora of variables to consider, which can be overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. So, what’s most important to consider when you decide to create a mobile offer? Focus on the following four precepts to build a solid foundation for a successful digital coupon campaign.
Because digital couponing delivers substantial insights in time to act on your next moves, you’re able to assess ROI and turn those learnings into targeted growth efforts. Running digital coupons through a specific retailer, you can understand what truly drives your consumer base at that account. Then when you launch into a similar retail account, you know exactly how to connect to shoppers quickly and prove your value to that new partner. Measurement is key to optimizing your efforts, and with digital couponing, each improvement creates a ripple effect to grow your share of the market.
It’s a common mistake for brands to look at digital couponing programs as a nice add-on or something to run once a year. But in doing so, brands often shortchange themselves, missing out on the benefits of a more comprehensive strategy and the learnings that can only come from measuring implementation and nuanced results over time. Planning to run multiple programs throughout the year allows for experimentation and delivers insights to guide smarter modifications to the next program, and digital couponing delivers rich insights quickly, meaning you can integrate learnings seamlessly into your next campaign.
Unless you want to offer free product with no strings attached, your coupon needs to strike the balance of costs you can afford and real savings your customer will be motivated to claim. Yes, managing your bottom line is crucial to the success of any program. But if the coupon doesn’t offer compelling value to your consumer, then it probably won’t drive meaningful results.
As an example, $2 off any 2 items sounds like more savings than $1 off a single item, and this can help an offer perform better, even if you have traditionally run a $1 off any item offer in the past. And, if you have a more expensive product, utilizing percentage discounts to insinuate deeper savings can help convert more consumers, too.
The goal here is to take off your brand hat and think like your consumer. And if the offer is something that you would want to take advantage of, then most likely your consumer will, too.
When thinking about mobile and digital coupons – or any new and different promotional medium – it’s not uncommon for brands to have a light-bulb moment, thinking, “this is the answer we’ve been looking for!” Digital coupons can play a major role in elevating a brand’s presence at a retailer and drive a large impact on the bottom line. However, if a mobile coupon is the only piece of the game you play with, you might be missing out.
Digital coupons work well to capture critical insights into performance. However, used to their most effective potential, they are simply one variable in your equation. Adding a digital couponing program to an aggressive in-store demo campaign is a smart combination, as is running a digital couponing program right after a month long promo. Tactics like these give your brand additional exposure to consumers and increase the likelihood of current and repeat purchases.
With Destini, we consolidate your efforts through an easy-to-use ecosystem that captures all your couponing information and then propagates it across multiple retailer programs. To learn how we can help you save time, energy, and effort while launching your program across more than 60 retailers, reach out to us at www.destini.co/digital-coupons.