What a Steal: Enticing Customers with Daily Deals
How to Use Coupons to Win New Customers
Discounts and deals have the ability to make customers stop and stare at the signs. The idea of getting a good bargain off high-quality merchandise in exchange for a small amount of cash is widely appealing. Make your visitors stop by your website and social networking page for further announcements of spherical deals. Special deals like a 15% on a best-selling product can interest customers and make them more likely to go to your store and buy something.
Special deals have to be well-crafted to make customers loosen their purse strings and immediately buy your product. It is not enough to offer discounts. They must be attached to products that sell well to ensure your business will not lose profit.
Here are some tips from Leyl Master Black to help you plan your deals:
1. Look at different special deal sites before settling on one.
Like shopping, an entrepreneur must first look around to scope out all the options. Choosing a coupon site from a list without asking a lot of questions about the terms and conditions is not a good way to do it, either. What you must do is to approach all the coupon sites appropriate for your type of business. Learn about their payment schemes, the terms for using their site to advertise your voucher, and the type of customers who will be exposed to your special offers. Weigh all your options and choose the coupon site that provides the right terms and customers for your business.
2. Put time constraints on your deals to book your slow days.
It cannot be avoided to have days when you barely have customers coming in through the front door. Take advantage of coupons to attract more people to fill the tables and fatten up your cashier box in those low-demand days. For example, you’re managing a restaurant. Schedule a coupon for meal reservations on Mondays to Thursdays instead of on high-demand days on Fridays to Sundays. Limit the days or hours this coupon is available to make it seem urgent. This will urge customers to hurry and order coupons as soon as possible.
3. Calculate everything before you sign the fine print.
Offering special deals requires you to lower the price of your products and services by at least 50% to make it especially attractive for people looking for discounts. Coupon sites, of course, would take a cut on each coupon you sell. They would usually ask for a 50% cut. So, for example, you’re selling a product that costs $300. You’re offering a 50% discount, so it’s now only $150. You give the coupon site another 50%, so the amount left to you is $75. This may make you lose profit, especially when the product you’re selling actually costs $100 or more.
The only advantage this will bring you is the exposure to a diverse group of customers who might like a taste of what you’re offering. If they find your merchandise satisfactory, they’ll come back and pay full price without any qualms.
4. Impress your ‘coupon customers.’
According to a Rice University study, only 20% of the people who bought special deals did not return to the store as a full-paying customer. Black recommends making your customers feel welcome and well-cared for to encourage them to come back. Once your customers arrive, have them register their names and contact details so you can send them updates on promotions, special events, and more discounts. You can also offer them extra incentives like a 20% discount on designated items they might want to buy. Customers will feel good enough to come back for more if they’re happy with your services. They might even become regular customers if you’ve managed to make a good impression on them.
5. Measure your return on investment.
When calculating whether your investment on the coupons and discounts raked in enough revenue, answer these questions from David Rangel, founder of Daily Gourmet, an online coupon site for restaurants:
- How much money did your coupon customers spent above the voucher amount? Sometimes, customers spend more than the actual amount they paid for the voucher. Structure the amount you’re offering as a discount to encourage additional purchases.
- How many coupons were notcashed in? Some people who bought your coupons will actually use them. The amount they gave in exchange for your coupons may be fully yours, depending on state laws and the terms you’ve talked about with the administrator of the coupon site.
- How many coupon buyers are new customers? Learn which customers bought your coupons for the first time. This will help you measure whether your coupons are effective enough to attract new clientele.
- How many new customers came back? How much did they spend? Create a database of coupon customers to learn who came back to buy your merchandise again after coming for the first time with a coupon. Logging in the amount they have spent will also help you determine whether your coupons have been successful in getting your business new regular customers.
Reference:
Photo Credit: