As more and more marketing moves toward a digital strategy, companies need to continue to delight and entice customers during their online experience. A pervasive and persuasive tactic happening during online shopping are pop-ups that feature promotion codes. Those great quick offers like – Use 4ofJuly at checkout for $20 off your order over the Fourth of July Weekend.
Consumers are even going and looking for promo codes on sites such as RetailMeNot or coupons.com, if they’re not provided one. They offer value to marketers to help consumers feel like they’re getting the best deal around. They also offer companies a way to track the ROI of their campaigns.
And there is definitely a psychology behind using promotions/coupons. According to behavior psychologists they create a sense of urgency and value. This is especially true if you create a promo code that expires. Consumers seek happiness and want to avoid pain, and letting a coupon expire can be painful for some. Simply put, promo codes offer a chance for customers to feel good.
Plus, according to Vouchercloud statistics, 57 percent of shoppers say they wouldn’t have made a purchase without a coupon first and 65 percent say online voucher codes finalize the decision process for them if they are undecided on a purchase.
Promo codes can be used for several reasons. They can help businesses reach specific sales goals, acquire new customers, and announce a new product or service. They can be given in exchange for email addresses or referrals. The in-kind exchange is easy and worth the cost.
There are many good ways to use promo codes. Here are some different types of offers worth trying:
- Percentage off your first purchase – Entice first-time purchasers to take the leap and try your product or service.
- Loyalty Program – Percentage off your next visit
- Come Back – Reengage visitors who haven’t been to your site in awhile
- Holiday/Season Promotions – Fourth of July, Black Friday, Memorial Day
- Referral Program – Get customers to refer friends and they receive a promo code
- Free Shipping/Free Gift Wrapping – Provides an incentive to buy more
- Ambassador Program – Share a photo on social media using the product or service and give the customer a promo code for a future purchase.
Furthermore, the American Marketing Association suggests some Do’s and Don’ts to help your promo code campaigns be successful. On the Do side: make codes easy to remember, test them before putting them in use, and offer them on holidays and paydays and the last weekend of the month. On the Don’t side: randomly try a promo without a strategy in place, lose money on the deal, and forget a strong call to action.
Finally, remember to track and measure your progress. You can attribute a sale with a promo code by tracking the specific medium on which the code was offered and the unique ad copy it ran with. Using different promo codes for Facebook and Instagram means you can track customers’ choices and match them to a preferred social media platform. Most content management systems, like WordPress and Squarespace have apps and plugins to help you with the tracking part. Then you can even measure beyond just what platform worked best and also see which type of discount – percentage off, dollar discount or free shipping is the biggest driver for your business.
So hurry – use promo code Go4It before it’s too late.
