How coupon codes incentivize every stage of customer journey

Are coupon codes an integral part of your promotion marketing? If not, it’s time to get serious about your coupon strategy.

Coupons are a great way to boost customer acquisition, enhance retention or reactivate customers that haven’t been active for a while, but launching a successful coupon campaign can be tricky.

What does a good coupon code strategy look like? What kind of security, tracking and budget limits do you want to implement? How will you communicate or display your coupon codes?

To help answer these questions for your business, we are going to share some best practices we have collected from helping all types of companies and customers launch successful coupon campaigns.

If gaining new customers is one of the goals of your promotion marketing, try using on-site coupons. You can show them directly on your website or in a “Special Offers” section. 

The following insights help you get the most out of your generic coupons:

Source: Happyfresh

Happyfresh uses on-site vouchers (30 Malaysian Ringgit and 40 Malaysian Ringgit) for an order of minimum 180 Ringgit in order to increase customer interacts, raise brand awareness and boost sales. Their coupon strategy works because:

Customer retention is no joke these days and most likely one of the top priorities of your promotion strategy.

“Increasing customer retention rates by 5% can increase profits by 25% to 95%.” Harvard Business Review

A simple referral program is a great idea to boost customer retention while also increasing customer loyalty.

Source: Uber

As part of their market mix, Uber displays personal referral code in the app and enables users to share it directly in the app. The friend that gets referred can redeem the code when booking the first ride. Both the advocate and the friend are rewarded with ride credits. This referral scheme works because:

Maybe you already have a solid customer base, but some of them haven’t been active in a while? Consider sending your inactive customers a promo code with a discount for their next purchase.

Source: Westwing

Munich-based home and living ecommerce company Westwing used unique coupon codes to re-engage inactive customers on Valentine’s Day. Westwing sent its target audience personalized emails, encouraging them to redeem their coupons for quality rewards.

The unique clock on their website showed the customer the time period to redeem the coupon was limited. The campaign boosted customer engagement because:

Is brand loyalty a priority this year? Then use email marketing to reward existing customers with a personalized reward that is redeemable only with a specific promo code. This is a great tactic to use a customer email address in order to ensure they respond to your sales promotions and choose you over the competition.

Source: Liebeskind

Berlin-based fashion brand Liebeskind ran a coupon campaign in which they sent emails with a personalized coupon code as a birthday gift for loyal customers. A “Happy birthday” message is an opportunity to show how much you value your customers and increase brand loyalty. Why did their campaign work?

Now that you have some great ideas for launching a coupon strategy, you will need to think about implementation. Having the right coupon software is key to a successful coupon campaign. If you are new to the coupon game or want to level-up your strategy, the right coupon solution should have the following features:

There is a wide variety of coupon tools on the market, but few offer a full range of flexibility for all use cases above. You should remember to choose your vendor wisely.

If you are at the “build or buy” crossroads and need a framework to assess the requirements for building or buying your promotion software, our white paper, “Build or Buy Your Promotion Software” will immensely help you.

There are many different ways you can grow your business and increase interaction with your brand with coupons, but the right technology is often a huge limitation.

Coupons might seem like an easy bet, but even the most basic campaign can bring your business major losses by targeting the wrong buyer persona or falling victim to fraud. You’ll need the right kind of promotion infrastructure to make sure you achieve your business goals.

Talon.One empowers your marketing campaign, enabling you to offer discounts, send referral link, offer coupons or set up a loyalty program for your products or services.

Discover Talon.One’s Client Campaign Library ebook to gain access to 108 effective campaign ideas.