October 2005 Issue:

• Pull in More Business with the Power of Coupons
• Improve Your Subscription Rates
• A Gift for Web Visitors - Usability!

Archived Issues

Pull in More Business with the Power of Coupons

Don’t you just love a good deal? Well, so do your customers! One of the most effective ways to offer customers a great deal is by offering coupons. In fact, Advertising Age (an authority in the advertising business) reports that 87% of all shoppers use coupons. A.C. Nielson Co., another famous marketing research firm, says that 95% of all shoppers like coupons, and 60% actively seek out coupons before making purchases.

Those are pretty high numbers! The effectiveness of coupons has already been proven, so it may be time to consider adding a coupon strategy to your marketing activities.

Why consider offering coupons?

• Consumers will break their regular shopping routines to take advantage of good coupon offers.
• Coupons re-engage your old customers. It gives them a good reason to start buying from you again rather than your competitors.
• Coupons provide you with an opportunity to sell additional products. Often, customers will use the coupon and then purchase additional items at full price, including impulse purchases.
• The success of your coupon campaign is easy to measure. Simply count the number of coupons redeemed to see how well it worked. Getting customer feedback can also help you improve future offers to get even better results.

Do What Works

Not all coupon offers are created equal. Some obviously work better than others, so here are some pointers on making your coupon campaign successful:

• Dollars-Off deals work the best because they are tangible. Customers know exactly how much money they will save.
• Percentage discounts are more effective when they are higher percentages (at least 25%).
• People love to get something for free. Buy-one, get-one-free offers are very attractive to customers. You can also be creative with your bonus offers, like “Free Marker Set with the Purchase of Any White Board” or “Buy 5 light bulbs and get the 6th one Free.”
• Be specific in your headline – let customers know up-front what the offer is. For example, “Save $20 on any ceiling fan this month only”.
• Use pictures on your coupons whenever possible. It helps customers understand the offer and makes it more compelling.
• Don’t forget to put your logo on your coupon, as well as your contact information.
• During your coupon campaign, make sure to capture your customers’ contact information so you can include them on your mailing lists.

After the sale, be sure to follow-up with your customers and provide them with a steady program of sales flyers, preferred customer discounts, new product information, and of course, MORE COUPONS!

Improve Your Subscription Rates

Whether you provide a printed publication such as a magazine or catalog, or an online publication like an e-newsletter, your success depends on how many people subscribe to your publication. The more readers you have, the better they get to know your company and will feel comfortable doing business with you.

With all of our mailboxes and inboxes full of various types of junk mail, it is extremely important to make sure your publication is welcome. If you deal with online publications, make sure you are 100% compliant with CAN-SPAM regulations, and always provide recipients with an unsubscribe option.

Create a Good Quality Mailing List

Start with your current customer list and send out an email campaign to verify the recipient’s email address, as well as request permission for future email communication. This helps your customers recognize materials that come from you, and increases the chance of future renewals. To make your communication more appealing, try using sweepstakes or refer-a-friend offers to help you build your list.

Know Your Audience

Do you know what your existing subscribers like about your magazine or newsletter? Or what other various publications they subscribe to? Get to know what your readers find useful or informative and make sure your publication meets their needs. Use surveys and questionnaires to get the information you need to make your publication relevant to your target audience.

Quality Really is #1

Blend what you know about your audience with “killer content” to create a publication that is appealing to your readers and benefits them each time they read it. You can test your publication on a smaller group first, then review the results and make adjustments, if necessary. Try to capture the most relevant and interesting message possible to generate a better response when you send out your full-scale mailing.

Promote to New Subscribers

Attract new subscribers by promoting your publication in as many ways as you can think of. Be creative; use email, subscriber testimonials, contests, direct mail, or anything else you can think of to reach your target audience.

What does your web site say about your business? The reality today is that your web site represents your entire company, and visitors make judgments about your business based on their impression of your web site. Often, businesses focus on creating a professional image, which of course is vitally important for making a good first impression. But what is often overlooked is the value of web site usability, which can be even more important to your online success.

We’ve all seen web sites that look great, but the important information is buried, unclear, or just plain missing. Most users will spend a few minutes attempting to find what they are looking for, but then abandon the site to find another that is easier to use. Making sure your site is usable is like a gift to your visitors that pays back rewards in customer satisfaction and a positive user experience. If visitors like your site and find it easy to use, they will come back.

When designing or re-designing your company web site, visitor satisfaction should be the guiding principle. A good, consistent navigation system is essential for any web site, especially sites with a lot of pages. Use a common menu system on all pages and include drop-downs or sub-categories if necessary. Make sure your visitors can get to any page on your site, yet find their way back “home” easily. Keep your navigation design to only two or three levels deep, and always include a site map. The end result will be visitors who can find their way around your web site and get to the information they need quickly and easily.

Sometimes, businesses find they have differing goals for their web sites, depending on which department you talk to. Goals range from “make the investors happy” to “meet the deadline no matter what” and everything in between. Although these are things you probably have to consider, keep the goal focused on the user experience and it will pay off in the end.

Paying attention to your web site’s usability adds enormous value. The advantages to a web site development process that incorporates usability standards results in fewer problems or “bugs,” and increases customer satisfaction when your site goes live. It all comes down to the end-user experience, the ultimate test for a successful, useful, and profitable web site.

Five Sparrows values your privacy and will never share, sell, or rent your information to anyone, and you may unsubscribe from this publication at any time.

Copyright 2005 Five Sparrows, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
3889 Hartland Hills, Hartland, MI 48353
www.fivesparrows.com