How Can Coupons Help Your Off-Season Sales?

Coupons are another of the myriad of discount strategies businesses use to boost sales. One of the major advantages of coupons is that they are likely to speed up repeat purchases. In most cases, the offers on coupons are time-sensitive, so they will entice the customer into buying faster and buying more of the product. As a strategy, they can be used both in- and off-season. More than half of buyers are more likely to visit a store and complete a purchase as a first-time buyer if they have a coupon. The question of whether and how coupons can help your off-season sales is thus rather worthy of discussion if you are aiming to increase your business’ sales.

Know what you’re aiming for

Knowing exactly what you’re trying to achieve is important for all discount strategies. In order for your coupons to be effective, make sure you have a firm grasp on what you’re trying to do. Are you attempting to gain new customers or would you just like to activate your existing ones? Perhaps you want to entice old customers that haven’t purchased anything in a while? In some cases, coupons may not be the most appropriate discount strategy there is, so it’s important to know exactly what you are doing. However, no matter what your business is, you can find a way to make coupons work for you. For example, if you are moving on a budget in Orlando, you will be able to find a moving company that offers coupons for free boxes or packing supplies. You can find creative ways like this to make use of coupons as a strategy.

Coupons work best on customers who are on the lookout for such discounts. Whether they are new customers or old, they will be motivated by the discount and the time-sensitive offer. You can market this to them by using different types of coupons. Do consider their profiles while you are doing this. You can lure them into buying more by providing coupons that advertise products that can complement their previous purchases. Alternately, you can offer coupons for the items that they often buy, but with a time limit. Finally, your coupons can even be unrelated to specific products but instead just offer a discount, if this is something that would work for your customer base.

Some coupon basics

Set the time limit

One of the basic ways how coupons can help your off-season sales is by making sure you provide a time window for how long they’re eligible. Including an expiration date on your coupons will not only make it easier for you to manage them, but it will also fill your prospective customers with a sense of urgency. Coupons are actually most effective in the off-season, as they are likely to boost sales. Knowing when to introduce them can be the key to their effectiveness. Depending on your stock, you might want to offer year-round coupons but on different products.

Formulating the message

Take into account that shoppers are sometimes more likely to be more motivated to buy something just because the messaging implies that they’ll be getting something for free. Make sure your coupons are enticing in this way, that they make your customers feel like they’re really getting a bargain. However, you should also make sure that the math is financially sound. Remember, you are doing this in order to make a profit.

Similarly, you want to be very clear with your messaging too. Make sure your customers are familiar with the coupons and that this kind of advertisement is constant.

How can coupons help your off-season sales?

Attracting new customers

Generally, coupons are a great way of attracting new customers. They can also be a great marketing strategy when you are trying to raise brand awareness. They have even been known to make people switch brands. First-time shoppers are more likely to return and complete a purchase with a coupon. Coupons are also effective when it comes to luring people to buy your product in the first place. A discounted price will make it more likely that they will be willing to check out what you are offering if they’d never used it before.

Keeping old customers

Coupon discounts build a sense of loyalty within your customer base. People are more likely to stick to your product if they’re happy with it and you provide them with additional discounts. It is also one of the ways of meeting customer expectations. Nowadays, those businesses that do not offer any coupons or discounts are quite rare.

Coupons as a marketing strategy

In many cases, the majority of coupons do go unredeemed. However, not all is lost if you find that this is the case. Coupons are actually a rather sound marketing strategy. People are more likely to visit your business again, even if they come coupon-less. This is another way how coupons can help you in the off-season.

Online coupons

Coupons for particular products can be great because they can actually entice people to buy something else along that is at full price. However, this often doesn’t happen with online coupons. On the other hand, online coupons, digital vouchers or promo codes, however you wish to phrase it, offering discounts can be very effective. This is particularly true about the off-season ones. Online coupons can nudge people into buying something they weren’t necessarily looking to buy. They won’t mind making the purchase because of the discount. Some of the most effective online coupons are the ones offering percent-off, usually on the entire purchase. If you let the coupons be eligible for entire purchases, you can get away with lower percentages, which can help save you money.

AUTHOR: Brianna Helders has been writing about topics related to moving, business and finance and working with companies like instamove.com. She lives in Orlando with her partner and their dog.