MicroBusinessSpecialist

In another sign of the times, it appears that more and more people are searching the internet to find coupons before making pruchases. This has lead to an increase in the number of blogs catering to “Frugal Mom’s.” This has been noted lately by the Wall Street Journal, Minyanville, and even the Financial Times of London.

Coupons are certainly one way to attract customers, and they definitely have their place as part of an overall marketing strategy.  But coupons can be expensive,  when the cost of distributing the coupon is added to the coupon cost itself.

And while a coupon may bring in a few new customers, most are probably redeemed by existing customers who may well appreciate the coupon, but probably indirectly thank their local newspaper for the freebie and not the merchant.

To the extent store sponsored coupons are involved, it makes far more sense for these to be distributed to exisiting customers as part of a loyalty campaign designed to get customers to return to the store on otherwise slow days, and or to increase the total size of purchase by the customer.

Rather than spending money on distribution, these coupons should be distributed via email to a list of customers built over time.

But not every email promotion need be a coupon. Instead, features on particular products can entice buyers to try new items, or return for old favorites and can be used to attract traffic almost as well as a coupon.

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Technorati Tags: coupons, Frugal Mom, marketing