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With the advent of social media, you no longer have to wait for the Sunday paper to clip your way to a great deal. Instead, more people are turning to social sharing sites to access these savings, making it the perfect complement to your marketing strategy and something every retail business could and should be doing. 

If you’re not sure about whether it’s worth the time and effort, consider this fact. According to eMarketer, the number of US mobile coupon users will rise from 12.3 million in 2010 to 53.2 million in 2014, driven by the rapid adoption of smartphones. Moreover, it serves as another way to keep your brand in front of your competition. 

If you are not currently doing a social media coupon campaign, you should absolutely start. While there are a multitude of social media platforms to post and share coupons, Twitter is an excellent place to begin.

Twitter is a good place to start because a tweet can be sent at your discretion, and can be found by anyone on the Twitter network – that’s about 240 million monthly active users.  While only 140 characters are allowed, a tweeted coupon should include:

• The hashtag #coupon, as this is a hashtag on which consumers are known to search.
• A shortened URL, whose clicks you can track to measure performance.
• A landing page, which includes the coupon graphic, as well as specifics related to redemption instructions, restrictions, rules, and suggestions.  Visits to this page should also be measured.

Amazon does a great job of using Twitter for their coupon campaign.

Save 50% or more on today's Deal of the Day http://t.co/77eURdWh1v pic.twitter.com/sxZRnIgmSH

— Amazon (@amazon) May 2, 2014

Here are some things to consider when starting your social media coupon campaign.

Be consistent and predictable.  Train your customers to expect coupons at the same time each week, each month, or whatever frequency you decide is viable for your bottom line and time commitment. Then follow through and deliver those coupons or offers on the promised day.  Don’t waiver from this predictable schedule because doing so will cause confusion or frustration, and your campaign will lose a substantial amount of traction.

Go big or go home.  Offer your customers something of value - a free soda won’t cut it. In order to attract the crowds you must be willing to give a cost and/or take a loss. If your offer is $5 off a $100 price tag, you won’t see much of a response. However, if you offer something people can’t resist like $25 off that $100 item, your coupon campaign will be much more successful.    

Communicate.  Promote your Twitter coupon campaign across all social channels. Don’t assume that your regular customers are already connected to you on social media; instead, be proactive in making sure they are connected.  Send emails, call it out on your webpage, put signage at the POS, print the information on receipts, and drop flyers that announce the Twitter coupons inside bags to encourage customers to sign up.  The more awareness you raise, the higher your coupon redemption rate. 

The right stuff at the right time.  Timeliness is crucial to the success of your coupon campaign.  Make sure you are giving the right deal at the right time. For example, if it is summer you would do well offering discounts on cold and fruity cocktails or cute T-shirts instead of a hearty meals and sweaters.  Do your homework, see what is trending on Twitter at the time, respond to those trends.  Twitter is also ideal for a coupon campaign because it provides real-time information from your customer base. 

Reward loyalty.  While the primary goal of offering coupons is to gain new business, don’t forget about your loyal customers.  Send them something personalized or exclusive.  You might offer a 50% off deal that is only available for regular customers, or those who signed up to follow your Twitterfeed.  This kind of personalization will increase your customer’s loyalty, as well as the chances of them spreading the news about this exclusive deal to their network of friends and family. 

Lastly, have fun with it.  The technology has changed to make the process fairly simple and intuitive.  Be creative. Create a theme, like Twitter Tuesdays or something catchy to add some hype to the campaign.  

Want Help? Contact our team today to ask a question via the form to the right.

ChangeU: for your independent study…

1. Redemption Holds Steady as Consumer Interest Remains High and Marketers Leverage Technoogy: http://goo.gl/XpvH87 01/15/2014 In 2013, more than 66 million digital coupons were redeemed industry-wide according to Inmar estimates – a 141 percent increase over 2012. Inmar, alone, facilitated the redemption of almost 44 million digital coupons in 2013, giving it the largest share of digital coupon redemption information in the industry.

2. Digital shopping tool impact study: 2013: http://goo.gl/lYvKJg  December 2013 The Digital Shopping Tool Impact Study: 2013 presents the results of an online survey fielded in Q2 (April-June) 2013 among 10,337 primary shoppers, a Census-balanced U.S. sample. The core objective was to understand how shoppers use digital tools, why they use them and the impact they have on shopping behavior.

3. Shop.org: http://www.shop.org/originalresearch  Shop.org partners with multiple industry leaders to produce research products throughout the year designed to provide benchmarking tools for multichannel and online-only retailers.

Improving your digital presence is about more than just adopting new technology and adding social media to your website.  The key for retailers is to align their digital marketing strategy to the consumers’ expectations, one that is consistent with the in-store buying process.  Additionally, you should consider the idea of the Internet of Things [IOT] and how it connects every aspect of the buying process, not just the technology and devices, but the actual customer as well.  In doing so you can optimize your digital marketing strategy to stay connected, build a strong brand and increase sales. 

Here a few things to consider when developing a digital marketing strategy for your retail business.  
Meet your customers’ digital expectations
Today’s consumers have more choices than ever for how and when they want to access content, allowing them to take a multi-channel approach in researching and buying products.  By understanding these expectations retailers can align their online purchase processes with their in-store process, which increases the likelihood that a consumer will transition from browser to buyer.  The smartphone, for example, has replaced the tablet as the leading device for researching purchases.  They have also introduced retailers to what has become known as the connected consumer-a consumer who accepts to be able to shop wherever, whenever, and however they like. 
 
Moreover, consumers expect to reach your store are ready to buy, and in some cases have the transaction completed ty the time they actually arrive at your store, resulting in  la seamless buying experience- online and in store. Additionally, digital applications  like Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) RFID, and other retailer technology can  benefit  your business  as  well by  allowing employees to  do inventory faster and more accurately, As well provide   a higher level of customer service, by streamlined the checkout process.  The more value you are able to provide to your customers, the more business money they will spend.  
Make it a one stop shop  
Set your business apart from other brands by offering e-commerce--shipments, returns and price matching, etc., to increase their opportunity to build brand loyalty and maintain customers.  Take Amazon, for example.  This major e-retailer         has made the entire purchase process easy for customer by providing everything they need—from initial research, to price comparisons and product reviews, all the way to making the purchase.  As a result, consumers feel empowered and in control of the process, while they continue to gain more insight into buyer’s behaviors and habits from the information they share on the site. 
Social media = social commerce
With the advent of social media came social shopping, allowing customers to interact with their favorite brands.  A retailer that actively using multiple social media platforms can build relationships that will drive traffic to your website and create brand ambassadors through ‘Liking’ and sharing.  Utilize your social media pages to talk to consumers, share new product information, and announce specials. However, take it a step further by making it possible for them to begin the buying process on your social media page. An example of this is Target. With the use of Like2Buy, Target fans can shop via Instagram, by simply selecting the image, and being linked directly to Targets main website to complete the check-out.   
 

Final thoughts
Every business is different, and the way in which you execute these tips will be based on your business needs. When it comes to your digital marketing strategy social media efforts, your business will benefit the most if you use a more service-focused approach rather simply pushing your products on to customers. 

ChangeU: for your independent study ...

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