| By :
Jeff Schuman
An effective way to promote your local business information and also increase sales at the same time is to include coupons with an email marketing campaign. Those receiving the promotional emails are more likely to open them when discounts for products or services are involved. A recent survey by Experian discovered that when marketing emails also included a coupon there was a higher transaction-to-click rate than those without. The results were the same whether the full list received the email or if only a segmented group received it. Before we get ahead of ourselves, it's important for all small local businesses to understand the importance of having an auto-responder and some type of opt-in subscription form on their website. Once in place, business can be more efficient and effective with sending marketing emails. With most consumers now thinking of ways to save money, businesses need to be keenly aware of the importance of offering deals. Those that understand this and meet those demands will be more successful than those businesses that underestimate the importance of doing so. In fact, Experian has also found that 66 percent of United States households now use coupons. It's important for businesses to send out coupons via email because there's an increase of nearly 50 percent of people using coupons from that source since 2007. The value of email coupons is that they increase interaction or participation of the readers and can be seen in these statistics: marketing emails including coupons are opened approximately 25 percent of the time compared to only about 17 percent if they don't include them. Also, click-throughs were 17 percent higher for coupons redeemed online. There are some best practices that local businesses should consider when planning an email marketing campaign that includes coupons: - Make sure you're sending the right offers to the type of list you're targeting. - To find out what gives you the highest return, test your coupon amount and frequency. - To make your coupon recipient feel special, use the words "exclusive" or "selected" on the coupon. - To create an urgency for people to "react now", it's best to mention a time frame or a specific date for it to be used. - To help get rid of unwanted inventory, time your coupons to your business cycles by offering deep discounts on products nearing a season's end. - Add a link to the email that gives the recipient the opportunity to "share with a friend" or "tell your group", etc. Coupons can be a real win-win for everyone. Customers get the deal they're looking for and you get extra sales while clearing out inventory, and a chance to promote your local business information.
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