Creative Coupon Offers

It's an age-old debate. Which is better: percentage off or dollar-off coupons? There is no right or wrong answer, since both options can be very appealing to consumers looking to save money. Here are a few creative offers for your next coupon campaign:

• Offer the best of both worlds with a coupon such as: "$15 off or 15% off, whichever is higher." This will also encourage customers to buy more to save more.


• Consider offering a bonus item to increase the value of your coupon. This will also let you compete with your competition without actually lowering prices.


• Offer incremental percentage-off amounts based on what the customer spends. An example of this would be "save 30% on $150 or more, 20% on $100 or more, or 10% on $10 or more."


• When using a dollar-off coupon, customers respond best to round dollar bill denominations whenever possible, such as $1, $5, $10, or $20 off. Not only are the amounts easy to calculate, but it easily translates to a bill in their pocket.


• Try a BOGO (buy one get one) campaign, such as buy one get one free or buy one get one half price.


• Use easy-to-remember codes like FEB20 rather than KTR10R44YZEX to make it easy to use during online checkouts.

Another great way to increase the value of a coupon campaign is to offer a follow-up survey for customers based on their purchase with your coupon. Offer another coupon as a thank you for completing the survey. Adding a survey will help you gain valuable input about what types of coupon promotions influence your customers.