Email Coupons, Share Your Local Business Information And Increase Sales! by Jeff Schuman

Email Coupons, Share Your Local Business Information And Increase Sales!
by: Jeff Schuman

One of the best ways to simultaneously promote your local business information and also increase sales is to add coupons to an email marketing campaign. Existing customers and potential customers are more receptive to promotional emails when product savings is 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. And what makes it so important for businesses to send out email coupons is that consumers using online coupons have increased nearly 50 percent 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. When coupons were redeemed online, there was a 17 percent higher click-through rate.

There are some best practices that local businesses should consider when planning an email marketing campaign that includes coupons:

- Make sure the offers you send out match 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 aid in inventory clearance, time your coupons to your business cycles and offer 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.

About The Author

If you enjoyed this article by Jeff Schuman about local business information and emailing coupons please visit our local business website today. We help small business owners use the internet to grow their business in their local market using the power of the internet. http://www.LocalBusinessGroup.com

The author invites you to visit:
http://www.team-schuman.com