How do you keep customers coming through the door on a major holiday when everyone seem gone fishing or at the beach? Coupons! Mr. Wash is one company that’s getting this almost right. Every holiday weekend their subscribers get an email with coupons for up to 50% off their services. The coupons are “one per customer” and all you need to do is print it and present it for a nearly free car wash. Sounds easy enough? Well, not if you read your emails on a mobile phone.
Old coupons, new challenges. People who must show up in person to get deals from companies like Mr. Wash face two challenges with the ‘print and present’ coupon model:
1. It’s not mobile phone friendly; the hassle of finding a printer is not something people who read their emails through mobile phones relish – not even when the deal is good.
2. Guilt; all that paper is neither good for the environment nor easy to keep track of.
Winning with coupons. Getting the coupon game right means delivering coupons in a format that’s useful to most of your customers. A specialist in mobile phone marketing can help develop a plan that allows your customers using smartphones to present coupons in person – or online.
The old rules for businesses using coupons remain the same; they should be easy to use and valued to generate sales, move inventory and build loyalty — what’s new is that your customers no longer want to rely exclusively on paper.