Community Discussion: When The 'Coupon Drawer' Is More Influential Than Your Best Friend ...
-
Howdy To Our Super Community!
When I was a kid, I was always fascinated by ladies who spent hours combing through newspapers and mailers, clipping coupons to put in a coupon drawer for future shopping excursions. It seemed like a lot of trouble to go to in order to save a a few bucks, especially given that I grew up in an era that still boasted a pretty stable middle class, but, it turns out, those ladies of yore were really onto something.
A recent survey by Bazaarvoice and CMO Council found that coupons and discounts drive way more return/loyalty business amongst modern shoppers than any other factor, including recommendations from family and friends and paid advertising. Another survey by ROTH and Research Now discovered that 70% of millennial moms sought and downloaded mobile coupons while doing their shopping chores.
There are a couple of facets of these findings that should interest any e-commerce business or local retailer. We've learned from a variety of studies that it can cost up to 7x more to earn a new customer than to retain an existing one, making loyalty programs smart business. Meanwhile, publications like the Wall Street Journal have made it clear that, in the U.S., the middle class is no longer the majority. These two factors seem to lend themselves to an important discussion for our community here at Moz, and in the marketing world at large.
What is driving 70% of young mothers to use mobile coupons, as per the above study?
Is it tight budgets, the love of a deal, pride in outsmarting 'the system' with a little extra effort?
Is your company using coupons? Which ones have you seen convert most highly? Is there some element to them you've discovered to be a real winner?
Interestingly, price is repeatedly cited as a minor factor in customer complaints, and yet, I've personally seen discounts/sales drive business like mad in both e-commerce and retail settings. Just how powerful is the love a deal?
I would love it if you'd contribute your coupon/discount savvy to a discussion here, to help our community better latch onto this massively powerful influence. What are your thoughts and first-hand experiences?
-
Pleasure.
-
Hey Marcus!
What good insights ... particularly about the 'fun' of coupons. I honestly think the coupon-collecting ladies I knew when I was young were making a sort of game of it, and maybe even feeling a bit smarter than the 'average Joe' who was paying full price when he could have done better for himself with a little effort.
And, yes indeed, every coupon is a brand exposure. I would love to hear more from our community, if any of you are having success running coupons (or even if you don't run a business, but are a coupon clipper and have something to share about what motivates you).
Thanks, again, Marcus, for the interesting observations!
-
Hey Miriam
I think there is a gamification element to coupons - the collecting, getting the best deal etc. Certainly, when we had our two youngest children (some 12 years ago now) within 15 months of each other cash was certainly on the tight side. My wife was also at home dealing with two babies and whilst they are absolutely lovely it is not always as mentally stimulating as it could be - could it be that the coupons provide an almost fun element to shopping and managing your budgets?
Just a thought really but if this does factor then people are really engaging with the brand every time they score a good coupon for that product and tuck it away for their next purchase. This is building loyalties and brand bias that likely lasts a lifetime and adds a real kickback for the brand over time.
Super interested to see others thoughts on this.
Marcus
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Free Local Search Marketing Tools You're Using These Days?
Hello to our wonderful community here! I'm updating an old list of free tools to use in a local search marketing campaign. The original list was created before there were quite so many paid tools in our industry, and it definitely needs an update! I'd like to ask, are there free tools you find yourself using these days in marketing local businesses? These could be related to any aspect of your campaigns. I'd love it if you'd share your favorites with me, especially if they are things you feel others might not be aware of but which are working really well for you! Thanks for any suggestions you can provide.
Local SEO | | MiriamEllis1 -
The best link building tactics for small business' which don't include asking for links or guest blogging?
M clients are two estate agents, a photography studio, and a drainage company if that helps!
Local SEO | | sophiecrosby971 -
Discussion: Is Your Local Business Losing Customers To Digital Providers For Want Of Communication?
This week, I came across an article citing a fascinating statistic from The Harris Poll which surveyed consumers and found that the #1 reason they shop digitally for groceries is when they can’t purchase an item from their routine shopping sources. In other words, if the supermarket they shop at doesn’t carry Seventh Generation Laundry Soap (or some other product), then they’ll turn to a digital provider for fulfillment. This survey focused specifically on grocery items, but what it sparked in my brain was the fact that ANY local store that doesn’t have in place an active campaign to discover unmet consumer desires is likely going to see an increasing loss of sales as shoppers turn to online competitors. I’m going to jot down a few ideas for how better communication could lessen these types of losses, and I would really love it if our community could add to the list of suggestions: Have in-store signage that states, “Don’t see a favorite product of yours? Ask us to carry it!" Have SMS/text messaging that requests this same info from mobile users. Train staff to ask a clear, direct question like, “Is there anything you wish we carried here?” and have a process for aggregating that data to make new inventory buys. Be sure the company website is also asking for this feedback and making it clear that the store will gladly order items not already in-stock. Use social outreach to gather ideas from customers about favorite products that are missing from your inventory. Those are just some ideas off the top of my head. Now, I’m a Local SEO, not a retailer, so some of you will be better equipped to answer this question than I: How would you gauge whether a product is actually popular enough to keep permanently in-stock, rather than just being a one-time thing you’d special order for a customer with unusual tastes? I do wonder about how that plays into this scenario, and how a retailer should invest in new products not knowing whether just 1 customer will buy them or they will be a major hit with lots of customers. One final thought on this: a pain point I’ve noticed in the online/offline equation is time. I’ve had a store offer to special order an item for me, but if it’s something I need right away, I’ll look for a different source locally, or, if there isn’t one, may as well just order it online myself. So this makes me think: If you have access to extra fast shipping (faster than the average consumer could get a product shipped to his home) this would be a point to emphasize. If you can get a product overnight or maybe in 2 days without the consumer having to spring for a big shipping charge, this could influence his decision Google says that 30% of consumers state they would buy from a local store, rather than online, if they knew a product was available. So, this would indicate to me that making it very clear you’ve got the products a customer wants is vital. I recently took a 50 mile trip to purchase a high quality picnic basket from a retailer, because I needed it quickly. I couldn’t wait the 3-5 business days the manufacturer said it would take if I ordered online. Point being, if a local retailer has geographic convenience and fast service on their side, they’ve got an advantage. Please, add your thoughts and tips for strategies that could protect local retailers from losing customers to digital competitors. I’m really looking forward to reading any comments!
Local SEO | | MiriamEllis4 -
Implemented schema.org on our website and it's showing up as being correct but I've been told its wrong- can someone please have a quick look ?
Dear Mozzers, We have implemented schema.org on our website and it's showing up as being correct. However, I've been told by a SEO company that what we have done is incorrect and is therefore giving out wrong signals to google and that it needs fixing but they haven't told me whats wrong with it. Would someone please be able to have to have a quick scan and highlight anything that is not correct. I have enclosed 4 urls belows of the different sections of my website. My website homepage - is -- http://goo.gl/2F80w2 We have a number of branches- An example branch url is - http://goo.gl/8FpcaS example category url - http://goo.gl/gbAaD2 example product url - http://goo.gl/EXI1Sr Any assistance would be greatly appreciated Many thanks
Local SEO | | PeteC12
Peter0 -
How to Best Optimize for Multiple Cities and Services Areas?
A business with offices in 3 major cities and loads of service areas hired us to build its website. Here's my internal debate regarding local SEO: Do I build one site with a thorough sitemap that utilizes one page per city and/or region for local SEO? Do I build a primary site with a limited sitemap and a subsite for each city (e.g. companyname.com/city) that essentially replicates the sitemap from the primary site? If I go this route, the content on each page of each subsite would be unique (not copied and localized versions of the content on the primary site), but what about the keywords? For example, should each subsite use the same keywords as the primary site (e.g. companyname.com/keyword-or-phrase and companyname.com/city-name/keyword-or-phrase OR companyname.com/keyword-or-phrase and companyname.com/city-name/variation-of-keyword-or-phrase). In the end, I suppose the question is, "Should I build one site with a more thorough sitemap and single pages for each city and/or region OR should I build a site for each city with less thorough sitemaps?" Budget constraints won't allow for option C, which is build a site for each city with a thorough sitemap for each. Thank you guys in advance for whatever insight you're willing to give!
Local SEO | | cbizzle0 -
Local SEO Best Practices for 2,000+ 'location' service area business
Hi Moz Community! We operate a business where we have a network of 2,000+ technicians around the country who help people repair their mobile phones. These techs do the fixing at the customer's location, making them service area businesses. Even after scouring all of the go-to places on local SEO, I'm struggling to find best practices for this type of situation - the fact that our techs are operating in service areas presents a number of challenges. The biggest one, it seems, is that inevitably service areas are going to overlap. When I talked to a Google rep on this he said this "might" cause our locations to get de-listed and we'd just have to test and find out. Other challenges include the fact that we cannot bulk upload the service areas of our techs, and we cannot bulk verify - meaning there is a ton of work to do at our scale. Any suggestions on where to go to find resources on this specific topic, or an example of someone doing this well we can model? Thanks everyone!
Local SEO | | JohnGroves1 -
How is it possible to create unique content (never blogged or discussed before) content on common topics? Is it practically possible?
It is a common advise by all seo experts to write unique and useful content in the articles or blog posts. How is it possible to find unique topics when thousands of small business owners blog on similar business? Is it really possible? Any advise on this.
Local SEO | | govi0 -
I'm starting an internet marketing company along with a newspaper company
I'm starting a project for a newspaper company where I just started working as the in-house SEO. I'll have ownership along with the newspaper for this new internet marketing company and could use some advice.Should I build our new site on the newspapers domain with good pr already or start a fresh site from square one. I'm trying to weigh out the pro's and cons and I'm still undecided.This news company has been around since the 50's and the trust is there. But just one sticky situation with an uneducated client could hurt the reputation of the newspaper.Your thoughts please!
Local SEO | | onetwotree0