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
-
We're merging 2 separate websites into 1 but need to ideally rank service pages for both locations
I have a dilemma, we're merging 2 websites, one an Australian branch and one a UK one. We've decided to have a UK page and a AUS page so agency.site/uk/ agency.site/aus/ but what is the best tactic for the service pages? ideally, we'd like a web-design service page to rank in Australia and the UK but not sure if this is actually possible, or whether to duplicate the pages and localise them i.e. /web-design-leeds/ and /web-design-melbourne/ What's everyone's thoughts on this? localised landing pages with some duplicate content or one master page with both locations mentioned? Thanks!
Local SEO | | Unbranded_Lee1 -
Community Discussion: Miriam's 2017 Local SEO Predictions ... And Yours?
I want to start this thread by thanking everyone in our community who has started and contributed to great threads this past year. You guys are an inspiration! I want to offer up a few predictions for the Local SEO industry in 2017 and ask you to contribute your own: Attribution will be big in 2017. Google will roll out a more thorough set of attributes in the GMB dashboard as we move forward through the new year. We'll see further rollout out of paid packs in service industries in which Google can play the middle man role. Free-packs won't be gone by the end of the year, but there will be fewer of them. Even SMB local businesses will have to start to tackle the ramifications of voice search. Local SEO will continue to merge with traditional, offline marketing. Local business websites will still matter, but Google will continue to do all it can to keep users within layers of its own local product, and some people will find this maze a bit bewildering. Reviews will finally be recognized as an integral facet of citations, rather than as something separate from them. Now, please, look into your own crystal ball and share your predictions with the community. What are your predictions for Local SEO in 2017? I'd love to know. And, while I'm at it, please let me wish each of you a busy and profitable new year in our exciting industry!
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 -
Any Notable Change in Google's Location Based Results?
I've noticed with many of our clients that when searching for general terms, with obvious local intent, that Google assumes you are in the nearest metro area rather than the specific locality. Anyone else noticed this? Example: I have an HVAC client who has ranked a solid #1 for "HVAC Repairs" since January - if the user was in the small town we were targeting (Wake Forest) since January. However, now Google assumes users in this town are in the nearby metro area (Raleigh), and displays local and organic results for Raleigh instead of Wake Forest. I first noticed this change in mid-May. From what I've read about the Nov Hummingbird update, I don't see that playing a direct role. Any insight?
Local SEO | | Rusty_Shackleford0 -
What is The Best Way to Rank in Multiple Countries?
Hi, I have a client that would like to rank in google.ie as well as .co.uk and in the middle east and possibly other parts of Europe. What is the best way to go about this? Would a new domain for each country be best and hosted in that specific country or is there a way to do this with one site? Bearing in mind that SEO will need to be done to rank in each country. Many Thanks.
Local SEO | | WSIDW0 -
Best domain to promote a french hotel in english
Hello, I have to promote a french hotel for english target and I have to choose a domain. I only have 2 domains available: Exact Match Domain with .fr extension i.e. hotelsinavignone.fr Partial Match Domain with .com extension i.e. myhotelsinavignone.com Which one has more possibilities to rank better on google.com for the keyword "hotels in avignone" ? Thank you very much, DoMiSol Rossini
Local SEO | | DoMiSoL0 -
Does this tactic fall into the Local SEO best practice?
Hi Mozzers, I have a client who serves the entire San Francisco bay area but has only one physical location. He asked me if he should get different addresses by renting out offices in different cities so he could use that for a better localization of his business. Thanks for letting me know!
Local SEO | | Ideas-Money-Art0