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
-
Why do SMB owners want more calls as a result of SEO, but don't answer 62% of them?
Working mostly with SMBs for 8 years now, we have gradually developed the notion that small business owners are hard to reach by phone. Our Customer Service agents spend hours unsuccessfully trying to reach business owners. If a potential customer calls the business, they'll have to face the same outcome. This means missed opportunities for both parties. Needless to say, one of the most important KPIs in local SEO is the number of generated phone calls...but no one's there to answer. We wanted to dig deeper into the matter, so we did a small study with 85 businesses. Results show that: 37.8% of calls are answered by a person. 37.8% of calls are answered by an answering machine, where no actual conversation (nor conversion) is possible, so we treat these calls as unanswered. 24.3% of calls are unanswered. We also gathered a list of possible solutions to the problem, but what we really need to know is WHY do business owners neglect such an important part of their business? And what resolutions can you think of?
Local SEO | | 411Locals0 -
The best click to call tool
Hi,
Local SEO | | corn2015
Can you please tell me what is the best cost per call tool to use? Is the google mobile click to call feature effective? A client who runs a local business wants to increase the amount of calls their business receives.0 -
Rank not improving despite best practises
Hi there, I have a photobooth hire company in and have been working on getting our site onto the top page for keywords relating to our service and location for almost a year now, but am really struggling to see rank improvement despite my best efforts. After a major penguin update back in mid 2014 I noticed that due to some bad practises from a company that we previously hired, our rank began to plummet. So in the aftermath of that, I found myself having to clean up and disavow a lot of spammy and broken links. This was back towards August last year and despite trying to "clean the slate" and continue to build better backlinks (mostly through reputable directories) I'm still getting little to know rank increases. Is there a possibility that the site is still being black listed by Google in some way and thus all my best practises for the last 6 months haven't really helped at all? Thanks
Local SEO | | 16seo0 -
What is the best sites for Press Release
I am looking at all the various press release sites out there. I have a local business relocating and we want to use a press release to get the information out there and hopefully get the move picked up by a local newspaper. Any experience/suggestions on best PR sites?
Local SEO | | bricegump0 -
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 -
Merchant Loyalty Schemes? Who is the best in the business?
Hi There, I wanted to get some opinions on onlin merchant loyalty schemes such as Bellycard.com & Stamp.it? A quick Google search reveals lots of these businesses. Who in your opinion is the top provider in this field and why?
Local SEO | | skehoe0 -
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 -
Have you heard of any white hat methods for influencing Google's auto suggest/auto complete?
We have a client who has a "friend" who says he can get keyword phrases that include their business name to show up in Google's auto suggest when doing a search. We have not heard much about this and are skeptical to these claims as we know how Google comes up with these suggested keyword phrases. Wondering if anyone in the community heard much about tactics to influence auto suggest/auto complete and would like to know your opinion about it.
Local SEO | | CraigSDM0