Do coupon codes really increase conversion rates on eCommerce websites? The answer is a resounding “Yes.”
When people land on your eCommerce website, you only have a few seconds to capture their attention. Coupons are a great way to do so.
Coupons will help you build brand awareness, increase customer satisfaction, and generate loyalty.
Best of all, coupons can help you drown out your competitors’ messaging.
They may have pretty packaging and funny ads. But if your coupon offers a discount to customers, that’s money in the pocket – something that’s hard for anyone to ignore. Plus, you stand to drown out all of your rivals’ hard work.
Read on to discover eight smart ways your eCommerce business can use coupon codes to increase traffic to your website and generate higher ROI (return on investment) for your marketing campaigns.
Be sure to share your coupons on all of your important social media profiles. This is one of the best ways they can help you increase your website’s ROI.
As you well know, coupons influence people’s decisions, particularly as it relates to your overall conversion rates. You can incentivize your social media followers to convert by offering them enticing coupon codes.
For example, you can offer promo codes to people who share your posts or like your pages.
This is a powerful strategy. It increases the odds that people will visit your website to make purchases, even if they weren’t thinking about it before they received your discount.
People are more likely to visit your store if they receive a coupon. Aim to trigger higher sales for your website by giving away coupons on social media, where your target customers are hanging out.
Partnering with micro-influencers is another great way to promote your offer to niche audiences. A share by one of these influencers could very well attract dozens of new prospects to your domain.
Thalita Ferraz, owner of popular fashion/beauty website HerBones.com, explains, “When I started my ecommerce store, I found that the easiest way to give myself a boost in revenue was to share a limited-time coupon on an Instagram story. I found that by creating urgency with the coupon, sales spiked quickly within the first 24 hours.”
You can include different types of offers, such as:
- Pre-launch offers
- Referral offers
- Holiday/season offers
- Customer loyalty offers
- Exclusive social offers
By sharing these types of social media codes, you can generate more leads from your social channels.
The trick to successful marketing is finding ways to arrest the attention of your target audience. This is how you can share the right message with the right people, at the right time.
Meme marketing can help you do that.
Meme marketing refers to the use of memes to market your brand, products, or services. It’s a fun, low-cost, and low-effort way to promote your brand narrative.
When done right, this type of marketing strategy will help you connect with your audience and boost engagement rates. This is because memes are highly shareable, which makes it much more likely that your campaign will go viral.
You can use videos, images, or plain text to share your message and send visitors to your site.
Some marketers believe that traditional coupon marketing is dead. But this couldn’t be further from the truth, as shown by this retail eCommerce sales graph below:
Regardless of what some marketers may think, meme marketing is much more than a fad. It’s here to stay, and your eCommerce shop can benefit a lot from this marketing strategy.
In addition to entertaining and engaging your audience, memes can also be a powerful way for you to share your brand story through concepts, jokes, catchphrases, etc., that you can share as part of your brand marketing strategy.
3. Use an Email Newsletter to Send Weekly or Monthly Coupons
Email is another effective tactic for increasing your eCommerce website ROI with coupons.
Send weekly or monthly coupons in your email newsletter. When doing so, use email marketing software to design engaging emails that drive subscribers to your eCommerce shop using coupon codes and other promotional offers.
Use scarcity and urgency principles to incentivize subscribers to click. Let them know there are only a few of them available, or that they are available only for a limited time.
Scarcity and urgency can be powerful tactics for persuading people to take action. Be sure to take advantage of both.
Of course, your customers may opt to redeem a coupon but never actually use it. No problem. You can send follow up email reminders to nudge them toward taking action.
Your email newsletter campaigns should consist of offers such as:
- Follow-up discounts
- Newsletter subscription offers
- Coupons and gift cards
- New sales notifications
You can make this strategy even more powerful by connecting your email marketing service to your coupons. This tactic can help supercharge your remarketing email campaigns.
As part of your email strategy, try sending a drip-email campaign that triggers according to the following criteria:
- Real-Time: An email will be automatically sent whenever a coupon is redeemed. The email must contain the coupon code and a link back to your website, as well as a reminder of the coupon’s expiration date.
- 24 Hours: If, after 24 hours, the coupon is still unused, another automatic reminder will be sent to the recipient. This reminder should reiterate the value of the coupon and stress the urgency. Use messages such as “Exclusive for first-time visitors”, “Today only”, “For the next 24 hours”, etc.
- 7 Days: If the shopper still hasn’t returned to your website to use the coupon after seven days, then you can send the third and final notice. At this point, consider increasing the offer or including an additional discount to entice the customer to take action.
4. Highlight Coupons on Major Landing Pages
Use coupons on your homepage or other key landing pages on your website. When you use inline content that offers enticing coupons for subscribing, such as banners on your pages, you can transform first-time visitors into social or email subscribers.
It’s also a great idea to display the coupon within the header or footer of the page. This way, it will remain visible as visitors scroll up or down the landing page.
You can double down on your on-site marketing efforts by conveniently including a link to a blog article about the promotion. In the post, discuss the product or service being promoted. Highlight product reviews, relevant user-generated content, or other related content.
By starting a blog to highlight products, services, brand updates, and positive customer experiences, you will provide your site visitors an opportunity to learn more about your eCommerce offerings and brand. This can serve as a great alternative to making an immediate buy on a landing page.
With less pressure on the content, you will position your eCommerce store as personable and less “salesy.” Your business stands to gain positive brand equity. And your prospects will be allowed space to consider a purchase without feeling pressured.
If you have eCommerce partners, take advantage of the multiple audiences. Work together to pitch coupons and offers to both audiences, thereby increasing your reach, driving net new conversions, and building your customer base.
Just keep in mind that promo codes can be detrimental for eCommerce stores if you do not know what you’re doing.
Be careful not to oversell your offer. Overselling can lead to excess demand, maybe even more than you can possibly fulfill successfully depending on the scale and size of your business.
Also, tread lightly with the percent of discounts you offer. If your customers get accustomed to seeing 50% off, then they won’t be enticed by a mere 15% in the future.
If someone on your website is interested in one of your products, that’s a great time to upsell and cross-sell other similar items. And you can easily get the message in front of them with a lightbox-style pop-up window.
Try displaying prominent headers including big discounts for orders that exceed a specific spend amount. This will encourage visitors to add more items to your cart, making you more money in the end.
Whether it’s loyalty rewards, seasonal coupons, or free shipping promo codes, your product page is the perfect place to share these types of coupons with your audience.
7. Include Coupon Codes on Your Cart Page
Shopping cart abandonment is a huge problem for eCommerce websites. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to help reduce your shopping cart abandonment rate.
For example, consider offering first-time shoppers coupons for discounts, free shipping, etc.
When visitors view their carts, they are usually considering either adding items to their cart, removing some of the items, or abandoning the cart altogether.
By adding a pop-up with a coupon offer when a visitor moves to abandon their cart or exit your website, you have a better chance of convincing them to stay and complete the purchase.
8. Use Coupon Codes Post-Purchase
Once a customer has completed an order, your work should not be considered done.
You can still entice them to return and make more purchases in the future. In fact, even if the visitor leaves your website without buying anything, your selling cycle doesn’t stop there.
To help increase your eCommerce website’s ROI, try remarketing and email marketing. Both of these tactics can help nurture relationships and bring customers back to your site.
This will keep shoppers engaged and allow you to build stronger relationships – all while maintaining brand awareness.
Here are some ideas for post-purchase offers that can increase your ROI:
- Coupons and gift cards
- Follow-up discounts
- “Related items” emails
Conclusion
There you go. Eight effective ways to use coupons along the visitor’s path for increasing conversions on your eCommerce website.
Keep these tips in mind to help you leverage the full power of coupons on your website. With this approach, you can turn more visitors into customers and boost your bottom line.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions stated in this post are that of the author, and Return On Now may or may not agree with any or all of the commentary.
Feature Image provided by author and sourced as linked within the post.
This guest post brought to you courtesy of Return On Now, Professional Austin SEO and PPC Services Company.
Ron Stefanski
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