If there is one word that’s guaranteed to make any customer’s eyes light up, it’s the word “discount”. After all, who doesn’t love being able to pay less for their purchases?
But of course, this doesn’t mean that you can just hand out vouchers for discounts without having a strategy in place.
When you offer a discount, it should be for getting more customers to spend with you—and to spend more with you, so that your business brings in more dough. Otherwise, you might just bleed money and go out of business!
So how can you be strategic about the discount vouchers that you give to customers? Here are 4 ways:
1. Build up hype for product launches and promotions
Many businesses start talking about their new products only on the day of launch. To create more hype, however, you could give your customers advance notice of the new product, and release discount vouchers for preorders. This will help you start raking in sales of the new product before it is even released!
This method also works well for generating hype and sales on special sale days. To do so, announce to customers that you’ll be having a sale on a certain day. However, if a customer wants to get the discount, then they’ll have to collect a voucher that you’ll release ahead of time. You should check websites like EarthWeb.com that provides reviews and list of discounts for different brands, and see how it works for you.
For example, take a look at this discount voucher created by home security business Cherry Home:
With this voucher (and its accompanying coupon code “CHERHPDEB”, customers could get 20 pesos off their purchase with a minimum spend of 300 pesos on 12 December 2020.
To take advantage of this deal, they simply had to collect the voucher between 1 and 11 December 2020.
2. Attract email list signups
Building an email list is practically a must-do for every business. Doing so helps you keep in touch with your customers, and also allows you to promote special offers to them—which means more sales for you.
But how are you going to get people to sign up for your email list in the first place? Because unless a person is really a big fan of your business and is dying to hear from you, they might not give up their email address so easily.
This is where you’ll need to give them some good reason to sign up. And what better incentive than being able to get a discount on orders with you?
So on your website, put a banner inviting website visitors to subscribe to your email list in exchange for a discount. Then, in the first email that they receive after signing up, attach a voucher that they can use to get a sweet discount on their order!
For inspiration, check out how temporary tattoo business Tattly does its discount vouchers for new email subscribers:
3. Re-engage your customers
What’s better than having a customer? It’s having a customer who buys from you again, and again!
Ideally, all your customers would be like that, and come back to you every time they need something that you offer. People are busy though, and as they go through their lives, they might just forget about you.
This isn’t something to take personally. But as far as possible, try to remain at the top of your customers’ minds so that they continue buying from you instead of a competitor.
That’s where building your email list (see the previous point!) comes in oh-so-handy. Because from time to time, you can send your email subscribers an exclusive discount voucher to encourage orders—especially if they haven’t visited your website or bought anything from you in a while.
Here’s how gift retailer IWOOT does its re-engagement discount voucher:
To up the urgency, IWOOT also tells its subscribers that the voucher is good for 48 hours only. So if they want to claim this fantastic 22% discount, then they’ll have to start shopping now!
4. Promote a good cause
While you’re likely running a business on a for-profit basis, this doesn’t mean that your business can’t do good. Take the opportunity to advocate for the causes that you support—and show that you mean it by donating profits towards your chosen charities or non-profit organizations.
You can also run special campaigns catered towards customers who back the same causes as you.
For example, you could highlight a particular occasion that you support, and offer discount vouchers for purchases made during that occasion!
This is what wedding band retailer Manly Bands has done for this year’s Pride Month. In a recent email, it featured pride rings that customers could buy to celebrate pride. The email also included a discount voucher for customers to get 25% off their orders.
Start creating your discount vouchers today!
Offering discount vouchers is a great way of incentivizing customers to shop with you—whether because you’re promoting up-and-coming products, re-engaging customers who haven’t shopped with you in a while, or supporting a cause that you believe in. And the good news is that they aren’t difficult to make!
Graphic design platforms such as PosterMyWall make it easy to create eye-catching discount vouchers at low cost, even if you aren’t a trained graphic designer.
Simply pick your favorite voucher template (there are hundreds to choose from), then customize it to fit the occasion using PosterMyWall’s drag-and-drop editor. You’ll have your discount vouchers ready in no time, and you can always go back and make changes later if needed.
