Faced with tightening budgets, consumers are on the lookout for savings these days, and one of the top places they're scouring is the Web.
This has resulted in an 83 percent growth in Internet coupon usage since 2005, according to Manhattan-based Scarborough Research.
Though newspapers and other print sources are still the top generators of coupons, Internet coupon usage is expected to grow even further in the coming months, say experts.
"We've already seen a 300 percent increase in online coupon redemption in the first half of 2009, which is outgrowing every other method of distribution," says Matthew Tilley, marketing director for Inmar, a coupon management company in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Last year, 2.6 billion coupons were redeemed through all media; 1 percent of those were online coupons, says Tilley. In the first half of 2009, the redemption of Internet coupons already represents 2 percent of all coupons redeemed, he says.
The growth can be attributed mostly to the economic downturn forcing even consumers who never used coupons to cast a wider net to find savings, he notes.
So how can your company effectively use online coupons to attract consumers?
Well, creating an effective campaign starts with knowing what you want to accomplish in the first place, says Brian Weisfeld, chief operating officer of Coupons.com Inc. in Mountain View, Calif.
"You need to know what your goals are," he says.
Is your goal to collect information, reward customer loyalty, drive people into your store? he asks. If you're using coupons as a way to collect customer information, then you have to offer incentives that entice them to share pertinent information like e- mail/ mailing addresses.
"The dollar value of the offer should correlate with the amount of information you're trying to get," says Weisfeld. Basically the greater the offer, the more information they'll likely share.
Just remember the Web can be viral, so whatever offer you advertise, be prepared to sustain it. For that reason, sometimes it pays to put a minimum on an offer to help protect your margins.
For instance, La Strada of Merrick Brick Oven Italian Restaurant sets limits, offering customers $10 off any purchase of $60 or more or $5 off any lunch check of $30 or more on sites like LongIsland Coupon.com.
"We want to still have the reputation of having it be worth the price," explains manager Frank Corva, who gets more than 20 online coupons weekly. Print coupons are still most dominant, but the Web is growing, notes Corva, who also advertises offers on restaurant.com and restaurantbuzz.com.
Aside from these types of sites, many companies use their own Web sites in conjunction with e-mail marketing to promote coupon offers.
If you're using e-mail marketing for these purposes, it's imperative the offer be clear and visible, says Tim Brown, marketing manager of Active Web Group, a Web marketing firm in Hauppauge.
"You have three or four seconds before a person makes a decision to go elsewhere or click on the coupon," Brown says. So make sure the offer stands out, he says, noting that percentage offers generally incentivize people more than money-off offers.
Stacy Maloney of Almanders Alley.com, a Hauppauge-based specialty gifts retailer, has found that to be the case.
The company, which works with Active Web Group, used a 10 percent discount offer sent via e-mail marketing to entice customers and prospects to check out its newly redesigned Web site, says Maloney.
"Ten percent is nice and easy," says Maloney, adding that the offer has generated sales. "People don't have to think about it."