The 5 Building Blocks of A Successful Digital Coupon Program

Manufacturer’s Coupons have been around for 130 years, ever since Coca-Cola issued the first coupon around 1887. And, it would seem like much has changed since then, but yet, very much is still the same. Regardless of how you distribute your digital coupon, building a great campaign starts with a few basics from which to build.    PromotionPod provides these five tips to help you build a great digital Manufacturer’s Coupon for your CPG brand.

1. Determine the objective.
You can’t do it all in one campaign. You must decide your true objective and work from there.  Trade-offs and compromises have to be made to build the right campaign to reach your objective. Trying to do too many things with one campaign will only dilute your results and keep you from achieving the main goal of your brand. Your objective might be to elicit trial from new consumers; or maybe you want to distribute as many Manufacturer’s Coupons as possible to as many consumers as possible to drive sales and meet short-term goals.  Whatever your objective, the right campaign design will help you meet your goals.

2. Set success criteria.  
How do you measure success during and after the program? Defining what success looks like now will help you choose the right structure of your digital Manufacture’s Coupon campaign.  What amount of sales or units moved will meet your sales goals?  Reaching a certain number of consumers with your ad message and offer could be one metric, and redemption rate would be a very important measurement of success. Build your Manufacturer’s Coupon program with the end goal in mind and then work your creative, offer, and marketing to hit your targeted goal.  The right enterprise-level CPG Digital coupon management system can help you pull the right levers and track all events as they happen and provide you with real-time data the as it is happening.

3. Build the right offer.   
Step three is where the budget makes its entrance, and where brand and marketing managers may collide . Obviously, the stronger the offer the more distributions and the higher the redemption rates. But creating the right offer that meets your objective within a budget can be a tricky balance.   As a rule, to gain new trial you need to offer 25% savings or greater, and you must make your offer valid on the purchase of one item. Not two, not three, but one.  Of course, there are a few exceptions to this rule for items that have a low retail. But, overall, first-time users do not want to buy multiple products they have not used yet. If your objective is to increase basket size, try an offer with a higher purchase requirement and a bigger total savings.

4. Marketing the Campaign. 
There are many options to consider when deciding how to market your digital Manufacturer’s Coupon campaign; who do we target, where do we place ads, what information should we request, how should the consumer receive the offer, etc.  When creating your campaign, you can ask consumers to provide information like email address, zip codes, birthdays, and much more. Be cautious though; while asking questions can help you learn more about your consumers, asking for too much too soon can lead to clicks, but no prints.  Consumers who drop-off, don’t drive sales.  It is crucial to keep your objectives in mind here and if your goal is to gain new users, then provide the easiest way for a consumer to get your Manufacturer’s Coupon in their hands, without a lot of work.

5. Measure your results. 
Now the fun begins: see how successful you were! Take a complete look at your campaign from the beginning to the end.  How many views, clicks, and prints did you get? How did those numbers contrast each other? How many redemptions? Did you meet your sales goal? If not, why not? Try to determine the weak points in the campaign to improve for the future.   Having the ability to view results as they happen during the campaign will help you spot trends and react to those mid-flight versus waiting until the program is over.

Unfortunately, in the world of marketing and promotions there is no perfect formula and results vary by brand, offer, time of year, etc. But, by following these five steps, your CPG brand should be well on its way to building a successful  digital Manufacturer’s Coupon campaign.

PromotionPod specializes in creating well-designed CPG Manufacturer’s Coupon programs. We utilize our own innovative digital coupon software platform to create and manage digital coupon programs for CPG brands and shopper marketing agencies. PromotionPod is a leader in building effective digital coupons and has over 20 years of experience building targeted coupon programs used to drive sales and build customer loyalty for the world’s leading brands.