To coupon or not to coupon? That is the question. As any other restauranter will know, your profit margins are what keeps your business afloat, and good to excellent profit margins are the way to grow your business, (hopefully) make you millions, and perhaps even franchise your business in the future. Coupons are a form of advertising designed to get butts on seats, but are they a good technique to use, and if so, what’s the best way to go about couponing?
Undervaluing or ignoring their importance may not be the way to go, particularly if you’re looking to attract more patrons to your eatery. However, understanding how they work and using them to your own advantage is important.
Many sectors offer discounts, exclusive feels, and freebies, and it’s not just the ones who just started their well-established businesses. For instance, online casinos and affiliates work tirelessly to offer players new no-deposit bonus codes (which are somewhat the online gambling equivalent to restaurant coupons) – many of which you can get from AussieCodes.com – so we suggest you visit their site.
Start With Your Perfect Customer
Knowing who your target customers are is the first piece of the puzzle to working out what sort of couponing might work for your business. Are you designed as an Instagram hotspot, trying to attract friends and couples in that 15-25 age bracket? Perhaps your business is a family-friendly place, ready for generations to gather for their weekly catch-up. Maybe you are a cafe looking to attract office workers in the area.
The type of customer you are aiming to attract and serve will dictate the type of couponing that will work best for them. A mail drop in the local area with coupons inside isn’t going to attract the after-school crowd; it might even do the opposite and have them cringing about your dinosaur marketing techniques.
What Do You Want to Achieve?
Beyond getting more customers in the door, what do you want to achieve with your couponing? Different strategies should be deployed, depending on your goal.
- If you would like to attract high-flying and likely high-paying international visitors, partnering with accommodation and travel websites can work.
- If you are trying to boost your Google reviews, a QR code at the point of payment for a percentage off the bill for a review is pretty common and works for almost all ages.
- If you’d like returning customers, loyalty cards still work, especially for areas frequented by office workers.
- If you want to debut a new dish or product, you can develop a coupon strategy just for this product
How Does Your Audience Coupon?
There are a million different ways to coupon. Yes, mail drops will probably work for retirees, if that’s who you are going after. For a younger crowd, you could drop a secret code on your Instagram account that only lasts for the weekend and must be whispered to the cashier. Knowing where and how your customers do their couponing is important. For instance, the mum might browse cash-back websites every morning as part of their daily routine after they drop the kids off at school.
Do the Maths First
Ok, great, so you have a coupon strategy and know where to reach your market. It’s time to launch, right? Wrong! A coupon strategy needs careful planning to ensure you’re not accidentally eating into your profit margins. While it might be okay to operate at a loss at launch, you don’t want to continue that practice with coupons.
Instead, consider only deploying coupons that have a reduced margin of profit as you’d typically have, and make sure to put an end date on that promo!
Plan for the worst: a huge influx of coupons from one-time-only customers, because you accidentally went viral. If you are eating into your profits or will be completely overwhelmed by the traffic, then you should dial back the deal so it’s not quite so attractive.
Converting Into Returning Customers
While plenty of people will only use coupons at establishments when they come up, if you offer a great product, service, and environment, then they’re more likely to come back. Even for serious couponers, they may not return but they will probably tell their friends and family about your place.
Word of mouth is one of the best advertising methods and if you can capture that channel then you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank. People trust their friends, family, and coworkers for the inside scoop far more than they trust a Google review or a picture on the internet.
While your coupon promo is running, don’t forget to go above and beyond to get that word-of-mouth buzz buzzing.