iQpon Marketing Ideas
Grow your customer base by attracting new customers: This is especially common with new businesses and those that have excess capacity.
- 15% Off of Your First Order
- Sign-up Now and Get 3 Months Free
- Free Introductory Lesson
Drive repeat business and increase customer loyalty:
- Your 5th Sandwich is Free
- Your Second Session is ½ Price
- Every 5th order is 50% off
Sell specific items or services: This is used to introduce new products/services, increase sales of high-profit items, sell excess inventory, etc.
- 15% Off All Elite Computers
- 10% Off Our Gold Package
- 2007 Snowboards 70% Off
- 50% Off Previously Viewed DVDs
- 15% Off - New Line of Sportswear
Increase business during slow times:
- 33% Off Midweek Rentals
- $.50 Coffee Drink Weekdays 10 – 3
- $3 Off Haircuts Weekdays 10 – 3
- Early Bird Sale 15% Off Before 5PM
Capitalize on seasonal or special events:
- Bare Root Fruit Trees $10
- Monday Night Football: $8 Pizza
- $1 Beers on Fight Night
- Summer Pool Prep - $75
Increase your average transaction size: Maximizing revenue per customer is a proven winner!
- Free Delivery on Items Over $200
- Take $20 Off Items $150 or More
- Buy 1 Entrée, Get 2nd 50% Off
- Free Coffee with Bagel Purchase
- Take $50 Off Any Ski Package
- $50 Off MS Office With PC
Simplify your business process with regular specials:
- Late Breakfast For $4 - 9 to 11
- Take $1 Off Our Daily Lunch Specials
- Daily Dinner Special Only $8.99
Capitalize on customer traffic from nearby events:
- Football Pre Game - $2 Draft Beer
- Show A Movie Ticket - $1 Ice Cream
- Post Concert Dinner Special $7.99
Generate customer referrals:
- Bring a friend and get 25% off
- Refer a friend - get a 15% rebate
- 1 month free when you refer a friend
iQpon Facts
Effectiveness:Once just a fad, online coupons are catching on big with retailers and shoppers: "This new breed of incentives seems to be working. Paper coupons generally have a dismal redemption rate of 1% to 2%, while online coupons boast the startling rate of 10% to 20%" - eCentives
Targeting:
Although shoppers across all income levels use grocery coupons to some degree, the highest level of coupon use is actually in the highest income level studied. Shoppers with household incomes of $150,000 per year or more tended to use coupons most frequently.
Trends:
"A new generation of shoppers is discovering coupons on the Web. In fact, almost a quarter of the 148 million Americans that use coupons now find them online, and nearly half of these Coupon Clickers are between the ages of 22 and 44."
- Coupons Inc.
Loyalty:
Coupons increase a brand’s equity and perceived value. Fifty-eight percent believe a brand providing coupons online is more likely to provide new products that they will enjoy; 57 percent believe these companies care about keeping them as a customer.
Reach:
203 million of the 263 million U.S. wireless subscriber lines pay for text messaging either as part of a package or on a transaction-basis.
U.S. mobile subscribers now send and receive more text messages in a month than they make phone calls.
iQpon - SMS Success Stories
Coca-Cola
Through My Coke Rewards, Coca-Cola customers collect unique codes found on various Coca-Cola products and enter them into an account they’ve registered at mycokerewards.com. When they reach certain point levels, they are able to redeem points for rewards.
The mobile component of the program allows consumers to enter the codes over their mobile phone on the go. Coca-Cola’s mobile users typically send and receive about 32 messages a month to Coca-Cola.
Ashley Furniture
When a chain of Ashley Furniture Homestores in the Carolinas wanted to bolster sales during a slow period this summer, they sent 6,000 text message coupons to customers who had opted in to receive information about special offers. Billed as a four-day “secret sale,” the chain of eight stores also sent nearly 29,000 e-mails to promote the sale. And the text message campaign ended up paying off.
The chain says that $85,000 of the $135,000 in revenue generated from that sale was attributed to the SMS coupon, further estimating that for every $1 they spent in executing the text message campaign, they generated $122 in revenue.
Mt. Bachelor Ski Resort
The Mt. Bachelor Ski Resort in Oregon recently distributed barcode coupons over mobile phones, promoted through an opt-in alert system that provided customers with updates of weather conditions at the resort. The coupon rendered on users phones as a barcode that could be scanned at the resort for discounts.
The barcodes could be read as coupons by the resort’s existing scanning software, with no technical or software changes to either the user’s phone or the registers.
Hungry Howie’s Pizza
A Hungry Howie’s Pizza and Subs franchise in Eustis, Fla., wanted to implement a mobile coupon marketing campaign. To realize this goal, the maker of flavored crust pizza and calzone style subs implemented an SMS text messaging based program.
Hungry Howie’s first offer to its customers was a record-breaking success. An offer for one large, three-topping pizza for $10 was sent via SMS text message. Through the five days the offer was valid, Hungry Howie’s enjoyed an incredible 32 percent redemption rate.
What’s Next:
Small Business owners who look at SMS should see an unparalleled opportunity to reach potential customers in a new and unique fashion.
SMS Short code marketing has the potential of lowering customer acquisition costs to previously unattainable efficiency.
Short code marketing, perhaps more than any other advertising medium today, is as simple as starting a conversation.
Your Customers Are Online : Are You?
Local search is the second most popular online activity after e-mail.
- comScore, August 2007
Out of the 130 million monthly unique users of Yahoo last year, 89% of them came to Yahoo with local intent.
- Hilary Schneider, Executive V.P. Yahoo!
The Internet will influence a trillion dollars in sales of local product and services by 2010/11.
- Jupiter / Forrester Research
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"Attention Local Business Owners: Here's How To Why do local business owners love iQpons? How can I create a steady stream of new customers? eHub provides a turn key, localized, web-based marketing system that allows you, the local business owner, to inexpensively, effortlessly, and continuously reach local consumers with our specialized version of coupons called "iQpons". How many people are actually using coupons?According to Google Insights, a popular search engine tool used by internet marketing guru's, search volume for “online coupons” has about doubled in the last ninety days. In fact, ASK.com recently revealed in their annual "Search Engine Query Report" that coupons are number Six on the list of most searched terms this year. Over one million people a day are searching for coupons on Google alone.In recent years there was an unspoken sense that coupon users were "penny pinchers". No more. According to a recent New York Times article - "Thrift is the new normal. There's no stigma to getting anything on discount, Instead, there's a sense of pride." More surprising is the revelation that the highest percentage of coupon users were those with annual incomes exceeding $100,000 per year. Clearly the humble coupon is becoming a major force online. Case in point, Ben Saren, CEO of CitySquares.com, a Northeast-based Internet Yellow Pages Directory, said that he has seen a dramatic increase in coupon usage. He also noted that advertisers that were running online coupons were seeing an "insane number of redemptions." OK - How much is this going to cost me ?That's the best part.You "pay" for your iQpon marketing program with Thrift Certificates. Thrift Certificates are like gift certificates, except they are sold online, digitally generated, and delivered directly to local consumers who purchase them online at this web site. The whole process is really pretty simple. You simply authorize us to sell a certain amount of Thrift Certificates each week that you then honor at your business just like you would a gift card or a gift certificate. We then sell the Thrift Certificates to local consumers via this web site for 50% Off to pay for your iQpon marketing campaign. Thrift Certificates can be any amount in value depending on the nature of your particular business. A spa owner may want to offer $50 Thrift Certificates, while a local pizza shop may want to offer $10 Thrift Certificates. It's all up to you. It's the ultimate win win situation:
What's the catch?The only "catch" - is new customers...We can offer this unique service so inexpensively due to a couple of very unique factors: 1) Simplicity - The marketing plan is so simple, it does not require a salesperson, and our "secret sauce" eHub technology means we don't need full time webmasters or I.T staff to manage this site. Add a salesperson and webmaster to the mix and the cost instantly shoots up to $400 to $500 plus a month - minimum. We also rely on proven word of mouth referrals, viral marketing, and highly targeted search engine optimization techniques to spread the word. Once local consumers find the site, they bookmark it and come back often looking for iQpons and Thrift Certificates. 2) Advanced Web 2.0 Technology - Our cutting edge, web based, content management system means we don't have to pay a webmaster to make site updates every day. Even better, you can easily change or update your iQpon offers, any time, as often as you want for free! Bottom Line? If you can send an email, you can change your online marketing campaign, any time you like. 3) Low Labor Costs - We have a network of I.T. students, and part time technical staff who do all the "techie" stuff. We hire them to create your initial ads and graphics , set up your users account, edit offer page permissions, tweak the shopping cart settings, and a whole bunch of other geeky stuff you really don't want to hear about. 4) Reduced Administrative & Accounting Costs - There are no monthly contracts to sign. That means no billing, no accounting, no monthly bill to pay. You authorize us to sell the Thrift Certificates and and we build and promote your iQpons. That's it. You can pause or stop your marketing campaign at any time. When talking to small business owners about marketing, one question always comes up: Why do Newspapers, Yellow Pages, Radio, and Local TV Stations always want me to sign a long term advertsing contract? If they can bring in new customers, like they say they can, why would I ever stop advertising with them? Makes sense to us. That's why there are no monthly contracts. Bottom line, we will do all the setup, programming, and graphics necessary to set up your new online iQpon marketing system for a one time campaign creation fee of $197. Your ongoing marketing program is then paid for by the Thrift Certificates that you authorize us to sell to local consumers for half price.
Why are online coupons so popular?The very nature of on demand content that the internet delivers is a natural fit with the laser targeted focus of an online coupon. People searching for coupons are ready to buy. Combining Coupons and the web is a natural fit. To quote Forrest Gump, they go together like peas and carrots. We just want to become the Jolly Green Giant of online coupons.Think about this. In 1971 there were 20 billion coupons distributed in the United States. In 1972 Valassis introduced coupons to newspapers and U.S. coupon distribution grew 10X to 200 billion (today it is about 350 billion). 79% of the U.S. population used coupons last year and over 50% of the Sunday newspapers are purchased for the coupons. eHub simply decided to focus on coupons from local businesses, not the national brands you get in the Sunday newspaper. How does this compare to search engine advertising?The old model of advertising is push. Advertisers and publishers push their ads to unsuspecting (and sometimes unwilling) consumers. Search engine advertising is a pseudo-pull model. The consumer does a search and the contextually appropriate ads are placed alongside the search results. Coupons are truly pull based: user’s want to save money, so they search for coupons.Best of all, through our unique system, eHub's iQpons can be easily updated by the advertiser. Each advertiser can simply pull up their offer page, type in a password and start editing right on the page. When you are done, simply click the save button and your offer is updated immediately. Any small business owner who has paid a webmaster $50 to update a page on their web site will appreciate this. A majority of small businesses are "seasonal" in nature and the ability to change or update your marketing message / special offer any time you like is a huge benefit. Won't coupons cost me profits?Not if used correctly. Businesses can achieve nearly any objective with coupons. For example, Amazon wanted to grow their average transaction value, so they offered free shipping if your spend $25 or more at a time. Fast food places want you to buy more, so they offer a meal deal. A restaurant might want you to try their food, so they give you a one-time only coupon for 50% off the second entrée. Coupons are amazingly powerful.Most people think of coupons as merely a discount vendors offer consumers in order to increase sales at the expense of profits. This perception misses the core value of coupons, which is the ability to use a special incentive to drive favorable consumer behavior. Probably the best method of illustrating this point is through examples. Coffee shops have large fixed costs in terms of staffing, equipment and rent. They have very low variable costs attributable to coffee and cups. One local coffee shop found that they were extremely busy during the morning and evening hours, but traffic was slow during the middle of the day. With a high fixed cost structure, any additional business during these slow times would go almost directly to the bottom line. So the savvy coffee shop owner offered a coupon that deeply discounted coffee from 10am – 3pm. This offer caused traffic to increase during this time by 25%. In this case, the coupon achieved the objective of modifying consumer behavior in a manner that was very favorable for the business, without impacting the profitable business during their busy times. This is a perfect example of how to utilize coupons to market your business. |
