There is nothing new about offering coupons and discounts to your customers. Coupons are as old as advertising itself. But creating a marketing strategy around digital coupons is completely different than one built around traditional mailers. This is a whole new arena, and getting started can seem intimidating.

Simple question: is your current digital coupon strategy increasing revenue? If you’re limiting your coupons with traditional methods, such as listing them on coupon directories, then your team needs to take a more proactive approach.

A well planned, effective digital coupon strategy can create an immediate impact on your revenue, average order value, and customer retention. In this blog, you’ll learn why we recommend your business to work with an experienced partner on a digital coupon strategy

Let’s dive in.

The Right Partner Goes a Long Way

While discounts are proven to drive sales and make consumers feel even better about their purchase, not all brands, products, and customers are ideal for discounts. Coupons can harm your brand’s customer perceived value or public image. For example, coupons can be both ineffective and counterproductive when it comes to luxury items. Vogue Business found that when luxury items were discounted, they were seen as inferior, out-of-season, or less popular, immediately making the luxury brand less desirable.

For instance, if you’re selling Lamborghinis, this guide may not be for you because your target audience isn’t spending time hunting for coupons. For other retailers, however, it’s essential to incorporate the right pricing strategies, at the right time, for the right customers… but how do you know? Work with a partner who has a proven track record with coupon strategy.

To optimize new ways to reach consumers and to manage the risks and costs associated with the settlement of all types of coupons — paper, digital, and universal digital coupons — brands and retailers should seek to partner with an experienced, true one-stop shop. Outsourcing your coupon campaign to a proven partner comes with many benefits:

Financial Expertise

• Fast, accurate, simplified payment and reconciliation of valid discounts paid to consumers
• Efficient, automated, and accurate invoicing and settlement of all promotion types, consolidated into a fully transparent, consistent data set
• Powerful point-of-sale (POS) audit that quickly identifies and helps resolve exceptions

Robust Data & Analytics

• Store-level data targeting consumers and oversight of store controls
• 24/7 access to redemption analytics through a self-service portal
• Expert representatives supporting powerful portals, dashboards and scorecards
• Granular offer intelligence to uncover opportunities and identify risks

Advanced Risk Management

• POS offer validation data set to aid retailers in stopping counterfeits before they’re accepted
• A proprietary, enhanced audit that combines with POS data to support loss prevention

Coupon Revolution: Herein Lies A Universal Opportunity

Research shows that approximately half of shoppers are cautiously optimistic about the year ahead. They plan to spend — they’ll just be more prudent about what they purchase. And they’ll be looking for deals. With inflation rates higher than ever, customers are looking to cut down on costs, often leading them to purchase cheaper alternatives. This is where an effective and strategic digital coupon strategy comes into play. Implementing an effective digital coupon strategy can keep your deal-hunting customers purchasing the items they want most rather than searching for a cheaper alternative.

Digital coupons can be a great marketing feature for any sized business, as it helps draw in new customers and reward existing ones.

Can companies without the knowledge, experience, and processes of coupon settlement and reimbursement seamlessly handle the strain of innovation and complexity of coupon redemption? Yes, we have seen it done successfully. But those success stories are rare. More often than not, the coupon campaign falls short and pulls too much time, with too few results and too many resources from other vital business operations.

A reliable, streamlined, and visible coupon redemption process is a core value — and primary business function — of successful brands and retailers. This is why finding the right balance and right partner to create and maintain a coupon strategy is essential to helping you elevate your business, bring in new customers, and entice existing ones.

Bringing it all together

You can employ many strategies when setting up a coupon strategy, but you might have to test several methods before finding one that works for you. No matter what coupon marketing strategy you decide on, our team of experts can help you gain visibility into market and customer data and effectively mine it to develop targeted offers that spark action and increases revenue. Speak with one of our team members today!

Hubspot research found that over 60% of marketers measure the success of their content marketing strategy through sales. However, the most successful marketers understand that an effective content strategy that converts browsers into lifelong customers is the foundation of any successful marketing campaign.

That’s why in this blog post, we’ll provide you and your team with tips to boost conversion rates ranging from refocused SEO to CTA tweaks. And the best part is that all these tips are things your content team could start doing immediately.

So get ready to take notes.

What do we mean when we say ‘content marketing’ and ‘conversions’?

Before we jump into the helpful tips, let’s define what content marketing and conversions mean.

​​Content marketing is explaining to customers how your product or service can solve their issues through written text, images, or videos. It is intended not to be sales-y, but educational, explaining how a product works, its benefits, and the issues it can solve. For more on content marketing, read our blog post, Content is King.

Conversions are centered around a user completing a pre-determined action on your website. For instance, a conversion could be a user sharing one of your blog posts, clicking on a product recommendation, or subscribing to your newsletter. The percentage of users that complete the desired action is your conversion rate.

How to boost conversions with content

Ultimately, the content your team creates aims to increase your conversions. Simply put, your content should be enticing and direct your audience to take action. So, how can your eCommerce website’s content achieve this?

• Increasing awareness: Your content should be designed to be sharable across multiple  social media platforms. While the nature of these various platforms prevents your content from being perfect or ideal across all your sites, you can take a larger piece of content and break it up so that it works more efficiently on other platforms. Example: a 10-minute Youtube livestream doesn’t stream or upload directly to Twitter. But you can take that 10-minute Youtube livestream and share short clips uploaded directly to Youtube. This means that visitors to your e-Commerce site who read your content are more likely to share it themselves – which quickly and easily increases the reach of your content and your company. By reaching more people, you can increase brand, service, and product awareness, ultimately leading to more conversions.
• Linking your products/services: Whether you want people to book your services, or buy your products, ensure that all of your content links back to what you are trying to get viewers to purchase. By linking your content to your product or services page, you provide potential customers with a positive user experience by making purchasing quick and easy. For instance, add your product links to the very top of the video description on your business’ Youtube. 
• Building brand authority: Whatever your industry may be, tailoring your content according to your audience’s needs and pain points helps show how much industry knowledge your company has and can quickly establish your brand as a go-to. It can boost your website’s standing and help build trust with customers, who may be more likely to make a booking or purchase from your site over the competition.

How will you optimize your content for better conversion?

• Improve the content on your landing page/site to be mobile-friendly: Even though mobile commerce now has a sizable user base, the industry’s growth shows no signs of slowing. According to BigCommerce, by 2022, mobile e-commerce sales are expected to account for 6.9% of all US retail sales, double the sales percentage in 2018.  When creating dynamic content on mobile, think about how users navigate Instagram and other social media platforms – the content is usually swipeable and scrollable with large, bright buttons as they move from Point A to Point B. Your content pages should follow similar principles – be easy to navigate with minimal interruption and aim to make a seamless experience for users to navigate to your predetermined CTA.
• Visible and robust CTA’s: First, ensure your CTA is easily noticeable for your customer. And while you want a clear and straightforward call to action, you still want it to be descriptive. That goes back to good content being inspiring! For instance, would you be more likely to read a story about a man in love or a man whose heart does the cha-cha every time the love of his life enters a room? Depending on your choice, you can see that specifics make a difference. So instead of writing, “Try this free trial,” you could say, “Become more mindful by completing our free 30-day yoga trial.” The specifics will help your customer understand what they will get from the deal. The key here? It won’t matter how well-written your CTA is if the viewer cannot see it or skim right past it.
• Incorporate client testimonials and customer reviews: According to BigCommerce, 92% of shoppers read internet reviews before purchasing. Therefore, including testimonials and reviews on your website might demonstrate your professionalism and industry expertise. Case studies are one way of doing this, as they can help you present relevant data on how your clients have grown due to utilizing your services or benefits. 
• Increasing traffic: Stay on top of relevant trends, create “how-to” blog posts, and frequently update older content to ensure you continue serving your audience with valuable and timely information. You can even accomplish this by updating content long after it’s initially published. Regularly updating your content can organically drive more traffic to your website and more traffic means more opportunities for conversions and, ultimately, more sales.
• Shorten your sign-up forms: Long forms can quickly frustrate customers and make them less likely to convert. For instance, if you have a lengthy form, people may not want to fill it out because it takes too much time and can lead them to abandon your site altogether. It’s your job to eliminate that doubt by making your forms short and painless. That’s why we recommend asking for the bare minimum, such as their name, email, and phone number – this makes it quick, easy, and less likely that they’ll abandon the form midway through. 
• Skimmable content: No matter the industry or brand, unfortunately, most website visitors won’t read every carefully produced word on a webpage. And although having a lot of content on your website is beneficial for SEO, you don’t want to overwhelm your visitors. Therefore, ensuring your content is formatted to highlight the essential parts of your blog, products, or services pages is important. Some formatting tips we recommend incorporating include eye-catching headlines (see below for more tips), short paragraphs, incorporation of videos and eye-grabbing imagery, and bulleted or numbered lists. 
• Well-written headlines: You have just seconds to grab your customers’ attention when they reach your website. Luckily, that’s what your headlines are for. Some tips we recommend when creating well-written headlines include:
  • Give the right amount of information and fast – tell them what they want to know about your product or service within ten words or less.
  • Nobody likes clickbait, so make sure your headline aligns with the ad copy or content used to get them to click on your site.
  • Don’t over-promise and under-deliver. Some customers will go on to read the rest of the content on the page, so make sure your headline matches up with what’s to come.

Bringing it all together

At its core, increasing conversions is all about creating exciting and engaging content to get people to click on from a Web search and stick around on your site through purchase. 

Are you looking for a way to capture the attention of potential customers by presenting meaningful content from a position of authority and converting them into buyers?

We can help you build brand awareness, trust, and loyalty with your audience through excellent site content. Whether that entails helping you develop a site content strategy or direction for your copy by either writing it for you or working with you to edit existing content – we are here to help.

Marketing to Baby Boomers can show significant returns for your business if you take the time to do it correctly. Despite the misconception that they are not particularly technologically inclined, the reality is they are pretty friendly when it comes to technology. According to a report from Statista, 78% of this age group own a smartphone, 66% own a laptop, 58% own a desktop, and 46% own a tablet.

Those numbers begin to waver, though, with wearables and home assistants, like Google Home and Amazon Alexa. Still, that leaves a wide berth for you and your team to get their foot in the door when targeting this generation who make 20% more online purchases than Millennials and spend more than $200 billion more annually than Generation X.

As you embark on this holiday season, building a connection with one of the largest sectors of shoppers could be the X-factor in a crowded eCommerce space. Read on for a few key strategies that will help you increase sales and give you a leg up on the competition this holiday season.

Don’t miss our other popular holiday blog, ‘Engaging with Gen Z.“

What Do We Know About Boomers?

The second-largest generation, the Baby Boomers, also referred to as the ‘Me Generation’ consist of those born from 1946-1964. This generation is marked by a more traditional worldview, dominated by the ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ and ‘the customer is always right’ mentality.

What Do Boomers Want?

They are more interested in not only getting the most bang for their buck, but they seek products and services that will add adventure to their lives. Unlike Millennials, they are far less interested in brands’ moral and ethical persona.

Instead, they want businesses to impress them with results that speak louder than any targeted email or direct mail campaign, social media marketing, or PPC advertising strategy.

Tips for Engaging with Baby Boomers 

Because they are both progressive and traditional, many digital retailers like yourself face challenges reaching Baby Boomers. To help, we want to leave you with some tips you can start working on more effectively today to reach this generation.

Leave Behind the Notion that Baby Boomers Don’t Use the Internet –  It might come as a shock to those who believe that it’s only worth executing a digital marketing strategy for the younger generations, Gen Z and Millenials, but 51% of Baby Boomers spend 15+ hours a week online, compared to 41% of Millennials. And according to Forbes, 96% of Baby Boomers use search engines as one of their top resources to gather information on products and services.

In addition, more than half are on Facebook and other social media channels such as YouTube and LinkedIn, but where should you funnel your budgets and strategy?

Boomers Use Social Media to Connect with Family and Friends – While positive sentiments about social media may seem optimistic at face value, you and your team should consider that Baby Boomers see advertising as intrusive and not engaging. This is because they want their social media experience to center around connection instead of commerce. Boomers post and search a lot on social media. They don’t shop. 

The only exception to this general rule is to introduce them to video and related blog content that centers around non-sales topics. In terms of overall presence, YouTube is the most popular “social media platform,” with 68% of this generation saying they regularly use it. Baby Boomers often engage with the video content socially by sharing with friends, adding comments, and reposting. This is where your opportunity to find creative ways to skip the sales act and educate them on your product or service by providing insights and information that align with their interests. Create ads masked as shareable content (news articles, how-to guides, crafting activities to do with your grandkids during the holidays, etc.). Tie in features about your company’s products and services.  This will get their attention before any retargeted ad or branded content on social media. 

Don’t Discount Good Customer Service –  As already noted, this generation craves a connection with others, even when it comes to your brand. What are we getting at? Baby Boomers want to speak to a real person. Whether through FaceBook messenger or your eCommerce website, you can help ensure this generation is satisfied with your level of customer service by incorporating non-automated live chats similar to big retailer giants like Amazon or Starbucks.

Skip the Hashtags and Slang – Since Baby Boomers see themselves as active, we recommend staying away from words that mention aging like ‘golden years’ or ‘elderly’ and explicitly referring to them as ‘Boomers.’ Reflect this in the imagery you use in your marketing materials. Whether it shows them kayaking or working out, active, aspirational imagery will resonate with your prospects, who don’t see themselves as old.

They also are not “hip” to internet slang so steer clear of trendy terms that younger generations might be more accustomed to. For instance, you may know what “lol” or” smh” mean, but some Baby Boomers may not. That’s why we recommend passing on the internet shorthand when marketing to Baby Boomers as there’s a high likelihood your message will be misunderstood. Since this generation and consumers, in general, won’t buy a product that confuses them, it’s best to keep your message clear and concise and you’ll gain more traction.

Include Price at the Top of the Funnel – While Baby Boomers have more disposable income than any other generation, they still are comparing prices at the top of the funnel. What does this mean for your marketing strategy? You should always include pricing information or verbiage that highlights a sale or clearance.

Don’t Be Afraid of a Little Clickbait  – Although Baby Boomers are digitally savvy, they don’t always possess internet knowledge to decipher between what is legit versus what is not, and thus they may be prone to respond to clickbait headlines. If you want to capitalize on this, avoid writing headlines that are vague or don’t offer them any benefit. When developing your messaging, think about some of the things Baby Boomers value, such as family, health, and finances, then build the rest of the headline from there.

Focus on Keywords and SEO – Search engine optimization (SEO) should top your priority list if you want marketing to Baby Boomers to succeed. If you’ve taken the “set and forget” approach with SEO, now is a good time to refresh your campaign. Ensure you’re targeting the keywords your prospects are searching for so that they can find your community in search engine page results.

Like other consumer demographics, Baby Boomers are careful to do their research before they buy. They like to read reviews and recommendations, and even visit the company’s site to research the product or service. In fact, 70% use search engines to find information about products prior to purchase. Don’t let your SEO strategy fall by the wayside.

With this group spending 27 hours per week online, that’s plenty of screen time to catch their click with the tips addressed above. You could boost a post about an upcoming event or display an ad that touts their ‘active lifestyle.’ The possibilities are endless!

Bringing It All Together

The holidays will be here before you know it, so now is the perfect time to start showing Baby Boomers why your business stands out from all other options at their fingertips. Because of the size of the baby boomer population, nearly every eCommerce retailer has an audience available to them in this marketing sector. Reach this audience and capitalize on their disposable income by marketing with the right tone, speed, and story on the platforms they express they gravitate towards the most – FaceBook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. This is how you can get this generation to interact with your business. In return, they will richly reward you with their loyalty and disposable income.