That is what we are going to focus in on today in this article and that is the use of coupons, and more importantly, how to use them effectively.

First off lets start off with what a coupon is and why you would use one in the first place. Unless you just woke up from a long, and I mean a long winter`s nap, chances are you have heard of coupons. They are small snippets of paper that you cut out of your newspaper on Sunday morning, or get receive in the mail, and use to save some money.

Companies use coupons for a lot of different reasons, such as the obvious, getting people to buy their products. However, they are also used as great marketing devices. The tracking of coupons can let you know in what parts of the world, the country or whatever demographic you cater to, where and which products you sell are purchased most often. Imagine that you sell more widgets in Nevada then anywhere else, and sell none in Ohio, and you found this out through tracking your coupons. The answer is obvious as to where you put your advertising dollars for widgets, and where you would put your efforts on finding why no one likes widgets in Ohio.

As a consumer here is how a coupon works. You are looking through your Sunday paper and see a piece of paper that reads, "Save $0.20 on your favorite Salad dressing, cut me out". So you do and the next time you go shopping, you buy the dressing and save money on it. I know the first thing you are saying is, the amount isn`t significant, however it is not the amount that is important here. The consumer already likes the salad dressing, maybe would have purchased it anyway, but what that twenty cents does do is stop the consumer from trying another brand of the same type of salad dressing. This is another good use for a coupon.

You can also use coupons to increase your customer base, and that is done with coupons that are a significant decrease in what you charge. For instance, lets say you clean carpets. You normally charge $50 per room, but you are offering a coupon that reads, that you will clean two rooms for free with a four room purchase. Sounds like a huge decrease, but you are getting a ton of information from your coupon marketing campaign. Again, you are tracking where your business is coming from, but more importantly it is getting you in front of people that may refer you to others that they know. So in turn, one coupon can land you multiple clients. Also, you now have the customers contact information. Lets say the industry norm to clean carpets is every six months. Guess what, you have their contact information, you can mail out, call, etc., letting them know it is time to clean the carpets again. You can virtually build a year round business of repeat customers.

I know it is a lot to digest in one article. Coupons are a great way to help increase your customer base as well as sales. You may have thought of some creative ways to use them as well, and if they work, that is wonderful, just don`t forget to use them, and use them often.

By: Bruce A. Tucker