I pulled the following article from a Kudzu email I received call Got Coupons? Coupon Use is Soaring!

Monday, April 20, 2009

By: Susan Gunelius

According to AdAge.com, coupon use is way up (thanks to the economic downturn, no doubt).  Coupons.com reported a 192% increase in the value of coupons printed from its site in March 2009 above the same time a year ago.  The trend shows no signs of stopping.

The most interesting point for small business owners to take away from this trend is this — consumers are actively searching for and downloading coupons not just for online stores but for brick and mortar stores, too.  Furthermore, consumers are looking for coupons for every kind of purchase one can imagine — entertainment, electronics, groceries, household goods, and more.  Your small business is missing a great opportunity if you don’t have a coupon strategy.

Need more evidence that your small business should be leveraging the growth in coupon use?  Try this — comScore reports that coupons have been the second most visited category online behind jobs for the past year.  In February 2009 alone, the number of unique visitors to coupon sites was up by 41% over the same time a year ago with Coupons.com and Eversave.com drawing the majority of those visitors.

How can small business owners get their coupons noticed online without investing a lot of money?  Some suggestions are listed below:

  1. Join online coupon code sharing sites such as CouponMountain.com and CouponCabin.com.
  2. Connect with bloggers who write about coupons and saving money and ask them to mention your coupons.  Do a search on Google Blog Search, IceRocket.com or Technorati.com to find blogs about coupons and frugal shopping.
  3. Include discount information on local search sites like Yelp.com.
  4. Join online forums and connect with bloggers that are dedicated to topics your target customers are likely to be interested in.  Join the conversation and share your coupon codes.  Just remember to add value to the conversation else your participation will be viewed as strictly promotional, meaning people will ignore your posts over time.
  5. Don’t forget to continue to spread the word about your coupons offline, too!
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