Cutting Through With Coupon Promotions

KEY INSIGHTS

• Discount coupons atop pizza boxes are ideally placed to promote your menu and expand your potential customer base
• You can also utilise coupons with discount codes which customers have to photograph and post on Instagram (along with their pizza) to qualify for a discount or free meal
• Coupons are ideal for Local Area Marketing (LAM) activities to boost awareness of your brand and encourage trial/repeat business
• E-commerce discount sites such as Groupon provide a readymade means of offering coupons to potential customers

DISCOUNT COUPONS are always popular with customers, and these days they can be designed and promoted in a wide variety of ways.

Take for example the humble takeaway pizza box. As pizza is typically a shared meal, chances are that every pizza box that leaves your premises will be seen by more than one person. Discount coupons on the box toppers are therefore ideally placed to promote your menu and expand your potential customer base. 

The traditional discount coupon has a perforated edge or a dotted line along which customers cut to save the coupon – collect x number of coupons to redeem for a fee pizza, and so on.

While there are pizza box suppliers which specialise in creating tear-off detachable coupon stickers, we’ve also compiled some other ways you can use coupons to interact with customers:

* You can feature a coupon with a discount code inside the box lid, which customers have to photograph and post on Instagram in order to qualify for a discount or free pizza. As the code is inside the box, this means they’re likely to share a photo of the pizza at the same time, or at least your branded coupon on Instagram – which equals free publicity!

* QR codes can be included on coupons - when scanned by a smartphone these take customers to your website or social media platform. By combining this with a savings code sticker which the customer needs to enter to receive a discount on their next order, you can use the opportunity of their visit to your platform to present your full menu or other marketing materials. The useful thing about QR codes is that they are simply a link to direct your customers, so the information they link to can be updated whenever necessary without the QR code itself going out of date. This saves you the expense and trouble of having to update/reprint the coupon artwork in the event of price increases or other alterations. QR codes can be generated for free from online sites.

* Coupons are ideal for Local Area Marketing (LAM) activities to boost awareness of your brand and encourage trial/repeat business. These can be anything from the traditional letterbox drop with coupons included on a flyer/brochure, to text messaging on smartphones if you have built up a database of customers. For example, an effective LAM campaign might include offering discount coupons via your brand’s Facebook page, a community hub page on Facebook or local chamber of commerce/tourism website, or by partnering with restaurant review sites or online order platforms.

* You can also distribute discount coupons via local radio promotions and through sponsorship of local events such as music festivals, parades, fetes and community street parties – especially where there’s the opportunity to provide food samples.

* E-commerce discount sites such as Groupon provide a readymade means of offering coupons to potential customers on the lookout for great deals. Think of this as an opportunity to incentivize consumers to make that first table booking or takeaway/home delivery order. A coupon offer such as two-for-one meals, your first drink free or a free dessert or side is a good investment – the aim then is to ensure that once the customer has sampled your food and service, they’ll want come back for more and recommend your brand to others.

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