How to make Coupons and Discounts work for Your Customers and Your Business
Discounts and coupons are a great way to attract a large generic group of new and existing customers to your store, or a particular sale or promotion.
It was 14 years ago when my husband and I decided to market an email marketing solution. I remember the time clearly because I was also pregnant with my fourth child, while on maternity leave with my third child for six months – yes we were only granted six months maternity leave back then.
So, our fourth child was born in 2000, 1 year and 2 weeks apart from the third child. Fast forward to 2013, and my babies are now teenagers (13 and 14 years old). So much has changed since they were born, and I wanted to look back to see if email marketing has also grown up.
We did our first tradeshow booth in 2000, and we literally felt like aliens. People were looking at us as though we were odd because they didn’t think email marketing was going to be a useful, let alone powerful marketing tool.
At that time, this is what we had to work with:
When I look at these last few years, it is incredible how email marketing has grown up!
At this point, I think email marketing has evolved beyond being a teenager. It’s also easier to manage! Having said that, I’m sure we have a lot to discover in the next few years for email marketing.
The thought reminds me of a discussion I had more than five years ago with one of the most highly regarded social media specialists in Montreal. At a cocktail party, she asked me if I was thinking of a new business model because she thought email marketing will be dead in few years. I was sure it wasn’t true because at this time I knew we had a lot more work to do, to personalize and create more relevant email campaigns, and by the same way, increase the email marketing ROI.
The only thing I wasn’t able to tell her is that social media tools are really large users of email marketing. We still have direct mail, radio and TV ads, I’m pretty sure we will need to keep an eye for the next few years on how those marketing tools will work together. We will need all of them for each stage of marketing and the client cycle.
When I think about what email marketing will look like in 15 years, I just wonder how it can be a better ROI tool, and I’m pretty sure we’ll find a way.