by, Lesa Seibert, President, Xstreme Media
With the economy being slow to rebound, every online business needs to investigate innovative ways to generate revenue. The creation and promotion of Internet coupons is one of the fastest growing segments of Internet marketing.
Google Insights for Search shows that the term "coupon" increased in searches by 41 percent from December 2008 to December 2009. A Nielsen survey of 21,000 U.S. households showed that 35 percent planned to cut their spending in 2010.
Internet coupons contain unique tracking codes that are associated with individual users. This allows you to track coupon views, forwards and redemptions to identify what offers work best.
The first step in setting up an Internet couponing system is to choose a vendor that can provide the infrastructure to create and manage the codes associated with electronic couponing. Three popular companies that provide this service are Miva Merchant, E-centives.com and CouponsInc.com. The prices ranges from around $50 per month to over $500 per month, depending on the features and services you need.
Miva Merchant is an Internet storefront system that has product management, shopping cart, credit card processing and Internet couponing in a point-and-click platform. If you already have a shopping cart system in place, E-centives.com could be a better solution. They provide and add-on system of Internet couponing production, security and tracking that gives you the knowledge to create and scale a secure and cost-effective Internet coupon program.
CouponsInc.com provides a system best suited for brick-and-mortar stores. They provide the ability to create, distribute and track consumer-printed coupons that can be used for traditional in-store redemption.
Internet couponing, like Internet marketing, is constantly evolving. Over the next three weeks, we will look at eight of the latest and most creative ways to get your coupons in front of your potential and current customers along with some new types of coupon options and best practices.
With the economy being slow to rebound, every online business needs to investigate innovative ways to generate revenue. The creation and promotion of Internet coupons is one of the fastest growing segments of Internet marketing.
Google Insights for Search shows that the term "coupon" increased in searches by 41 percent from December 2008 to December 2009. A Nielsen survey of 21,000 U.S. households showed that 35 percent planned to cut their spending in 2010.
Internet coupons contain unique tracking codes that are associated with individual users. This allows you to track coupon views, forwards and redemptions to identify what offers work best.
The first step in setting up an Internet couponing system is to choose a vendor that can provide the infrastructure to create and manage the codes associated with electronic couponing. Three popular companies that provide this service are Miva Merchant, E-centives.com and CouponsInc.com. The prices ranges from around $50 per month to over $500 per month, depending on the features and services you need.
Miva Merchant is an Internet storefront system that has product management, shopping cart, credit card processing and Internet couponing in a point-and-click platform. If you already have a shopping cart system in place, E-centives.com could be a better solution. They provide and add-on system of Internet couponing production, security and tracking that gives you the knowledge to create and scale a secure and cost-effective Internet coupon program.
CouponsInc.com provides a system best suited for brick-and-mortar stores. They provide the ability to create, distribute and track consumer-printed coupons that can be used for traditional in-store redemption.
Internet couponing, like Internet marketing, is constantly evolving. Over the next three weeks, we will look at eight of the latest and most creative ways to get your coupons in front of your potential and current customers along with some new types of coupon options and best practices.
