How to Design Coupons
Coupons are an excellent marketing tool for a business because they solve two problems simultaneoulsy: getting out the word about a company and providing an incentive for customers to walk through the door and buy specific goods or services the company is trying to promote. Effective coupons all contain the same essential information in the design. Follow these steps to design a coupon for your business.
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Things You'll Need
- Computer
- Desktop publishing software
- E-mail capability
- CD burner and blank recordable CDs or
- USB memory sticks
Instructions
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Decide what promotional item or service you wish to sell. For example, if you run a video store and need to get rid of excess inventory that doesn't rent as well as it used to, you might want to create a coupon for discounted prices on used DVDs.
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Determine where the coupon will be distributed. Are you planning to buy advertising space in a newspaper, post a printable copy of the coupon on your website, make hard copies of the coupon and set them on your front counter, or some combination of all these strategies?
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Decide if you will create a single-use coupon or multi-use. An example of the latter would be a coupon for a sandwich shop promoting a "Buy six sandwiches, get the seventh sandwich free." Although multi-use coupons are intended to increase business by promoting customer loyalty, studies have shown that redemption rates drop off with multi-use coupons, possibly due to the hassle of keeping them handy and remembering to use them.
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Write down the essential information needed for your coupon. You'll need a descriptive, eye-catching title such as "Used DVD Blowout!" followed by the amount of the discount or other promotional terms (buy two, get one free, for example). Also include an expiration date to create time pressure for your customer to act within the period you desire. A small image of the store logo can go on the coupon, as well as the store name, street address and telephone number.
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Use desktop publishing software to create a square or rectangle framed by a heavy dotted line. The dotted line when used with a coupon is almost universally understood to mean the coupon should be clipped out and saved.
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Type in the essential information, placing your headline (for example, Used DVD Blowout!) in the largest type face (lettering size) that will fit within the coupon space while leaving room for your other elements.
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Choose text colors that match the color scheme of your store. If the video store colors and business logo are primarily blue and yellow, use blue and yellow on your coupon. This reinforces the connection between the coupon and your store in the customer's mind.
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Prepare the coupon for printing if you are buying advertising space in a newspaper or magazine by sizing the coupon to the dimensions of the space you are buying. Follow the steps with your specific desktop publishing software to adjust the size of your coupon.
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Save the coupon to your computer hard drive and to either a CD or a USB memory stick for taking to a printing company. Some printing companies may also be able to print your coupon from an e-mailed attachment. Newspapers and magazines will likely require payment in advance for publishing your coupon unless you have an established business relationship.
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Tips & Warnings
If you run a Microsoft operating system on your computer, visit the company's online resorucfes linked in the resource section below for coupon templates and design tips. Coupons Inc. offers templates for use on Apple Macintosh systems.
Always include an expiration date to create urgency and prompt customers to buy. Also, an expiration date means you will not have to honor a promotional price indefinitely. Be careful when choosing color for coupons that will appear in the display advertising of newspapers and magazine. Color will cause the cost of your print job to increase dramatically. If you are printing a supply of coupons from your own printer, the color expense is limited to the size of the print job and how many printer cartridges you need to buy.
