Discounts and promotions have become an increasingly large part of eCommerce — delivering creative solutions to attract, delight and retain customers in an increasingly competitive world. Customers love saving money. Promotions help grab new shoppers, encourage repeat business and build customer loyalty. Mobile campaigns even allow shoppers to use digital coupons on the high street. But if your codes are misused, they can cost you more than they bring in.

The pros and cons of code leakage

On principle, leaked discount codes are potentially problematic. If they are used widely and indiscriminately, they can place a sizeable dent in your profit margins, which in turn can have a constricting effect on your cash flow. 
That said, we need to address the fact that code leakage needn’t necessarily be the end of the world — it can actually be a good thing. It just depends on what your strategic goals are and how your coupon marketing strategy is intended to facilitate them. 

For example, if you’re at the helm of an emerging brand and your sole goal is getting new customers and increasing brand visibility, a viral promotion does some of your marketing work for you. Under different circumstances, however, the outcomes are anything but cheery.  

When discount code leaks really matter

If your aim is to promote brand loyalty or lure back lapsed customers, leaked discount codes and coupons can create problems that can detract from your goals. Leaked codes are not compelling for customer loyalty. It detracts from the sense of uniqueness and exclusivity that these kinds of codes are supposed to represent. After all, this code is supposed to be a gift from you to the customer. And if all and sundry are using them, this can send entirely the wrong message.

Code leakage also limits businesses on the kinds of offers they can deploy. In order to protect their profit margins they may need to significantly reduce special offers and this can detract from their inherent value for the customer. 
What’s more, if your leaked codes get really out of hand you may have to cancel your codes completely and risk alienating the genuine customers for whom they were intended in the first place.

When codes leak, it also makes it very difficult to track outcomes as your analytics will not represent the genuine use that was intended. This can make it extremely difficult to judge a campaign’s efficacy.

Fortunately, businesses are far from powerless when it comes to cracking down on coupon misuse.

Standard methods for discount code control 

If you are concerned about the leaking and misuse of discount codes, there are a multitude of measures which have traditionally been put in place by businesses to insulate themselves from risk. These include:

1. Using set expiry dates or shortening promotional windows

One of the easiest ways to mitigate the risk of misused discount codes is to shorten the window within which the code is valid. This limits the chances of misuse while also proving a useful scarcity marketing tactic that can help motivate prospects and customers who are stuck on the fence.  This can also increase the perceived value of the code. 

The only trouble is that again, shorter promotional windows will place restrictions on the kinds of offers you can present to your customers. And because promotion windows are shorter, you’ll need to generate more codes. If you’re doing this manually, it can prove a huge administrative undertaking.

2. Monitoring code use

A leaked discount code can be nipped in the bud quickly if you’re watching your analytics like a hawk. If you have a clear idea of who is supposed to be using your codes and when and where they’re supposed to be using them, it’s easy to keep track of normal use and spot unexpected use that could point to a leak. 

This means you can quickly and effectively shut down discount code misuse.

3. Planning for discount code misuse

Many brands are only really damaged by voucher code misuse when it catches them unaware. If you plan for it, however, you can also mitigate the risks it represents. 

For example, you might want to stick to offering discounts that you can tolerate a lot of people using. While this means that you generally won’t be able to be as generous as you might like in your discounts, it can add real value when you do decide to reward valued customers with heftier discounts.

Although these options can all be potentially useful, they also all have their own limitations. Unless promo codes are individualised, personal and unique, the possibility of them being misused and devalued is something you’ll always need to plan for. 

The good news is that in the digital age, there are software solutions to help you do this quickly, easily and in large volumes.

Using unique codes and modern software

The right software platform can make it quick and easy to generate unique discount codes. This allows you to give your customers something that they not only want but expect… personalisation! 

Studies show that 79% of consumers are only likely to engage with discounts offered by a brand if they have been tailored to suit their needs, preferences and previous interactions with the business.

With modern software, you can generate, issue and validate a virtually limitless number of discount codes that are absolutely unique with very little manual input required. This allows for extreme customizability without the expenditure of time and effort. 

Because they are unique and designed for single-use, these discount codes are immune from the potential risk of leakage and are inherently more valuable to the recipient because they are intended just for them.

They can be used to welcome a lapsed customer back to the fold, give a loyal customer a special treat on their birthday or mark the anniversary of their first (or most recent) purchase. And with sophisticated automation, you can generate high volumes of these unique codes and distribute them to customers at the times when they are most likely to be used with a bare minimum of effort.

What’s more, this same software makes it easy to track discount codes so that you can see how well they are performing in the field. You can even use their sophisticated analytics features to AB test different codes and see which is most effective, gradually implementing changes that can ensure your codes help you to achieve your goals faster.

Technology can take your discount code strategy to a new level 

Like it or not, technology is changing consumer behaviour forever. Why not reap the rewards of leveraging that technology to make a positive impact on your clientele while also sidestepping the risks that have traditionally prevented discount campaigns from truly hitting their stride?

Using dedicated software to generate unique single-use discount codes can make it effortless and cost-effective to generate the kinds of codes that matter the most to your customers. The combination of automation and customisation can allow you to generate extremely compelling offers that your customers won’t want to miss. And, because they’re completely unique, you’ll never again have to worry about the logistical and financial fallout that might occur if they get leaked. 

While there are numerous ways in which businesses have traditionally limited their risk when discount codes have been misused, these all pale in comparison to this technologically savvy solution. 

If you’re looking to build an effective promo codes strategy, then download Uniqodo’s free comprehensive guide — that covers topics including the implementation of single-use codes, personalised and targeted codes, the variety of channels to distribute them on, preventing code misuse and targeting shopping cart abandonment.

The post Stop Your Discount Codes Leaking Online appeared first on PerformanceIN.

As the end of the year approaches, so do the busiest days in the e-commerce calendar. From November to December, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas all offer enormous opportunity for seasonal sales. Indeed, in an effort to stand out from the crowd Acceleration Partners found that three-fifths of UK online retailers have already begun planning for the biggest of these, Black Friday.

It’s no surprise as to why. In November 2016 the Telegraph reported that Black Friday bargain hunters – preferring to stay away from the high street – spent approximately £5.67 billion online. The result meant that in 2016, 4.3% of total online sales were spent on Black Friday weekend alone.

With such high online sales constrained to limited seasonal dates, the fight for online traffic this Black Friday is sure to be intense. Yet, for such an intense fight, the fighters seem to throw the same weak punches.

Year on year, companies present the same unimaginative promotions, and year on year, consumers look right past them. Retailers need to use promotions to fight their way to the front of consumers’ minds, and yet their dull discounts do nothing of the sort.

Asa Griggs Candler realised the power of intuitive promotions back in 1887. In an attempt to promote his beverage company, he created the first-ever coupon, an offer for one free drink. This unique marketing tactic – coupon codes – changed the game for his company and 8.5 million redemptions’s later transformed it from a tonic to “the most popular soft drink” in the world – Coca-Cola.

His unique marketing tactic of using coupon codes are still effective. As many as 58% of UK consumers say that vouchers are most likely to influence their purchase decision. However, as more companies cotton onto the value of coupon codes, this once unique marketing tactic has become commonplace.

Marketers should now be – and should’ve been for the last 130 years – creating a unique coupon code campaign that stands out; winning the battle for traffic.

To save ourselves from yet another dull year of 10% off’s, here are some quick, innovative and unique ideas to help your coupon campaign win the fight for traffic – and subsequent sales – this Black Friday.

1) Mystery discount

With so many retailers offering big Black Friday discounts, a standout discount is needed to really catch the eye of the consumer. Although offering huge discounts like 50% off can certainly drive traffic towards your site, these same discounts can completely destroy your margins, and are not worth the risk.

So, why not create a mystery discount promotion that offers the possibility of these discounts but doesn’t harm your margins? A Black Friday mystery discount is a discount that only reveals its true promotional saving at checkout.

The idea is that your mystery discount code advertises anywhere from 10% to 50% off. The possibility of a 50% discount is certainly going to draw consumers to your site first, and if you could make these mystery codes give out varying percentages off, averaging out to the typical 30%, then you would be offering just the same deal as your competitors but certainly have the more attractive looking offer.

The real beauty of this promotion is that it only reveals the discount once at checkout, so even if the discounts are a somewhat measly – for Black Friday standards – 10% off, they may still convert the purchase simply for convenience sake.

Indeed, part of the appeal of Black Friday is the mystery. What items will be discounted? Which discount will be the best? Which retailer will discount what? So, not only will this promotion help your site be the first port of call but also provide an additional mystery thematic to your Black Friday e-commerce.

2) Diminishing discount

With Black Friday we’ve all seen the videos of crazed people rushing to stores, squashing others underfoot for the best deals. However – and perhaps predictably – more and more people are moving away from the high-street scrums and heading towards the safety of online channels. Last year high streets and retail parks saw footfall fall 3.6%, while online sales jumped 11.7% to a record high.

Creating a diminishing discount voucher would be a great way to create the same in-store Black Friday craze but for online channels. Marketers could create a coupon code that reduces the discount the longer it isn’t used, forcing people to consider their site first, and hopefully grabbing the lion share of Black Friday budgets.

Creating an even more crazed Black Friday, with deals that don’t just expire at the end of the day, but within a couple of minutes would certainly create the strongest call to action possible. Data shows that 83% of customers make unplanned purchases when they’re bombarded with a limited time promotion so simply portray your offer as scarce as possible and your coupons will be used more.

Andy Mulcahy, strategy and insight director of IMRG, notes “People shop in a lot more places than they would normally. Because they know everyone is offering massive discounts then they are inclined to shop around more”. So, having a promotion that gets people to your site first is vital for Black Friday success.

3) Gated content

Early access to Black Friday deals is something Amazon regularly does. It’s a good idea to help reap the most of this seasonal spending time, however, it reduces the craze factor that does so much for call to actions.

A great initiative would be to have gated content that can only be unlocked with a coupon code.

This could be hugely successful for several reasons as it would reward loyal/other targeted customers with early access to deals, boosting customer experience. It also teases and excites with a ‘You can look but can’t touch’ aspect, boosting anticipation and craze. Thirdly, it allows you to create promotions that don’t harm margins. Instead of giving access to deal, give access to limited, exclusive products. It may also boost email sign-ups.

Ultimately, this, as well as these other concepts, would be successful because of their uniqueness. As the market for online stores is getting 20% plus larger each year, the pool consumers can pick from becomes bigger, making your dull 10% off promotion impossible to spot amongst the waves of others.

Making your coupon campaign unique, individual and ultimately stand out is essential for getting noticed. Black Friday is a highly intense battle for traffic – with a whopping £1.4 billion up for grabs, intuitive ideas will grant success – just look at Coca-Cola.

The post How Creative Coupons Can Secure Traffic This Black Friday appeared first on PerformanceIN.

As a pay-for-performance marketing discipline, how transactions are credited is normally the biggest determiner between success and failure. 

The problems of web-based tracking in the affiliate industry have been much debated:

• Browser privacy settings like restrictions on third-party cookies – most notably Internet Tracking Prevention (ITP) on Safari 
• Cookie notifications enforced as a response to GDPR
• Mobile user journeys and lack of in-app conversion tracking
• Walled-garden social networks that disallow third-party trackers
• Advertiser de-duplication rules

These issues have gradually formed the nucleus of an issue that has undermined confidence in affiliate tracking. ITP mark 2 this autumn will exasperate an industry-wide problem of unstable tracking that conservatively causes a miss-rate of around 10% of affiliate channel transactions. 

Code-based attribution

While server-side tracking has been touted as an antidote to the fallibilities of web-based tracking, because it replaces the need to send a third-party HTTP/s request from an advertiser’s site, it is used on less than 5% of affiliate advertisers.

Could code-based attribution be the tonic affiliate marketing needs? The idea isn’t a new one. A voucher code assigned to a channel or publisher is used at checkout to identify the referring marketing channel, replacing the traditional partnership of cookie and conversion request 

However, in the face of wilting tracking accuracy networks are returning to the idea of voucher codes as a mechanism for crediting transactions to the affiliate channel. This seems like a no-brainer, in fact, it’s been championed by publishers working directly with advertisers for some years.

A voucher code attached to a piece of marketing activity is a very definitive way of ensuring that marketing has been impactful on the user, particularly for a CPA channel like affiliate. When a publisher’s contribution is hard to measure on a last-click CPA model, like comparison or social influencers, a voucher code specifically attached to that publisher is what the attribution-world calls ‘definitive interaction’.

And best of all, there is no need for those pesky, often unwanted and much-derided tracking cookies to ‘track’ that a user has interacted with a publisher. The presence of a code assigned to them is all the proof that’s needed.

This all sounds very straightforward. But while naturally attractive to an industry keen to track as voraciously as possible, uncontrolled code-based attribution administered by affiliate networks is little more than a license to track inaccurately in the affiliate channel. The key issue is that allowing an affiliate network to attribute by code will require them to track all transactions. Regardless of the user’s journey or where the code has been picked up if the code is where the network will claim credit for the sale. While this might be good news for publishers and networks it’s anything but for advertisers, who will be losing control over cross-channel deduplication rules, and run a serious risk of crediting affiliate marketing for sales it never interacted with.

The presence of a code that has been issued specifically to a publisher does not automatically mean that the publisher has been responsible for it being distributed. Code leakage across the internet is very common, particularly in the affiliate industry, and can happen as readily from a social influencer as it can from a voucher code site. If codes are to become the key to solving affiliate’s attribution challenges, then a unique, single-use code that ties a transaction to an affiliate but can never be reused is vital to establish advertiser trust in the technique. 

Done with the correct technology and implementation, codes can be a very valuable addition, or even a reliable replacement, for the web-based tracking so commonly associated with affiliate marketing. Given the affiliate industry is very discount-centric, it almost makes sense to utilise one of the most common discount triggers – a code – to make transaction tracking more accurate. But like any marketing channel, the affiliate is fighting to ensure appropriate recognition. Accuracy shouldn’t be sacrificed in the fight.

The post The Problems of Web-Based Tracking in Affiliate Marketing appeared first on PerformanceIN.