SmallBusinessNewz

You always want to keep your brand fresh in your customers minds and generate interest in new products and/or services that you are offering.

Obviously this is the whole point of advertising, but it sometimes pays to think beyond ads, and this is easier to do with customers that have already done business with you once.

An Effective Coupon

One such way to be sure they will keep you in mind is to give them a good coupon, like I talked about here. If it is truly an effective one, the customer will hang onto it until they are ready to use it, such as I did with the one my mechanic gave me.

Another good example, this one coming from an online business, is a coupon my wife received from Fright-Rags.com via email. This is a company that we have done business with before, and in fact, I've even written about some of their good business practices in the past.

Taking Advantage of Opportunities

It appears that they continue to be on top of their game based on the aforementioned coupon. They took notice that not only is there a holiday coming up (Father's Day), but today is also Friday the 13th. This means nothing to many businesses, but being how this company is in the business of selling horror movie-themed merchandise, they recognized this as a good opportunity for a little discount marketing, offering my wife a "Friday the 13th discount".

The Real Brilliance

The more I think about it, the smarter I think this campaign is, because not only did it manage to take advantage of a holiday, and an event that holds special meaning within the company's specific niche, it also applied a little bit of pressure to the customer. Not that I would typically condone pressuring your customers, but in this scenario, I think it works well. The pressure comes from the fact that my wife would have to order today to get the discount, and hence forces her to make a decision - Buy now if you want the discount.

This is also a perfect example of saving your customers money to get them to spend more with you.

Of course, she took advantage of the offer. I can't wait to see what my Father's Day present is!