Combining Coupon Marketing and QR Codes: The Ultimate Power Duo

Whether it’s a lightning deal from an online retailer or a get-it-before-it’s gone offer down at the local store, shoppers love a bargain. After all, it’s hard to resist your favorite products when the price just seems that good. 

The retail industry knows this, too. That’s why you’ll find coupons, deals, and offers galore across a range of products and services, all designed with one singular aim: to get customers into stores — and get them spending. 

However, coupon marketing can be about more than just a quick and easy sales solution to increase in-store footfall or online traffic. And perhaps your business could even benefit from coupon marketing’s best practices — whether to build your brand awareness, generate online revenue, or elevate special or seasonal sales. Besides, with the Coupon QR Code, giving your customers quick access to your newest offers could not be easier.

If your brand has an awesome new product that’ll take the industry by storm, or you simply need to give some of your sales figures a little nudge, let’s take a look at how combining QR Code promotions with a coupon marketing strategy is the dynamic duo your business needs to acquaint itself with.

Why do companies use coupon marketing?

A great deal is hard for shoppers to resist. So much so, in fact, that as many as 93% of consumers have used discounts or coupons to buy products or services. With statistics like these to fall back on, it’s little wonder that companies use our passion for bargain-hunting to their advantage.

Digital coupon marketing strategies and promo code ideas all create a bit of an illusion for the customer coming into your store. The benefits of coupons for customers? That’s easy — they’ll save a few dollars and walk away feeling like they have just pocketed a great deal. 

What the customer thinks they’re getting and what you actually earn from a promotion might tell two different stories. Far from losing revenue on a market-leading product, you might find that the customers who originally ventured into your store were tempted into spending a bit more than planned. Certain services — such as spas, gyms, or restaurants, for example — could find that when a customer sees a discount on a more expensive option, they’ll be persuaded to opt for it over the more basic option they had originally planned on purchasing. 

By this logic, a splurge that was deemed out of reach becomes justifiable as a treat, and seeing how the customer feels like they’re actually saving money — well, why should they not indulge in something a little extra? In the end, of course, the customer’s spend equates to revenue for you, and both parties can come away from the transaction feeling satisfied with their end of the bargain. 

Not solely a sales strategy, however, coupon advertising allows you to draw attention to an awesome new product that you’re sure customers are going to love. If you have just launched, you might find that some shoppers need a little nudge to be brave enough to try it. 

This is how coupon marketing is a simple yet effective method for boosting awareness of your brand: offer an amazing coupon promotion for a new item or service that encourages people to try it, and watch as customers spread the word about a great deal on a nifty new product they have tried.

How to Use Coupon QR Codes for Coupon Marketing

For discount code ideas and coupon promotion ideas, look no further than the Coupon QR Code: a simple, all-in-one option for your coupon campaign marketing. In fact, these humble codes could be some of the most versatile tools in your sales and marketing arsenal.

From the customer’s perspective, the Coupon QR Code streamlines their shopping experience: a tempting deal is only a smartphone scan away. But for your business, it’s an opportunity for other promo code ideas. To understand why coupons can assist your off- and online coupon strategy, we’ll need to examine the options this hard-working sales tool has to offer. 

Flexible ways to create coupons

Coupon QR Codes can be used with two different types of promo code ideas. 

First, if your goal is to direct traffic to digital channels, you can do this with a plain text code. When you create your Coupon QR Code, you can customize a short text code that customers will use to redeem the coupon. 

Wondering what to write? There are plenty of creative coupon code ideas you can implement for your text code — try aligning it with a particular sale, season, or theme from your brand.

How does it work? Just follow these three simple steps:

1. Create a description of your coupon and add the CTA (call-to-action), i.e., “Get Coupon!”
2. Enter in the text you’ll be using for your coupon code, e.g., “SAVE25NOW” or “SUMMER20.” 
3. When customers tap or click on “Redeem now,” they’re directed to your website or landing page to redeem their coupon with that text code.

There are alternatives to using text promo code ideas for your coupon sales promotion, and if, as a retailer, barcodes are easier for shoppers to redeem in-store, it’s possible to implement them in your Coupon QR Codes. 

Of course, in the QR Code vs barcode debate, each has its merits — but in this case, you can utilize both to your advantage. When creating your Coupon QR Code, you can upload the barcode as an image, which the customer can then present to a cashier to claim their discount. The advantage of this is that a QR Code allows you to give the customer much more information about your business than a plain barcode can, such as your store’s location, website, and more.

Customize your QR Code to match your brand

When creating QR Codes for your coupon marketing campaign, you’ll want to put your best foot forward. This means incorporating all the visual elements of your brand into its design: the colors, a logo, and even a QR Code with frame to make it stand out. 

When creating a coupon campaign, you’ll want to get as many scans as possible to get your shopping-savvy customers spending. Luckily, you can go big and bold with your QR Code, and add a catchy CTA that will make your deal even harder to resist.

Easy editing and tracking

The stage for your online coupon marketing strategy is set, and you have created a campaign that’s sure to make a splash. Everything is centered around a hot new product that’s sure to sell like crazy when consumers get wind of your amazing deal — but for you, a couple of questions remain. Where did customers discover your product, and when?

The answers might lie in your QR Code tracking data. For a more detailed deep-dive into this, you’ll need to know what is a dynamic QR Code along with how to track QR Code scans. 

The condensed version is simpler, however. When you create your Coupon QR Code — a type of Dynamic QR code — you have access to scan data. This lets you know the time something was scanned, the operating device used, your unique vs. total scans, and location by city and country. This means you can compare your coupon marketing QR Code campaigns across various mediums, time periods, and locations to understand which ones are the most successful.

Dynamic QR Codes are also editable. If you accidentally used the wrong link or want to update a coupon campaign, you can update or make changes without having to redesign all your flyers, posters, or promotional materials — customers will see the updated information when they scan the Code, but the Code itself can stay the same.

Perfect for print advertising campaigns

An ever-perfect pairing with out-of-house (OOH) campaigns, combining QR Codes with coupon marketing on your printed materials is where this dynamic duo really takes shape. 

Coupon QR Codes have a multitude of uses for brick-and-mortar stores and online retailers alike, but for the e-commerce world, they provide an easily accessible platform that consumers can use to connect with your website. It’s a simple scan-to-shop strategy: consumers see your branded campaign, find your deal hard to resist, and scan the QR Code. 

Aside from being an intuitive tool for consumers to interact with, incorporating a QR Code marketing strategy in print campaigns offers a whole host of other benefits, too. For marketers, the QR Code tracking data allows them to learn more about customers and helps them calculate the ROI of a campaign — all of which you can build on for future campaigns.

Multi-channel marketing

Using QR Codes with coupon marketing is not limited to print, either. When you create a Dynamic QR Code, you’ll receive a customizable QR Code short URL that can be used in email marketing campaigns or social media.

Coupon marketing ideas with Coupon QR Codes

When coming up with your coupon marketing strategy, there are a plethora of creative promo code ideas that can help get you started. Whether in-store or online, you can rely on this powerful combination to get your campaign off the ground. 

Are you ready to up your coupon marketing game? Let’s take a look at some creative ideas that are sure to pique the interest of even the most bargain-savvy shopper.

Mobile shopping coupons

We’re spending more and more time on our phones — and there are sales statistics to prove it. While bigger purchases such as holidays or electronics are still more likely to come from mobile, using a QR Code for shopping can help you tap into those consumers who lean towards the mobile end of the digital scale. 

Whether for fashion, beauty, or food delivery services, using QR Codes with coupon marketing is the ideal way to get these customers spending on your site. A QR Code poster design is the perfect way to get consumers scanning and spending: for them, they have easy access to a great deal, while for you, a simple mobile coupon marketing strategy could prove to be a worthwhile revenue spinner.  

Limited time offers

Get it while it’s hot! For shoppers, the urgency of a lightning deal or flash sale makes it even hard to say no to a great deal. After all, if a certain product is going to be more expensive tomorrow, why would the consumer want to miss out on it today?

This kind of coupon marketing strategy is useful for industries across the board — and some services can also benefit from offering deals too. In the example below, an upmarket hotel chain has decided to use QR Codes in emails to offer its coupon deal as part of a flash campaign to improve occupancy during its low season.

In-store coupons

Even as commerce shifts to digital, you might want to consider rewarding the consumers who do make the trek to your physical stores. Coupon QR Codes are perfect for offering exclusive in-store-only discounts to shoppers on the ground, just like the display QR Code in the below example.

This kind of coupon advertising is a close cousin of the limited-time offer; to take advantage of the deal, it pays for shoppers to act quickly. It’s also a way for you to boost your overall shopping experience for your customers too. If you offer a great in-store experience with service to match, in-store coupons are a great way to encourage customers to step away from their laptops and visit your store in person.

QR Codes with coupon marketing: the power couple of the retail world. While customers are eager for a bargain, there are great ways to lean into your coupon marketing strategy to leverage other parts of your business. Coupon marketing can be used to alert customers to amazing new products or services, as well as getting them through your doors. And thanks to QR Codes, you’ll find that making your deals accessible to customers is even easier than before.