Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

Simply # and id them, for example:

#OCC121278525

OCC can stand for Online Coupon Campaign, then the date, then the number. Also make sure to place a expiry date on the coupon and that certain conditions apply.

I alway ask: Do you care? Does it matter if people print them and give them to friends? You can always REQUIRE that they are not used unless and e-mail address is written on them.

Michael

I agree with others. Unless you are losing money on the coupon it would seem like a good thing to have people share them with others. The idea is to get people into the store. I would not give a coupon that would cause me to lose money on the transaction.

You can also very clearly state how many items a person can get with a coupon per visit. Also be very clear about what item is available with the coupon, perhaps including a sku or upc if it is a particular item.

If you think that people will distribute them you can turn this to your advantage by making it clear on how to subscribe to your email list to get new deals in the future.

Mike

what kind of fraud are you expecting?

Adding a barcode does little unless you have your point of sale configured to set a limit of 'one coupn per customer per day'. Even then, it seems to me that you are limiting your sales by limiting how much a customer can spend.

We ave a client who uses bar codes in his direct mail, and its simply make imputting the coupon into the point of sale easier. You could add a barcode image to the email message as a 'sort of deterrent', no one has to know you aren't using it in your store at this time.

Seems to me it would make more sense to structure the offer better than add the expense and overhead of technology to the offerings. KISS Keep it simple simon!

There is little you can do to limit how many times an email message is printed out anyway, so better off just structuring the offer and encouraging folks to spread the joy than try and limit them.

My two cents

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network

I'd suggest that what you want is to actually track coupon use. Who's redeeming coupons, for what, when, etc.? You could then produce customized coupons for different customers based on their usage patterns.

If nothing else, put an expiration date on the coupon. If the coupons are customized, then place the customer's email address on the coupon itself (or some other customer data). Then the customer would be less likely to distribute the coupon to others.

Many times the fraud is based charging the customer full price and an employee pocketing the savings.

Requesting a name and phone number is a good deterrent. Further, letting employees know that the coupons will be followed up on is a better idea.

If you are set on only the recipient of the email being able to redeem the coupon perhaps a mailmerge of the name of the recipient would be in order. For example, I work for the StreamSend Email Marketing service and we have a mailmerge function.

What this means is you could insert the recipients name or other identifying info into the coupon so it is customized just for them. Here is how you do mailmerge on StreamSend but I am sure other Email Service Providers (ESPs) have very similar functionality.

So you could insert the first and last name of the recipient in the coupon and perhaps require an ID at the point of sale. That way, the recipient of the coupon could not give it out because it was have a name on it.

Another option would be allow the recipients to share coupons but ask the point of sale employees to get an email address so that person can receive future coupons directly. That would enable you to expand your list and track on who is using the coupons.

This might be a great opportunity to expand your email list and your customer base!