Discounts, coupons, sales, vouchers, special offers, loyalty schemes, incentives: everyone loves to get a great deal and that’s why so many companies use discounts to generate business. However, simply slashing your prices by 50% in the hope of growing your business is a risky move.

Here are a few simple ideas for getting the most out of discounts and promotions:

1. Target the right customer - Different customers use offers in different ways. Your offer, format, value and where and how you promote it will all be affected by who the intended end-user is. Start by drawing a detailed picture or your intended participant and use this profile to decide how to run the campaign.

2. Choose the right offer - Before you start handing out discounts left, right and centre your first thought should be what do I want to achieve? You should look at any special offer as reason for customers to do something specific. That something specific could be to trial your business, become a loyal customer, buy up excess stock, come in at a quiet time, check out a new product or service, tell all their friends about you, in fact, just about anything. If your offer doesn’t create that incentive, don’t do it.

3. Choose the right format - Now you know who the offer is for, and what the offer is, you need to decide the physical form in which the offer will be presented. The best solution will be the one your potential customers are most likely to use and respond to. A student probably won’t clip coupons from the local paper but might show a text message to redeem an offer. If you’re targeting a more exclusive clientèle that are hesitant to use discounts try a format that’s subtler and more personal like a credit card style membership card.

4. Promote it - If you don’t market your offer, you’ll just end up giving away discounts to people who would’ve bought from you anyway. Too often businesses simply “do” a discount in the hope that “if we offer it, they will come”. A special offer gives you something to talk about that’s different from your normal way of doing business - your job is to turn that ’something’ into an effective marketing message.

5. Track it - Once your offer is out there you need to track the results carefully. Is it bringing in the business? How many people redeem it? Is it increasing their average spend? Is it costing me money? Use the data gathered to determine whether or not the offer was a success and make changes for your next campaign.

6. Delivery is key - However you choose to run your special offer, make sure you deliver every time. This is your chance to turn motivated buyers into long-term loyal customers and clients. Do it well and your investment in the special offer will pay dividends for years to come.

A well-conceived and well-run special offer can be a great way to both generate short-term interest and develop long-term business. However, a badly executed campaign can devalue your products and services, alienate existing customers and even turn people off your business altogether. As always, a little planning goes a long way.

Mark Nagurski is Managing Director of The Really Practical Marketing Company, a Derry-based marketing company that works with small businesses. They specialise in creating simple, practical marketing that gets results and providing a helping hand to small business owners. www.reallypractical.co.uk.