With the advent of digital vouchers and coupons in the retail marketplace, it is worth pausing to consider some of the rules to follow that will ensure that the digital voucher experience is a positive one for both the brand and the consumer from beginning to end. Over developed expectations from both or either sides typically leads to disappointment and ultimately a "failed" campaign - with this in mind, I am looking to share some ideas on this relevant topic.

 

The first rule to follow is one of simplicity. If we assume that most digital rewards (be it a voucher or coupon) will be delivered to the consumer's mobile phone in the future, it is important that knowledge about how the consumer uses their phone, what type of phone they have, language preferences (especially if there are instructions to follow), and type of discount offered need to be understood. For example, trying to get an LSM 10, 45-65 year old to download a piece of software to their phone, start the application, take a photograph of a QR code and then wait for the voucher to appear is in my opinion destined to fail. The channel of request is too complicated regardless of how attractive the reward maybe for that market segment and highlights the short comings of not knowing your customers. Using a simple SMS call-to-action for the same goal (i.e. delivery of the unique voucher code to the consumer), in my opinion demonstrates an understanding of your customer and their technology habits - and is the right way to go in this example.

 

The second rule to ensure a successful voucher campaign is to use established practices when addressing the redemption of the voucher at the Point of Sale (POS). Much has been written about retailer's reluctance to open up the POS for digital vouchers to replace the paper-based vouchers, but the reality is that this is happening already and is happening quite quickly across the retail landscape. For the voucher redemption step to be successful when the customer is standing at the POS, the following needs to happen:

 

 

If any one of these 4 steps is not clearly understood or in place, the customer is going to walk away frustrated by the experience and unlikely to participate again.

 

The third rule to follow is respect consumer privacy. Much has been written about this topic in this column previously, but the fact remains that most marketers do not understand or follow the rules of privacy that they would like have applied to themselves. Respect the fact that the consumer may have only asked for that specific voucher and does not want to receive any old piece of information from your company. Do not send them other content or information unless you have a clear opt-in for further information and respect their digital footprints that they leave behind when engaging with your voucher campaign.

 

If the holy grail of a voucher campaign (be it paper-based or digital) is a 100% redemption rate, it is vital that the voucher be distributed in a targeted and relevant way. In the past, vouchers have been simply stuffed into mail boxes, inserted in local newspapers or distributed in the aisle of the supermarket in an unintelligent manner. This lack of targeting accounts for the current 1-2% redemption of the vouchers and does not lend itself to a positive return on investment (ROI).

 

And this brings me to my final point: understand the numbers before you leap in. The appeal of rewarding your customer, with either a discount on a specific product or added-value offering such as buy-1-get-1-free, is exciting, but it needs to be based on achieving a positive ROI on your customer engagement spend. As digital vouchers gain acceptance from both brands and customer, and as the targeting of these vouchers improves using digital technology, I hope that you will be able to achieve redemption rate north of 50% by using intelligent distribution, understanding your customer, respecting their privacy and keeping it simply. Good luck!