Many small business owners are in a place that these big giants did not have the chance. That might sound really great to some people, but here is the truth. When you are in a place where you have lots of opportunities, you need to make sure that you are making a wise choice. One bad choice, is all it takes to vanish all of those exciting opportunities that would have excelled your career to an entirely new level.

Coupons have been one of those opportunities. Small business owners are skeptical whether it will work for them or not, because they are giving their customers a discount on the products. There are various answers to this question. Whether you are planning to keep couponing as your 1st and the biggest marketing strategy, or you just want to increase your brand awareness, and have some loyal customers.

And since the internet is the first place where people find solutions, coupons are not different. You can test online couponing, because there are many companies that have tried and succeed in this type of marketing. But one thing that will surely get you in the pit of failure, is trying what sticks and what doesn’t. And because you are spending money here, you should make sure that you are planning almost everything beforehand. If you are not that marketing savvy, hire one specialist.

One thing you should remember, is that coupons are different than a sale. When you put items on sale, you are slashing prices for every customer that will purchase from you, while coupons will only slash prices for people who are price conscious, and are willing to spend some time to get a discount. These select people will have a better feeling about the purchases that they make from you, and more often than not, they will become your loyal customers.

Remember, giving out coupons, is not a sure-fire way that will make you rich. This is another type of marketing that is focused on providing value to your customer, and giving them exceptional customer service to increase your chances to get another sale from that customer. And you don’t need to break your bank doing this.

I know many companies that offer couponing services that will get you to pay a huge chunk of money, but on the other hand, there are companies that will get you the best results for just a fraction of the price. You just need to make sure that you are having an effective marketing strategy that will go hand-in-hand with these coupons.

But before you dive all-in with this coupon marketing strategy, here’s a small set of questions that you need to ask yourself:

• Do you really need to expand your business? Will you be able to handle if your business expands on an exponential scale?
• Can you offer some more services to your customers along with your coupons without making a loss? If so, will your ideal customer be excited to get those services?
• If your business is flooded with huge amounts of orders, do you have the inventory, or the staff to handle that?

Groupon is the best place to start, because they are the king of this online couponing world, and while you will get mediocre results from other companies, Groupon will get you the best possible results. And not only that, they will also give you an estimate about what your brand awareness, and product sales might look like after a period of continuous couponing from them.

To conclude, I will say that small business owners should definitely try this out. Because this is a great opportunity to set yourself as a giant on the internet, just like Amazon. But you need to make sure that you are connecting the dots the right way.