Avoid Coupons in Print Advertisements. True or False?

Written By Ted Grigg

True or False. Using Coupons in print or space advertising should be avoided because they inhibit  compelling graphics and waste precious space for more effective copy.

The answer. False.

After numerous battle scars from general advertising agencies on this issue, it has almost become emotional. Creative teams who do not count their success based on quantifiable results despise coupons. And when they are forced to make one, they do everything they can to disguise it. The coupon becomes a wave or some other contorted design that looks good to the eye and draws as little attention to itself as possible.

It would seem that in these days of 800 numbers and urls that the coupon graphic would go the way of the dinosaur. Not so.

For some reason, a coupon that looks like a coupon shouts out to the readers saying, "Respond to me!"
 
I readily grant that such coupons are not attractive and divert the eye to the coupon. But that is the point! This is the focal point. We are not attempting to build awareness with direct response advertisements. We are not even attempting to make major contributions to the brand.

We are trying to get the reader to respond to the offer!

Nothing should dilute this objective with strange slanted designs or other permutations to make it more palatable to the art director or the internal brand people. This is not an effort to win awards. Getting response is the driving force.
 
Keep the coupon a coupon that makes the offer and asks the prospects for their contact information even if you don’t expect any write-ins.

If I've done nothing else but prompt you to at least test a persuasive coupon with a strong coupon headline, then I have succeeded.

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
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