Iman Jalali

In the current economy businesses everywhere are trying to drum up sales in anyway possible, most using discounts and coupons. Let’s just say I’m not a fan of discounting and coupons… as a consumer I love it, but as a business I try to avoid it at all costs. Part of it has to do with my belief that if you build a great product/service with great customer service backing it you don’t need to offer discounts and coupons to entice people to buy.

Same thinking goes into my thoughts on marketing budgets… my ideal company would have a marketing budget of $0. I want my product, my service, my employees, my brand, my company to be the marketing. There is a lot of “gray area” in that statement though… You might have a large marketing budget while you’re building up your company and there’s also a lot of things that might fall under “operational marketing” like e-mail marketing, but in my ideal company I’d have to spend no money at some point on print, web, TV or radio advertising. Customer acquisition would be organic. I rather focus on creating a better product/service or provide a better “experience” for my current customers.

Let’s go back to talking about discounts… these days most online retailers offer most of their discounts and sales offers via e-mail. That’s part of the problem… your e-mail list generally consists of customers who’ve already purchased from you and your most loyal followers. Giving them discounts isn’t the only way to entice them to buy. If you’re selling clothes online maybe when you get a new shipment in you offer it first to your e-mail list… talk it up, “Exclusive First Look”. Sometimes relevant information is all it takes to generate revenue from your e-mail list. A highly targeted, relevant e-mail blast with great information always generates revenue.

To me being discount heavy to your current customers is backwards… I believe that discounts are a great way of enticing on the fence buyers to pull the trigger, but after that it’s the job of every other aspect of your business to keep them coming back. Worst part of being discount heavy is you start to train your best customers to wait for discounts to make purchases.

Kevin Hillstrom of MineThatData has a great quote: “Discounts and promotions are our version of ‘financial weapons of mass destruction.’ They are taxes placed upon brands for being unremarkable.”