The Essential Elements of a Great Discount Program

As we mentioned, one of Access' core products is discount programs; bundles of valuable merchant offers sourced by us and offered to consumers through our client groups.

We like discount programs so much, we published a 30 page guide about them for free.

They've proven effective at generating engagement and driving acquisition for over 35 years.

After all, when they're put together well, they can save people hundreds of dollars.

What other benefit or reward can claim that?

"What does 'put together well' mean?" you might ask.

Well, not all discount programs are created the same.

Some just scrape together the same deals you can find through Google or in the Sunday newspaper.

Others are comprised of just online deals. Which can be nice, until you recall that over 90% of consumer spending occurs in-store, close to home. And the big eCommerce shops most people use (Amazon, for example) don't send discounts out through third parties.

Look, if discount programs are a path you're going to go down, you need something people will actually use. Otherwise, what's the point?

Warning: some of the free and cheap discount programs might actually open your organization up to some nasty legal issues. Read more here.

Great discount programs that save people a ton of money and generate ongoing engagement all have certain characteristics in common. Check out this mini infographic:

We go into detail in the free eBook, but this graphic illustrates some crucial elements.

Characteristics such as:

• Mobile coupons, which are rapidly growing in popularity and essential for younger audiences
• High value offers, because people aren't inspired by 5% off deals
• Member support services to help people find and redeem offers and ask questions
• Merchant compliance, or in other words, merchants that have authorized the offers and welcome them

Whether you're serving up an always-on discount program as a member benefit, or just sending off one or two deals at a time in your mailed statements, you want it to have an impact.

You want people to use the offers. The more they use the offers, the more likely they are to keep paying you.

If they're not redeeming the offers, chances are its because those offers are lacking one of these crucial elements. Therefore, you're probably wasting your (already scarce) engagement dollars.

Click the banner below to download our free eBook to learn more about generating engagement via discount programs.