The Discount Dilemma: What Makes Your Business Look “Cheap” and What Looks “Valuable” to a Customer on Digital Platforms 

I was talking with a small business owner who owns an upscale restaurant in Chicago about how to draw customers in, especially on week days where business tends to be slower, through marketing efforts, specifically focused on web design and development, without looking “cheap.” He was afraid that running promotions or offering discounts, especially advertised on his website, might take away from the quality of his establishment. 

His concern is one that many business owners have—how can you properly represent your brand while also offering your customers incentives to choose your business over others? This is probably explained most obviously with something like a restaurant, but the dilemma can also apply to upscale digital marketing agencies, artists, lawyers, and so many more. Yet, many manage to offer deals successfully. The question is this: How are these businesses offering their users great deals and incentives while also keeping their reputation intact? 

 

The Age of Deals in Marketing 

This problem, which I am calling the “discount dilemma,” is how you can offer these kinds of incentives to your audience on digital marketing channels and on your website without making your business look cheap. Again, this extends into every business realm and is not exclusive to the restaurant industry. 

The truth is that when people talk about making decisions, especially about where they are going to shop, incentives play a big role. In an interview with Marketing Week, Philip Maple, general manager of consumer business at O2 stated, “At a macro level, the pace of innovation across the whole digital landscape is rapid, particularly in the world of mobile…When we talk to customers, we see their needs are changing and quite frankly, unless we evolve and change with them, we are going to become less relevant.” He goes on to tell how offers and incentives lead to brand discovery and ultimately influence the choices people make in a world where there is a lot of online noise. 

Bottom line: Incentives and discounts help people to notice your business and choose to go there, and as long as you are offering them in a way that makes your business look valuable (more on that next) then they are a positive part of a marketing strategy. So, list those discounts on your website, and when a customer lands on your page, design it in a way where the offer stands out. Any sort of discount will draw attention so making it prominent in your web design is definitely beneficial.

 

What Makes a Discount Look Valuable? 

Looking cheap is a good concern for business owners to have. You want to make sure that every marketing effort elevates your business and makes you stand out among your competition. There are some clear ways to make discounts and incentives look valuable (rather than cheap) to your customers: 

They Aren’t Available Every Day

Whether it is a once a week promotion (like half off bottles of wine) that you can promote on your website, or a “semi-annual” sale, the key to making a discount look valuable online is to show that it does not come around every day. The second that people feel like an offering is just the standard; they start to realize that it was never that valuable of a deal to begin with. 

Big Savings 

People love to save money on the things that they love, especially luxury items that they may have a hard time justifying the cost with. If the price point is typically set very high for the items or services you sell, offering a big cut in price a couple of times per year, or possibly even to get people in the door with a coupon or advertisement, is a really great way to maintain the value of your items while also drains new or returning customers in the door. The key here is making sure the original price is known and sits alongside the discount you are offering. Again, this should not be something you are offering every day; otherwise people are just going to equate the sales price with the actual price. It is something that should be perceived and presented as a somewhat rare opportunity. 

 

Offer Personalization, Exclusivity, and Returning Customer Rewards 

Customers like to feel as though they are a part of an exclusive club with the brands and services that they like. In order to make your discounts even more valuable, you can offer to restrict them to people who are returning loyal customers, or people that showcase that they love your brand. You can encourage sharing and promoting your brand on social media with discounts (After all, word of mouth is still incredibly important in marketing), or have a rewards club that loyal members can join for rewards. Another great way to market this is through your web design, possibly having a pop up to join a rewards club is a great way for people to notice your efforts. After all, if it comes up first thing on the screen when visiting your site, it will get the attention of all future and current customers or clients. By making discounts exclusive or personalized in some way, you avoid discounts looking cheap and rather make them look valuable to the people who have not yet hopped on board and joined the club yet! 

Avoid looking “cheap.” The key takeaway here is that discounts and rewards should not come around every day and they should not come super easily. People will not feel connected to your brand if they feel like the discounts you are offering are run-of the mill or standard practice. A discount looks valuable when people truly feel like they are being rewarded for choosing your business over others. 

 

How to Leverage Discounts on Digital Platforms 

Once you have decided on a discount or rewards program that you would like to offer, and you’ve made sure it has value and appeal to your demographic audience, it is time to start promoting. In some cases mobile coupons are the way to go, but you ideally want people to become more closely linked to your brand through subscribing to your mailing list or following you on social media, so that your efforts are not just one and done with the people who discover you. To build a following you might consider putting your discounts and promotions on Instagram and Facebook as you see fit or have a “members only” component of your website. You want to make the advertisement of your discounts and incentives just as valuable as the discounts themselves.

Amanda DiSilvestro is the Editor in chief for Plan, Write, GO. She has been writing about all-things digital marketing, both as a ghost writer, guest writer, and blog manager, for over 10 years. Check out her blogging services to learn more!

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