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(Photo : Stephen Dawson on Unsplash)

Brick-and-mortar and online stores offer coupons, discounts and other incentives to entice shoppers to visit and spend money in their stores. It's been a business method used for many years in the effort to increase traffic and the company's bottom line. For the e-Commerce community, it's an integral part of its survival. 

Everybody loves to save money, and coupons/discounts offer them this chance. They also work in businesses' favor as they can lead to customers buying more than they originally intended. 

Coupon statistics show that 90% of customers will use a discount while making a purchase online. It is a usual thing these days for internet users to utilize websites like Retailmenot or Coupon Blender to find coupons. In fact, reports have found that people with discounts will complete their online transactions, and 50% of new customers with a welcoming discount will take advantage of it.  

As such, many companies are focused on digital marketing campaigns that use online coupons and other discounts to entice new and current customers. It's believed the trend will become much more commonplace than print coupons. 

How AI Chatbots Are Changing The Coupon Digital Marketing World 

What is AI in digital marketing? It's an intricate system of programs that will discover patterns and use that information to produce results that include ensuring people see the best possible products and services they are looking for. It gathers this information from websites people utilize and formulates expectations of what they want.  

This information is then disseminated to send people coupons/discounts on products they may be interested in. Internet businesses use this information to ensure deals reach their prospective customers. The more information an AI program collects, the higher the chances people receive discounts for the products they want. One piece of AI technology that is shaking up the industry is chatbots.

Chatbots have changed how the customer interacts with the seller (business) because now there is 24-7 customer service available that will immediately respond to customer inquiries. In previous times, businesses were paying for customer service reps; they have been replaced with chatbots that use an array of plugins to address questions or other concerns quickly. 

These chatbots will also look at the customer's behavior and deduce crucial relevant information. This information has then helped to develop beneficial digital coupons in a business' marketing campaign. The chatbots mingle with the customers to create these customized coupons. No more are physical coupons with online codes. Today, it's QR scannable coupons that have been tailored to the individual customer. 

It is a real-time response to a customer's Internet browsing activity that changes how coupon marketing and its strategies play out. It's important for customers to find the coupons they want quickly. And AI programs are helping to make this process happen. The key is to make AI a self-learning algorithm that will regularly update itself based on the trends happening to ensure customers get the most discounts available. 

One way to do this is to ensure the right coupon is automatically added to an order at the checkout point. 

How Artificial Intelligence Helps Businesses With Their In Digital Marketing Campaigns

Given the importance AI has on the industry, it should be no surprise that companies will use artificial intelligence (AI) to help them with their digital marketing campaigns. After all, every business has been using it to deliver its positive bottom line. How so? It's regarded as instant personal customer service to ensure customers get the products and/or services they are looking for from the company. 

AI and Purchase History 

One of the things that AI will do is collect the purchase history of customers you will target in y our digital marketing campaign. It's not just the behavior the customer exhibits after they get a coupon but the behavior before it. What is some information an AI will collect?

  • How many purchases have a customer placed

  • How much money was spent on the orders placed

  • How many products were purchased without the use of discounts or coupons

  • The frequency of visits to the store

  • How often are coupons used by the customer

  • How much money have coupons saved the customer 

AI uses the data it collects from different customers to predict their behavior and to determine what moves the customers will make. From there, it will screen each customer to see which ones would benefit more from a coupon/discount and, therefore, help businesses out. This lowers how much money businesses are forced to use on their coupon marketing campaign. 

AI and Retaining The Customer Base 

Another way in which AI is helping businesses with their customer base is to focus on how to keep them coming back. After making use of a coupon, many people fail to return because there is no incentive. If you don't provide them with coupons, or if they have to look for coupons, what incentive do they have to return to your store? Coupons help keep customers to stay customers.

It's also not uncommon for customers to compare coupons of competing businesses to find the best deal and ensure maximum discounts. 

This is where AI is stepping in to help.  

Artificial intelligence will showcase the best coupons to your customers, which keeps them from having to look for the coupons themselves. Doing this increases the possibility of current customers remaining current customers. 

AI and Targeted Coupons 

If businesses are to be successful in retaining customers, they must make sure they give them coupons worth it. If a customer receives a coupon they have no use for, it's a waste of time for the company. AI gives companies feedback on what coupons will benefit customers the most, enticing them to come back and buy again. 

AI Turns Cautious Buyers Into Customers 

Artificial intelligence is useful in reading customers' online behavior - through the stores they visit, the pages they flip to, and how they spend their money. AI can determine what buyers are hesitant to make purchases and are only window shopping. The AI program can put forth relevant coupons or discounts that encourage them to go forward with the purchase. Thus, they are no longer a potential customer but a new customer. 

Remember...

Artificial influence has an impact on many marketing fields, including the field of coupon marketing. With the advent of chatbots and other AI-assisted technology, businesses can operate and successfully carry out their coupon marketing strategies. It can help them target prospective customers and turn them into spenders. 

AI... it's not just about making it simple for the consumer to use online coupons and discount codes. It's about helping marketers realize who would benefit from their coupons and lower their campaign costs.