Avoiding Fraud on Mobile Coupons in Your SMS Marketing
![mobile coupons and sms marketing](https://dox4euoyzny9u.cloudfront.net/images/fastsms/Avoiding-Fraud-on-Mobile-Coupons-in-Your-SMS-Marketing.png)
Have you checked your SMS coupon redemption rates lately? Average rates run around 30%, and personalised messages often reach 45-50%. Those numbers make marketers want to jump up and run some SMS marketing campaigns!
But there is one issue that plagues digital coupons, including those delivered via SMS: Fraud.
Since there’s no paper to hand in, online coupons are duplicated and shared even when you don’t want them to be. That’s a problem that could add up to a lot of money if you don’t do anything about it.
There are probably campaigns where you want people to share the information and even the coupon. But if you have a particularly good offer you’re making – perhaps to entice people to sign up to your list – you’ll want to limit coupon reuse for obvious reasons.
Using Your POS
Your existing POS system probably has a way to generate codes for coupons, or at least some way to accept them into the system. If so, you can use it to create enough codes for everyone on your SMS list, or as many as you think you’ll need if you’re growing your list.
Then, if you’ve integrated your SMS solution into your POS then you can populate your SMS messages with a unique code for each individual.
If you aren’t integrated, then you’ll have to check on the options your SMS provider has for uploading and merging the codes into your messages, at fastsms you can do this using custom fields (mail merge). The important bit is that your POS system will recognise the codes, and mark them as used or invalid once they’ve been redeemed.
Not Using a POS
Not every retailer has a POS setup to accept codes, or to generate codes in the way I mentioned above. In those cases, there are a couple of other options to avoid repeated use of the coupons…
Mobile Web Page Timer
Oftentimes an SMS message will say what the offer is, but there won’t be a code in the message itself. The customer needs to click a link that takes them to a mobile webpage with the coupon on it.
It’s easy enough to take a picture of a coupon on that webpage, and then reuse the coupon or send it to other people to share. So to avoid that happening, some businesses are adding timers to the page.
This process can be implemented a couple of ways.
- The customer clicks the link and goes directly to a webpage with the coupon. The timer is activated immediately and counts down to its expiration time – however long that is. If the person tries to access that webpage again later (from the message or directly in the browser) the timer will update to the current time. While this may sound difficult to set up, it’s something fairly easy to implement for a web designer.
- The customer clicks the link and is taken to an information page. That page repeats the offer from the SMS message. But it also tells the customer that the coupon is only good for a short amount of time. There would also be a link to the actual coupon the customer would click when ready. The instructions should be clear enough that the customer understands they need to wait until they are ready to make the purchase. This scenario works well when the customer is shopping at a physical location so they can open the link during checkout.
Your staff would need to be trained so they know to look for a timer that is actually counting down and not a static screenshot. Will there be people who take a video of the countdown and try and use that repeatedly? Yes of course. But that can be counteracted by including the date and current time on the coupon too. A cashier who is paying attention would notice the different time and know the coupon isn’t valid anymore.
Skip the Timer
Another method I’ve seen used is number 2 from above, but without the time. The coupon needs to be accessed in front of the shop assistant or it won’t be considered valid. The link in the SMS message leads to a dynamically generated webpage that can’t be accessed a second time using the same link.
Usually when I’ve seen these and try to go back to it later I get a message letting me know the coupon is no longer valid. Some companies do this well by providing a message that says the coupon expired. Others just provide a 404 error page with no notice of what happened to the coupon.
A Short Timer Example
This example is from a popular sandwich shop that sends out weekly offers. They use a combination of solutions to ensure each customer only redeems the offer once.
First, here’s their message with a link to redeem the offer.
When you click the link, you arrive at the following webpage:
When you choose to Redeem by clicking the button, the following message pops up:
Clicking Cancel brings you back to the redeem page, where you can click Redeem again later. If you click Confirm, you end up at the timer. It counts down to from five minutes to zero, and includes a note to the clerk that the numbers need to be moving for the coupon to be valid.
You’ll notice there are no coupon codes to enter into the POS, so the clerks must already know the redemption instructions for the offer.
If the customer clicks too soon, they’ll see the following screen when they checkout:
Implementing any of the above solutions can help reduce coupon fraud in your SMS marketing messages. Of course, no solution can eliminate fraud completely. There will always be those people who manage to trick the system, but these methods will help keep most customers honest.
Related Articles
3 Retail Predictions to Increase Footfalls This Holiday Season with SMS Messaging
Last year footfalls for some high street shops dropped during the Black Friday weekend. Even though the UK spent a record breaking £1.1B, some saw their in-store sales slump. Find out the three things retailers need to do to get customers to come back.
The Biggest Lie in SMS Marketing
Have you seen articles telling you SMS marketing can’t be used to acquire new customers? Or that it isn’t a good way to so? Don’t believe them. You just have to know how to use SMS to get new people to sign up for your list. Read on to find out how.
Why SMS Marketing is Like Facebook Marketing, But Better
Facebook is a popular place. According to Statista, they had 1.44 billion active users in the first quarter of 2015. It’s no wonder then that businesses are flocking to advertise there. But big isn’t always better. SMS marketing is similar in many respects to Facebook advertising, and for some uses it is actually better. Let me explain and see if you agree.
What Can You Do with MMS Messaging?
Did you know you can send more than text in an SMS message? Well, technically it isn’t an SMS message if it isn’t text. Instead, the multimedia messaging service, or MMS for short, is an extension of the SMS core functionality. It allows you to send short videos (40 seconds or less), images or audio over mobile networks just like an SMS message.
How Wayne Dyer Inspired SMS Messaging
If you’re tuned into the self-help industry at all, you know who Wayne Dyer was. He spent decades writing transformational books to help people improve their lives and find happiness. He died summer 2015 at his home in Maui at the age of 75. It’s probably an understatement to say he inspired millions of people. So when I came across an article about a publisher using SMS messaging to let people know about a new book discussing his legacy I wasn’t too surprised. Not at first anyway.
3 Reasons Why SMS Marketing Is Perfect for the Holiday Season
Everyone knows the holiday season is a peak time for making sales and marketing. Predictions are that the UK will spend £73B in retail stores before the season is over. Find out three reasons you’ll want to use SMS marketing to get those shoppers into your store.
5 Rеаѕоnѕ Customers Lоvе SMS Mаrkеtіng
With a ratio оf fоur mоbіlе devices tо еvеrу computer, іt’ѕ сlеаr where your сuѕtоmеrѕ аrе to be found. Mоbіlе mаrkеtіng is nо longer ѕоmеthіng уоu саn аffоrd to put оn the tо-dо-lіѕt fоr thе futurе; you need tо make sure your message is reaching people on mоbіlе dеvісеs nоw. SMS Mаrkеtіng is the perfect solution - it hаѕ proven to іnсrеаѕе сuѕtоmеr engagement tо unрrесеdеntеd levels and is incredibly low priced. Read on to discover 5 rеаѕоnѕ whу сuѕtоmеrѕ love SMS Mаrkеtіng.
5 Creative Ways to Use SMS Messaging to Boost Your Marketing
SMS messaging can be a hugely productive way of developing your marketing strategy. Text messages are read - on average - in less than 5 seconds. That means you only have a short period of time in which you can impress your potential customer. People are starved of concentration thanks to hundreds of digital and offline distractions, along with the many other companies all reaching out to them through SMS. In order to be effective and get the most from SMS text messages, you need to be creative with your SMS marketing. So here's how...
What Your Customers Want From SMS Marketing
Mobile marketing offers an unprecedented access to your customers virtually any time, anywhere. This is particularly true for SMS marketing because it is “always on”. Customers don’t have to be surfing the web, or using an app to receive messages. Instead, they see the marketing messages right alongside ones from their friends and family.
Two Companies Using SMS in Surprising Ways
In many ways, SMS messaging is so commonplace people don’t think about it. They just do it. For example, using SMS for mobile marketing in retail is a fairly standard use case whether you’re a company or the consumer. But there are always exceptions – those who innovate when it seems there’s nothing new to be had. Here are two examples of companies from the US using SMS in ways no one else is – yet.