Christmas is the biggest shopping season of the year. It is an opportunity for physical and online business owners to create some marketing buzz and bring in new customers. Advertising this holiday season using paper coupons and/or digital coupons is one of the most common methods for brick and mortar shops as well as for ecommerce operations to promote their products.

With that in mind, it is important for each business to establish their best way to distribute their offers. This generally depends on the type of business; eCommerce stores would focus exclusively on online coupons, while physical shops should find a good balance between digital and print vouchers. Here are 5 popular methods for distributing coupons that will be used widely this Holiday season where people will want to save on groceries as well as on luxury-item shopping. 

When it comes to distributing coupons online, there is no shortage of voucher sites. If you want to save money, you can publish your offers for free in coupon sites such as Wikigains.com. Having your deals published in such sites is usually free of charge. The disadvantage, however, is that voucher websites are better suited for businesses that have substantial online operations, such as clothing and shoe shops or gadget shops, which sell extensively through their websites.  Local, brick and mortar business are probably better off sending off their deals to local media websites to be published. This method will help them acquire local leads who are more likely to convert to sales.

Both digital and physical stores can get a lot of “mileage” this Holiday season out of their email lists. Generally, businesses will send batches of emails to thousands of people in their email database. If properly automated, your marketing system should be able to look at a customer's previous purchases and send them a more personalized offer. 

Using Facebook for coupon distribution is fairly common. Mastering this strategy is not as easy as it seems. Ask yourself this question: what do all successful deals on social media have in common? Answer: they're extremely shareable. It simply means that a good offer can go virally. How about coupons that give you and a friend you refer 25% off? 

Even in today's digital era, print coupons still represent 44% of the entire coupon market. Paper vouchers are a tradition established since the late 1890s, and it remains strong despite the overall convenience that digital coupons can provide. According to recent studies, approximately 70% of consumers pore over their newspaper and magazine subscriptions in search of special deals. Make sure you send your offers to your local paper on time to be published for this Holiday season.

If you have a furniture store and a list of addresses for 5,000 home owners, how do you send them your coupons? One of the easiest ways of doing so is by printing full-colour postcards. Printing, addressing and mailing 5,000 postcards will set you back about £1000, and you can also rent a mailing list for an additional £200-£500. If you need a list of potential customers in your area, try contacting a local media company. You should be able to narrow the list down by age, location and factors such as home ownership.