The goal of a coupon system is to provide specific coupons to people who are more likely to respond to that coupon by purchasing the goods or services offered. You want people to redeem the coupons for purchases that they would not have normally made.

That takes a little planning. Typically, coupons are spread out to lots and lots of people and the manufacturer hopes that the right people clip those coupons and buy the products. Unfortunately, a lot of people use coupons as a discount on the products that they would purchase normally.

To target coupons most effectively takes a knowledge of people's buying habits. Supermarket coupons printed at the bottom of the receipt are supposed to be targetted to the people who are most likely to be buying the product. However, few supermarkets spend the effort to really analyse the buying habits and target the coupons.

Such analysis of customer buying habits is more challenging to do for a small business. The next best thing is to use RFM analysis or even just dollar amount and frequency of visit analysis. Such analysis can help identify which customers might be more receptive to a coupon offer.

The next aspect of a couponing system is the delivery of the coupon. With today's technology, there are many ways to deliver a coupon to a customer: email, text message, print from web site, direct mail, bottom of receipt, or in store kiosk.