Get clients with coupons - includes related articles on cyber-coupons and eye-grabbing giveaways - Industry Trend or Event

Home Office Computing, March, 1997 by Leigh Schindler Powell

How to Promote a Discount on Your Services and Profit

As a jewelry salesman 15 years ago, Ramon Williamson saw sales spike when he began distributing coupons door-to-door to clients. Today, as owner of an entrepreneurial seminar and personal coaching business in McLean, Virginia, he still swears by the clip 'n' save strategy. Even though Williamson no longer peddles wristwatches and rings, his client roster has increased a whopping 300 percent since he's passed out coupons to attendees after each of his small-business talks.

Dotting office bulletin boards and home refrigerators, redeemable promotions aren't just for food establishments. If the latest batch of Val-Pak mailers, yellow pages ads, and newspaper solicitations are any indication, everyone from accountants and attorneys to pediatricians and pet groomers are luring clients with cost-cutting coupons.

But you don't have to limit your marketing sites to ads and direct-mail promotions. Today, if you can print on it, you can slap a coupon on it--from the backs of business cards, invoices, and movie tickets to the sides of paper cups and shopping bags. And if you're targeting prospects who rarely leave their offices, new Internet coupons may stimulate sales (see "Target Desk Jockeys With CyberCoupons"). Indeed, the ways to promote your dotted-line discounts are as varied as the prospects you can reach.

Targeting the Right Market When Shannon Moore, owner of an ad agency that targets small businesses, first agreed to run in a coupon booklet that was going to 15,000 homes in Florida, her expectations were low. Who thinks of their business when opening personal mail? But within a week of the mailing, Moore received her first response: A real estate magazine publisher called and signed on as one of Graphics Warehouse's largest accounts. "I learned that businesspeople continue to think about work while they're at home" she says.

The price to produce and distribute cut-and-save ads starts at a couple of cents per coupon and can run into thousands of dollars. Heavier paper stock, for instance, is more costly, but it discourages prospects from reproducing your coupons. To run an ad comparable to, say, Moore's, would cost roughly $35 per 1,000 names. And the direct-mail company that Moore commissioned handles the creative side.

Williamson, on the other hand, takes the do-it-yourself, low-cost approach. Using PageMaker 6.5 (Adobe, 800-833-6687; Win 95, Mac; $895), he designs his own rectangular-shaped redeemable ads and hands them out to attendees of his seminar. But other programs such as Microsoft Publisher 97 (Microsoft, 800-426-9400; Win 95; $79) and My Professional Marketing Materials 3.0 (MySoftware Co., 800-325-3508; Win 95, Win; $79.95) will help inspire more attention-grabbing design ideas, such as irregularly shaped ads. (If you'd like to add a scissors icon, the Zapf Dingbats font offers several, but a simple dotted line is often enough.)

Tear-and-Save Tactics As veterans of the cut-here-and-save marketing approach, Williamson and Moore offer the following dos and don'ts.

Do hone in on your audience. Whether you're sending redeemable e-mail solicitations yourself or signing up with a coupon distributor, business owners report that you'll get a greater response when you use carefully culled lists. Specialized newspapers, newsletters, and targeted direct-mail operators are just a few ways to draw qualified prospects.

Don't expect a huge response. Although a 2 percent response rate may be good for retailers, service businesses shouldn't expect, and don't need, a tremendous draw. "Five responses out of 15,000 is excellent [for a service business]," says Moore. That's because professionals, unlike food retailers, are often asking clients to spend upwards of $100 an hour. "And you need far fewer responses to pay for your coupons."

A .03 percent response may not sound high, but your return on investment in the long run can still be worthwhile. Let's say you take out an ad that's delivered to 10,000 addresses and costs $350. If you land just one faithful client--a response rate of .01 percent--who initially spends $300 and could spend more, your return on investment is more than 85 percent.

Do promote a dollar savings in the header. With your coupon, you're asking prospects to try something outside their normal routines. To get them to pick up the phone and dig into their pockets, you must offer a large value (in general, the bigger the change you want people to make, the greater the value your coupon must offer). And the best way to grab attention is to put a dollar figure rather than a discounted amount in the header. For instance, Williamson's coupon headline, which reads "Free Coaching Session--a $75 Value!", catches the eye a lot faster than "10 Percent Off a Business Coaching Session." And by all means, include the most powerful advertising word: FREE. (For more ideas, see "Eye-Grabbing Giveaways.")

Don't place coupons where there are competitors. You'll only water down your response. Instead, scout for placements that limit ads from the same type of business or that carry complementary business coupons. Even better, exchange coupons with related services in your area.