Published on January 31, 2012 Should I use promotional codes in directory listings?
An increasingly used Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) tactic being used by leading online shops is to offer a promotional code to viewers of particular directories that they list in, or on coupon promotion sites. When people come to your website they can use the coupon, allowing you to provide customers with an incentive to buy from you and a way to track where people found you.
As with any marketing strategy, there are tricks to maximise your coupon’s potential and traps to be aware of. We’ll review some of the biggest ones here: expiry dates, discount levels and integrated marketing.
Don’t let your coupons expire – keep them fresh and/or active
As a consumer, there’s nothing worse than finding a coupon for a place you want to shop at, going to the site and entering the code to find that the code doesn’t work. So if you are going to add coupons to a directory listing, either put a note in your diary to change it (we recommend an appointment in your online calendar or on your mobile phone), use a coupon that doesn’t expire or a coupon specific to that directory.
Offer realistic discounts
If you want your discounts to be taken seriously make them a useful discount level, comparative to the types of sales that you usually run. If you run 20% to 30% discounts on a regular basis for example, then a 5% discount on a coupon site won’t be taken seriously by customers. You may get a backlink to your site from the coupon or directory site but if a customer finds the coupon by a search, it may do you more harm than if you’d had no coupon at all.
Treat your customers with respect if you want them to treat you with respect.
Try a “Treasure Hunt”
People like discounts that they feel they have “earned”. Why not try integrating your offline and online marketing with a ‘treasure hunt’ – one marketing tool leading to another leading to another to another and then to the end goal of a discount. Thus, you might offer a teaser to something else rather than a fixed dollar or percentage discount. When they get there they do something else (like provide you with their email address and/or other details as a lead) that leads them to an even better discount or some thing that they can receive (like an eBook, physical guide or something appropriate to your industry). The more customers feel they have earned the more receptive they will be to your brand – and therefore your online shop.
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