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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 I,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, 800-8336687; Win 95, Mac; $895), he designs his own rectangularshaped 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., 800325-3508; 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-andsave marketing approach, Williamson and Moore offer the following dos and don'ts.
Do hone in on your audience. Whether you're sending online extras
For coupon design samples or to link to Hot Coupons, visit our site at www.smalloffice.com or on AOL (keyword: soho). 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.
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 I,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, 800-8336687; Win 95, Mac; $895), he designs his own rectangularshaped 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., 800325-3508; 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-andsave marketing approach, Williamson and Moore offer the following dos and don'ts.
Do hone in on your audience. Whether you're sending online extras
For coupon design samples or to link to Hot Coupons, visit our site at www.smalloffice.com or on AOL (keyword: soho). 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.
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