coupons can be an effective way to grow
your business but you’ve got to make
sure that you’re making money from it
and you’re testing them hi I’m Evan
Carmichael your friend in all things
entrepreneurship and today i’m answering
a question from one of our readers james
who wanted to know if he should use
couponing for his business and what the
pros and cons were so thanks to the
question James I know as entrepreneurs
we’re always looking for different ways
to grow our businesses and experimenting
with different things with any marketing
in general that you’re doing for your
company you want to test it make sure
it’s delivering results on a small scale
before you expand a big mistake a lot of
times that we make is we get so excited
about a new marketing idea that we put a
lot of dollars into it and it doesn’t
work and we end up out a lot of money so
you want to make sure whatever you’re
trying do a little small-scale test it
see if it’s working if it is you keep
doing it spend more money on it expand
the program it was not kill it try
something else for coupons so there are
a couple ways to do it usually it’s
either one to bring in new business so
you have a discount I don’t know what
you’re selling but a discount on your
product or service a way you can use it
as a partner with other businesses so a
friend of mine runs a little gym
franchise where they help kids come in
and teach them gymnastics and he’ll
partner up with local businesses around
him and allow them to give a coupon to
their customers for discount at the
class the idea with this is you get a
coupon for your first class so you can
come in either get the first class for
free or get the first class I’ve
discounted rate and then hopefully
they’ll love it and they’ll sign up for
the program and he’ll have them in there
for year after year to year of the year
so you may be losing money on that first
class but you’re gaining new customers
so it’s one way to do it the second way
is to encourage
assisting customers to buy more or try
new product or services you might be
offering so example the salsa school
that I’m involved in will often as a new
introductory workshop so if they’re
usually they’re selling salsa classes
but they might have a new type of dance
that they want to introduce it could be
West Coast Swing or could be kazoomba
could be cha-cha whatever it is they
might put on a special deal if you sign
up for this salsa class you can also get
this kizomba class their West Coast
Swing class at a discounted rate and
it’s to encourage people to try it to
see people are interested in if they
like the class if they like the
instructor and if they do it all works
out then they’ll come back for more and
they’ll keep coming back and keep coming
back and so even though you lose a
little bit of money on that first class
again the idea is that they keep coming
back over and over and over again you
want them to try whatever your product
or service is so those are the two most
common methods one get new people in and
to get current people to try out
whatever new product or service that you
have the danger here is that you spend a
lot of time and money fulfilling these
coupons and they’re not going to
continue buying from you and this is the
biggest fear that a lot of people have
had with couponing sites like Groupon
where they get bombarded with business
new customers come in but they only by
that deal and they never come back and a
lot of groupons that people have have
purchased that’s exactly what happened
you know the businesses get slammed all
these customers come in at the same time
over a short period of time they’re just
buying that deal which is at a steep
discount and then they never come back
again to that business and so that’s a
loss right if you’re losing money on
your first transaction and then the
customer never comes back to you again
that’s a big loss to you hopefully made
a good first impression with them maybe
they’ll refer somebody on to you but
that’s not the type of kind that you
want to attract so you want to make sure
that in your marketing you’re going
after the right people ideal potential
clients for you and that the deal makes
sense that you’re giving up something
you know there’s some value there but
you’re not losing your shirt over it and
you have to start tracking in
drinkin versions are these people coming
back to your business and buying more
and more and more from you if they’re
not look at the offering look at the
look at who you’re targeting and maybe
it makes sense to revamp it a little bit
see if there’s another way to make it
work or maybe the coupon in strategy is
just not a right fit for your business
and you only can figure that out through
testing so maybe a lot of information on
couponing but those are my opinions on
the pros and the cons I hope you’ll
you’ll test it out and see if it works
for you for those of you watching if you
liked the video please give it a thumbs
up below I love to see those come in and
I’d love to hear you have to think if
you want leave a comment under this
video I always read those and I usually
respond so thank you and I’ll see you on
the next episode
you
your business but you’ve got to make
sure that you’re making money from it
and you’re testing them hi I’m Evan
Carmichael your friend in all things
entrepreneurship and today i’m answering
a question from one of our readers james
who wanted to know if he should use
couponing for his business and what the
pros and cons were so thanks to the
question James I know as entrepreneurs
we’re always looking for different ways
to grow our businesses and experimenting
with different things with any marketing
in general that you’re doing for your
company you want to test it make sure
it’s delivering results on a small scale
before you expand a big mistake a lot of
times that we make is we get so excited
about a new marketing idea that we put a
lot of dollars into it and it doesn’t
work and we end up out a lot of money so
you want to make sure whatever you’re
trying do a little small-scale test it
see if it’s working if it is you keep
doing it spend more money on it expand
the program it was not kill it try
something else for coupons so there are
a couple ways to do it usually it’s
either one to bring in new business so
you have a discount I don’t know what
you’re selling but a discount on your
product or service a way you can use it
as a partner with other businesses so a
friend of mine runs a little gym
franchise where they help kids come in
and teach them gymnastics and he’ll
partner up with local businesses around
him and allow them to give a coupon to
their customers for discount at the
class the idea with this is you get a
coupon for your first class so you can
come in either get the first class for
free or get the first class I’ve
discounted rate and then hopefully
they’ll love it and they’ll sign up for
the program and he’ll have them in there
for year after year to year of the year
so you may be losing money on that first
class but you’re gaining new customers
so it’s one way to do it the second way
is to encourage
assisting customers to buy more or try
new product or services you might be
offering so example the salsa school
that I’m involved in will often as a new
introductory workshop so if they’re
usually they’re selling salsa classes
but they might have a new type of dance
that they want to introduce it could be
West Coast Swing or could be kazoomba
could be cha-cha whatever it is they
might put on a special deal if you sign
up for this salsa class you can also get
this kizomba class their West Coast
Swing class at a discounted rate and
it’s to encourage people to try it to
see people are interested in if they
like the class if they like the
instructor and if they do it all works
out then they’ll come back for more and
they’ll keep coming back and keep coming
back and so even though you lose a
little bit of money on that first class
again the idea is that they keep coming
back over and over and over again you
want them to try whatever your product
or service is so those are the two most
common methods one get new people in and
to get current people to try out
whatever new product or service that you
have the danger here is that you spend a
lot of time and money fulfilling these
coupons and they’re not going to
continue buying from you and this is the
biggest fear that a lot of people have
had with couponing sites like Groupon
where they get bombarded with business
new customers come in but they only by
that deal and they never come back and a
lot of groupons that people have have
purchased that’s exactly what happened
you know the businesses get slammed all
these customers come in at the same time
over a short period of time they’re just
buying that deal which is at a steep
discount and then they never come back
again to that business and so that’s a
loss right if you’re losing money on
your first transaction and then the
customer never comes back to you again
that’s a big loss to you hopefully made
a good first impression with them maybe
they’ll refer somebody on to you but
that’s not the type of kind that you
want to attract so you want to make sure
that in your marketing you’re going
after the right people ideal potential
clients for you and that the deal makes
sense that you’re giving up something
you know there’s some value there but
you’re not losing your shirt over it and
you have to start tracking in
drinkin versions are these people coming
back to your business and buying more
and more and more from you if they’re
not look at the offering look at the
look at who you’re targeting and maybe
it makes sense to revamp it a little bit
see if there’s another way to make it
work or maybe the coupon in strategy is
just not a right fit for your business
and you only can figure that out through
testing so maybe a lot of information on
couponing but those are my opinions on
the pros and the cons I hope you’ll
you’ll test it out and see if it works
for you for those of you watching if you
liked the video please give it a thumbs
up below I love to see those come in and
I’d love to hear you have to think if
you want leave a comment under this
video I always read those and I usually
respond so thank you and I’ll see you on
the next episode
you
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