HOW-TO: Coupon "Campaigns"

**signs** · 5 Jul 2006, 08:15 PM

I have just started using Zen recently and was perplexed by the whole "coupon" thing. I knew that I could email them, but I wanted some way to present them onsite instead.

Then, when I saw that "define_discount_coupon.php" was in the defines pages, I got to experimenting. I came up with an idea that I think is clever, but other's may think is less than fantastic...I thought I would share it as a marketing tool.

I created a coupon, good for only July 4th-7th, and only 1 use per customer. It's for $5 off a purchase of $20 or more. Then, rather than send it to all my customers, I added a clickable image to my main page with a 4th of July graphic that links to the Discount Coupons page. You can see it here:
http://www.jerisigns.com/shopping/

At the top of the Discount Coupon page I have verbage describing the intended use of the page (to look up the value, expiration and limitations of any particular coupon) and tell my customers that on this page they will always find the current "coupon campaign" if one is going on.

I then added the "4th of July" coupon description to the page.

I think it's great incentive to make a purchase, or increase the total of the purchase in order to get the coupon.

The only drawback I have had so far (and several customers have chosen to redeem it) is that, if they come to my site from a link to a specific product, there's a chance they will not see the index page at all, and thus not know about the coupon, or see the coupon too late -- after they have ordered.

Thought I would share in case anyone else wants to take it and run with it. If you have improvements to my idea, by all means, please post back. After all, we are all in the same boat -- trying to sell our wares -- so why not share marketing ideas that utilize existing features of Zen as well?

Jeri

**Kim** · 5 Jul 2006, 09:27 PM

Why not put your clickable graphic in one of the header banner positions? then it would show all the time.

**signs** · 5 Jul 2006, 09:57 PM

Ooooo!! Great idea, Kim! Now I just have to figure out how. lol

**signs** · 6 Jul 2006, 01:07 AM

I figured it out, THANKS for the idea!

Jeri

**Kim** · 6 Jul 2006, 02:20 AM

Perhaps a quick outline of how you fixed things would be helpful to the next person?

**signs** · 6 Jul 2006, 02:58 AM

Oh sure, sorry!

I left the big clickable image linked to the Discount Coupons page where it was on the main page to be sure to get attention to those that land on that page.

Then, I used a design program and made a banner that was 468x50 px that says
"4th of July Coupon Savings! Click here for details"

I created a banner and uploaded the image in the banner manager, set the start/end dates to match the coupon dates, gave it the banner group name "coupon", then turned on the header banner in configuration>layout settings to display it. Since I don't have any other banners turned on, there's no rotation...that banner displays on every page.

Had I had any other banners, I could have opted to display them in the footer, reserving the header for the coupon. To make sure just the coupon displays in the header, when I turned it on in the layout settings I typed in "coupon" for the banner group name. Because there's a set start and end date for the banner, I shouldn't have to remember to remove it when the coupon campaign ends. (I will have to change the big image on the main page, however.)

Great idea Kim! thanks again.
Jeri