Advertising Coupons Wisdom

[gabstero]

Gang,

What is the common wisdom (from a commercial point of view) of "advertising" these coupons?
For example I want to offer this coupon only for the members of a certain online forum.
Would I go there and say - "Here is a 50% discount coupon for all honorable members of this forum for my store!"???

How would one know for sure that the precious coupon stays only in the hands of those valid forum members?

hints? I am curious how some of you do this...

thanks!!!!!
gabstero

[swguy]

You would have to write a custom validation and extend the coupon logic.

[shrimp-gumbo-mmmhhh]

If you are posting the coupon on the internet good luck hiding it. People would see that you accept coupons at checkout.... do a quick search and find your coupon for the special group and use it..... speaking from experience.

Shrimp

[mamasylvia]

I don't worry about whether someone not technically entitled to the coupon uses it. For instance, I sell a product called Quilt Patis, and I also run a Yahoogroup to discuss using them. When a new member joins the Yahoogroup, they receive as part of their "new member" info a coupon code that takes $5 off a $25 order. If they pass it to all their friends who aren't members, and all their friends visit my site and place a $25 order to get their $5 off, I'm still ahead. And I simply wouldn't set up a coupon that would take the sale price below what I can sell the item for and still make a reasonable profit. (I do set the "limit per customer" coupon setting to 1 so any individual customer can only use that coupon code once.)

[gabstero]

Gang!

That's fantastic advice! Thank you!!!

Shrimp:

If you are posting the coupon on the internet good luck hiding it. People would see that you accept coupons at checkout.... do a quick search and find your coupon for the special group and use it..... speaking from experience.

You say to assign the cupon for a special customer group? Is this possible?

mamasylvia: That's true! Very good idea! In fact you can think of the cupon discount as an advertisement cost! Very clever!

Thanks!

[mamasylvia]

I think you misunderstood Shrimp's comment -- he said the searcher would find the code you intended for a special group and use it even though they weren't members.

I code all my coupons to track where they are from. So I know that I have gotten not one order from the free samples I passed out at craft shows. (I did get orders AT the show, so they were still worth it, but I'm disappointed at not getting followup orders.)

OTOH, I *am* getting orders from the code automagically sent to anyone who joins the Yahoogroup. And I just today sent out a newsletter with a code to try to sell off my St. Patrick's Day candles, so we'll see if that works. and I'm planning an April Fool's "I'm the fool" free shipping sale which I'll also send out a code in a newsletter.