Creating Special Offers and Coupons

Offers are the fastest way to turn a directory listing into actual customers. An offer appears on your own business page and also on the site wide Special Offers page, where people go specifically looking for a reason to spend money locally. This guide shows you how to create one that works.

Before You Start

Offers are included with the Growth and Brand Plus packages. If you are on the free plan, you will need to upgrade before the Offers section appears in your control panel.

You will also want to have decided three things: what the deal is, who can use it, and when it ends.

Creating an Offer

Sign in and choose My Business from the menu
Open your listing and go to the Offers section
Click to add a new offer
Fill in the fields described below
Save. Your offer is reviewed before it appears publicly, which usually takes a day or less

Writing the Offer Title

The title is what people see in a list of dozens of offers. Lead with the saving, not with your business name.

Good: 20 Percent Off All Winter Tires Through February
Good: Free Dessert With Any Two Entrees
Weak: Special Offer
Weak: Check Out Our Great Deals

Writing the Offer Description

Say exactly what the customer gets and exactly what they have to do. Vague offers get ignored, and worse, they generate arguments at the counter.

Cover these points:

What is included, and what is not
Any minimum spend
Whether it can be combined with other discounts
Whether an appointment or reservation is needed
How the customer redeems it, for example show this on your phone, print the coupon, or mention it when booking

Prices and Discounts

Where the form asks for a regular price and an offer price, fill both in. Showing the original price alongside the new one makes the saving concrete and performs noticeably better than a percentage alone.

Start and End Dates

Always set an end date. A deadline creates urgency, and it also protects you from someone turning up next winter with a coupon you forgot about. The offer disappears from the site automatically when it expires.

If you want a standing offer, set an end date a few months out and renew it. It gives you a natural moment to refresh the wording.

Images

Add a photo of the actual product or service. Offers with images get substantially more clicks than offers without. A plain photo of the dish, the tire, or the finished job is enough.

Coupons

You can attach a coupon to an offer. Customers can then claim the coupon from your page and present it in store or when booking. Coupons are useful when you want to track how many people came in because of the directory, since you can count the ones handed over.

Keep the redemption rule simple. One coupon per customer per visit is easy for everyone to understand and enforce.

Featured Offers

Paid plans can mark an offer as featured, which gives it more prominent placement. Save this for your strongest promotion rather than using it on everything, since the advantage comes from standing out.

What Makes an Offer Work

Be genuinely generous. Five percent off does not move anyone. If the deal would not tempt you, it will not tempt a stranger
Make it easy to understand in one sentence
Tie it to something timely such as a season, a holiday, a local event, or a slow weekday you would like to fill
Use it to fill quiet periods rather than discounting your busiest hours
Give new customers a reason to try you, since the second visit is where you make your money

Managing Offers Over Time

Review your offers monthly and remove anything stale
Do not run more than two or three at once, or none of them stand out
When an offer expires, replace it rather than leaving your page empty
Note which offers brought people in, and repeat what worked

Selling Directly From an Offer

Paid plans also let you sell offers and products directly, so a customer can pay online rather than just learning about the deal. See the article on selling products and taking orders for how to set that up.

Getting Help

If your offer has not appeared after a day, check that it was saved with a start date of today or earlier, and that it is not still awaiting review. If you are still stuck, contact the Buy it Local.US team. Other guides are in the Support section.