How to Use Coupons, Discounts, and Sales to Drive More Site Traffic

If you’re a blogger, your primary objective is probably two-fold. First, you want to drive traffic to your site, because that’s how you make money.

Then, you want to encourage loyalty once you get site visitors there. These are the two biggest challenges any blogger faces, regardless of their niche or their overall business strategy.

So, if you’re a blogger, how do you achieve your objectives? One of the best ways to both drive traffic and increase loyalty is through the use of coupons, discounts and sales, but they have to be used correctly.

Consider how you shop and make purchases. If you see a Zivame bra sale, you’re much more likely to purchase from that retailer, as compared to a similar retailer with no sale or special deal going on.

Then, once you’ve made that initial purchase, if it’s a good experience, you’re likely to keep going back.

These basic principles are relevant not just to retailers and e-Commerce sites, but also to bloggers.

Consider the follow ways to maximise your use of coupons, discounts and special sales on your blog.

Make It Instant

If you’re offering any special pricing opportunity on your blog, don’t make it something your readers must wait to redeem. For example, if you’re giving a free trial period of your services, let users redeem it right away, rather than at some future date, because they’ll more than likely forget about it or lose interest by then.

Users expect instant gratification in the online world.

Offer Pre-Launch Specials

If you’re launching a new product on your blog, such as a new e-Book, you can build excitement for the product and more interest by offering pre-launch specials. For example, if you’re normally going to charge £3.99 to download your e-Book, you can lower the price to £0.99 for a certain amount of time leading up to its official launch.

Make It Easy To Find

If you’re offering some exclusive deal, you want to make sure your customers know that it’s happening. Otherwise, it’s pointless.

Put your coupon, discount or deal front and centre on your website, so that visitors can see it within the first 10 seconds or so of coming to your blog. You can even consider adding it as a popup, so it’s the very first thing visitors see, as long as it’s easy for them to exit the popup if they’re not interested.

Think About a Points Program

If you have a blog where you offer several different products or sell a wide variety of items, you might think about a points program to build loyalty. Consumers love points programs, because they feel like they’re earning by spending and it’s a good way to encourage visitors to keep coming back and making purchases from your blog.

Segment Your Visitors For Targeting Offerings

Finally, if you’re a blogger, it’s important that you group your site visitors into categories if you’re going to be sending special deals and offers through email. Not everyone is going to be interested in the same offers or the same approach, so through segmentation, you can make sure you’re appropriately targeting your readers in the ways that are most relevant to them.

Have you ever tried using coupons or deals to drive more traffic to your website? 

*This is a collaborative post.