Simpedia

Arian M., Tennessee

I just did my third “ad” with a coupon type site. Now I’ve had experience with several companies- Groupon, Living Social, and Entertainment Book.

These sites sell a coupon, and it’s worth half off- so you pay $10, its worth $20
My first deal: half off a month of lessons- private or shared
My second deal: Half off a month of shared lessons + materials
Entertainment book deal: Buy one, get one half off (basically, a sibling discount)

I just wanted to say a few things about how to make these deals work:

1. Set the smallest possible time limit for them to use the coupon- under 6 months at least!
2. The “deal” must be at least 51% off of your original pricing- at 50%, fewer people seem to buy it
3. In my studio policies, I charge an enrollment fee- but if they sign a contract for 4 months of lessons I Include their materials and waive the fee when they sign up for the first time.
4. If you have a website, have instructions on the front page for how to use the coupon, and how to contact you.
5. Also if you have a website, check with your server providers to make sure they can handle increased volume on your site.
6. If possible, be available to answer the first calls from those with questions.
7. Some of the website coupons have a written description of your services- make sure they understand that SM is different!
8. The longer the site can post your ad, the more exposure you get (very obvious, but still)
9. You can set limits on the number of deals you can sell- but don’t set a limit! You can be a main feature, instead of a side deal, if you don’t set a limit (you can actually call the day of if the volume becomes too much for you to handle, and they will set a limit retroactively)
10. Make sure in the copy, it says you take students with special needs, adults, etc- anything unique about your studio.
11. MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL: use social networking to post your deal! I posted it on facebook and to several home-school websites, and boom! I sold 32 deals!

A comparison:
By far, my experience with Living Social was superior to my deal with Groupon.

Living Social has a family oriented web page, better tracking, will post a deal for 7 days, and will meet with you in person to discuss your deal. Living Social sends you one check, and splits the proceeds 50/50

Groupon will only post the deal for 2-3 days, does not provide as much support, splits the payment into three checks, and it’s a little more like 55/45, also, they take out taxes, which, isn’t necessary since I am not making a profit on these first lessons.

I have always made back the money that I “invest” in this- meaning, because I split my profit with the website, these first lessons are basically at cost. The retention rate is about what you would expect- about 60% after the first month, and 35% at the 6 month mark- but, my studio was only 3 students in January, and I have grown steadily using this method this year. In general, I think just the exposure is really impressive- I get students who saw the deal, but didn’t buy it, and will still take lessons with me (you can even offer the deal to them retroactively too).

I know that with the new guidelines, studio growth seems to be of some concern- but this method does work, take advantage of the multi-million dollar advertising these coupon sites use to draw people, to promote your studio. I still work as a school teacher, and do SM- granted, I would love for SM to be full-time, but I’m just not there yet. These sites are getting me closer.