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Pedro Cardona Llambias

8 Years Ago

Discount Codes => Are A Good Way To Promote?

Have you tried the discount codes to promote your work? where? personal web, facebook... What about the results? Is this really usefull to promote our works?

I've created one: BULXRU until April 30th with a fix money discount and used it to promote in facebook but the results were not as espected, what could fail?

Let's share our opinons in order to improve our promoting skills. Thanks

https://www.facebook.com/PedroCardonaPhotography

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Adam Jewell

8 Years Ago

If someone asks for one then sometimes it will get a sale. Of any that I've posted anywhere they've never been used. If you have an email list they would probably work well with that.

 

Greg Jackson

8 Years Ago

Over the course of the almost 2.5 years I've been here, I've used the discount code numerous times in email campaigns, direct mailings (using my greeting cards from here) to local merchants and out of town, Twitter, FB, added it the PDF sheets available here, and written it on the back of business cards, all with no response from the effort. Could just be the local area too.

 

Mike Savad

8 Years Ago

never worked well for me. but your telling people right now that you charge too much for your work and your willing to give them a small confusing discount... it usually works against you. very few take advantage of it.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

 

Greg Jackson

8 Years Ago

"...your telling people right now that you charge too much for your work and your willing to give them a small confusing discount..."

I considered the discount offerings much the same as a Sale that retailers run. We know there's a markup (usually a hefty one) on their items.

 

Roy Erickson

8 Years Ago

Just my very humble opinion - if you are giving a dollar amount off - perhaps; if you are thinking of a percentage - I don't think that's a good idea. IF someone asks - you might.
IF you discount your work - how much is it really worth?

 

James McCormack

8 Years Ago

@Roy I suppose its more a marketing technique and a way to (try to ) increase visibility. I have only just started here in FAA, but I have found in the past that offering a discount on two or three in a series bought together does work. So if I try it - it will probably be on that basis - buy one and get a $ amount off a second purchase made at the same time.

 

Floyd Snyder

8 Years Ago

Discount coupons trains the buyers to not buy without one.

I would maybe go along with FAA if they would run opt in sales on occasions where the entire price is discounted.

I never ran sales or coupons on art in my galleries. I did run sales and offer coupons on some framing and hardware items like picture lights, mirrors and such. But never on art.

When buyers would ask for a discount on a painting I would tell no, but I would sometimes offer them some value added product like a fee metal plate or a picture light or maybe an open edition print by the same artist when I had them.

Most of the people here that have posted about discounting and sales have reported very little success.

I have seen people running Christmas sales. I hate when I see that. That is the one time of year that people are literally willing to overpay for something just to get their shipping over with. Art is a unique product. Why give it away especially under those circumstances.

 

Floyd Snyder

8 Years Ago

"I considered the discount offerings much the same as a Sale that retailers run. We know there's a markup (usually a hefty one) on their items."

The Gypsy Rose Lee method of marketing. You can't take it off if you don't put it on. :-)

 

Edward Fielding

8 Years Ago

Having a spot in the shopping cart for a discount code causes people to pause and search around for a coupon code. Maybe probably end up never coming back or finding something else along to the way to purchase.

Smart retailers don't put links in their shopping carts which send people off in different directions. You need a streamlined check out without distractions.

 

JC Findley

8 Years Ago

Got it Edward....

When you create your own PoD you won't have a spot for discount codes.

Also, since you seem to love Amazon's business practices and often quote them here you might let them know their discount code spot on the checkout page isn't very smart as well as letting FAA know.

 

David Bridburg

8 Years Ago

I only took a quick look at this topic in my marketing notes, but some products are meant for sales and promotions.

Art is not. I dont have the principles as to why not at my finger tips, but it is not. Mike and Floyd are right about this.

Working my way through college in two hardware shops, the first one was financially doing extremely well, NO DISCOUNTS
other than the Church and Synagogue 10% off. And there were the Ace Specials about four items every month in the back corner
of the shop. You had to walk all the way through the shop to get something on sale.

The other shop was full of discounts. So with half of the inventory on sale the customers use to only shop the sales. He used
to mark everything up higher to make up for his lost leaders. The business folded later on, but that was because the owner
and his wife had drug problems...etc....etc...etc....I only bothered working for him for
a spring and left beginning of summer when I graduated college. He was a very weak and stupid man. If he could make a mistake, do it
the wrong way, he went out his way to screw up.

IMPORTANT NOTE: at the first store they had control over their pricing because they did not discount. That is the moral of this story.

Dave

 

David Bridburg

8 Years Ago

Ed,

That first hardware store during the great depression had men running into the parking lot to take orders and make it easy
for the customers.

They learned over time to make things more difficult for the customers. They moved the registers to the middle of the store
so the customers had to walk through the store. They restricted the advice they gave on electrical because of liability. They
never gave advice on paints, because a color screw up or not a screw up would come back at them.

When customers had to do a few things to get what they wanted the business did better.

You can have an attitude that you will grovel or that you are worth something. The neighborhood was into the superior attitude, of course
the neighborhood was a richer larger suburb. So our customer service was not the dreamed about advertised Carnal Cruise you always
dreamed of going on. We were pretty tough with the customers. Sales were great. And we had competition that went out of business. The
first to go out of business was around the corner. The second across town went out when Home Depot arrived. The store I was in is doing extremely
well still and has been the oldest store in West Hartford pop. 60k for a whiile now. The store goes back about 80 years. Home Depot never made a
dent in their sales.

Before anyone says you cant be tough on the customers, that shop has 4000 accounts.

Dave

 

Greg Jackson

8 Years Ago

If an item in a store is being discounted, you can pretty much guarantee something else in the store has had a price increase to balance things out. There's usually no "give" w/o some "take" elsewhere.

 

David Bridburg

8 Years Ago

Greg,

It depends on what product you are marketing.

Persian rugs are only discounted.

When I was at the hardware store there was a Persian Rug Store up the block. The owner had
two sons, the younger one was my age, Danny.

The rug store advertised on TV day and night for years. The joke was "ask for me discount Danny, and get
10% off". They made a fortune from this joke. A 10% discount in the carpet business is peanuts.

But you are of course right they marked it up first.

As a very young kid, I'd be walking through a shop and ask me dad if the sales we'd see were good. He would
flippantly say, "they marked it up first".

Dave

 

Marketing and promoting is a hard and long way for the artist; the fail - success - try again... are a part of this way; I never thought to apply a discount on a signed original, but in this case that we're trying to sell copies of an original, i've tried this to see "what happens" and if it was useful to increase visibility and the response of possible clients using this for a short time promo, and the answer is practically "nothing"

May be can be useful to create an email list and monthly send a list of new works published in FAA

 

Floyd Snyder

8 Years Ago

"May be can be useful to create an email list and monthly send a list of new works published in FAA'

Everyone should have an email list and do an email every month. That is one of the other benefits of groups that I keep saying are a waste of time unless you use them to promote outside of FAA.

This is how I promote using the groups, using email, FB and Twitter.

I build an album on FB with this message:

"This is a selection of five of the dozens of new images that have recently been added to FASGallery.com. Each image has been featured in several of the prestigious Fine Art Groups at Fine Art America, home of over 2 million fine art images by top artist from around the world. Click on an image for more information and feel free to share. Enjoy! Floyd Snyder,"

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008175755981&sk=photos&collection_token=100008175755981%3A2305272732%3A69&set=a.1597749930507517.1073741879.100008175755981&type=3

 

Floyd Snyder

8 Years Ago

The key to doing any of these things is to keep doing it. Another reason I don't like coupons and sales. In order to get the best results out of adverting you have to keep doing it, so don't start something unless you are ready to keep doing it.

Look at what the Pizza industry had done to itself. Good for consumer because prices may have come down. Not so good for the Pizza industry because now they are stuck in a system that they can no sell anything unless the pay for the cost of getting their coupons out there. The print media love it but they hate that now they are delivering those coupons via the net for self printing.

 

Interesting Floid, I have to study about how to do to apply this...


"so don't start something unless you are ready to keep doing it."

Let's do it!

Thanks to all for your opinions, really useful to try to understand the self promoting ways

 

David Morefield

8 Years Ago

When I am out on a photoshoot and someone talks to me for a while and gets my card, it is not uncommon for me to end up giving them some sort of discount.

I have a couple levels of discount and I do it all by percentage, of course I never say what percentage because I don't want to tell anyone my markup.

I have the general discount that I give acquaintances, then I have a code that I give to friends and family, then of course, I have a code for immediate family because I am not here to make money off of my mom.

Believe it or not, I have had plenty of people use my discount codes and my markup is high enough that it doesn't hurt me so bad.

What's even better is when you call it a Friends & Family discount and ask people not to share it ;)

 

David Bridburg

8 Years Ago

David M,

Very nice sales tactic, but they know your markup. See "Show Price Details".

On an 8"

$30.56

Hide Price Details ADD TO CART

Add to FavoritesPrint:Dr Pepper Museum by David Morefield - 8.00" x 5.38"$23.00

Material:Luster Photo Paper$7.56
Finish:Rolled in a Tube$0.00
Assembly:Assembly Charge$0.00

Total: $30.56

 

This discussion is closed.