COUPONING: HOW TO RUN AN EASY AND
PROFITABLE BUSINESS SELLING SPECIAL
COUPONS.
Look in your mailbox. What do you see almost every day? Coupons.
Look in your newspaper. What do you see EVERY day? Coupons. It
seems like coupons multiply like rabbits. Why? Prices are rising,
unlike a majority of people's incomes.
Coupons only make good financial sense. But what if you discovered
that someone's making money from coupons? They are, and so can
you, by selling a special type of coupon.
Manufacturers use coupons primarily to attract new customers. The
money savings entice people to try products they might otherwise not
have. The same can be true of local businesses in your area. Sure,
they put coupons in their newspaper ads.
But you can give them the opportunity to get their coupons into the
hands of the exact customers they need, and at a far better price than
the local newspaper.
You can produce a Local Business Coupon Book easily,
inexpensively, and profitably, i f you follow the steps outlined here.
The first step in running a successful coupon publishing business is to
find the businesses that will advertise with you. Any business that
relies on local advertising is a good prospect.
Here is a short list of businesses you should consider:
Theaters;
Hair Salons;
Fast Food Restaurants;
Record
and CD Stores;
Dry Cleaners;
Supermarkets;
Car Washes;
Muffler Shops;
Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt Shops.
Basically, any store that could reasonably use a coupon to draw in
new customers is a prospect.
You may want to specialize in one area, such as fast food restaurants.
Or, cover the whole gamut. Look through your phone book for
businesses you might not have thought of.
When you approach these businesses, target a group within a five
mile radius. It will be more time-efficient for you, and you can use the
area grouping in your sales pitch. Stress the fact that around 80
percent of their business will come from that five mile radius. Tell
them that you plan to distribute the coupon book within that radius, so
it will draw the best results.
To be really profitable, you should get at least 15 - 25 businesses in
the book. The more, the better.
How much to charge? That depends on how many books you will be
distributing, and what your costs are. One coupon book producer
charged $100 for a coupon going to 1,000 people in an eight mile
radius. His total cost was $300, and he sold 11 businesses coupons.
This gave him an $800 profit in one week!
The second step is to create the coupons. If you have a computer, the
job of designing the coupons can be quite easy with some of the word
processor/ graphics packages available. If not, talk to your printer.
He or she will more than likely have some ready-made templates for
coupons. You can just fill in the blanks.
Be sure to put YOUR business name on the coupon (in small print, so
it doesn't distract). Subconsciously, people will remember your
business name and associate it with saving money. In any case, you
will need to put the advertising business' name, address, phone, logo
(if any, many businesses will have them ready made for you to use),
the amount of the discount, any conditions they may have, and an
expiration date. Your printer can help you with the layout, if you are
inexperienced, or you can find easy to use layout boards at an office
supply or art store.
Assembling the coupon books can be done in a number of ways. The
easiest, and recommended, way to start is by simply stapling them
together. Only one staple will be necessary, on the left side of the
stack of coupons.
Make a cover coupon with your business name and the name you've
chosen for the coupon book. Put that on top of the stack before you
staple. Other methods are perforating/padding, and perforating/
perfect binding. Your printer should be able to provide pricing
information on these and other binding methods.
The third step is distributing. You have already identified the radius
within which you will distribute your coupon books. There are two
methods of delivery you can use. You can either deliver them by car or
foot, or you can bulk mail them.
Bulk mailing is infinitely easier and more efficient, but requires a bit of
paperwork and registration fees. If you are delivering in one zip code
area, you can use either five digit presort mailing, or carrier route
presort mailing.
You should check with your postmaster regarding rules and fees. As
soon as you have mailed the coupons, deliver a copy of the coupon
book to each business that has advertised in it, so they know that
customers will now be bringing them in.
The fourth and final step is follow up. You need to know how your
coupon books are doing. Ask the businesses that advertise in your
book to write the amount purchased by the coupon-bearing customer
on the back of the coupon, and to hold them for you.
Stop by at least once a week and pick up the redeemed coupons.
Besides giving you purchase totals that you can refer to in future sales
to new customers, this also gives you a chance to talk to the
businesses about purchasing coupons in new books. You can show
them right then and there the results they have gotten, and they should
be enthusiastic about signing back on.
It is important to maintain a good relationship with the businesses
who advertise with you. Show them that you are committed to helping
them increase their business. If you care, so will they. This is a fun
business that can be started part-time, and can easily move to full-
time. Remember the man who cleared $800 his first week in this
business. He was just starting out, and you can do that, too!
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