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12 Comments

Do you offer discount promotions on special occasions? (Christmas, Easter, New Year's Eve...)

I started the very first discount promotion for my app.

I give 25% discount on the premium version until the end of January. I think this is a good time in my case. It is a calorie counter app and many have the goal to lose weight in the new year. I always notice a massive increase in my download numbers especially in January.

I expect more revenue than in the other months despite the discount:

  • Users may be more motivated to spend money on their health if they have set a goal for the new year.
  • With the discount I might get users to buy the premium version who otherwise would never do so.
  • If a user has purchased the premium version, they tend to use the app longer than someone who has not purchased the premium version. I hope that these users will recommend the app to their friends.

My questions to you:

  • Do you offer occasional discounts to your users?
  • Why are you doing this? What do you expect from it? A price reduction means less turnover in the short term, but can have more positive effects in the medium term.
  • What percentage discount do you give?

I am curious what you think about it :)

Do you offer discount promotions on special occasions?
  1. Yes
  2. No
Vote
  1. 5

    I've been setting up special discounts for various communities (like this one 😉) and that's worked really well for me.

    People in the community appreciate that the discount was setup just for them and it allows me to share my product in places that would normally be averse to self-promotion (in return I’m giving a pretty steep discount).

    I see this strategy as a short-term thing to build up a financial safety net and give me revenue to start experimenting with paid advertising. I expect it does eat into future sales and price sensitive customers can be more demanding on the support side.

    1. 1

      Love it. Can you share how this has boosted revenue and/or signups? Would love to know the numbers behind it.

      1. 2

        It varies a lot. Works much better if the community admins are on board and ideally even chime in saying it's an awesome product. They're more likely to do that if you're offering a really good deal. The one I did last week was the most successful so far and it did $2,500 in two days.

        1. 2

          Whoa, not bad! You said the discounts are pretty steep - mind telling me what percent you tend to give these communities? And I'm also curious about how you make the offer - are you just posting an offer, or is the offer included in a relevant article that you write, or what?

          I know that's a lot of questions, but I'm hoping to write it up (crediting/linking you/Divjoy of course). Thanks!

          1. 2

            Around 50%-off. It depends a bit on the community. Some have a deals section so the admin will just add it there (though that doesn't tend to drive too many sales). The last one I did I got admin permission to introduce myself/product in the group and offer the deal. I also spent all day in the thread answering questions and just generally being friendly and open about my business.

            1. 1

              Awesome, thanks Gabe!

  2. 2

    Do you offer occasional discounts to your users?

    Yes, I am currently running a New Year Sale for my product, Newsletter OS

    I am also running Parity Pricing year-round, to make the product more accessible to people in countries with lower incomes.

    Why are you doing this? What do you expect from it? A price reduction means less turnover in the short term, but can have more positive effects in the medium term.

    There are some times when you just want to get more volume for your product and occasional discounts can help you achieve that!

    Today I am running a 30% discount but I don't think I'll go a lot lower than that as I don't want to destroy the value of my product.

    I offer parity pricing to make my product accessible to anyone who cannot afford it, as my goal is to help people start, grow and make $ from their newsletters

    1. 1

      Thanks. I think offering different prices to different user groups is a better strategy than offering a flat discount to all users.

  3. 2

    I prepared discount strategies for my consultancy projects. Actually it all depends on your strategy and how to do it. Giving constantly promotion codes define your new price. It didn't make any changes on your conversion rates and in the long term, hit your revenue. You need to constantly check your conversion rate and be 100% sure promotion codes increase your conversion rates.

    In order to this your promotion codes can be triggered based on users geolocation, their previous purchases or behavior on website. Making it for all visitors is not a sustainable strategy.

    1. 2

      Yes, I think you are right. I should not give a discount to all users but only to certain user groups.

  4. 2

    After a couple of years, I decided to offer a discount promotion on all subscriptions for AppReviewBot. As much as I didn't want it to work, I ended up having a record revenue day from the sale. I sent out an e-mail to all past users who had their free trial lapse and several ended up converting.

    I arbitrarily chose 30% off. It's tricky since you obviously don't want to devalue your product or have customers sitting on the sidelines because they know that you will offer a promotion at some point.

    1. 1

      You bring up a good point. You should not offer the discount to all users but only to certain user groups. For example, to encourage users who have tried the free version for a long time to buy it.

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