Get More Traffic to Volusion Store
Using Volusion Coupon Codes and Promos
You had a web designer create a custom template for your Volusuion store and it looks great. You got great products. You've got great prices. You offer great service. But, you aren't getting enough traffic to your site.
What's next? You look into Adwords and other PPC advertising, and even spend a little money to buy some traffic. It works well, but after considering your narrow profit margin, and competition for keywords in your market, you think, "There has to be a better (cheaper) way to get people to the site".
One way to get traffic is to run a promotion. Sure, you could buy PPC ads to promote the special pricing, free shipping offer, or other savings -- but then you realize there just isn't enough margin and the ROI could end up putting you in the red for each new customer you acquire.
One low cost, (read: "FREE"), way to get more traffic when your running a special is to let websites that publish PROMO CODES know about the deals you're offering.
After showing you how to setup the Discount / Coupon PROMO CODE, I'll explain how and where to get the free traffic. Read on...
Sometimes called "COUPON CODES", "ONLINE COUPONS" or simply "PROMOS", these promotional codes are words or numeric codes a customer enters into the little box at the bottom of the checkout page where it says, "Coupon code? Enter it here:". After entering the code, they click the Apply button, and the sale price or other offer is applied and their total is recalculated.
So, how do you set one of these up, and how do you go about getting websites to advertise your promo code?
Step 1: Setting up an Online coupon in Volusion
The first thing to do is decide what you want to promote, and what kind of offer you want to make to attract people to your Volusion store, or encourage them to spend more once they're on the site.
Some of the ways you can run are "special" are:
- Offer Free Shipping
- Offer a Percent Off Discount
- Offer a Dollar Amount Off Discount
- Offer Free Products or Accessories (with a purchase)
- Offer Discounts for certain categories of items
.. and any combination of the above.
Once you decide what type of offer you want to promote, you need to setup the Coupon Code in the Volusion Admin area of your store.
If you have a Volusion v.5 fresh installation, and they haven't been changed or deleted, you'll find (3) examples set up for you already. You can modify one of these, or create a new promotion from scratch. If the default / example ones are still there, you may find one for "10% Off" another for a "90 Day Free Subscription" and another for "$10 Off".
Here's the steps to do it:
- go to Admin
- click the Marketing tab
- click the Coupons / Discounts link
- click Add
You should see a screen that looks something like this:
Volusion - Add New Coupons / Discounts screen
The first field on the screen is "ID" and will be automatically filled in for you with the next unused sequential ID number, (in View All mode this is the Coupon AutoID column).
The next field is where you enter a Coupon Code. Each coupon code should be unique, easy to remember, and might even want to make it "easy to say" so people can easily tell someone else about it. Coupon codes can be up to (10) characters long. A few example of good coupon codes might be: AUGUST15, SECRET10, FREESHIP, DEAL22, etc. There is not rule about how you name your coupon code(s), you could just as well create codes like: GK4LN7Y-22, ZZ987-P, WKG6C7LN, etc.. Remember, we are trying to get more traffic, so having a code like "FREESHIP" or "DEAL22" makes it very easy for someone to call, email or other wise tell someone, "go to www.example.com and enter the code FREESHIP at checkout to get free shipping"
Important Note: In the Volusion examples, you'll see some that have no Coupon Code. If no Coupon Code is entered, the discount will be automatically be applied to any sale that meets the conditions of the discount.
Before setting a specific Discount Coupon, lets review the fields available:
| ID | database record number |
| Coupon Code | the code a customer will enter to get the discount |
| Name | name of coupon or dicount which will appear on invoices and in reports |
| DiscountType | there are five types of discount which can be selected from this field. Depending on which one you select, other fields will affect how the discount is calculated and applied. The five types are:
|
| DiscountValue | this is a number such as "10" or "22.50"... and work together withthe Discount Type field to determine if the number represents a PERCENT or DOLLAR OFF value. |
| BeginDate | date coupon code is first valid |
| EndDate | date coupon code expires |
| One Time Use Coupon | checking off this field prevents a customer from using the coupon more than once, even on subsequent order from your store (based on email address). Use this for "New Customer" or "First Order" type offers. |
| Cannot Be Used With Any Other Coupon | checking off this field causes Volusion to dis-allow any other coupons from being use (including any which may have been automatically applied to an order). |
| MinQty | use this field to specify the minimum number of qualifying items a customer must order to use the coupon, (good for offer such as "Save $10 When you Buy Two or more..." type offers. |
| MaxQty | use this field to specify the maximum number of items a coupon may be applied to, (good for offers where you only want to allow saving on a certain number of items) |
| Span | this field works together with the MixQty and MaxQty fields and if checked allows the customer to purchase a multiple number of different items to get the discount. |
| MinOrderPrice | use this field to specify a minimum order (dollar amount) needed to use the coupon. |
| MaxOrderPrice | use this field to limit the total discount a customer can get, (good for PERCENT OFF discounts such as "Save up to $200 on any purchase") |
| Apply To CategoryID(s) | use this field to allow customers to use the coupon when buying any items within one or more category. |
| ApplyTo ProductCode(s) | use this field to specify one or more qualifying product which coupon may be applied to. |
Below are a few screen showing how to setup various types of Discounts / Coupons. (Note: you must use actual category or product IDs from your own store).
Volusion: Setting up FREE Shipping Coupon
The screen (above) shows how you might setup an Discount Coupon code for "Free Shipping on Order Over $50.00". Note the Coupon code is FREESHIP50, the Discount Type is set to Free Shipping on ENTIRE ORDER, the box to not allow the coupon to be combined with other coupons is checked, and the MinOrderPrice field is is set to 50.00 (fifty dollars).
NOTE: if you have items that cost a lot to ship, (large or heavy items), you may want to specify only certain PRODUCTS or CATEGORIES of products to allow the coupon to be used with.
Run a 30% Off January Whites Sale using Volusion's Coupons & Discounts Marketing Feature.
Want to run a January Whites Sale? The screen (above) shows how to setup a Discount Coupon to give customers 30% Off items purchased from your white goods categories, (the example uses categories of products to apply discount to, e.g.- if "Sheets" was category 24, "Pillow Cases" were in 25, Blankets were in 26 and Towels were in category 61). Note the fields for Start Date and End Date have been set to limit the coupon to the month of January (01/01/2009 through 01/31/2009).
Getting the Traffic for FREE
Now that you've got your promotional codes setup, you want to publicize them. Luckily for you there are web sites that are all about discount shopping. Searching Google (or any other search engine) for terms like "PROMO CODES", "COUPON CODES", "COUPONS CODES PROMOS" will uncover dozens of sites that publish these discount codes for their users. Some of the sites are setup as blogs or message boards and allow you to post the infomrmation yourself. Other sites wil lrequire that you email the info to the webmaster and ask that they post the information for you.
Here's a few Online Coupon / Discount Shopping Site to check out:
www.CouponsCodesPromos.com - use the Email Us Your Codes link at the top of the site to send your web address, coupon code and description of promotion. Your email will be reviewed and if accepted, a post with a FREE Link to your site, description of your promotion and coupon code will be published. (Note: this is one of our own sites -- mention this post and that you use Volusion for quick approval!).
www.RetailMeNot.com - anyone can add a coupon. Go to the site and click the Advertise link at the bottom of the page, then click the Add A Coupon link. Site also offer premium placement and other (paid) advertising and sponsorship opportunities.
www.FatWallet.com - sign up and start sharing promo codes with other users. Site also offers premium advertising services.
www.CouponCabin.com - use their "Share a Coupon with us" link (at bottom of page) to let them know about your promotion. Note: coupons without expiration dates and "one time use" coupons are not accepted for publication.
www.CouponMountain.com - click the "Add Your Coupons" link (at bottom of page). Merchants are subject to review before coupons are accepted. Also offers premium advertising options. Free accounts may only run (2) coupon codes at a time.
Please reply and post info about any other coupon sites you find that offer free promotion to merchants. PLEASE DO NOT POST coupon codes for your store here, use our www.CouponsCodesPromos.com site for that!
Thank you for the great info. This seems like a great way to start driving traffic and create backlinks to a site.
Comment by Ammer Naber — October 26, 2010 @ 12:23 pm