Why Aren’t My Special Offers Working? [Print Business Edition]

Sometimes, you need a little extra help getting more print orders. Special offers can be great, but sometimes they just don’t seem to work. Perhaps you’ve asked yourself why. There could be many reasons why a special offer fails to attract more print orders or accomplish your business goals. Here are some of the most common reasons.

1. Mismatch Between Offer and Goal

Bob wants to get some new clients to order from him. He announces a 20% sale with a sign on his print shop’s front desk. By the end of the week, his old customers have placed orders. He did not get any new clients.

Diagnosis: Bob’s special offer was more suitable for getting repeat orders than getting new clients. He also communicated it in a way that reaches more of his current clients than new ones.

Alternative: Bob announces in the local newspaper that he will have a special referral event. The referrer and the newly referred client will both get 20% off their next order.

2. Poor Timing

Susan notices that she doesn’t get any yard sign orders in January. She launches a big buy-1-get-1-free event for yard signs that month. She still doesn’t get any yard sign orders.

Diagnosis: Susan’s special offer did not take into account seasonality. In the winter, demand for yard signs is low, so her buy-1-get-1-free offer did not work.

Alternative: Susan runs the same offer in April, when the yard sign orders are starting to come in but peak season has not arrived yet.

3. Offer Not Visible or Clear

Joe the print broker heard about SinaLite’s monthly discounts. With them, he can offer his clients discounts too and still make a profit. Joe doesn’t usually update his website, so this time he decided to update it with the monthly discount. By the end of the month, there still hasn’t been an increase in orders for those products.

Diagnosis: Joe’s special offer was not visible to his clients. They generally don’t check his website because he doesn’t have a good track record of updating it.

Alternative: Joe sends out monthly emails to his clients to tell them what this month’s discounts are.

4. Unattractive Discount

Pete noticed that businesses in his city go nuts every year on Black Friday. He decides to give a 10% discount for flyer printing on Black Friday weekend. He doesn’t get many orders because his clients end up going to his competitors, who offer a higher discount.

Diagnosis: Pete’s special offer was not attractive enough for Black Friday shoppers looking for more competitive discounts.

Alternative: Pete offers the same discount as his competitors do on Black Friday.

5. No Expiration

Linda wants to get more business for her copy center. She runs a special offer that allows clients to save a whopping 30%. To kick it off, she announces it everywhere and makes sure all her clients know about it. Many months have passed but only a few clients have used the offer.

Diagnosis: Linda didn’t provide an expiry date for her offer, so her clients have decided to use the offer later and may have forgotten about it.

Alternative: Linda offers her clients the 30% discount that’s only available for one month.

6. Technological Problems

Fred sends his clients a promo code that lets them save 15% on their next order. He uses a software that helps him keep track of the number of uses for the promo code on his ecommerce website. After a week, nobody has used the promo code. Then he gets a call from a client that says the promo code is not working.

Diagnosis: Fred did not test the promo code properly to make sure it was working correctly before he launched his offer.

Alternative: Fred creates a promo code, tests it, and then sends it to his clients. He also helps a client go through the process of using the code, just to be sure that it is working correctly.

7. No Follow Up

Dan has just finished running a special offer for his sign shop. The steep discount generated lots of revenue from new clients, giving his profits a nice boost. Months pass but none of those clients come back.

Diagnosis: Dan did not follow up with the new clients that he acquired from his special offer. They have moved on. Additionally, some of his new clients may just be “sales-seekers”.

Alternative: After a new client places an order, Dan sends the client a welcome email and asks whether they’d like to subscribe to his newsletter. He then regularly provides helpful and enticing content in his newsletter, which includes occasional sales announcements.

Learn from Your Mistakes

Special offers can be very successful, but they aren’t always. Knowing the most common mistakes can help you avoid them. Remember: every business is different so what works for your competitors may not necessarily work for your print business. Learn from your past experience to discover what works best for your client base.

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