Although I do sometimes mention towards the end of the blog post that the site in question is on a discount (if it is), and how much the discount saves the visitor money, more often than not I just couldn’t be arsed with those constant discounts. After all, it’s not easy to keep track of all of them all the time.
However, seeing that many blogs do put a big emphasis on discounts, and some even have a large list of all sites that are currently on discount, I thought maybe that’s a necessity these days, when it comes to affiliate promotion.
How important is it to keep mentioning which sites are currently on discount, in your opinion? Does it help with sales? What is the best way to do it? I was thinking about a sidebar with all the current discounts, and also to mention it in specific posts when it’s appropriate.
I feel that discounts are a double edge sword, they do benefit both the consumer and business ( this includes partners and affiliates) but constantly running low offers could potentially change the behavior of your traffic, and hurt the way the brand’s value is perceived. Frequently running really low offers on your site could ultimately affect the type of consumer traffic you generate, you then might be seen as a discount platform and possibly hurt your conversions on higher-priced/profitable sales when you don’t run a discounted promotion.
No doubt discounted offers will help increase sales, but both affiliates and companies need to work together to find a sweet spot on how frequently these discounts run and strategize on how to maximize non-discounted sales.
@Louis_M
I agree with your assessment, but what you describe is looking at discounts from the point of view of the content producer and/or site owner. I’d like to know how important it is for us affiliates to keep our visitors informed (e.g. on our affiliate blogs) about the current discounts. For instance, if site ABC is offering a discount at the moment, and I don’t mention that on my blog, whereas some other blog does mention there’s a discount for site ABC, am I at a disadvantage when compared to that other blog? Or, do you think affiliates should leave the entire discount thing to the visitor to discover by himself (only when he visits the main site)? In other words, do you think visitors are more likely to click the link to that sponsor if I mention on my blog there’s a discount, and are they more likely to buy?
Of course, as you pointed out, if a site is on constant discount that will over time degrade the perceived value of that site in the eyes of visitors and potential customers. I personally think that discounts should be given only once in several years, e.g. when that site or a well-known actor that appears on the site has some anniversary or something like that. If a site is on more or less constant discount why would anybody buy the membership at the full price? People are not stupid, and will eventually notice if a site overuses discounts.
With all that being said, I don’t see that discounted sites sell much better than non-discounted ones, and I think that sales were much better until several years ago when the whole discount mania started.
We are one of the “lists of discounts” sites. I’m of two minds about them. I much prefer when the lists are rotating and really active, then I think they add value. What tends to happen is that the same sites are just continually “on sale” driving their own prices (and our potential revenue) down.
We don’t schedule our affiliate promotions and banners around sales anymore. Those are based on what’s selling and great updates.
One of the reasons we created the “sales list” was to cover them without covering them.
I don’t pay much attention to it either, two reasons. I don’t think it’s good for business as it often seems to be permanent discounts driving down the price (not a sale any more) and its impossible to keep track of them. I’ve also got a discount page but so often the discounts are given out without a date when it’s finishing so you can’t keep track and end up sending people to tours where the discount isnt active any more.
