BACKGROUND Analog Analytics offers a software platform for publishers to provide digital online coupons to their existing online AND off-line advertisers. Unlike PDF coupons and other static promotions, digital coupons are easy to read and conducive to use—they invite interactive response while giving readers several options for redeeming the offer, whether instantly or at their leisure.
As a general rule, publishers generate additional revenue from this coupon service in five ways: 1. Online advertisers (restaurants, beauty, travel, clothing, automotive, physicians, dentists, etc.) can be charged an incremental fee for digital coupons in addition to their existing online display ads. 2. Off-line advertisers who have not previously placed display ads or coupons in the electronic edition of a publication can be charged additional fees for their online digital coupons. In many cases, this is also a perfect opportunity to sell both digital display ads and digital coupons to new advertisers. 3. Weekly or monthly printed inserts with shopping bargains—an important existing source of revenue—can also be turned into weekly or monthly digital coupons. These periodic coupons can be timed to coincide with the printed version. 4. The coupon reporting and analytics tools can be used to generate new re-marketing campaigns. When online viewers click on a digital coupon, they are asked to opt in for email or TXT coupon redemption as well as additional follow-up marketing. Analog
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Analytics provides names, email addresses, and mobile numbers to the publisher, who in turn can offer this data as a value-added service to the advertiser. 5. The digital coupon can be used as a display ad on any page of the publisherʼs website (e.g., running a restaurant coupon in the entertainment section). This offers publishers an additional bundled revenue stream. In discussing these strategies with advertisers, publishers should emphasize that digital coupons—more than any other type of promotion—are conducive to shopping. Taken together, their flexibility, ease of use, multiple redemption methods, and other factors make them the best option for advertisers looking to increase the revenue they generate from online promotions.
HOW MUCH SHOULD THE PUBLISHER CHARGE FOR COUPONS? There are a variety of models, all dependent on the size of the existing off-line and online publications as well as the frequency of the weekly or monthly printed coupon insert. As a general rule, Analog Analytics has seen discrete coupon campaigns as well as bundled offerings range from $100.00 per month per advertiser to many hundreds of dollars per month.
Weekly or monthly digital coupon inserts can also be charged on an individual basis, as can reporting, analytics, and re-marketing services.
Ultimately, the publisher knows his or her audience best and can determine whether to offer a blended package service or separate “a la carte” options.
HOW MUCH REVENUE WILL THE PUBLISHER GENERATE FROM DIGITAL COUPONS? Publishers can generate 20–40% more revenue with digital coupons. Immediate revenue comes from offering the new suite of coupon services to existing online advertisers. Long-term revenue comes from offering digital coupons and display ads to new advertisers who have never been online. Moreover, because viewers are now looking for local shopping bargains on local newspaper websites—as opposed to the Yellow Pages or Google, for example—the number of
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unique visitors and page views increases, making the websites more valuable to both advertisers and the publishersʼ shareholders. This point is worth explaining more fully. Consumers on the web generally use Google search to find a local product or service. Both paid search (SEM) and free search (SEO) are ranked by keywords, context, and the fee that Google charges an advertiser. As any customer will attest, though, it is somewhat of a chore to find local vendors—let alone bargains—based on location. Moreover, many local advertisers are small businesspeople who are unwilling or unable to use Google AdWords, SEM, or SEO technologies to drive traffic to their store. The local online newspaper offers a viable and practical alternative. In nearly every city and town nationwide, the local newspaper offers the largest and most-frequented website in the community.
WHAT VALUE DO DIGITAL COUPONS PROVIDE TO THE ADVERTISER? Coupons have long been a mechanism for driving sales and revenue without diminishing the value of a product or service. The coupon enables discounts without lowering the perceived price of a product or service, thereby maintaining a brandʼs price integrity. Distributing coupons online provides several additional benefits to the advertiser:
Audience reach. Now more than ever, consumers are price shopping on the web. With local digital coupons, advertisers can reach a much larger audience of local consumers.
Increased sales and revenue. Digital coupons enhance advertiser revenue and sales in part because they give customers greater flexibility and choice. Depending on the customerʼs chosen method of redemption, advertisers will receive emails, TXTs, phone calls, and/or printed coupons in their store, all generated from a single digital coupon. In addition, digital coupons are much more conducive to use than traditional options (e.g., online PDFs of coupons originally created for print). Such options are generally difficult to read and lack the searchability and sortability that make digital coupons so attractive to customers.
Easily measurable coupon performance. Using Analog Analyticsʼ robust reporting tools, advertisers will be able to track click-through rates (CTRs) and responses by campaign and coupon. In doing so, they can measure exactly how their promotions or value offerings are
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performing. They can then change their couponsʼ terms as often as once per month, allowing them to offer better and more timely bargains that enhance sales. New client and customer lists for re-marketing. In order to use digital coupons, customers must opt in, providing information such as name, email address, and mobile number. Using this information, advertisers can maintain lists of new and pending users, developing an additional source of revenue and sales with customer loyalty programs. Easy-to-find coupon bargains that are contextual. With Analogʼs industry-first local coupon portal, customers can now find online coupons in the same publication they read on a regular basis. They can also search these coupons by category, name, or date, making it convenient for them to shop where they read.
WHAT VALUE DO DIGITAL COUPONS PROVIDE TO THE PUBLISHER? Local content is married to local bargains. The success of local publishing has always rested in its ability to service its local market and demographics. Customers read local publications for both content and timely shopping bargains. Providing this same dual service online is now easy, inexpensive, and scalable with digital coupons. In return, online coupons offer three major benefits: • • • Increased revenue from digital and print assets. Increased traffic to the website. Appreciated online value for publishers and advertisers as a result of increased traffic (i.e., unique visits and page views by readers and shoppers).
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WHAT SERVICES DOES ANALOG ANALYTICS PROVIDE TO THE PUBLISHER? The publisher or advertiser typically supplies images of the advertiserʼs logo and perhaps an existing off-line coupon already in circulation; these images may be supplied in any common graphics file format. Analog Analytics then creates the digital coupon and loads it onto the Analog Analytics server network, from which it can be published through a white-labeled coupon portal service by the publisher. The specific services offered are: A hosted coupon portal that can be integrated into a publisherʼs existing website. The creation and management of all coupon components, including: • • • • • • • Creatives and graphics Brand Message Value offering Unique coupon ID Time and date stamping for coupon duration and rotation (e.g., one week; one month) Coupon frequency, or the number of coupons available per web viewer over time (e.g., one per week) • Monthly modification of coupons to change the value offering (e.g., “buy one get one free,” then “$5.00 off with next purchase”)
WHAT SERVICES DOES ANALOG ANALYTICS PROVIDE TO THE ADVERTISER? The publisher controls all services that are delivered to the advertiser. The publisher can be the direct interface for the advertiser, or Analog Analytics can work with the advertiser to deliver services.
Advertisers must pick the method of redemption. Depending on the type of business, they can choose to have coupons distributed by any combination of the following: print, email, mobile TXT, or click-to-call.
Advertisers can modify the value or content of their coupons once per month.
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Reporting and analytics are provided either to the publisher or advertiser once per week. In some cases the publisher can log in and pull the data on an ad hoc basis as well. This service is generally for publishers who have 25 or more advertisers with digital coupons.
WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT ACTION ITEMS FOR PUBLISHERS ROLLING OUT A DIGITAL COUPON SERVICE? Brief your sales team on the new service and the value points that digital coupons provide (see above).
Establish the sales plan or SWAT for the offering. In some cases, digital coupons might be a discrete offering, while in other cases they are better sold as a bundled solution. Make a decision, document it, and then roll it out. Present advertisers with clear documentation of the added value and services offered by digital coupons so that they can read and discuss these services with your sales team. You will find an example of such documentation enclosed as a separate document following this guide, which you can easily deliver with your logo.
Run a news story in your publication about the benefits of using digital coupons powered by Analog Analytics. Analog can provide a template story that publishers may alter as they see fit.
Send the news story to all of your online subscribers via email. Buy a local business list or obtain information from the chamber of commerce in order to send an email blast to area merchants letting them know that you now have digital coupons available. Analog Analytics can help with the creation of this and other sales literature.
Run a coupon promotion that offers the service free for the first 30 days. Include a digital coupon skyscraper ad in the far right column of your daily news feed in order to help promote the new service. Analog Analytics can provide this graphic as part of its comprehensive services.
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What deliverables does Analog Analytics need in order to create AND service coupons?
Analog Analytics offers a complete service solution as a platform to help publishers generate immediate incremental revenue. To fulfill this goal, Analog requires the following:
A brief session with the webmaster. In order to: • • Coordinate the creation of a “Coupons” button on the publisherʼs website navigation bar Establish a link back to Analog Analytics for the hosted coupon portal
The printed coupon and/or existing display ad. These items may be supplied in any common graphics file format. Content and information related to the digital coupon. Including: • • • • • Advertiser name (ex: DIY Yogurt) Advertiser tagline (ex: “Limit my toppings. Limit my potential.”) Value offering (ex: “Buy one, get one free”) Preferred method(s) of redemption (print, email, TXT, and/or click-to-call) Coupon terms and conditions (ex: “One per customer. Valid through 6/30/09. Not to be combined with any other offer.”) • • • • • • • • Coupon categories (Ex: Restaurants, Kids, Yogurt) Advertiser address: street, city, state, zip Phone number Email Website Coupon duration on web (ex: one month) Multiple locations Advertiser contact person name, email address, and mobile number
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