We’ve been working hard to do only value-added offers this past year. If we have no other choice, our goal is to be the discount ninja-silent and deadly.
However, we’re about to violate all of those great policies for our upcoming show and offer considerable discounts in our advertising. The goal is to get them to use discount codes at the door so we can actually measure if the print and radio ads are working. The money we’d save on advertising will outweigh the cost of those discounts, but I’m still not completely comfortable doing it.
There’s also a difference between offering discounts to play catch up and offering them to stay ahead. I love sending the “Get your next ticket cheap” email right after they leave the theater, but I hate the “Sign up for a second class today (two days before classes start) and get 50% off”, especially when they got a 25% email the week before. People are smart enough to see that the second one is desperate. It’s hard to appear valuable when you’re desperate.
After a good show, a tiny number of people are going to walk away thinking “That was worth WAY more than i paid.” Most will say,“That’s worth just a bit more than i paid.” And some will always feel it was worth less. So the goal is not to change your value when you change your price. In that sense, giving their brain anything to equate with the discount is a plus. Here are some good ones I’ve seen.
1. Join our email list for $X off
2. Use the “secret phrase” from our emails to get a discount (keeps them reading the emails too)
3. Bring your program/ticket back and see the show again for 50% off (or even better, bring your program and a friend and get a 2 for 1)
4. Buy tickets for our next show while you’re getting these and get $X off.
