This Might Be the Best Coupons and Promotions Tool Ever

If you're running a subscription-based service and want to attract more customers with coupons and promotions, Recurly is worth checking out.

Recurly is a subscription management platform that's designed to keep the money flowing as your company takes in orders. It's supposed to help you keep your subscribers sticking around and makes it so you don't have to deal with missed revenue opportunities because of credit card payment problems.

And it can also help you attract new customers with special offers.

It might be just what you need to take your business to the next level.

Discounts and Promotions Fuel Business Growth

At CreditDonkey, we know the allure of digital coupons and getting deals. For subscription-based businesses interested in using deals to attract and retain consumers, they have many options.

For example, if you're offering multiple levels of service, use a coupon to upsell customers. Just show them a discount code for a more expensive plan at checkout time and ask them if they'd like to upgrade.

If you're offering different types of services, use a coupon to cross-sell. Send an email to existing customers offering a discount on another service.

Even if your service offers a free trial period, you still stand to benefit from coupon codes. Email trial subscribers a digital coupon just before their free period ends.

That might be just the incentive they need to sign on with the service permanently.

Alternatively, send a discount code to people who didn't sign up after their free trial period ended.

How to Attract and Engage Customers

Recurly offers a variety of tools to help you gain more business and engage with existing customers. Here are some of the options available:

• Percentage and dollar discounts - Reduce subscription prices by a percentage or a fixed dollar amount.
  
• Limit total redemptions - Generate demand by offering "limited supply" promotions. Create only a few offers and let people know that they'd better act soon, or they could miss out.
  
• Time-sensitive offers - Run promotions for a fixed number of billing periods or within a specific time frame. You can also create an offer that never expires.
  
• Multiple coupons per account - Let customers redeem more than one coupon. That way, they can really rack up the savings.
  
• Bulk unique codes - Generate thousands of coupon codes on the fly. Track each one of them so you know where you're getting the most bang for your buck.
  
• Single-code coupons for mass distribution - Send out a single coupon code to hundreds or thousands of people in your target market. Recurly allows you to limit the maximum number of redemptions so your profit margin doesn't get clobbered.
  
• Account-level discounts - Tie discounts to an entire account rather than a single transaction.
  
• Free trial coupons - Recruit more customers by literally giving away your service for a short period of time. Let folks try before they buy.

Gift Subscriptions Empower Brand Evangelists

If you've been in business for a while, chances are pretty good that you've got some very loyal customers. Why not let them purchase gift subscriptions that they can share with co-workers, friends, and family members?

Gift subscriptions are a cost-effective promotional strategy. That's because other folks are investing in your marketing campaign by purchasing subscriptions themselves and giving them away.

In other words, your customers recruit new subscribers at their own expense.

Rinse and repeat. Grow your business with the aid of brand evangelists who distribute free, limited-time subscriptions to folks in their network.

Also, gift subscriptions are a form of "social proof." If you're unfamiliar with social proof, it's basically a product endorsement. Whenever you visit a business website and see a quotation from a satisfied customer, that's a form of social proof.

When people distribute gift subscriptions, they're endorsing the business. That adds to the attractiveness of the giveaway.

Gift Cards Vs. Gift Plans

Recurly offers a couple of different types of gift subscriptions: cards and plans.

Gift cards are suited to B2C businesses with a variety of offerings. That's because they give recipients the flexibility to choose which product or service to accept.

Gift plans, on the other hand, are suited to businesses that ship physical products. Since the plan starts at the time of purchase, your business can ship the item immediately rather than waiting for the recipient to redeem the gift plan.

You can also use gift plans if you're running a business with only a few subscription options. That's because you don't need recipients to have a lot of flexibility in what they select.

With gift cards through Recurly, you can create any number of pre-set value cards in different denominations. The platform even gives you the option to upload your own image to use on recipient emails and checkout pages.

Recurly also gives you the flexibility to choose whether you'll require a credit card number upon redemption.

Additionally, gift card purchases aren't limited to existing customers only. You can set up a system that enables non-subscribers to purchase cards for other people.

You also have the option to send folks a physical card or a digital card.

Recurly employs some marketing automation in the process as well. The platform will send emails to recipients reminding them to redeem their gift.

When the trial period is close to ending, Recurly will send an automated email encouraging the recipient to subscribe.

When it comes to gift plans, the gift giver simply purchases a plan, determines how long it will last, and gives it away.

Recurly allows multiple gift plan recipients to be associated with a single account.

Founded to Deliver a Robust Subscription Management Solution

Recurly was founded in 2009 as an open platform system designed to integrate with tools like Salesforce, Avalara, and NetSuite.

Dan Burkhart is the CEO and one of the co-founders. Before launching Recurly, he led the global buyer engagement team at eBay. He was also a senior director of business development at NBC

Internet where he helped help increase sales from $20 million to $120 million per year.

The other co-founder, Isaac Hall, is the designer of the Recurly platform. His background includes ecommerce and internet technology system development. Hall has said he joined

Burkhart in launching Recurly because he experienced first-hand the "billing pain" that many subscription-based businesses experience.

The company attracts new business by offering a free trial period. If you want to see the platform in action, you could request a demo.