Book Marketing Tip #15: Experiment with Smashwords Coupons

NOTE:  In January 2018, an updated and expanded edition of The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide was released, offering 65 book marketing ideas and new "Deep Dives" sections exploring social media strategy, how to work with beta readers, and how to earn free press coverage. 

To download the new Smashwords Book Marketing Guide for free, here are the coordinates:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
iBooks
Kobo
Smashwords

The new 2018 edition of The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide is also available as a serialized podcast on the SMART AUTHOR podcast, starting with Episode 10.

Click here to access all SMART AUTHOR podcast episodes.






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The information that follows on this page is from the 2013 edition of the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide, which will remain here for historical purposes only.


Book Marketing Tip #15:  Experiment with Smashwords Coupons

In recent months, Smashwords authors have done some really interesting experiments using the Smashwords Coupon Generator, available at https://www.smashwords.com/dashboard/coupons.
The coupon generator makes it easy for you to issue limited time coupons to your fans and prospective fans.  You can promote these coupons on your blog, your web page, your private mailing list, and on your social networks such as Twitter, Myspace and Facebook.  You can do cents off, dollars off, percentage off, and even issue coupons to make your book free for a limited time.  Limited time coupons build urgency in the minds of consumers, because everyone wants to save money and get a good deal. 

In February 2009, one Smashwords author posted a notice on their blog that for the month of February only, they were offering a coupon code that entitled readers to download the book from Smashwords for free.  The notice was reposted to Kindleboards.com, a popular independent online forum for Kindle users.  Within two days, over 200 copies were downloaded.  A small minority of people even decided to pay for the book rather than redeem the coupon.  200+ copies in two days is a huge response, and if you too are an author struggling to build an audience (we all are!), then it’s definitely worthwhile to experiment with such limited time coupons using the Smashwords Coupon Generator. 

Other coupon ideas:

Virtual Print Book/Ebook Bundle:  Create a virtual bundle.  If someone buys the print version of your book, consider issuing them a coupon for a free ebook version on Smashwords, or a 1/2 off ebook, or get creative and think of another promotion that creates urgency in the mind of your prospective reader, or that rewards them for purchasing or promoting your book. 

Blog promotion:  If you have a blog, run a limited promotion that rewards your blog readers for visiting your blog.  For example, you can run a contest.  Do a post where you offer the first 10 or 20 or 50 people who comment on the post will receive a coupon for a free copy of your book at Smashwords.

Integrate all social media with your blog promotion:  Leverage Facebook and Twitter to draw people to your blog promotions.  Consider offering free Smashwords ebook coupons to the first 20 people who leave a comment on your blog, or consider some other creative prize.  Such a promotion won’t cost anything but your time to organize it.

Use Coupons for Book Review Promotions:  Offer a promotion to bloggers.  If any blogger anywhere agrees to review your book on Smashwords, offer them a coupon so they can download a free review copy.  Since Smashwords makes your book available multi-format, anyone with any form of e-reader can review the book.