

Ask HN: Strategy for distributing promotion codes - matt1

I spent a good chunk of today implementing promotion codes for my freemium web app and now that I've got it in place, I'm not sure what my distribution strategy should be.<p>A valid promotion code will remove any restrictions for a user, the same as paying for an account upgrade would do. My plan is to create promotion codes tailored to specific bloggers and email them with a short pitch and the promotion code, which they can distribute to their audience if they choose write about it. I'm not sure <i>how many</i> free account upgrades I should specify per promotion though. Too few, and I worry it'll be ineffective; too many, and I fear that no one will need to pay to upgrade, which is the ultimate goal.<p>Any suggestions?<p>PS. To show my thanks to HackerNews for its guidance, and to celebrate the introduction of promotion codes, I invite you to sign up for my web app, Preceden, a tool for making timelines, at http://www.preceden.com and upgrade for free with a promotion code of THANKSHN, which will let 5 people upgrade for free (maybe I should have made it 10...)
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mattgratt
I'm a startup marketer and I write for an iPhone blog, so I thought I'd share
the best thing I've seen.

The very best practice is to a) send a blogger a pitch along w/ a license
code. Also send us a video and some pre-made quotes. Your story needs to be
easy to write (and ideally an actual story, but we'll take what we can get.)
There are some items for which sending a license code does not make sense -
for instance, enterprise software, security software, basically things we
couldn't really use or evaluate. ("Another day, still no viruses, UI looks
good. 5 stars.") If you think we can successfully use your product, send a
license code, but err on the side of caution. A screencast might really can be
very helpful for some personal productivity products, especially if it's
something built to handle complexity.

b) give him/her some set small number of license codes to give away (5 or 10
if you're looking at something w/ a higher price point, more for something
lower.) Free trials are really better here than license codes - something that
turns off in a month would be just fine.

c) give him/her a discount code that they can send to their audience/followers
and their followers/audience will get 20% off. This is actually a great
alternative to giving people free licenses to give away, and in my experience
works pretty well. And, of course, it will give you a much better idea of how
your media outreach is working so you know who you should take out to dinner.

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matt1
Thanks, this is excellent advice.

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Osiris
I'd like to know the same thing. Is is appropriate to offer bloggers free
license keys or codes in hope of a review?

I tried emailing the editors of a lot of online tech websites about my app and
had very little success. I'd love to know how other people have been able to
market their apps through blogs/etc.

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mahipal
For iPhone apps, it's more than appropriate--it's practically necessary. For
other apps, it seems like the right thing to do if you want them to be able to
review the entirety of your app.

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andrewljohnson
I offer promo codes to whoever asks first, for my iPhone app. I ask they
promote it but don't have requirements. I will sometimes send them to
bloggers, but mostly just by linking an offer on my home page.

