Hi there,
I have been offering large conferences a discount for my tours, being purchased through my website.
But getting a bit of feedback that the process of going through my site and then to the VM platform is a bit cumbersome for some people.
Just wondering if there is a way to offer a discount directly on the VM platform - a special code assigned to a specific group with an expiry.
Michele
Thanks for this question Michele.
Your website is looking great by the way! (And I see you’re not hosting the videos yourself anymore.) But I went there to see if I could find out more about the discount, and I can’t see anything about a discount for large conferences. Am I missing something?
I don’t think there is a way of doing exactly what you’ve described – at least not right now. Is the idea that they buy in specific numbers and get a discount? Or are you just promoting this to people at the conferences, hoping that the discount gives them a stronger incentive to follow up?
A couple of ideas:
- You can share the voucher link, maybe, instead of the the code. They’d still buy from your site, but from there they’d go to your tour on voicemap.me and click on Redeem. This is what the San Francisco Chronicle are doing here, where they offer a discount to their subscribers.
- You could create an identical copy of your tour that is not published, so you can only find it if you actually have the url – or a QR code that points to the url – and offer this version at a reduced price by just completing the final touches of the copy differently. We’re doing this with Amanda Whitehead and City Sightseeing in Conwy. Amanda has basically created a version of her tour that is $4.99 instead of the $6.99 we’re charging for the published tour, and City Sightseeing are displaying a QR code that points to this version on the back of bus seats. This only works for the sales through the VoiceMap website because you need that url. You won’t find the $4.99 version of the tour in the app or by searching our website.
Coming at this from the opposite direction, we are working to make going from purchasing a voucher code to downloading and doing a tour as quick and easy as possible. We know there’s plenty to improve – and this is getting easier because the App Store is relaxing its rules around this kind of thing. Initially we were allowed to use any kind of voucher that unlocked content in the iOS app.
Hi Iain;
Thanks for the reply. The video is still there, just moved to the specific Audio Tour page.
I’ve been trying to get the conferences to buy in bulk as a swag but so far they want the delegates to purchase their own. So as an incentive to purchase I have delivered rack cards indicating that they are getting a special Event discount and each event has a special code that expires after the event is completed. It’s in the back end of my site and comes up when they go to the purchasing the tour stage.
I’m finding some not all are confused, They think that they are going to my website to get the tour - so the extra step of going to my website to get the Tour code to them go to Voice map and enter that code and get the tour. Just a bit cumbersome.
So, I was just trying to figure out how to simplify so they can just purchase directly from the app but be able to get a discount.
Creating one tour for the discount won’t really work as each Event should have its own code.
Mostly because it will be too easy for them to continue to share the special link if it doesn’t expire - Does this make sense?
If I could create unique discount codes within Voicemap that would have an expiration that would be ideal.
This would eliminate the need to go to my website to make the purchase. Not as good for me but easier for the user. And then maybe I would sell more that way anyway.
Michele
Thanks for the explanation Michele.
I did see the video. I see you’re hosting it on Youtube now, which is what I meant by “not hosting the videos yourself anymore”. I think this makes much more sense!
The tricky part here is that when you refer to them “going to VoiceMap”, you’re obviously talking about one of three things: voicemap.me, our website, or our iOS app, or our Android app.
I think we could offer a discount through voicemap.me easily enough, but they’d still need to start at the website and go from there to an app and so this doesn’t really solve the problem. Plus you’re now losing out on a visitor to your own website.
The apps are more difficult because Apple and Google – but Apple in particular – are really strict about in-app purchases for digital products. This is evolving, but right now, we actually aren’t allowed to offer a discount on tour purchases in the iOS app. Full stop.
I took a while to respond because I wanted to make sure this hasn’t changed. Things are in flux at the moment, with Apple is losing case after case for anticompetitive behaviour in courts around the world. But it seems to still be the case. This is also why we can’t make the voucher redemption screen easier to find. It’s all tremendously frustrating.
I believe the rules are loosening up for “Reader Apps”, and I think we qualify as one of these. But this is only going to allow us to make the voucher redemption screen much more obvious and easy to find, I think. We’d also like to include a unique QR code along with a voucher code – so instead of tapping out an 8 character code, you could scan a QR code. But it would still just be as a way of redeeming the tour. It wouldn’t work to offer a discount.
Does that all make some sense? If we made it possible to redeem a discount by going to voicemap.me, would you use that?
I do think the option of cloning your tour could work. You could use the same clone over and over again and only change the url for each new conference. This is as simple as changing the tour’s title. Let me know if you like more info on that.
Thanks Iian;
Let me give this all some thought. I’m on vacation until May 25. I’ll let you know what I think after this dates. Much appreciated.
M
Hi Iain, We have a hotel client interested in our La Jolla tour and they would like to see a discount for their customers so I would like to get more info about cloning and the URL change. Also, even if the tour is cloned would the reviews/ratings be unique to the new tour and not combined with existing tour reviews? If we wanted to adjust the tour to have it start and stop at the hotel, how much of an effort would that take? Right now the hotel is about 4 stops in. Thanks for the help.
This sounds positive @jerry3061!
The tour would be completely new, so you’d start without any ratings and reviews.
We normally figure out a monthly fee for “licensing” the tour and then allow the hotel unlimited use by their guests. This allows them to promote it more freely.
Adjustments to move the starting point don’t normally require much work, especially if the hotel is already near the starting point. You can clone the tour and take it from there. But I’m going to tag in @gary because he’ll take the lead on this – and he can provide you with more info when he gets back to work tomorrow.
Happy New Year!
Thanks for the info. How would the licensing option work, especially pricing? Mindy has a number of leads she is working and this might be an option to present to them. We’ll also get feedback from them as to reorganizing a tour to start and stop at their location. Look forward to hearing from Gary.
Hi Jerry,
Happy new year! I hope you’re well.
As Iain mentioned, it’s fairly simple to duplicate the tour, and we can work with you on adjusting the starting point if it makes sense to start at or nearer to the hotel. The script for the starting point would also reflect that the tour is specifically for hotel guests. If the new starting point does begin at the hotel and there is some walking distance to the original route of the tour, you might need to add write and record new content to fill some of the silence. You can negotiate a rate for the new content with the hotel, depending on how much content there is. Regarding the pricing, this varies depending on the hotel, but we can get back to you via email regarding what might make sense here.
Thanks!
Thank you, Gary and happy new year to you too. I’ll keep these points in mind during our exchanges with our clients. Will keep you posted.