Special offers on your website: doing them right

A special offer on your website works when it is specific, dated and easy to claim, and it hurts you when it is vague or out of date. The most common problem is not a bad offer: it is a "Spring special" still showing in November. Here is how to write an offer people trust, where it belongs on the page, and a simple habit for taking it down on time.

Decide whether the website is the right place

Some offers belong on the site and some do not. A good website offer is one that a new customer could find, understand and claim without calling first to ask what it means. Examples:

A seasonal service at a set price: "Spring AC tune-up, through May 31".
A first-visit offer: "New patients: exam and X-rays at a reduced fee. Ask when you book."
A bundle: "Add gutter cleaning to any window cleaning visit this fall and we take a set amount off the gutters."
A referral thank-you for existing customers.

Offers that change weekly, depend on which crew is free, or only make sense in a conversation are better handled on the phone, by email to past customers, or on your Google Business Profile as a short post. If you cannot keep the site in step with the offer, do not put it there.

Write the offer so nobody has to ask

A good offer answers five questions in a few lines:

What exactly do they get? Name the service and what is included. "Drain cleaning for one main line" is clearer than "plumbing special".
How much does it save, or what does it cost? A set price or a set amount off is clearer than a vague "big savings". If it is a percentage off, say off what.
Who qualifies? New customers only? Homes only? Within your normal service area?
Until when? A real end date, written out: "through Saturday, March 14". Avoid "for a limited time" with no date. It reads like pressure.
How do they claim it? "Mention this offer when you call", "choose it on the booking page", or "the price is already applied".

Then add the fine print in one or two plain sentences, not a block of legal text. "One per household. Cannot be combined with other discounts. Does not include parts if a repair is needed." If a term would surprise a customer at the end of the job, put it in the offer.

Here is a complete example a lawn care company might use:

Fall aeration and overseeding, booked by October 15. One visit for lawns up to a quarter acre at a set price, seed included. Larger lawns quoted on the phone. Homes in our regular service towns only. Mention "fall aeration" when you call or book online.

Short, specific, dated, and nothing to argue about later.

Where to put the offer on your site

A slim banner at the top of the home page works for one current offer. Keep it to one line and link it to the details. Do not make it so tall that it pushes your heading and phone number off the first screen on a phone.

On the matching service page. If the offer is for furnace tune-ups, the furnace page is where interested people already are. A short box near the top of that page is often more useful than the home page banner.

On a "Current offers" page if you regularly run two or three at once. Link it from the menu or footer, and keep it tidy. An offers page with one expired coupon on it is worse than having no page.

Avoid pop-up windows that cover the page as soon as someone arrives. On a phone they are hard to close and they hide what the visitor came for. Pop-ups on small business websites goes into when, if ever, they make sense.

Keep it honest

Customers have seen every trick, and an offer that feels like one costs you more trust than it gains. A few things to steer clear of:

A "regular price" you never charge. If the crossed-out price is not what you normally charge, do not show it. The FTC has guidance on comparison pricing at ftc.gov; ask your attorney if you are unsure about wording.
Countdown timers that reset. If the clock starts over every time someone visits, people notice.
"Only three spots left" when that is not true.
Free inspections that are really sales visits without saying so. If the free visit includes a recommendation, say that plainly.

An honest, plain offer also protects you. When a customer calls about it, both of you know what was promised.

Taking offers down on time

Expired offers are the most common thing wrong with small business sites. They tell visitors the site is not looked after, and they lead to awkward calls from people who want last season's price.

A simple routine:

When you add an offer, set a calendar reminder for the day after it ends.
On that day, remove the banner, remove the box from the service page, and either delete the offer from the offers page or mark it "Ended" for a week if you expect calls about it.
If someone calls about an expired offer they saw on your site before it ended, honor it if you reasonably can. That goodwill is cheap.
Once a season, open your site on your phone and look for anything with a date in it. Keeping your website current: a once-a-season routine has a short list to go through.

If updating the site is hard enough that you put it off, that is the real problem. You should be able to change or remove an offer in a couple of minutes, from your phone if needed.

Offers that tend to work for local businesses

These are patterns, not promises, and the right one depends on your trade:

Seasonal tune-ups or checkups that fill slow weeks: furnace checks in early fall, AC in spring, gutter cleaning before winter.
First-visit offers for businesses where trying you is the hurdle: a first cleaning, a first lesson, a first session.
Add-on offers that make an existing visit more worthwhile: a reduced price on a second service done the same day.
Referral thank-yous for past customers who send a neighbor.

Offers that rarely work well on a website: deep discounts on your main service with no end date, which teach customers to wait for the next sale, and offers so hedged with conditions that nobody can tell what they get.

What to do this week

Open your site on your phone and look for any offer, coupon or "special". Is the date in the future? If not, take it down today.
If you run one offer, write it out using the five questions above.
Decide where it goes: the matching service page first, the home page banner only if it is your main offer.
Put the end date and a reminder on your calendar.
Make sure the way to claim it is the same on the site, on the phone and at the counter.

If changing your current site is slow enough that offers stay up for months, you can see your site rebuilt first on an editor that lets you change a banner in a minute.