Over the past year, we’ve been excited to help small businesses get better results from local deals using SaveLocal. But, one thing we’ve consistently heard from customers is that they want the option to offer either a deal or a coupon.

Based on customer feedback, we’re excited to announce Smart Coupons!  They’ll be made available, for a limited time, as a free Beta.

And just like SaveLocal deals, Smart Coupons help you get new customers by rewarding your existing customers for sharing your offer with their friends through social media. The key difference is that your customers only need to claim Smart Coupons online instead of having to buy them upfront.

In addition to Smart Coupons, we’ve also introduced a whole new editing experience, which gives you a smarter, faster, and easier way to create a SaveLocal offer — whether you’re running a deal or a Smart Coupon.

Here’s a breakdown of all the details.

1. Try Smart Coupons, risk-free!

We heard you loud and clear that you wanted more options for using SaveLocal to manage your promotions. Unlike deals that require your customers to buy ahead of time, with a Smart Coupon, customers claim the coupon by simply entering their name and email address. The coupon then gets mailed to their inbox and they can use it during their next visit.

Even though you don’t get the upfront sale like you would with a local deal, requiring less of a commitment from your customers can encourage more people to participate. And while deals work best with higher discounts like 40-50 percent off, coupons work well with smaller discounts like 15-20 percent off. This means more profit for you over time.

So what exactly makes these coupons “smart”?

Like a SaveLocal deal, they’re fully trackable. Our reporting shows you the number of claims, how and where it was shared, and which claims came from new customers. You also get the contact information for everyone who claims your coupon added right into your account. We even make managing redemption a snap. You can track used coupons using our SaveLocal mobile app, in your account, or from a printed file.

If that doesn’t already sound great, here’s an even better reason to give Smart Coupons a try. They’re available now as a free Beta, but just for a limited time. Try it and tell us what you think!

2. Customize color and images more easily

We know it’s important to be able to make your offer look like your business brand, and now we’re making that even easier. You’ve had the option to customize the colors and images using SaveLocal as well as add your business logo. Now, instead of having to select from a number of design templates, we’ve simplified how you customize your offer down to 2 quick steps:

•    Choose a color
•    Choose an image

If you don’t have one of your own images to use, we offer a selection of stock images organized by industry for you to pick from.

3. Click into or save during any step

Creating your offer using SaveLocal is incredibly easy, with just 4 simple steps. It can take as little as 5 minutes to get your offer out the door and bringing in sales and new customers. That being said, sometimes when you’re creating an offer, you might need to stop in the middle, or go back to a prior step to check a detail or make a change.

We’ve now added the ability to save on any step or click into any step in the process, making it faster to navigate and easier to return if you need to leave your work.

4. New summary page

When you’re finished setting up your deal, we’ve also now added a new summary page that recaps all the key details about your offer. This will help you make sure everything is just the way you want it before hitting that schedule button.

You can also preview the email or landing page from this page, or send yourself a test email.

5. New way to schedule

Once you’ve reviewed your summary page and hit the “schedule” button, we’ve also made a few changes that should look pretty familiar to anyone who’s also used Constant Contact’s Email Marketing. That’s because we’ve borrowed the same options you have when scheduling an Email Marketing message for how you schedule a deal. You can choose to send your offer out right away, or for a date/time in the future.

Once you’ve picked when the offer starts, you’ll choose how long you want the offer to be available for your customers. Hit “OK” and you’re done! Your email will send and your landing page will be “live” when your offer starts.

Get started with SaveLocal today!

New to SaveLocal? No problem! Here’s everything you need to know to create your first offer.