Yowza!! is a pretty good example of how to do mobile couponing the right way. It gives large retailers a very controllable way to deliver money-off coupons to customers through their mobile phones. But today it has launched a “self-service” option that specifically targets smaller businesses as well.
First of all, what’s Yowza!!?
It’s a free to download application for iPhones and iPod Touches – although you can get Yowza!! coupons on BlackBerry, Android, and Palm through the mobile app of location-based service Where. If you’re a Yowza!! user, you simply open the application and request all the coupons for any business close by you. You can also search for coupons from your favourite stores ahead of time and save them in a “mobile wallet”.
The coupons themselves are provided by merchant partners of Yowza!! – and there are over 200 of them, with over 10,000 retail locations in the States.
What’s the news?
“Merchant partners” of Yowza!! have tended to be big businesses with multiple outlets. But this new self-service option has been created to let small shops and restaurants create local campaigns. A small business owner can sign up for Yowza!! and publish coupons the same day. It uses the same technology that money-off coupons all over the States currently use, so there’s no upgrade costs for first timers.
Speaking of cost…
For each location you want to publish coupons for, you pay Yowza!! $49 per month – and for small businesses this price includes a training programme for staff and free decals you can place in your shop to let customers know coupons are available over mobile.
What we think?
The combination of mobiles and coupons are a pretty proven concept at this point. I really like this service though, because of the little client service touches. Yowza!! is already an easy to use service, but offering free advertising materials and training to new, smaller clients is a great touch.
Just one thing: get a proper app for other platforms already.
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Recently downloaded the QPONOMICS mobile coupon app for Iphone..and although they are newer they already have some great LOCAL places for me (I’m in LA). I like it better than Yowza because it’s more locally focused