What is OzBargain?
Ozbargain (ozbargain.com.au) is a bargain hunting community website, where people and businesses alike post hot deals, coupon codes, vouchers, promotions and freebies online.
How can OzBargain work for me?
OzBargain can be used in a multitude of ways, including from using it to build an subscriber base, to offloading some of your stock really quickly. As an added bonus, linking from OzBargain can give you a huge boost to your SEO, with free do-follow links available.
OzBargain is only good for you if you run an e-Commerce business or sell any of your services online through any online checkout system.
If you don’t run a business like that, or aren’t willing to discount your prices. This action plan isn’t for you, but don’t worry. Go and check out our other action plans! 🙂
Step 1 – A good product at a good price
Success on OzBargain requires two key elements, a good product and a good price. The people on OzBargain always know the going rate for lots of items, and will call you out if you post something that’s cheaper elsewhere. So you’ll need to know the following to ensure your success.
Picking a good product
The best products are cheap, useful and easy to ship. People on OzBargain have their credit cards out and are willing to buy anything so long as its the right price and is useful to them. Try to make sure it’s useful.
For example, I used to sell Micro-USB Cables on OzBargain for under $2.99 including shipping (it cost me $0.35 + $1.40 shipping) and I had huge success with it, because at the right price everyone will buy an extra cable to keep handy.
A good price point is $9 and below, including shipping. But so long as something is a great deal, pop it up there.
Picking a good service / experience
If you’re a service based business, then it’s likely you only do one thing. Your service is only appropriate for OzBargain if it is all of the following;
Cheaper than all reasonably similar experiences / services.Something that the average person could do / use.Something that someone would buy on whim or for a gift.
As long as it meets those requirements, and is relatively cheap, try it out.
If it’s an experience, than you’ll do even better!
WARNING
OzBargain doesn’t work with all business types, here’s some things to consider.
1. Is your deal a real bargain? If not, it’s likely to be removed.2. Is your deal something everyday people will use or buy?3. Is it an impluse buy? Can someone afford it on a whim
Step 2 – Setting up your offer
When setting up your offer you should follow these general guidelines.
Setting up your title
Include full prices, versus the regular price, also include the name of the product/serivce, and be sure to mention the shipping cost (even if it’s free). If you’ve got more products in your offer, add the word “+more” at the end to let people know there’s more to see inside!
Below I have four real examples of actual titles used by business’ in their OzBargain listings. Can you spot why I’ve marked some Good and others Bad?
Good: 4K UHD HDMI 2.0 Cable 1M $3.95 1.5M $4.95 2M $5.95 3M $6.95 @ Shopping Square eBay storeBad: 10% off Already Low Prices until Sunday Unusual Gifts Free Shipping – Thecrypt.com.auGood: Princess Cruises – Melbourne to NZ – 13 Nights – $665 pp (Interior – Quad) – $51 pp/pn via Cruise AgencyBad: $5 off Any Item Purchase Online, Plus Free Shipping at The Zebra Effect
The good ones told you exactly what you got for your money, the bad ones merely listed a discount amount. For people who are scrolling through, and don’t know your brand, they won’t know whether a certain % off represents good value. However, you can easily identify good value with the deals markedGood — That’s because you’re told exactly what you’ll get, for the exact price.
Fun facts: The ones I’ve highlighted as good, did so much better on OzBargain than the bad ones.
Setting up the content
You content area will allow you to do the following;
Build backlinks to other pages in your site- OzBargain in content links are dofollow, take advantage of this.Show customers other deals that may interest them- Get extra customers by showing them other things they can buy which can compliment the product you’re offering.Include social media links so people can see more deals from you!Make sure you reiterate your offer and the full conditions of the offer.
Step 3: Improve your site for the traffic
Get your website ready for the increased traffic so you can make maximum use of it.
Consider adding plugins or features to your site that do the following;
Offer access to a newsletter in exchange for a future discount / competition entry.Add related products to the cart and product pagesSend a coupon for future discounts after they purchaseEncourage Facebook Page Likes
Doing any number of these things will help to drive return traffic and create raving fans for your business.
Step 4: Post, and respond to comments
When you go ahead and post a good deal on OzBargain, you’re going to get comments. Some of these comments will be positive, and some will be negative.
Stay attentive, jump on any negative comments instantly, respectfully and thoughtfully.
If you screw up: apologise, and offer a remedy.
I’ve had times where the site has oversold stock due to being overwhelmed with people in the cart all at once, even though it shouldn’t have, and when it did
I went out of my way to;1. Refund the customers the screw up happened to.2. Find and purchase the product at retail cost, and deliever it to the customers who were affected.
This cost me $20, but saved two very angry customers on OzBargain, helping increase the mood towards my business on ozbargain, helping me succeed in future deals.
OzBargain is full of empowered, knowledgeable consumers. Many will ask questions before purchasing, so no matter what you do, make sure you’re on the comments in the hours after posting the deal.
Step 5: Fulfil Orders
Provided you follow this guide properly and have a good product at a great price. You’re going to get orders, and your site might even get absolutely hammered.
Your next task will be to ensure you can fulfill all the orders. Once, while I was 16, in an afternoon I had received over 1000 orders for $2.50 USB cables. So if you’re expecting high volumes, make sure you can call in some help if you’re a one man/woman operation.
Finally, a word of warning. Make sure you do your best to turn these one off customers into return customers, whether that be through sending a coupon with their order, or putting them on your email marketing list. Definitely do not make a loss on your OzBargain deal unless you’re confident you can generate return customers. Like most customers that are prompted by price, customers from OzBargain won’t return unless you tell them to.
If you follow this guide properly, you will get alot of orders. You might be able to make a lot of money in one evening, just make sure you are smart in your pricing, while ensuring your delivery is cheap and effective on your side as well as the customers.
