When students are faced with tight writing deadlines and heavy courseworkloads, writing every assignment themselves can feel impossible. This is where essay writing services like Ultius can provide much needed assistance. Many students are understandably wary of the high prices that custom writing services sometimes charge.
In 2014, Ultius aimed to make their professional writing assistance more affordable and accessible to students in need by offering discount codes. These codes provided significant savings on papers ordered through the Ultius website. While the individual codes have since expired, examining Ultius’ discount code strategy from 2014 reveals how they tried to ease financial pressures for students while growing their customer base.
Types of 2014 Ultius Discount Codes
Ultius offered three main types of discount codes in 2014 tailored to different customer levels and needs:
New Customer Discount Codes
Codes targeted at attracting first time customers, these typically provided 10-15% off a customer’s initial order. The goal was to lower barriers to trying Ultius’ services for the first time and get new users comfortable with the ordering process and paper quality. Popular new customer codes in 2014 included SALE15 and TRYUS10.
Returning Customer Loyalty Codes
Higher percentage discounts of 15-25% were offered to customers who had ordered from Ultius at least once before. Loyalty codes rewarded repeat business and encouraged customers to keep using Ultius rather than trying competitor services. Codes like BACK25 and THANKS15 exemplified this returning user incentive approach.
Referral Program Codes
The most generous discounts in 2014 – often 20-30% off – were given through Ultius’ customer referral program. Existing customers received a unique referral code to share, and both the referrer and referee received solid discounts on their next paper if the code was used. Names like REFC25 and TELLAFRIEND20 drove word-of-mouth growth.
While these discount codes primarily functioned as marketing tools to lure in customers, they also succeeded in addressing issues of affordability for cash-strapped students. According to Ultius representatives, no quality compromises were made to papers ordered with discount codes applied – writers adhered to the same standards.
Timing and Advertising of Codes
Ultius released new discount codes on a rotating basis throughout 2014, keeping a fresh supply available without permanently slashing prices in a damaging way. Popular release schedules included:
Monthly new user/referral codes dropped around the 15th of each month via email/social media.
Quarterly returning customer codes launched at the start of March, June, September, December.
Limited time “Flash Sale” weekend codes for sitewide discounts around midterms/finals.
Advertising played a major role. Discount codes were aggressively promoted through Ultius’ blog, Facebook/Twitter pages and even text/Snapchat ads targeting college students. Partnerships with influencers on YouTube further spread the word. According to one study, over 60% of 2014 Ultius customers claimed they were first aware of services due to seeing an active discount code advertised.
Impact and Analysis of 2014 Code Strategy
Undoubtedly, the 2014 discount code initiative helped Ultius accomplish several important business goals:
Growth: Customer orders grew 50% year-over-year during 2014 according to internal reports, directly correlated by Ultius to the new code strategy.
Trial Conversions: More than 20% of new users who tried Ultius using a first order code became repeat customers within 6 months, showing codes lowered barriers to adoption.
Price Elasticity: Ultius tested how sales increased as discounts deepened, finding 10-15% helped drive trials while 20-30% could significantly boost promo periods.
Public Relations: By emphasizing affordability through codes, Ultius countered criticisms that writing services are overpriced – over time shifting more dialogue to quality/ethics.
Some argue the approach relied too heavily on promotions at the expense of building long term demand through improvements elsewhere. And questions remained around sustainability, as discounts cut into already thin margins.
While the individual 2014 codes expired, Ultius’ focus on lowering access barriers through limited-time savings clearly brought benefits. Varied code types engaged customers at all maturity levels within the funnel. And gaining data on successful promotional channels proved invaluable for future Ultius marketing strategies long after 2014 ended.
In summary, 2014 discount codes played a pivotal role in introducing more students to Ultius’ writing services in an affordable manner. Their rotating schedule created buzz while testing promotional sensitives. Although sometimes dismissed as mere sales tactics, these offers meaningfully furthered Ultius’ mission of assisting learners financially too – achieving double impact as both a customer acquisition program and small act of educational relief.