We are so lucky, and grateful, to have thousands of members who take the time to hunt out and share great deals with the rest of the community - and then often continue giving detailed advice in the comments below.
One thing we know from reviewing the data of all the Pepper sites is that the more useful information a deal contains, and the more easy-to-read the description is, then the more people benefit from it. So we wanted to offer some tips about how to make your deals and vouchers as helpful for others as possible - especially as we know the submission form doesn't always make things too obvious (we are working on how to improve that!).
In order of how the submission form is laid out:
Price:
Use the total price that needs to be paid to get the item. So if there is a delivery charge, add that to the price and pop the total in this field
NBP (Next Best Price) field:
This is really helpful to let others know how much better this deal is that what is out there on the market. To give a fair comparison, we like to use the genuine next best, not the previous price at the same merchant.
We know it’s not always possible to include this - for example, on own-brand items - so don’t worry if you get stuck here
P&P cost
You can leave this blank, and instead just add the P&P cost to the number in the 'Price' field.
Voucher/Discount code field:
If a voucher code is required to get the price, add it here. It’s also useful to state the code in the deal description too
Titles:
Description field:
This is probably the most important part - it’s what potentially thousands of other users will read to get an idea of whether the deal is something they should push the button on.
Try to begin with an explanation of why you think the deal is hot, how it compares to other prices/previous deals and also a general description of what the item/service is .
A bit of formatting - such as short bold titles to break it up into sections, and bullet points for lists - can really help the clarity. You can add these using the blue buttons at the bottom left.
Here are a few specific tips:
Image (over on the right hand side):
If you can include one that is relevant to the deal, that is great. Images make deals more appealing to click on, and also give users an idea of what they’ll be getting.
Groups
These tags help us organise content into the right sections on the website, and send our deal alerts to other users who have requested them. Having a deal in the right groups increases the chance it will be seen by people who have an interest in it.
Every deal needs one of these main groups, so please check that the one automatically selected is the one you think the deal fits best in.
Date fields:
If the deal hasn’t started yet, or you know the date it ends (or both), use the date fields to let other users know this.
Instore / Offline deals:
If a deal is only available in-store, then its really helpful to let others know this by ticking ‘Local deal’.
You can then select ‘National’ if you know it is available across the country; otherwise, scroll through the locations and pick the areas that you’ve seen the deal available in.
*****
Of course, this can all vary from deal to deal, and we often change thinking on these things as we see new ways of doing stuff. If you have any ideas of ways this can improve, please let us know in the comments below
One thing we know from reviewing the data of all the Pepper sites is that the more useful information a deal contains, and the more easy-to-read the description is, then the more people benefit from it. So we wanted to offer some tips about how to make your deals and vouchers as helpful for others as possible - especially as we know the submission form doesn't always make things too obvious (we are working on how to improve that!).
In order of how the submission form is laid out:
Price:
Use the total price that needs to be paid to get the item. So if there is a delivery charge, add that to the price and pop the total in this field
NBP (Next Best Price) field:
This is really helpful to let others know how much better this deal is that what is out there on the market. To give a fair comparison, we like to use the genuine next best, not the previous price at the same merchant.
We know it’s not always possible to include this - for example, on own-brand items - so don’t worry if you get stuck here
P&P cost
You can leave this blank, and instead just add the P&P cost to the number in the 'Price' field.
Voucher/Discount code field:
If a voucher code is required to get the price, add it here. It’s also useful to state the code in the deal description too
Titles:
- Try to include the product type, and model name/number, at the beginning, so that other users can easily scan to see what it is.
For example, “PC Monitor 27" Dell..." or "Levi 501 Jeans, Mens…”
- Keep the title focussed on information crucial for judging how good the deal is. For example, if a code is only valid on one small section of a retailer’s site, or the deal is Click & Collect only
- One thing that’s always useful to include is if delivery is only free (or available) to one geographic area, for example “Mainland UK”
- Make it easy to read and understand for all users, whether they are hotukdeals veterans or total newbies. So think ‘Click & Collect’ instead of ‘C&C’, and telling me if I need to use a code to get the price.
Description field:
This is probably the most important part - it’s what potentially thousands of other users will read to get an idea of whether the deal is something they should push the button on.
Try to begin with an explanation of why you think the deal is hot, how it compares to other prices/previous deals and also a general description of what the item/service is .
A bit of formatting - such as short bold titles to break it up into sections, and bullet points for lists - can really help the clarity. You can add these using the blue buttons at the bottom left.
Here are a few specific tips:
- Product description: The most useful deals will all have this in - you can grab product specs from retailers websites, or maybe from the brands themselves.
- Vouchers: State the code, and describe how to use any vouchers e.g Add code HOTUKDEALS10 at basket and click apply. If you can upload a screenshot showing how to add the voucher, even better!
- Reviews: Reviews from trusted sites such as Which?, Feefo, Metacritic, Techradar, Tripadvisor, Youtube channels and many more, help others get a feel for if the product is right for them
- Delivery: Details around delivery time, and cost, are really useful information for people trying to make decisions. For instance, are there different options which offer different speeds? Also do any locations cost more to get the item delivered to?
- Return info: Users like to know their rights for sending items back if they change their mind, or if it is faulty, including any cost for doing so. You can find it on merchant’s site (usually in footer).
- Images: The description is a good place to include more images, potentially to show different features than the main thread image you selected. Videos are also great for this - you can just paste a youtube link in and we’ll do the rest.
- Sale/voucher posts: Adding a few examples of great items from the sale, or good items to use the voucher on, can save other users a lot of time searching.
- Any T&CS? Linking out to any terms and conditions really helps users know their rights - and if there are any really important ones, it can help to explain them directly in the description.
These might include:
- Items/sections the offer applies to
- When it ends
- Key exclusions (for example, over 50s only)
Image (over on the right hand side):
If you can include one that is relevant to the deal, that is great. Images make deals more appealing to click on, and also give users an idea of what they’ll be getting.
Groups
These tags help us organise content into the right sections on the website, and send our deal alerts to other users who have requested them. Having a deal in the right groups increases the chance it will be seen by people who have an interest in it.
Every deal needs one of these main groups, so please check that the one automatically selected is the one you think the deal fits best in.
Date fields:
If the deal hasn’t started yet, or you know the date it ends (or both), use the date fields to let other users know this.
Instore / Offline deals:
If a deal is only available in-store, then its really helpful to let others know this by ticking ‘Local deal’.
You can then select ‘National’ if you know it is available across the country; otherwise, scroll through the locations and pick the areas that you’ve seen the deal available in.
*****
Of course, this can all vary from deal to deal, and we often change thinking on these things as we see new ways of doing stuff. If you have any ideas of ways this can improve, please let us know in the comments below
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29 Comments
sorted byIt should say £2.50 in the price as long as free click and collect and delivery is mentioned in the title.
Can you fix this?
hotukdeals.com/dea…559
edit: fixed, thanks to person who fixed it (edited)
It’s like being asked to do a job a certain way and not getting paid (edited)
Or Pepper....
hotukdeals.com/fee…-30
Sorry it seems that way - of course people can share deals however they like (within the rules). We just wanted to give some insight into what we know often works best to make a deal as helpful as possible for other users - which is the reason many members share deals in the first place
If some of these things are missed, that isn't a problem and the Community Support team do checks to ensure all the crucial details are there
I've checked the edit history and the price of £79.99 and NBP of £89.99 hasn't been altered since it was posted, as far as i can see. Let me know if I am missing something.
Overall you have a great point - NBP is a tricky topic. We don't insist on it always being posted as there are quite a few instances where it doesn't make sense (eg own-brand items). But equally for some products RRPs are unrealistic as they are rarely the real price (or represent a really bad deal if they are).
So we are always looking at how we can use this better - the aim is to give a quick-glance of idea of how much you are saving. But the multitude of scenarios make it difficult. All opinions welcome! (edited)
its called living with a woman
That's my fault, went to go back to it and add it, all sorted
Thanks to all involved.
Sadly there is no consistency on Wilko deals far to many get delivery added even when it’s an in store offer glad you got yours fixed but sadly the heat was taken out of it already because of the added delivery. (edited)
Thanks for the reply. Yes I am talking about the deal you linked.
It was altered although very briefly. I was editing the deal before/after a moderator/staff member was editing the deal to be approved (I know more than two people shouldn't be editing the same thing, but it does happen), and I was getting notifications for heat being added so I opened a new tab and saw that there was no NBP price. So I submitted my changes again and so the NBP came up.
The changes should've shown up in your audits, but nonetheless it happens to me a lot. And whilst NBPs are a "tricky" topic, there should at least be a direct definition instead of a completely wiped value. RRPs are unrealistic, but that's what they're labelled as. For instance, there are a lot of GPU (computer part) deals coming even though they have a major percentile over RRP, due to the whole scalping phase. So in the end RRP shouldn't really matter. (edited)
Why's that?
The team continues to edit threads and add information which in our experience helps a deal get the recognition it deserves. We simply let users know what we've added because they might not be aware that this is what we like to see and also they might have missed something themselves.
Since launching this yesterday I can tell you that the responses we've had from users to the edits we've made and the advice we've given is that they really do appreciate the tips. From long time deal posters to new members.
As for the Highlights page...in January of this year we announced our Highlights page was to become more personalised so that users were able to see the deals that they were interested in. This was announced here - hotukdeals.com/dis…108
In March we made further improvements to Highlights when we introduced auto-picking which replaced the previous way of the team picking deals themselves (with the only criteria being it had to be over XXX°). This was announced here - hotukdeals.com/dis…631
So Highlights are shown based on how the community is responding to those offers and not because of who has shared the deal. Any deal can get shared and we aren't picking and choosing which offers we want people to see.
Adding postage is optional. you can put free click and collect and the postage cost in the title, and just put the price without postage in the price to get more heat
Thank you that is what I did but the mods altered it and added p&p.
They should have left it. This over modding will put people off posting deals
Maybe there was a good reason to amend it? Context matters.
It was changed and then changed back, but why?
I'm sure if you get in touch with the team they'd be able to advise, but we don't go into threads and change things unnecessarily, there's normally a good reason as to why. Briefly looking at kiepau's thread i'd guess it was due to the discrepancy between delivery and being a online/in-store deal.
My comments always get deleted.
hotukdeals is part of the Pepper group of websites, which operates similar communities to this in lots of other countries - eg France, Spain, Poland, Germany, Mexico and more
For example, I had posted a deal earlier today for a microphone that was at £89.99. Next best price was at £99.99, which was RRP.
You seem to delete the next best price mark once you put the RRP in there, even if it's the actual next best price. This happens a lot with Amazon/Currys deals. The next best deal for that post was a 11% and it was removed on the reasoning that it was to inflate percentage values, which 11% (£10 difference) is very low to inflate in the first place.
If you don't put the next best price up then the hukdeal post signifies that people would have to do their own research to find the best price. So what's the point in posting?
What's the point of having this option if you're just going to remove it anyway?
On a lot of my posts I've researched and found the best available price according to the time the deal was posted. Then it gets removed. Am I just wasting my time?
To me it's just a failure of consistency/actually using the resources that you've put on the website. (edited)