Using Groupon And Other Daily Deal Sites To Promote Your Business
Daily deal sites received a great deal of publicity when Groupon rejected a $6 billion buyout from Google in December, 2010. Many people who had never heard of these deal sites rushed to learn more, and discovered a great way to save money with local merchants and on line. Savvy entrepreneurs discovered an excellent new way to promote their business. But many people do not know much about the "deal of the day" or daily deals being offered by them.
Daily deals are delivered most often by email, but there are also now arriving on mobile devices. The leading daily deal site – Groupon – has over 50 million subscribers and operates in over 500 markets. Demographic research shows that the largest percentage of these subscribers is women between 18 and 34 years of age with incomes above $40,000. IF this demographic is where you are aiming your marketing, then getting involved in sites like this is highly recommended.
You can run local or national promotions, depending on the goods or services you have to offer and your ability to deliver on a national scale. Get yourself prepared for more traffic than you are used to, because these deal of the day offers generate a huge buzz and a massive surge in website and foot traffic. The deal sites charge a hefty price for this service, just under 50% of your gross revenue from the offer. But what you receive in exposure makes the investment well worth it. You might just be breaking even with the offer. But if you execute well, you will be sure to capture some of that audience as return customers.
LivingSocial is a similar product with a similar demographic as well. This site delivers mostly on a local level, as it operates in only about 120 markets currently. They are more affordable, although still carrying a hefty price tag of 30% to 40% of over driven gross revenue. For businesses with tighter gross margins, this might be a better alternative.
BuyWithMe is smaller still than the two deal of the day leaders. A larger percentage of this site’s subscribers are female. BuyWithMe focuses on the largest metropolitan area in the United States, and keeps 30% to 50% of gross revenues from offers it promotes.
There are now over 400 daily deals sites catering to consumers. Some, however, are focused more on offering great deals to the business crowd. OfficeArrow and GroupPrice give group rates for business services like website design, graphic design, IT services, office supplies, and commercial cleaning services.
Another option for businesses is to start their own daily deal site. There are applications available to help you launch your own group coupon site. Using your own site, you will be able to schedule your own deals, turn them on and off as needed, and adjust your offerings according to what is selling at that time. Most importantly, you get to keep more of your gross revenue.
Sites like Groupon are changing the landscaping of online sales. The amount of traffic they generate cannot be ignored. However, it is vitally important for you to be ready. You do not want the expected surge in traffic to overwhelm your server and crash your website. If you think you need to dedicate more resources as a result of the offer, do so liberally. It is better to be over prepared and learn realistic expectations than to be underprepared, turn off customers, and lose out on potential profits. As with all marketing strategies, you must start with a plan. Otherwise, your daily offers might do you more harm than good. You do not want to teach consumers, especially first time customers, that you are not prepared to handle their business. Such results could be disastrous.
