Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Daily Deals Sites: Make Them Work for Your Business

Have you ever considered running a promotion on a daily deals website like Groupon or LivingSocial? If you have a product or service to offer, it’s something you may want to consider.

Customers today are taking the power of the Internet and using it to their advantage. They’re spending hours researching products and services to determine which one they want to buy, and they’re even using mobile apps to locate the best price on an item—sometimes even from your sales floor.

Customers know that deals are out there, and sometimes that online coupon is exactly what they need to seal the deal and head on out to your business. But before you jump on a daily deal website, you need to make sure that your business is really prepared to use them.

Know what you can afford.
Some companies make the mistake in offering the world to their customer through daily deals sites, but the problem is that your company has to pay a Groupon or a Living Social to post these deals, so you need to make sure that you’re calculating your potential profits correctly.

For example, if running the promotion is going to cost you $300, you want to make sure that your promotion will earn you at least $300 to break even, or more than that if you want to make a profit. Make sure that you really think about the promotion you’re about to offer so that you don’t end up in the hole.

Know if online deals sites are used by your customers.
Some companies fail when they use daily deals sites because their customer base is not prone to using daily deals sites. For example, if your business is an upscale business in an upscale area with upscale clients, there is probably no need for an online coupon through a daily deal site, unless you’re trying to branch out to lower-income customers.

Be ready for the rush.
Most often, an online deals site promotion will spread like wildfire, so you need to make sure that before your deal is launched, your business is ready to handle the rush. Make sure that your staff knows about the deal and if there are certain restrictions. You also need to make sure that they know how to ring up the promotion of enter it into your system so that you can keep track of redemption. You may also want to consider staffing some additional employees, whether to man the phones for customer inquiries or to help out customers who are trying to redeem their coupon. For example, if you’re usually a slow coffee shop that staffs only 2 people every day, you may want to add more staff in case you see a rush of customers that your 2 employees can’t handle. If your customers have a bad experience, such as long wait times, it’s not going to resonate well, and they won’t come back.

Track your results.
You absolutely, positively, 100% need to track your results. Make sure you know how many online deals were redeemed and if any of the redemptions resulted in additional sales. You will also want to track the amount spent by everyone who redeemed a promotion. This way, you can see how well the promotion worked and whether or not you made a profit.

If you decide that a promotion on a daily deals site is a good investment for your business, make sure that you know how much of a promotion you can afford; that you staff your business appropriately; and that you track your results. This is the best way to have a decent daily deals experience.


Provided by the SEO Keyword Strategy experts at SEOmap.

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