Are Daily Deal Sites Down for the Count? Not So Fast!

You’d believe from all the hate that’s been reported about daily deal sites, and the way they are now all history as an effective way to market your local business, we wouldn’t like them either. You’d be wrong. There’s an awful lot that goes into making daily deal sites enhance your local business, and a few well-publicized failures, shouldn’t end up being the reason to avoid using the daily deal model. As a matter of fact, when you take a close look, the lion’s share of these “failures” had plenty in common, particularly a obvious misunderstanding of exactly how to run a daily deal promotion, poor negotiation of their deals, and not keeping track of their customers redemption and spending. Given that they had unbelievable fails in these areas, is it any wonder they failed?

But why all the hate mail?

The well-publicized financial and structural changes Groupon and LivingSocial have been going through are often cited reasons for dislike. The press is quick to point out the unfavorable issues with some daily deal sites. They repeatedly point out things like spam complaints, a crowded marketplace of daily deals to choose from, “deal hoppers”, customers who hop from deal to deal and seldom become a regular customer.

3 Ways for you to help make Daily Deals work for your business

• Understand the financials! – Be sure you clearly know the numbers as far as your deal is concerned. Know your average sales volume and don’t extend past it with a daily deal. Negotiate credit card processing fees: most major daily deal sites will pay these!
• Follow up with your brand-new customers! – As many as 60-75 percent of these daily deal customers are trying you out for the first time, so it’s imperative that you have a plan to coax them back for a return engagement! Offer another coupon, and other incentives to ensure that you see them again!
• Don’t go too big, too fast – Start conservatively, so you can learn the ropes and not be swamped by the deals, and leave a sour taste in everyone’s mouth.

Daily deal sites aren’t dead, you simply need to understand how to best use them for your small business.

Contact us today to learn more about Daily Deal Sites.