Is a Daily Deal the Right Marketing Strategy for Your Business?

Companies like Groupon and Living Social have developed large networks of customers that are actively seeking new products and services. Whether to participate in a daily is a big decision to make for a small business owner that is looking for exposure to a large existing customer base in their area. The deal sites are known for taking a significant portion of a daily deal and the price being charged to the end customer is already usually below the price a company would normally charge for their services. This is what attracts the huge number of potential customers, however, if done without fully thinking out the true costs of providing the deal and servicing the influx of customers a business can go take a massive financial hit if customers do not stay around and make purchases in the future.

A joint venture marketing relationship with other local businesses may not have the overall reach that a Groupon or Living Social has in a specific demographic, but the revenue share terms will likely be much more favorable and still present your product and service to your target demographic. A daily deal can be great one time marketing campaign for some businesses and so it should be considered as a strategy for any business.

Issues with Groupon to be aware of:

1. Many small businesses have lost considerable amounts of money due to the deals that they have done. Groupon sales reps are not there to make sure that the deal is an ultimate success for your business’s long term future, only that the deals are sold at the best price and revenue split for Groupon.

2. While some companies have received decent terms from Groupon others have had a worse than 50% revenue share with the deal site.

3. Many of the customers are only there for the cheap prices and are not your customers, they are Groupon customers and will be purchasing another deal from another provider the next time they need the same product or service that you provide.

4. People will travel to your location for a great deal, but may never return due to the longer distance from their home.

5. It can cheapen your brand. Customers that know you and made a purchase through Groupon or Living Social may resist paying full price in hopes that you’ll do another super sale in the future.

There are other issues to be aware of such as brand control, customer satisfaction, upsetting existing customers who did not purchase the Groupon deal and many more. Unless your business really needs a last ditch effort to reach as many customers as possible, a different approach to customer acquisition would be best.

Find the right business partners that have your target demographic as their existing customers and create a joint venture marketing relationship that allows both businesses to equally benefit and grow rather than getting a daily deal site rich.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Attract New Business with a Monthly or Quarterly Partner Promotion

Attracting new business through a joint venture marketing partner can be achieved with a higher rate of success when a special price or unique product offering is available or exclusive offerings that are only available to clients of a joint venture marketing partner can be pitched by sales teams to their relationships. Discuss potential promotions with JV marketing partners and be open to their suggestions about potential promotions that will work well with planned marketing campaigns. Customers always appreciate a good deal, so use special promotions to acquire new business that is being serviced by a competitor or previously just not ready to make a buy decision.

Channels for Promotions

The following are excellent channels to use to promote a special product or service discount.

Email - Sending an email to a joint venture partner’s existing customer base should be part of any new promotion strategy. Collect emails from people that visit your website or read your companies blog and include them in your email blasts for deals.

Facebook / Twitter - Spread the news about monthly or quarterly special offerings through the social networks. Include specials or unique offerings that are only available to your online community at Facebook and Twitter.

Internal Contests - Reward sales team members of your company or from your JV partners based on their performance. Whether its cash or a nice gift, giving something special to the sales person that sells the most of a monthly or quarterly promotion can help drive more success from the team as a whole.

Online Deal Shopping Sites – If the products and services are consumer facing then consider listing any deals developed with a joint venture marketing partner on sites like SlickDeals.net or FatWallet.com. Both sites allow promotions and special coupons to be listed and shared with the public.

Attract New Business

While many business partnerships use promotions to market to an existing customer base and to extract more revenue from the customers that the business already has, promotions are always a good reason to contact customers to make sure that the business is at the forefront of their customer’s minds and to continue to build strong relationships with them. However; when using a promotion specifically to attract new business, it’s wise to include some of the following techniques in your offering in order to win over new potential customers. While existing customers are always looking for savings or a unique offer, new customers are seeking a major change from their existing providers or they are new to the market and need product education and additional hand holding that an established client may not need.

Free - Include something for free in your offer regardless if it ends up being a minor detail in the overall product or service. A complimentary assessment or small item can get the new customer relationship off to a good start.

Match or Beat Competition – Promising to match or beat the competition’s price on similar items or services is an excellent way to acquire customers that are currently dissatisfied with their existing solution and open for a change even if the savings or discount is only for a limited time frame.

Time Sensitive – Using timing in a promotion can be done in a couple of different ways. Place a specific trigger date that the offering is valid through. The other way to leverage time sensitivities when attracting new business is to provide a new customer with a special discount that only lasts for a certain period of time as a reward for becoming a new customer.

Incorporate the right strategies inside of your monthly and quarterly promotions and it will be much easier for you and your JV marketing partners to attract new business. By making sure the promotions are tailored to the needs of customers that are looking for new solutions or opening to changing what they currently have, your promotions will be more likely to resonate with people that will become new business. Make sure if you’re doing promotions with business partners to extract business from their existing customer base, saving time and energy to be focused on obtaining new clients.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

Discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.