How to run a Groupon Campaign?

Looking to promote your business? Then you must have considered running a Groupon campaign. Business owners are always looking for new ways to promote their business, so when Groupon came along, and with it the whole group buying method, they were only happy to hop on the wagon. Since then a lot of water has passed under the bridge and merchants have learnt that there is no such thing as a free meal. In this post, we will not be discussing whether running a groupon campaign (or any other group buying website campaign) is good or not, but rather what is the best way to run it.

The bottom line is, just like everything else in life, there is a “good” and a “bad” side to running these campaigns, but if you do it right, it can do a lot for your business, if you do it wrong, then not only will you not make a penny, you might also lose a few. Business owners that are looking for new ways to expand their customer base and expose their businesses to a larger market have been turning to group buying websites like Groupon South Africa to offer discounts to eager customers. By giving group discounts, a business invites more customers and becomes more lucrative as more customers spend money enjoying group deals at their establishments. Group buying South Africa has become very popular and as a business owner, you must ensure, among other things, that your business is associated with websites that will offer maximum exposure.  

Groupon Campaign

Here below are the Top Eleven Tips (we got bored of using "10" all the time) for Running a Groupon Campaign:

1. Sharing of Profits: Before you enter into a contract with the group buying website, you must be absolutely clear on how profits will be split between your business and the website and when these will be paid.
2.  Be Prepared: While running the campaign, and especially on the first day, you will receive large numbers of customers. They will be calling your business, looking at your website and visiting your store. In order to make the best of this, you have to be prepared. So, keep an appropriate number of trained and capable staff so that customers are serviced professionally and efficiently.
3. Make the Most of Your Exposure: As mentioned in point 2, you should be getting a lot of customer traffic, so use this opportunity to get customer feedback, to offer them other services/products and to offer them a chance to join you membership club. Look for ways to enhance the shopping experience for customers and make your business more lucrative by offering add-on services that compliment your main offers. For instance, if you offer accommodation, try and include certain activities and means of entertainment that will entice your guests to spend more money at your establishment.
4. Choosing the Right Group Buying Website (aspect 1): You need to decide whether you want to use the services of a big daily deal website, or a smaller one. Now some of you might be saying: “well this is obvious – the bigger one”, but hold your horses because each of these types of websites has their advantages and disadvantages. The smaller websites offer personal service and pay more attention to you. Also, you are able to negotiate better terms for yourself. The bigger websites on the other hand, offer less personal attention but much more exposure. Also, they are less likely to accept the terms you want.
5. Choosing the Right Group Buying Wensite (aspect 2): Make sure that the group buying website that you are using is listed on one of the bigger daily deal aggregators, like Dealafrica, so that you know that they are getting a lot of exposure. This will in turn increase the exposure your deal will receive.
6. Data Retention: Use your 'deal days' to create and maintain a database of customers that you can advertise bargains to in the future. Collect contact information, preferably e-mail addresses, so that you can steadily build loyalty by keeping customers updated on developments in your business.
7. Limit the Amount of Coupons: We know that your main goal is to make a profit for you business and increase awareness, but be careful not to bite off more than you can chew. Make sure that the agreement clearly states the maximum number of coupons that you are willing to sell and that at this number the deal stops. It has happened many times before that salons or spas have sold too many coupons causing them to give bad service and thus lose both the new customers and the old ones. Think about it, how happy will your customer be if the only time he can schedule the massage is at 6:00am on a Sunday? If your shop can only fit 100 people at a time, it would be counter-productive to run a morning special and give out 1000 coupons.
8. The “Fine Print” of the Deal: The terms and conditions that accompany each deal can determine the success of your 'daily deal'. Use this to your advantage and put limitations in place that will ensure profitability. Be careful not to limit the deal too much though, because then people won’t buy it.  A good example of this can be in the hours that the coupon is valid for. Select the time and day carefully. The idea is to create business during periods that are usually quiet and not productive. So if you own a restaurant and peek time at lunch is 12:00-14:00, make the coupon valid from 14:0 till 18:00 for example this filling the restaurant a second time round without causing an overflow of traffic during your  busy periods.
9. Honesty and Quality: Think long term! Be honest and ethical in your dealings with the website of your choice and your customers. Some websites or customers might have the best ethics, but this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t and in the long run, both customers and the websites will want to do business with you again. Word on bad service spreads like wildfire and you must protect your business reputation by always providing good service.
10. Contract Limitations: Most group buying websites will want you to sign some sort of agreement. This is fine as it protect both you and them so long as your conditions are also clearly stated. We already mentioned to pay attention to the sharing of profits clause, but you should also have a good look to see if there is any exclusivity clause which forces you not to run a similar deal on another website (usually for 6 months). If so, try get them down to at least 3 months…either way, you shouldn’t be wanting to run daily deals more often than every 2-3 months at most (as you too need to prepare for these and don’t want customers getting too used to them).
11. Regular/Discounted Price: do not, and I repeat, do not raise your prices especially for the deal. Some merchants have been caught fictitiously raising their prices just so that the discount seems larger and when they got caught – it wasn’t pretty…

Have you already run a groupon campaign or any other group buying campaign? If so, share your experiences with us*.

* Although we believe that complaints are an important part of increasing customer awareness, and hopefully customer service, for legal reasons, we do not post "complaints".

"How to run a Groupon Campaign" is Copyrighted © 2012 By Dealafrica

Tags: group buying, group buying campaign, group buying south africa, groupon campaign