Daily Deal Reality Check

Groupon is the trailblazing company that started the daily deals revolution.  There are now 100+ daily deal clone sites targeting specific markets, cities, and industries–even those that aggregate.  While each presents real opportunity for most businesses, there are still challenges that can be costly.

Go beyond Groupon.

Groupon is definitely the holy grail in daily deals, at this moment.  For small businesses it might be wiser to focus your efforts on the smaller or niche daily deal sites.

One drawback from Groupon is that demand far outweighs supply.  Meaning, Groupon holds all the cards in their game.  There is no room for negotiation on their obnoxious 50% cut and they are not likely to cater to the smaller guy.

There are 100+ daily deal sites to choose from, many who are more than willing to earn your business.

Realize your real ROI.

When stepping into daily deals, many businesses misunderstand where their real return on investment comes.  They feel unsatisfied, simply because their expectations were wrong from the start.  Perspective is everything here.  Understand this:

• the have a cost (their cut) like any other form of advertising, and
• your offer is like a  loss leader strategy.

Optimize the opportunity.

Like any other digital to off-line strategy, the question will be–is this form of advertising/strategy making you more than it costs. Like every online to offline strategy, you’ve got to plan ahead and optimize the opportunity you are creating while mitigating the factors that could lower your return.  May I suggest:

1. Carefully consider your offer. Loss leader is likely, but could you form an offer that would lend itself to upsells, additional sales, or repeat sales?
2. Get everyone on board. Your employees are the biggest sales asset you have.  Make sure all daily deal activities are planned to coordinate your employees efforts in optimizing your results, point of sale is particularly important.
3. Be prepared for volume. Don’t offer something you can not deliver.  It is a customer service nightmare, not to mention the possible online backlash you’ll experience.

There is clearly an opportunity in daily deal sites, how much of one will depend entirely on your ability to create the right strategy for your unique business.

Bandwagons can be costly if not prudently considered.