Roll Your Own Groupon Webinar Downloads
September 24th, 2010 • Posted by Andrea Feucht • Permalink
Thanks to all who attended our tantalizing webinar this Wednesday by Seth Gardenswartz and Janell Loving.
Relive the magic as we show you how to strategize and plan to Roll Your Own Groupon and discuss the four steps to intelligent discounting. Learn how to increase profits, bring in new business and maintain your local brand value.
Roll Your Own Groupon Webinar: Watch the Video
Download and follow along with our presentation [PDF] 
• Trackback • Posted in Spa Business Management, Spa Marketing, Spa Technology, SpaBoom Webinars
Thank you for doing this webinar. I am no Groupon fan as a business owner, but I feel like you have to factor in that not 100% of Groupon buyers will use their Groupons. I think Groupon says less than 50% will actually use them.
Still agree that it's a bad idea (for business owners), on a number of levels but your numbers are a bit dire.
On the same note do you know what percentage of SpaBoom Gift certificates are redeemed on average?
Thanks for all you do,
Nicole
Nichole: Point well taken. However, the Groupon usage figures I have read are much higher-upwards of 90%. We also have to remember that the value of unredeemed gift certificates remains on a balance sheet as a liability. Even if your Groupon expires, you may be liable for the underlying funds value (the purchase price) according to your state's law or the CARD Act if your Groupon (or clone) was sold after August 22nd of this year and does not comply with the disclosure requirements of the CARD Act promotional exception.
We don't have great figures on spa gift redemption because not all of our clients use the redemption tracking provided in our application. It's hard to find a citeable figure for that figure. Anyone want to share?
Love the webinar as it gave me a better insight into the program. Based on the information provided by SpaBoom, it is more cost effective for the business owner, however, customer circulation is limited to those email contained within the business. Most business, especially spa, are in need of finding new customers and a new market area (there lies the Groupon, living social, etc).
If SpaBoom could provide a platform of generating a broader email marketing base for participates within a specific geographical area that would be a big benefit. Possible I missed the mentioning of this fact during the presentation.
Nicole: Our informal poll has respondents reporting well over 90% redemption rates for flash sale coupons, much higher than regular gift certificates. If you apply the 90% figure to both Groupon and BoomTime Deals, it is still a stark comparison.
LaDon:
I think the point about customer lists is very important. Here is my take: the owner of the list is the owner of the customer. Anyone who has developed a large list of quality consumers and is willing promote a 3rd party business to that list, is going to charge you handsomely for the exposure. The day after their consumers sees your promotion, they will get one for your competition.
That is why building your list is so important. Your very best prospective customers are the friends of your current customers. If you have a reasonable sized mailing list you should be able to run your own flash-deal that your clients will share with their friends.
If you have not developed or maintained a good list you should start now. If you need to reach new clients immediately you may have to pay the extortive fees from a promoter like Groupon. But consider your options. Groupon/LivingSocial and the rest may be your worst option. Your brand will be squeezed between offers for oil changes, photo sittings and hotdog stands. A slightly better option (though we are not crazy about plugging our competition) is SpaFinder deals. At least your brand will be sent only to consumers who are interested in spas. You can be sure those consumers will get spa offers from all of your competition as well but at least your brand it not in a virtual and generic discount bin. Better yet would be a “hyper-local” directory for your city or suburb. Local directories may send offers for different types of services, but they generally have an interest in helping local businesses succeed. Finally, you could find a nice local restaurant to team up with and run two BoomTime deals; one for your spa to the restaurant list and one for the restaurant to your list. The last option is the most powerful, but keep in mind that you need to have some kind of list to be valuable to the other business.
Our business is built on helping our clients improve their business. Using someone else's list is a very expensive way to reach new clients. It is more work, but much better for the overall health of your business to develop your own. BoomTime Deals is designed to let you run your own deal that will generate new visits from existing clients, and to have those loyal customers bring in their friends. That’s why SpaBoom included social media tools in our new marketing suite and the BoomTime program. Over the next couple of years, social media will deliver at least as many new clients as email. The time to start building your community is now.
Just a few comments – we are now getting 25% from most Group buying sites. Also breakage has been at 15 to 22% on deals we have done last year trending.
How do I get started on roll the deal.
I have to say, I have probably done just about every type of Groupon marketing programs in Georgia, i.e. LivingSocial, Mamapedia, Atlanta Daily Deals, MyDailyThread, Sky Deals, Tippr, Kudzu, KGB, and the list goes on and on. Some are better than others as far as payment, some pay in 1 to 2 weeks in full others break into payments. I have not done a Groupon yet, but for me this came at a good time because business had slowed down in the Summer. As a single parent I need to survive and not die. My first LivingSocial deal sold 372, my redemption was 149. It did give us a lot of exposure and repeat clientele has been around 50 or 60%. I collect client emails wherever or whatever event or client I see. I think this is extremely important. I only did this for immediate cash flow an to build up list and we have given superb service. I have one more deal left and that will be it for us. I am interested in BoomTime Deals but I did not like the payment options.