From the category archives:

Local Marketing

Groupon: The Best Deal Of The Day

by Alex on June 11, 2010

Groupon: only 18 months old, yet already valued at over $1 billion. It’s safe to say that this innovative concept is at the frontier of social media marketing initiatives – and it’s changing the way local businesses make a name for themselves and get customers through the door. So, what’s the fuss about?

Groupon is an online service that provides you with a deal every day – one really good deal every day in each city it services (think 50% off at a nice restaurant and for Groupon, that’s a pretty average sort of deal) . The premise is simple: businesses offer a discount (group coupon) that then gets sent to every Groupon subscriber in their city via email. All subscribers who are interested can purchase the business’ offering at a steeply discounted price. The customers get a great deal, and the business gets a massive, instant boost in visibility – not to mention an increase in word-of-mouth advertising and the chance to wow a large audience with customer service. Groupon makes its money by taking a small cut of the discount offered. The business makes money on each sale that Groupon generates and the end customer gets a coupon for the product or service in question. Win, win, win.

The Catch

The catch for customers is that they only get the massive discount if enough other people also buy the groupon on that day. This provides people with an incentive to share the business’ offer via Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks.

Groupon does a few things that conventional advertising does not. First off, it offers direct and measurable exposure. This is measured through the number of emails sent out (the total pool of subscribers in the city), and through the number of users who buy and redeem their groupon at the business itself. Businesses love seeing the direct results of their investment in advertising, and groupon delivers in this regard. Not only that, Groupon has detailed demographics of its subscribers, which it makes available to prospective advertisers:

groupon1

Second, Groupon is available to advertisers at no upfront cost. Not only does this separate Groupon from other methods of local advertising, but it makes it afforable to smaller businesses looking for some visibility. Groupon makes money on each Groupon redeemed at the business, tying their best interests to that of the business (always a positive when looking at advertising).

How effective are these ads at generating repeat customers? Groupon seems to think they’re pretty effective, and has several case studies of success stories. They also state that 97% of advertisers saw an increase in business, and 90% want to launch another Groupon.

groupon2

While it’s too early to tell just how instrumental Groupon is as part of a local business advertising strategy, its advantages – low cost, focused audience and measurable return – are all compelling reasons to enlist Groupon to increase local visibility.

If you’re a business owner who’s interested in finding out more about how Groupon works, then visit Grouponworks.com They have several handy videos you can watch to get a better understanding of how you can promote your business and make a buck at it in the process.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious This Post Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit This Post Stumble This Post

{ 7 comments }

Local Marketing Online: An Introduction – from #F5Expo

by Adam Killam on April 15, 2010

Last Wednesday (April 7th) I spoke at www.f5-expo.com, a Vancouver based social media & internet marketing conference aimed at business owners and people new to online marketing.

I presented on two topics and mentioned to the audience I’d post my presentations online so they could download them.

This is the first presentation on local marketing.

(Follow this link to see my presentation on search engine optimization and pay-per-click.)

Enjoy!

Local Marketing

In this session you will learn “free” and paid ways to get local customers ringing your cash register.

Tip: Want to grab this on slideshare.net? Here you go!

Local marketing

View more documents from Adam Killam.

Topics will include:

What local marketing really is, who should use it and what it can mean to your business
Which local site is red hot right now and how you can take advantage of it
How savvy companies are using social media to rock the local social web
Advice on tools you can start taking advantage of today to get in front of your local customers

What local marketing really is, who should use it and what it can mean to your business

Local marketing is the process of marketing & advertising to people in the geographic area you do business with via the web and mobile devices.

LM is hot today as it’s easier than ever before for businesses of all sizes to reach out to customers in their immediate vicinity. More and more business owners have also woken up to their need to be found easily by their customers online.

Another reason it’s hot is because of the trend right now of people flocking to the web to write and read reviews of businesses close to them.

Some typical ways your business might get in front of local customers include:

In search engines via Local SEO & geographically targeted PPC advertising
In social networks through advertising or social media campaigns
Via mobile applications or mobile searches
On third party local directories such as Internet Yellow Pages sites or city focused directories and portals

Which local site is red hot right now and how you can take advantage of it:

Without a doubt, Yelp.com is one of the hottest locally focused social sites on the web right now. Yelp.com is a site that allows anyone to sign up, create a profile, and begin reviewing and talking about businesses in their local area.

While restaurant reviews are the focus of many yelp users, more and more businesses outside of the dining industry are showing up in yelp. And it can help just about any business to have positive reviews by customers posted there.

One of the ways you can get started with local marketing is to take advantage of Yelp’s free business owner’s account. A business owner’s account allows you to create a business page where people can post reviews of your business.

One of the advantages of this is that you can interact with your customers and potential customers as they post reviews, almost in real time. If by any chance you receive a negative review, you can get involved in the conversation and address the issue as soon as it happens. This is a great way to show people you’re aware, listening and interested in solving their problems.

Another way Yelp enables you to get started with local marketing is by giving you the ability to show locally targeted ads to customers in your area.

The last thing I’ll say is that Yelp is here today and every hour on the hour they’re giving tutorials on how to use their site for your business.

How savvy companies are using social media to rock the local social web:

Savvy business owners have caught on to the local trend and they’re taking advantage of the wide variety of tools and services out there. They’re insuring they are investing some time and money showing up in the right places online. This means they’re making sure their business is showing up where people are spending time online- specifically, websites and services that are focused on or tied to a location.

Here are a few specific examples of tools business are using to rock the social web here in Vancouver:

Facebook Advertising – Advertise based on geographic location: your ads only show to people in areas you specify. Promote events, share information, create apps and more. You also setup locally focused fan pages and setup and promote local events.

Yelp – Claim your business listing, post your business hours, add photos and most importantly join the conversation about your business. You can also advertise to people using Yelp.

Foursquare – promote special offers that require people to actually drop by your store front. There are several coffee shops and restaurants using Foursquare in Yaletown right now to reward customers who drop by and check in.

Advice on tools you can start taking advantage of today to get in front of your local customers

In addition to the services mentioned a moment ago, here are a few more powerful tools you can use to be found by customers locally:

Google Local Business Center

LBC as Google calls it is probably one of the first services you should sign up for. It’s likely that you already have a Google account or that you are using Gmail or another Google service which makes signing up for LBC easy.

LBC is free and enables you to show up in the local search results complete with posting the location of your business on Google Maps.

In addition to gaining visibility in Google’s search results that you might not have had before, LBC allows you to post coupons to motivate customers to shop with you, and also allows you to post useful information about your business.

One other important benefit is that -like on Yelp, people can leave comments and feedback on your business.

Google also provides a great reporting dashboard that enables you to see useful information about how your customers are finding you.

To claim your listing, visit http://Google.com/local/add and sign up.

I’ve got two more things for you, that you can do to get started with local marketing:

The first is: Google Adwords

Local keywords
Geotargeting
Local address tag feature
Content network

Don’t Forget Your own website!

Remember to post new content to your website and to give this content a local focus. Talk about upcoming events you’re involved in, include your address and local phone number on all pages of your site.

Make sure it’s quickly obvious that you are a locally based business. You can do this by including your phone number and address on every page, using local imagery, or by spicing up your web copy with locally focused terms and phrases.

Summary

Establish a local presence on social networks by advertising and by getting involved in the conversation
Take Advantage of Google’s LBC
Use Google Adwords to target more people when they are searching
Work on making your website more friendly and obvious to local customers

Questions? Post them to the comments section.

Tweet This Post Plurk This Post Buzz This Post Delicious This Post Digg This Post Ping This Post Reddit This Post Stumble This Post