Word-of-Mouth Drives Successful Daily Deals

Allison Howen — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:05:00 GMT

When it comes to advertising, word-of-mouth is still the key to success.

This is especially true when it comes to the daily deal industry, at least according to a new study from Constant Contact and Chadwick Martin Bailey. The study not only reveals that word-of-mouth is a key factor in running successful daily deals for small businesses, but also found that more than one third of consumers are likely to buy a deal from a local small business rather than a national chain.

However, one of the most surprising statistics from the study shows that a good deal experience doesn’t automatically result in loyalty for nearly 60 percent of consumers, even though most consumers think that deals are a good strategy for local businesses to attract new customers.

“It’s very clear that proximity matters, and that local merchants have an advantage over big brands. More than a third of consumers are more likely to buy deals from local businesses,” says Dave Gilbertson, general manager, SaveLocal. “However, for nearly 60 percent of deal buyers, a good experience does not automatically translate into loyalty. It’s absolutely critical that merchants stay in touch after the deal. Amazingly, many deal vendors sabotage this effort by refusing to give merchants the contact information of their buyers. The true value of running a deal for a small business is bringing in new, repeat customers, not one-time deal seekers. Without the tools to follow up, unfortunately, that’s what many of them become.”

Other findings show that more than twice as many consumers share deals via email compared to social networks, while deals for restaurants and entertainment are the most common types to be shared. The study also found that recommendations from friends make half of consumers more likely to purchase a deal from an unfamiliar small business, and that personal endorsements drive deal purchases, especially for women.

“Two of the more important findings in this research were that word-of-mouth is key for the success of a deal and that personal endorsements drive deal purchases. This falls right in line with what we heard from merchants when we were developing SaveLocal: they wanted a tool that brought in new customers through word-of-mouth,” says Gilbertson. “Half of the survey respondents said they are more likely to purchase a deal if it is recommended to them by friends or family – and that’s why merchants are more than happy to reward people who recommend them and share their deals on social networks or through email. In fact, with SaveLocal we’ve seen that merchants who include sharing incentives in their deals increase their audience reach by 138 percent over those that did not use the feature.”

SaveLocal Now Open to All U.S. Merchants

Allison Howen — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 01:00:00 GMT

Small businesses can now leverage Constant Contact’s SaveLocal platform to run customizable local deals.

The platform, which is the company’s answer to the daily deals industry, originally launched in February, but was previously only available to Constant Contact customers. However, now SaveLocal is available to all U.S. businesses.

The platform addresses some of the problems with the current daily deals model by offering merchants complete control of their promotions, as well as allowing them to run deals that incentivize social sharing, attract new customers and drive repeat business.

According to Dave Gilbertson, the vice president and general manager of SaveLocal, merchants not only requested a deal tool that they could control, but that would also help them make a profit and acquire new customers.

“Those all seemed like pretty reasonable things to ask from a business owner trying to make a living, but unfortunately, the traditional deals model fell short on every one of these goals,” says Gilbertson. “SaveLocal flips that model on its head and gives the merchant complete control of the deal: they control the discount amount, the terms of the deal, timing, and how many coupons to sell. And we’ve already seen some truly amazing results. We couldn’t be more excited about making this product widely available.”

SaveLocal enables merchants to set deal parameters, including the discount amount, terms of the deal, timing and how many coupons will be sold. Additionally, merchants only pay a $1, $2 or $3 fee per coupon purchased, depending on the value of the deal. Interested merchants can learn more about the platform, or sign up for free here.

'Net Features : savelocal

Word-of-Mouth Drives Successful Daily Deals

SaveLocal Now Open to All U.S. Merchants