As a social media consultant you are always searching for fresh new ideas on how to help your clients promote their businesses through new platforms, tools and social media channels (let's hope!). So, this may not come as a surprise to you but one really hot social media trend at the moment is group buying or collective buying. This trend has been fuelled up by the Groupon empire and more recently the Groupon clone wannabes popping up like mushrooms. This new trend means new ways for local businesses to promote their services and products and generate rapid word of mouth and revenue.
But what if your clients want more control over the type of services that are promoted and also how much discount they want to allow? Well, instead of using a Groupon clone wannabe or signing up to the endless Groupon waiting list, the next best alternative is to start your own mini group buying site. Let's take a look at 3 ways you can promote this concept to your clients.
Already got a database of Local Customers?
If your client already has a quality database of local customers then things are looking good so far. Second thing to ask is how large is this database? Starting a group buying site may not be effective for someone with a database of 100 customers, but let's say they have 1000+ customers then what could be used is group buying/daily deals software something like Coupsta or Ponkle which can be considered as a way to generate word of mouth through an existing customer base. The perfect solutiuon would be something that is kind of a fully brandable groupon clone script with something that can be fully customized so your client has their own branded website which they can market to their database of say 1000+ customers.
Do they sell services or products?
If your client sells products then they are most likely a reseller, unless they manufacturer and retail their own products, rare but could be true for your client! However, Groupons success has largely been due to selling services that are local, why? Because services that are local are not intermediary (i.e. you don't usually go to a massage broker!) and are not subject to being sold at wholesale prices.
Are they aware of Groupon or Groupon clones?
Are your customers aware of the trend of group buying and have they been approached by Groupon or Groupon clones that have successfully sold them the concept? If not, then you should try to teach them about the concept by informing them about the benefits of promoting to an existing customer base using this new trend at their advantage.