Modern Insider – Digital Marketing Blog

6 months ago everyone was a fool for not being in daily deals, today you’re a fool for using them, or so says loads of commentary and research that have come out as Groupon reportedly nears its IPO.

While I’ve expressed my concerns on deal sites many times, I can’t help but wonder if the SMBs businesses buying into deals themselves are getting a free pass in the equation. Today I’m asking a simple question: After the deal gets signed and the customer influx starts up, are daily deal businesses doing anything to insure their own success or merely blaming their marketing partner for a bad deal?

When a customer self selects a business there’s an interest and a good experience may be enough for them to reselect, come back and build loyalty – motivation builds affinity. But when you offer 50% off, the bets are off, people are “discovering” but they’re not discovering new passions, they’re discovering deals and if they’re smart, hoping around in a 50% off world from experience to experience.

With few exceptions, the deal I see all share a common problem — there’s no basis for a relationship. Everything is a onetime purchases wrapped up in the justification that customers will “discover” something, fall in love with it and return time and time again. Businesses are buying into a long term customer model but not doing anything to get the customer back.

When a business complains about a daily deal we shouldn’t let them off on the excuse that the economics, sales people or backend payment sucked. Those are probably all true but more often than not, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference if they were good.

Instead we need to ask them where their program was to segment the non-tippers from the chatty customer raving about the wine. We need to ask why they’re giving 5 free ice creams at once instead of over 5 visits. Why is the climbing gym giving a one day lesson instead of a month long membership. Where’s the guest card to encourage a yelp review so others find the business? If there’s no hook, no loyalty building and no engagement it’s no wonder a hundred new customers aren’t all coming back.

The lesson from daily deals has been spelled out well: SMBs, stop believing in miracles and start creating your own. Whether it’s a coupon, a daily deal, a facebook page, tweets or any other hyped up marketing tactic it’s not about making people walk in the door, it’s about what you’re going to do when they step in to get them to come back.

Driving around San Mateo it’s easy to pick out the remnants of forgotten local businesses, desolate storefronts that couldn’t cut it due to the “economy”, changing models or in many cases, the launch of stronger national competitors down the road. With stronger pricing power, larger selection, a consistent experience and huge marketing footprints it’s been virtually impossible for local business to take on national chain in any field. Putting aside the philosophical debate over the benefit or harm chain merchants are causing to communities, one thing is certain, whether it’s the local coffee shop, grocery store, gym, video rental shop (pre-digital of course), or just about any other business, volume has been the winning formula.

Chief among the disparity issues local business face versus their larger competitors’ is access to marketing channels. When Target wants to drive Black Friday sales, TV ads hit millions of homes, banners flood the front-pages of CNN, and inserts get mailed out to every home. Even a local business able to afford enough marketers to output the same volume of creative assets will be drowned out in media buys and volume efficiencies.

But now there’s social media.

Social offers all businesses an effective, low cost and, when done right, extremely influential way to reach customers. And as a new channel, it’s something all businesses are struggling with.

Planet Granite: A local gym using Facebook to share route updates and member focused events

While small businesses have an opportunity big business struggles with: the ability to be truly relevant.

Think about your local gym… what’s more likely to peak your interest: a twitter account to follow with 2 way dialogue about the latest classes or a national chain that’s trying to roll out a 50-state branding campaign to leverage their new celebrity? The celebrity may make the national guy feel more relevant, more “wow” but it’s not more actionable, in fact, the more the fan engages, the less they are likely to feel connected as it’s unlikely the brand will be able to respond to them at all.

Crystal Springs Produce - A local business with a complete Yelp profiles with photos, numerous reviews, even a special offer

At the same time, the relevancy tools large networks are using like Facebook’s “Edge Rank” favor a small business to a large one. The bigger the page is, the harder it becomes to keep up engagement rates and content that appeals to everyone… leading to an eventual slips in rank with posts becoming less and less seen by those who opted to follow.

The problem small businesses face is acting and acting now. While all companies are still trying to sort out what social can do, who should do it, and what the real return is, dedicating a social resource when you have only a handful of marketing employees (or perhaps one or none) is not viable. However the door is open wide and not an option, it is the future for business, and especially any business without the benefit of million dollar media campaigns. Small businesses have an opportunity to lead and to build their community off of passionate customers before bigger competitors figure out how to pull their ground level ‘troops’ in.

In all honesty, it’s a struggle to find local businesses really using social beyond a few logos and reviews, but it’s the only place where small businesses have a level field, maybe even an upper hand if they act soon.

Every small business should be thinking about how they build their army, how they get followed, get reviewed and use their customer comments to drive their business to be better, more appealing and therefore more talked about. So where to start? Here are 5 channels that can be setup, monitored and responded too in just a few hours a week.

Ratings & Reviews. User Reviews drive purchases so encouraging them with in-store signage, customer welcome kits and at any other place is essential to standing out. Is the business on Yelp or other relevant local services? Is the information correct?

Social Networks, Forums. The buzz words, the trends, these tools represent access to thousands of local consumers and huge spread with just a single “LIKE” or post. Is there a Facebook page? Twitter? Relevant forums in the industry? Does the page send out updates on new services, programs and relevant information? Photos of events? Fan comments?

Location Check-ins. As people get more comfortable telling their network where they are, there’s an opportunity to expand viral branding. Is there an accurate destination created on foursquare? Facebook places? A description or photo? A special to draw in fans? A program, even a smile and handshake, for the mayor?

Local Deals. GroupOn, Living Social, they’re all about deals people can use locally. But they only really work when the business has a plan to use a discounted user to build a long term customer. Is there a deal out there? Does it lend well to continued business? Are new signups getting brought into the other social features to follow and be en-engaged with?

Support & Engagement. Nothing in social matters unless it’s followed with a response, a dialogue… and seen as actually being used by the business. Are comments from all the other channels being used to update the business model and are those changes being relayed back? Is someone from the staff checking the social channels a few times a week to build and foster