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Hear Best Practices on Promoting Deals on Social Media from The Washington Post

Promoting your deals on social media is hard work, but when used correctly, you can create an engaging atmosphere to share deals and converse with your potential buyers.

Social media platforms, such as Facebook, are perfect for creating awareness around your deals program. Utilize your current following and keep them in the know with local deals you are running. Actively updating social media is just another touch point with your customers, which will build your program’s brand and help gain brand loyalty with customers.

Join us for a webinar “Facebook & Deals: How to Drive Engagement” as we hear from Molly Urciolo, Marketing Mananger from The Washington Post on Thursday, May 17 at 1 p.m. ET. Molly will share her insights and best practices from marketing The Capitol Deal on driving engagement around your deals program with social media.

10 Characteristics of Top Selling Deals

Finding quality deals for your subscribers is one of the five fundamentals of deals success. With so many merchants out there, how do you know what your audience will find worthy of purchasing? To answer that question, we analyzed our hundreds of deals partners’ data and uncovered a list of common traits among stellar deals.

1. Audience Appeal. Knowing the demographic makeup of your audience will help you better understand what their interests are. Location data will also guide you to the areas of your market where your audience is most concentrated. From there, you can find businesses in those areas – a convenient location is a key selling point for any deal buyer!

2. Deal Uniqueness. By striving for one-of-a-kind offerings, your customers know they can only get that deal by purchasing it from your program. Be sure to do a little research before running a deal to ensure it isn’t a standard offer available anytime.

3. Brand Recognition. Your customers want to recognize the merchant before they purchase a deal. Pick well-known merchants in your market who are trusted and ready to produce a great deal, no matter if they are local or a national chain. Use review sites – including your own media’s reviews and Reader’s Choice Polls – to identify the most popular businesses in your market.

4. Deal Price. The key is to be sure you’re basing the deal price on the average spend per customer at that business. To ensure the best return on investment for the business, price the deal just below the average. That way, consumers are more likely to spend above and beyond the amount of the voucher – netting even more revenue in the pocket of the business owner.

5. Valuable Discount. Offer a deal your audience can’t refuse. Customers want the deal to be worth the time it took to purchase it. Consider the market value of the deal and try to have the merchant offer at least 50 percent off. It’s important to know what the market value is for your deal, especially for popular merchants that run with other deals programs in your market. Keep an eye on the competition and be sure you’re pricing your deals competitively.

6. Deal Restrictions. Remember that too many restrictions will decrease the desirability of your deal. Negotiate with the merchant and try to create as few restrictions as possible. If the merchant is adamant about having restrictions on the amount of deals they will sell, suggest running them as a Side Deal or save it for an upcoming Deal Store. You want to balance the needs of the merchant with your own revenue goals.

7. Bonus Offers. Everyone loves to get more bang for their buck, so suggest to the merchant they offer a bonus deal. For example, if your merchant is a golf course the deal is for half-off a round. The bonus deal could be the buyer taking their voucher into the pro shop and receiving 25 percent off.

8. Expiration Date. Buyers consider expiration dates before buying a deal. Work with the merchant to agree upon a reasonable expiration date. Keep in mind that the “promotional value” of a voucher can expire during the pre-determined time, but the amount paid by the consumer is valid much longer. This varies by state, so be sure to review gift card laws in your state.

9. Deal Category. Target broad deal categories that will appeal to your general audience. Buyers look for deals from restaurants, health and beauty, activities, travel- drivable distances, and retail. Deals are often used to try out new businesses or try something new, so make sure you have a healthy dose of fun and entertaining deals to keep your audience engaged and excited to buy.

10. Seasonality. Buyers want to purchase deals for what is happening now. Target seasonal merchants and create seasonal stores to attract buyers to the deals. For example, in June and July you can run a summer store and include deals for an ice cream parlor, outdoor activities and for merchants who sell summer apparel.

This month, we are thrilled to honor Liz White from the Record-Journal Publishing Company for her success with her deals program.

Who: Liz White
Title: Associate Publisher for New Media and Vice President
Media Company: Record-Journal Publishing Company

Job Description: I oversee new media strategy for our three companies, which includes two daily newspapers. I am the fifth generation of our family business and I feel lucky to have a career I love and have the opportunity to help shape the direction of the company for the future as I work daily with my dad, our president and publisher. In addition to Deal of the Day, my new media role also includes digital initiatives such as R-J All Access, which we launched in January and is our new all-inclusive digital subscription offering access to our content through our website, iPad app, e-edition, archives, mobile site and email news alerts. Our companies are fortunate to have many dedicated, hard-working people and I am excited to work with all of them to continuously change and grow our company as the industry evolves.

Keys to Deals Success:
As Second Street advocates, two of the main keys to success with deals are high quality deals and a large email audience, so our sales reps, managers and new media team put a lot of thought and effort into those two aspects. To support the deal program efforts further, we have a Deal Team that meets regularly to review deals and plan initiatives for our program. The members of that team include our publisher, advertising director, digital sales director and myself.

Three recent projects that the team planned were a Cyber Monday deal store, a Readers’ Choice deal store and a Little Caesars free pizza giveaway and contest. We feel that putting a lot of effort into creating excitement around our deal site through these types of projects contributes to the growth of our Deal of the Day brand and in turn helps attract quality deals from advertisers and helps grow our email audience. For these projects, in addition to getting many high quality deals, a key factor in the success has been using every single promotional tool we have to get the word out everywhere and create a buzz, so we promote them in our daily newspaper (including a very prominent spadea on page one), TMC products, weekly newspapers, websites, mobile sites, Facebook pages and emails. The results have been exciting. For the Readers’ Choice deal store specifically, we knew we were approaching businesses that were voted as the favorites in our community, so by definition we were getting high quality deals and businesses to participate as requested by our readers.

What impact has Deals had on your overall digital revenue? How have you made it a priority within your organization?
Deals are a growing component and we expect them to be about 10 percent of digital revenue this year. We’ve made deals a priority through the deal team that I mentioned and by training our sales reps and targeting businesses that are a good fit for deals. Our salespeople are glad to now have another tool to help local businesses through deals, which are especially attractive for businesses who don’t want to pay money upfront for marketing, but who would still like to draw new customers and benefit from free print and online promotion that accompany our deals. We have also asked many people throughout the company to participate in the growth of our deal program by constantly talking to people about the benefits of signing up for deals so we can grow our email audience, whether they’re talking to customers on the phone or in person or at events where we’re promoting our company.

Let’s Get Personal:
I live in Meriden, CT with my husband Mike. We’ve been married for a year and half and have been together more than 14 years since high school. I love spending time with my husband, friends and family, including three nieces and a nephew. I am on the executive board of our Meriden YMCA and I am a member of a local chapter of BNI (Business Network International). I have a passion for traveling, aerobics, soccer and food. And I’m a die-hard fan of the New York Yankees.

Thinking Ahead: Summer Deals Store Ideas

With the summer months right around the corner, vacationing, outdoor activities and poolside fun are on everyone’s mind. Consider this the perfect opportunity for you to sell deals around a seasonal deals store. Below, you’ll find a few summer deals store ideas.

Father’s Day Store
Store Timing: June 4- June 17th
Deal Categories:
- Sports and outdoor equipment retailers
- Gifts
- Bars and restaurants
- Home improvement
- Car detailing services
- Travel getaway
- Electronics

Summer Fun or Dog Days of Summer
Store Timing: Throughout July
Deal Categories:
- Neighborhood Pool Passes
- Waterparks
- Summer camps
- Regional travel
- Amusement parks
- Campgrounds
- Pet sitting (While you are vacationing)
- July 4th events
- Outdoor concerts
- Movie theaters

Back to School Store
Store Timing: late-July to late-August
Deal Categories
- Kids clothing boutiques
- Retail gift cards
- Study tools
- Tutoring services
- Lunch boxes & school supplies
- Closet organization services
- Carpeting cleaning
- Fun and family activities

Have another summer store idea? Share your ideas by leaving us a note in the comments.

Key Factors in Driving Deals Success

Gordon Borrell recently asked me to speak at the Borrell Local Online Advertising Conference in New York on a panel covering the deals space. “Two Years Later, What’s the Big Deal?” was the topic. In some ways, I think Gordon answers that question himself through his research. Borrell Associates is projecting deals to be a $5.7 billion market in 2012. That is certainly a very big deal.

Deals are still evolving but they aren’t an entirely new business any longer. Over the past two years, a playbook has emerged across our 400 deals partners. This playbook is showing that five key factors are driving their success. I’ve shared these five important fundamentals below.

• 1. Database Growth: Growing an organic email database is critical to selling deals. Our latest data shows that 92.4 percent of deal revenue is generated via email. The larger your organic list becomes, the more deals you will sell. As local media, you can build your database more efficiently than anyone else. You need to have goals and a proactive plan to build your lists. The biggest difference between partners who are finding success with deals and those that are stagnating is the size and growth trajectory of their database.

• 2. Engagement: As you build your list, you need to constantly analyze and find ways to strategically engage your list to maximize its impact. How many people on your list have made a purchase in the last six months? How many have not? Does a $5 credit for 30 days make sense to engage a segment of your list? Diving into the data and engaging your list can really boost your program.

• 3. Sales Focus: To get great advertisers to come onboard, you need a dedicated sales representative to sell deals. A dedicated sales rep will stay focused with only selling deals and will become an expert at the pitch. Additionally, the dedicated rep will ensure that deals stay top of mind within your organization. They can be the internal expert and collaborate with core media reps on four-legged sales calls. Deal sales are always better when there is one focused representative than multiple people trying to sell deals along with the multitude of other products they are already selling.

• 4. Deal Quality: This starts with finding deals that align with your audience and enticing them to buy and share across their social networks. Review the qualities of deal appeal and what buyers look for when purchasing a deal. Not only do great deals sell well, but they also help grow your database. And the biggest revenue-generating deals are those that get shared the most. Once people see the great deals you offer, they will want to sign up so they will not miss out on the next top deal.

• 5. Evolving the Model: The deals world is constantly changing, and you need to stay on top of trends. Start moving away from 24-hour deals and allow your deals to run for up to seven days. Longer running deals generate more revenue, about 65 percent of revenue from the deals sold comes from days two through seven. Also, start creating deal stores or deal malls to feature many deals at one time. For some of our partners, close to 50 percent of their revenue is coming from malls and seasonal stores that are complementing their featured deals. Deal malls and seasonal stores can have a major impact as you are seeking to grow your program.

Partners who are dedicating themselves to focusing on the fundamentals of deals success are seeing a payoff in the month to month growth of their program as we dive into 2012.

Please drop me a note with how investments in any of these areas are paying off for your program.

Make your Seasonal Deals Store a Successful Experience

Running a seasonal deals store is a great opportunity to provide shoppers with a variety of relevant deals. Seasonal stores (think Valentine’s Day, Golf Specials, Mother’s Day Stores) get buyers excited to purchase deals for the upcoming holiday or season you are promoting. Optimize the potential of the seasonal store by keeping with the theme from the deal, to the design and even with your potential advertisers. Let’s look at 10 ways you can strengthen your seasonal deals store.

• 1. Make sure the deal categories align with the store theme. Go the extra step by running a contest with a similar theme to create awareness and drive additional sign-ups. A potential grand prize for the contest winner? Present them each deal in the store!
  2. Plan your stores at least 90 days ahead of time and have at least 12 deals lined up for your store to ensure variety.
  3. Strive for deal diversity, including: deal price, location and category within the store grouping.
  4. Add “flair” to your site to give it the seasonal look and feel you wanted. Theme your promotions using the same design elements from your seasonal deals store site.
  5. Seven to 10 days is the ideal time frame for your deals store to run. Try to schedule your store to maximize weekdays and minimize weekends, as more deals are purchased during the weekdays.
  6. Give merchants flexibility to have capped inventory to give you a chance to get more deals but remain vigilant about deal quality.
  7. Promote, promote, promote! Advertise your seasonal store in the appropriate section of your medium. For example – advertise your golf store within the sports section of your publication or during the on-air sports coverage.
  8. Have your sales team submit target merchant lists ahead of time and get approval for those prospects. Also, create special bonuses for your representatives tied to deal stores sales. Bonuses for reps who bring in the most deals from the target list, new advertisers or who lands the biggest revenue deal have been the most effective.
  9. Review upcoming core media promotions and create stores that tie-in with offline promotions or special sections and ad groupings.
  10. Leverage your Featured Deal email and include a promotion for the top deals of your store.

Beth Wiggins and Joelene Sherman from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Today’s Deal program joined me to share their experiences driving revenue with seasonal stores. Watch the webinar below.