Several years ago, when Daily Deals started to get hot, I was living in New York on a shoestring budget and Groupon offered me two things:

1. Savings (let’s face it, who doesn’t like to save money?).
2. New places, experiences, restaurants and foods to try with no time consuming research.

I loved it. I was being served up a new offer every day that would help me experience New York in a cost-effective way – great deals on everything from manicures to Ethiopian food. As a consumer, I think you adopt things like a Daily Deal easily because there is no catch. You prepay, you receive a voucher, and you present it at the time of purchase. Enjoy.

But is there a catch for brands that participate in this “revenue share”? Getting involved with a Daily Deal can be time consuming experience…but one that can ultimately pay off in a big way.

Here are some simple steps to follow to help you secure a Daily Deal for your company:
First: reach out to the company and speak to a sales representative, letting them know of your interest.
Second: collaborate with the rep in working out a “deal” for your brand, which typically includes the buyer paying a small dollar amount to receive a larger dollar amount toward your product or service.

Be warned: finding that magic number can be tricky. First, you have to be willing to create a “deal” that goes above and beyond your typical offering to interest the companies that run these Daily Deals. Second, you have to be willing to part with half of the revenue that is generated by the deal. So, if your deal is $10 and 10 are purchased, sales amount to $100, but $50 is given to whatever company runs that deal.

Third: Be patient and wait. With most of these Daily Deals, you don’t know when your deal is going to run until days before.

Once your deal does run, this is when the fun begins! You get to have your business exposed to dozens of consumers who may have never heard of your service or product otherwise. They get to learn about you, visit your website and ask questions. Expect and plan for an increase in traffic – and hopefully, sales!

Here is the best part: the deal acts as a third party recommendation. Big names like Groupon and Living Social go through a vetting process, so you’ve earned already earned credibility in the mind of the consumer. They trust you before they know. That sounds like a pretty good deal, and is worth the lengthy process required to set up the deal.

Written by Jamie Roser, Account Manager

Stemming from Facebook’s changes last month, it should be no surprise that the social network is also switching up the advertising metrics used. Marketers who are spending money with Facebook to gain “Likes,” drive website traffic and generate application installs will now receive enhanced metrics with several tracking features. These additional advertising metrics support Facebook’s (you guessed it), commitment to increase interaction!

Being able to monitor ad actions, such as use of an application, share of a page post or claim of an offer, will start to take some focus off clicks and “Likes,” which is a step in the right direction. The right direction in this case is the attribution of social media to customers, brand loyalty and business profits.

With over 150 million Facebook users in the U.S., advertisers are anxious to use Facebook media to their best advantage. It will be exciting to see the new metrics implemented and how brands and companies optimize campaigns from the insights gained and how this will affect advertising budgets.

As the new Facebook advertising metrics begin to roll out, EGC will report back on what this means for retail businesses and how to best be using the data given to develop a more successful paid campaign on Facebook.

If you’re not currently advertising on Facebook, but would like to know how this can benefit your business, contact The EGC Group at contact@egcgroup.com  or http://www.egcgroup.com/contact-us.php

Additional information:  http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/facebook-beefs-ad-analytics-139677

If you don’t know what Pinterest is, it is essentially a “virtual pinboard,” that allows users to collect images, items, recipes, etc., from the web and keep them tagged onto their own “pinboards” ─ which can be shared with other Pinterest users.

I myself have been astonished with the network’s content and functionality. I’ve shared products I love, plan to buy, or “one-day-hope-to-buy”. What’s best is that I’m sharing all of my product wishes with friends.

As a marketer, I’m even happier to see the implications to retail. The article below notes just how Pinterest affects retail marketing.

http://mashable.com/2012/01/29/pinterest-retail-infographic/

In DC, there is a fast-casual restaurant that took full advantage of their retail locations to engage both in store and through social media. Through a contest to win a year’s supply of restaurant food, Sweetgreen asked customers to tell them their New Year’s Resolution. They could post it in store or tweet #sweet2012 or text. The store in Bethesda I walked by, used their entire windowscape to promote the contest. There were tons of sticky notes and plenty of twitter usage.

What’s key is that Sweetgreen recognized that social engagement isn’t just a counter card. It became their windowscape and integral to their promotion. Retailers, need to understand the opportunity that they have and extend the in store experience to the digital world. When you do this your campaign is more successful and you extend the relationship you have with your customers and future customers.

1. Social Media “Gut Check”: The new path that shoppers take includes an entire influence process. They are talking to their friends about you on social media before visiting your website. Listen to what types of conversations are taking place about your brand or retail location, and make sure it’s good – before launching a paid campaign. There are many free options for this, using a Twitter search, HootSuite, Google Alerts and more.
2. Optimization: Make sure your media planning is fluid. Don’t lock into a schedule or commitment that does not allow you to optimize daily.
3. Mobile: More customers are reacting to your retail campaign on mobile devices than you think. Your coupons and offers should be accessible on a mobile friendly website, and your campaign should be integrated with geo location sites like Foursquare.
4. Call to Action: If it’s retail and intended to do some heavy lifting, make sure your offer or call to action is strong and compelling. Too many advertisers are using call to actions like this: “Look for our ad in this Sunday’s paper!” How many of you actually “rush” to do this – going through your Sunday paper seeking an ad? Strong, unique online call to actions will always work best. If you’re asking someone to call, give them a reason for why calling now is better than calling later. Countdowns and special time-limited offers help.
5. Track beyond the sale. Be prepared to track the correlation between impressions and actions, coupon/rebate downloads, online visits, and social media lifts. There may be holes in the buying process that are affecting your sales, and the right analysis of data can help find those.

With many retail marketing and advertising campaigns the answer is clear: “Buy Now, Call Now, Click Here.“

But as we’ve stated, the consumer has changed. The new consumer doesn’t want to be told what to do, and we think you shouldn’t just tell them to do something.

Influence them in way that they feel as if it was their own idea to ‘like’ you on Facebook, call you, or buy your product. I would call it “informed motivation.”

For example, bring them to an online video that better explains the benefits that lead to a “call to action” screen. Or, drive them to customer testimonials on Facebook that feature an adjacent coupon.

And for those who would like to stick to the tried and true “Call, Click, Act!” we encourage new methods of looking at this.

My current favorite is Stella Artois. Their recent campaign integrates the old fashioned 800 number. 1-800-My-Chalice drives you to a telephone operator with a fabulous accent, and you’re given the option to opt in to “win your chalice”, or learn more about how a chalice is made, and, most important, why a chalice is not a glass. What a smart way to illustrate who they are, and to call me to action!

In a recent issue, Harvard Business Review published an article under this same title, detailing the mashup of the digital and physical retail experience. Mind you,  I am often turned off to any article that begins with “the future of…anything ” but this had some true insights into channel marketing.

I often identify myself as “the new consumer.” I read product reviews before visiting a manufacturer’s website.  Once I’ve made my choice, I toggle back and forth between tabs of several retailers’ websites, finding out very quickly where to get the best price or best service.  I am the girl who scans bar codes in front of the salesperson,  refuting his/her “lowest price” claim. Unfortunately, the retail industry is very technophobic and not quite ready for me.  And that’s not just retailers, but brands and manufacturers who sell through the channel. Categories like B2B, healthcare and education have done a better job of adopting digital from within, thus influencing how they serve this new audience.

Some brands get it. For instance, Electrolux. As a recent customer, they were there with me all along the path to purchase. More important, it was a consistent “omnichannel” brand experience. Meaning,  whether I purchased online or off, at a big box or independent dealer, I always had the same experience with the brand.  For example, they offered  the same sale price whether it was purchased at a mass retailer or individual dealer. Sony is another example of a manufacturer who “gets it”.  Unfortunately,  plenty of others have no clue. Not only does this make my experience inconsistent, but it actually delays my purchase because I have to research best prices for days/weeks.

The takeaway is this:  redesign your customer/shopper/end user experience. Start from scratch, literally draw the path of your customer, and break down the barriers that prevent you from offering one, consistently perfect experience. Otherwise, I and thousands like me will move on to your…competition.

I am definitely an early bird when it comes to holiday shopping. Those that know me will not be the least bit surprised to hear I already have a spreadsheet drafted with what everyone is getting. My big struggle every year, other than what to get for the parents that have everything, is what to send to the out-of-town family that won’t cost me more to ship than it does for the gift itself and yet is still personal.

J.C. Penney introduced a new holiday promotion that might help shoppers with the same dilemma. J.C. Penney shoppers will receive a “Santa Tag” sticker with each purchase this holiday season. The tags contain individualized QR codes that can be scanned with any QR code reader to record a personalized voice message. The recipient of the gift scans the code to hear the recorded voice message when they open their gifts. This is definitely an interesting concept and appealing – in theory. But the question remains, will shoppers trade their favorite store for a cute idea? Will J.C. Penney be able to convert brand loyalty? They are clearly using their creative thinking caps on how to entice the younger generations to shop at J.C. Penney, but how will they continue the momentum after the holidays, or will they at all? I’d love to be a fly on the wall in their next marketing team meeting. They definitely get an A for effort on phase 1, but let’s see what Phase 2 of the marketing plan looks like. I suspect that we will be seeing a lot of other retailers offering their version of the “Santa Tag”. Maybe one will offer a “Hanukkah Harry Greeting”.