Tag Archives: fanpage apps

How Small Businesses Can Use Groupon-like Sites to Their Best Advantage

FB Apps for Small BusinessesMillions of small businesses use Groupon-like sites to drive customers to their doors. While the surge in business can be good for a business, there are also pitfalls to this approach.It is not uncommon for these sites to sell hundreds or even thousands of discounted coupons. If a business is not staffed adequately when the onslaught of customers arrive, they will lose business over the long term due to the poor experience the visitors received.

Economically, it may not make sense for many small businesses to use a daily deal site. Most deals are 50% off and then the Groupon-like site takes 25% of the deal price. So if the original product was worth $100, the business owner is only receiving $25. The only way the business owner can win is if the patron spends more than the coupon amount during his visit, or if he doesn’t redeem the deal. Of course, if he doesn’t redeem it, then there is no chance of getting repeat business, which is the main attraction of partnering with daily deal sites.

The biggest pitfall, in my opinion, is that Groupon-like sites do not provide the business owner with any data on who purchased the coupon. For these deals to truly work for business owners, they need to be able to retain the customers that they receive. The best way to do this is to have a follow-up process in place.

Groupon-like sites are considered “affordable” advertising for businesses since there is no fee to have the deal promoted. Yet, due to the problems listed above, these sites may cost more than small businesses have bargained for. So the question is, how can a small business utilize this service without losing their shirt?

The two most important factors are to ensure that you have the proper amount of staff to handle the potential swarm of visitors and to have in place a system whereby you can capture your customers’ email addresses when they visit so you can continue your business relationship. Not only will this enable you to send out future coupon deals without having to give the Groupon-like site their cut, but you can also ask for customer feedback in order to improve your product or service.

I have created a system whereby email addresses can be received in exchange for a coupon or a contest entry within Facebook. Using Facebook apps on a fan page, businesses can promote deals or host contests. They can then reach out to their customers regularly, providing additional value and enhancing their opportunity to acquire a customer for life.

For businesses that already have a strong Facebook presence, they can bypass Groupon-like sites altogether. Others may want to use these daily deal sites to bring in customers initially and then encourage the coupon-holder to visit their Facebook fan page where they can sign up for additional coupons and specials.

If you are wondering why not just post the discounts on the Facebook fan page? Why capture email addresses at all? The short answer is because not every visitor to a fan page returns and not every post written to a a wall will be viewed by every person who “liked” the page. You can read more about this issue in my post, How to Use Facebook Apps to Stay Connected to Your Customers. Additionally, if Facebook were to go away, or terminate  your account for any reason, you would no longer have access to your fans. An email list is an asset that would belong to you.

To see an example fan page app that captures email addresses, visit the fan page, APPcreationSmallBusiness.  Unlike most Facebook apps, these are mobile responsive so even those who visit the fan page from their smart phone will be able to view these apps through a “smart phone” link. Feel free to “like” APPCreationSmallBusiness and message me if you would like to discuss how a similar app could be used for your business.