Living Social, Groupon, etc...thoughts anyone?

[Eco Steam]

I know that the general consensus of these types of companies isn't anything to be desired by small businesses, but i figured i would ask anyway, just to see what y'all here have to say.

I will say this going into it.....

We recently ran a promotion with Living Social and it was for WSR & HLR. The sole purpose was to push our company name into the inboxes of a few hundred thousand subscribers in the Austin area, since we offer several services our hopes were to be able to upsell and we have been able to a little so far, granted, this just ran a week ago and ended last tuesday. We sold a total of 123, not too bad but not nearly as much as a glass replacement/chip repair only competitor that sold over 600 in a span of a month with groupon.

So...

Would you run with these companies? Do you find it worth it? Do you feel they rip you off?

Feel free to ask me questions to...

ATX

[Shurte]

ATX,

How did you guys price your WR? I know Groupon wants you to give at least a 50% discount then keeps 50% of the sale amount.

So to make say $25 off your Groupon you would need to be selling them for $50? Then what about the insurance jobs?

HLR I can see but I just cant figure out how one would run a WSR coupon?

[Eco Steam]

ATX,

How did you guys price your WR? I know Groupon wants you to give at least a 50% discount then keeps 50% of the sale amount.

So to make say $25 off your Groupon you would need to be selling them for $50? Then what about the insurance jobs?

HLR I can see but I just cant figure out how one would run a WSR coupon?

Shurte,

Actually, don't be fooled by the 50/50 thing, thats a thing of the past. You have to negotiate with these people. You approach it like they're getting to offer your service and they have to work with you on the amounts. I can tell you that they will pay more than 60% of the discounted price, but keep in mind that this is still low, so anyone thinking of doing this, shouldn't expect to get rich on a promotional run with these companies.

It's an alternative of pushing your companies info into potential customers inboxes. So far, we've gotten several customers that have called in and they were like, "I don't wanna buy the deal from XYZ Company, I would rather give you all of the money". We're not gonna tell them NO, we get them scheduled.

Please let me know if I answered your question(s), if not please clarify.

ATX

[Brent Deines]

We only tried this once and I can't remember for sure which one we used. I was not impressed by the results we received but I'm not opposed to trying it again, perhaps with a different service.

You have to look at it as an advertising expense and compare the return on investment to your other forms of advertising. While 50% or $3000 is a hefty expense for a $6000 gross return, I wouldn't turn my nose up at it if I felt it was additional income. If it is just giving 50% off to customers that would already be doing business with that is a different story entirely. As ATX said, it helps get your name out there and that is half the battle in this industry.

One of the biggest mistakes owners of small windshield repair companies make is neglecting to have an advertising budget or in many cases to have a business plan. I really can't think of another industry that doesn't understand the importance of advertising and marketing and realize that there is a cost associated with it. If you don't have an advertising budget every dollar you spend to bring in new customers feels wasted but if you do have an advertising budget you know the money has to be spent so it becomes a question of where the dollars are best spent.