April 27th, 2012 • Posted by Brad Bassham • Permalink
I know a lot of you are thinking,"What?! Not again! How many times have you told us that by now? Everyone knows that word of mouth has moved online. Tell us something we don't already know!"
Bear with me here, I have a point, and I want to make it using a real-life example. It's how I roll.
Last Saturday I was at a bar and grill 50 miles south of St. Louis in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri to hear what turned out to be some fantastic music- two guys, two guitars, who could play and sing anything. They were called 'Those Guys, ' and turned out to be really tremendous performers!
So, I'm sitting at the bar and this place is about 1/3 full which seems odd to me. The owner was tending bar that night and we struck up a conversation. I asked, "Where is everybody? These guys (Those Guys, really) are great!"
He says, "I don't know. I thought word of mouth would have packed this place."
I couldn't help myself and said, "Haven't you heard? Word of mouth has moved online."
He said, "What do you mean?"
Me, elaborating. "At a minimum you should have posted this event to your website, Facebook and Twitter, and set up a couple of reminder posts. Then as a courtesy to your loyal fans who signed up for your email newsletter you should have sent an email letting them know that you had some great music lined up for tonight. And if it was me I would have written a blog about 'Those Guys' - who they are what they do, and I probably would have included a video of them performing."
"Who has time to do all that?," he replied.
"Well, we have technology to help. I work with one that does this, in fact that's all we do. In under 5 minutes, using the CoverBoom Marketing Suite, you could have created the event and simultaneously sent it to your website, Facebook and Twitter with automatic reminder posts a week before the event. And by clicking one button, the Marketing Suite would turn the event into an email campaign that you could send to your email list."
"Bottom line? You've got to meet your customers where they are, and that is online. At a minimum you need a great looking website that is easy to update and mobile friendly, a Facebook fan page and Twitter feed. By interacting with your customers online you will create a loyal fan base and build a relationship that will be beneficial to you both."
Real life provides much better examples than we could ever make up, don't you think?
Leave a comment
April 11th, 2012 • Posted by Stef Odom • Permalink
Remember that whole Timeline thing? Now that it's old news and we're all used to it and stuff, we have some follow up on changes to the Facebook Sweepstakes app.
We want the app to draw people in for you whether you are running a Sweepstakes or not. Therefore, we've added the ability to drive email newsletter subscriptions when you're not running a Sweepstakes. You can turn this on by going to Marketing/Social Media/Facebook Authorization. Customize the text that appears and save and you are ready to go. When fans visit the app and you're not running a Sweepstakes, they'll be prompted to sign up!
We've also created some pretty new images for the Sweepstakes App that you can upload to your Facebook page. In the spirit of promoting email signups, these images say "Follow us!" You can download the images (and instructions for how to use them in Facebook) here. We'll be adding new images throughout the year, so check back from time to time.
Leave a comment
April 10th, 2012 • Posted by Seth Gardenswartz • Permalink
Groupon and the other deal sites had a great 2011.
The total “deal” volume grew a whopping 140%! So that should mean a big lift for restaurants, especially independent restaurants, that sell a majority of daily deals, right?
Unfortunately, the data reveals just how much money has been siphoned out of the restaurant industry.
Visits to independent restaurants were down by 4% in 2011, but Groupon-like deals expedited a massive increase in half-price “deals" across the country. Just let that sink in for a second; roughly 14 million-restaurant deal vouchers were sold in 2011 all while total visits to independents went down significantly. The Groupon deal activity did not create new visits at all! At best, Groupon and Living Social discount vouchers convinced diners to trade an already planned visit from one restaurant to another. In other words, rather than generate new visits, Groupon has just rearranged the location of visits with the purchase of a 50% off voucher. Furthermore, diners around the country get a minimum of five dining offers every week, negating all likely-hood that a Groupon offer will produce a loyal customer at your restaurant. Meanwhile, Groupon and other daily deal sites made a whopping $140 million in fees from restaurant deals that didn't help you at all.
Data suggests that the growing daily deals economy is a virtual arms race, where your restaurant buys patron visits from your competition at the Groupon rate of 50%. Restaurants no longer control their industry revenue, $140 million now flows into the pocket of Groupon and Living Social and another $140 million is lost in heavy discounts you pay to play a loosing hand.
Let's follow the money.
Restaurants have paid out approximately $140 million in fees to daily deal sites and allowed their goods to be discounted another $140 million, for a total of $230 million, all while watching the restaurant industry slide 4% in 2011. Groupon's a modern spin on an age-old game; generate an audience by giving away discounts they don't pay for and selling the audience to the highest bidder. Is this how technology is supposed to be helping Main Street?
We believe the only sustainable way for independent restaurants and other small businesses to grow is to develop their own audiences. Online tools, like CoverBoom, give independent restaurant's the ability to create content and promotions, that automatically post to Facebook/Twitter, to your website and in your email-marketing campaigns.
Leave a comment
April 3rd, 2012 • Posted by KitKat • Permalink
It's not a secret that we aren't fans of Groupon.
Marketing and promotional efforts are great, but our distaste for Groupon is mainly focused on the expensive, 50% commission they require local restaurants to pay on top of a 50% discount that seems like a really bad deal for you.
Groupon is facing a number of challenges as it seeks to grow in their existing markets:
- Market forces will continue to reduce 50% commission rates.
- Think about it, wouldn't you rather have 100 patrons with a more reasonable discount and a 20% commission than 300 with a 50% discount and a 50% commission and the accompanied dismal consumer reviews that come with it. If you want to see the numbers, try it out yourself using our Daily Deal Calculator.
- For restaurants and patrons, daily deal fatigue has set in for the long-term. Independent restaurants are tired of the bargain hunters these deals bring into their business. Groupon attracts customers who will just move from deal to deal, while the patron you want is rejecting the bombardment of deals coming to their Inbox.
All these issues are wearing down Groupon's lead. According to the Wall Street Journal, Groupon didn't anticipate the high rate of returns it experienced during the holidays on high-priced offers like Lasik eye surgery and laser hair removal. Groupon had to revise downward its fourth-quarter revenue and earnings.
So, what should independent restaurants do?
- The first thing you could do is not run deals at all. This could be challenging when your competition is doing it.
- Negotiate hard with daily deal sites. 50% isn't set in stone.
- Use our Daily Deal Calculator to understand the real impact of any deal, and then follow the advice we provide for creating more profitable deals.
What do you think? Do you plan to continue daily deals now?
Leave a comment
March 27th, 2012 • Posted by Andrea Feucht • Permalink
OpenTable charges many restaurants $500-$700 a month, while co-opting the relationship with your diners. They want to run virtually all table reservations though the OpenTable system, charging you for every cover and benefit provided to the diner even if it's your existing customer.
Relive our 45-minute webinar as we analyze the true costs of OpenTable and dissect their complicated pricing model that makes you pay for reservations even when made from your own website. Then we will compare the cost of generating Mother's Day reservations of OpenTable as compared to Urbanspoon and CoverBoom's marketing suite.
Webinar: The Real Cost of OpenTable
Leave a comment
