Hyper-local deal sites offer web presence to local businesses
by Steve Rattner
If you’re a business owner and you’re not using online marketing, you face a serious disadvantage because your competitors are. They’re gobbling up your customers with constant streams of Facebook posts, tweets, e-mail blasts, online offers and in-your-face messaging popping up with every click. Then they’re sifting and shuffling the data to maximize pay-per-click rates and search engine optimization.
How do local businesses advertise their products and services online to reach new customers in a world where 80 percent of disposable income is spent within a few miles of home? Many small businesses have not pursued online marketing because it isn’t as viable and easy as traditional marketing. At the same time, online ad companies haven’t seen small businesses as a significant revenue source because local marketing budgets are often small.
However, with the merging of social media and commerce, that dynamic is changing. It’s shifting from “clicks-to-clicks” to “clicks-to-bricks,” a part of the online world that, until quite recently, had been written off, years back.
Facebook, recently valued at $70 billion, has a strong local reach and has made local advertising a primary focal point of their marketing strategy. Groupon, the king of the daily deal sites, and now in over 250 cities around the world, reportedly turned down a $6 billion offer from Google in December. And Google, one of the world’s most successful companies, just announced plans to launch a competitor to Groupon.
Locally-based Cloops, though just a few months old, is one of the fastest growing hyper-local deal sites.
The new online model to help local businesses acquire new customers is simple. Offer half-off or better deals and make them easy to buy online. Customers print a voucher and bring it to the local merchant. For example, in return for paying $10, a customer may receive $20 worth of. The happy customer will often bring friends to share the love. In essence, the business has paid $10 to acquire several new customers who will likely spend a lot more money at the business.
“Cloops is the only website in the South Bay that allows me and my boyfriend to try new restaurants without breaking our budget. We saved anywhere from $50 to $100 in one week. It’s such a great way to try out new spots in the South Bay. I’m telling all my girlfriends about it,” said Colleen Long of Manhattan Beach.
Small businesses can effortlessly take advantage of this new form of online advertising with virtually no risk.
Welcome to the new world of O2O — Online to Offline Commerce.
Steve Rattner is the CEO of Cloops. ER
