xichabodx

I've had one in the works for almost 2 years now, but I've been hesitant in launching it to local businesses and consumers because I'm not sure if it's something I still want to do. I've modeled it after the CollegeTokens.com concept, whereby you can search the directory for your favorite places and enter your cell # to have the site send your desired coupons via SMS. Rather than limit myself to colleges and universities, I'm offering it to my local areas...for everyone. It's SMS coupons ONLY...no having to print and cut out your coupons!

At first, I was thinking of charging a minimum of $50/month, with a desired goal of $75-$97/month to advertise on my site. Each business is grouped into their respective category and can have unlimited coupons sent to local consumers. I have a great deal with my SMS provider, so I'm not concerned with going into the red with this method. If a business wants to market to their list, then they can pay per message sent in addition. This I've yet to determine due to the concern of the local consumers being bombarded with so many text blasts per week...month, etc. from so many different businesses (IF they're subscribed to multiple businesses).

The benefit I'd provide is a local, targeted advertising medium for local businesses, while offering something isn't even available in my surrounding areas. If someone searches for a business on my directory, they will no doubt see all the other businesses offering coupons (cross-promotion).
Local consumers can now have coupons only they want sent directly to their cell phone, without having to waste time and money on ink and paper, only to forget where they placed their traditional paper coupons.

It can be a "chicken or egg" dilemma, but I've found the caveat to starting something like this is to get as many businesses on the site as possible before promoting it to the general public. To sweeten the deal, offer a full 30 days for FREE.

When going this route, you're shifting your role to that of a creative advertising resource and becoming more than just a mobile marketing consultant. What are your thoughts on creating a Local Mobile Coupon Directory vs. simply creating individual campaigns?

*Other coupon directory resources I've researched and would like to emulate but offer SMS coupons only:
CouponButler.com
eCouponsHawaii.com
LICouponDirectory.com
CouponCharlies.com

Centurian

One strategy is to use the site as an added bonus to individual campaigns.

If they sign up with you for local marketing, they will also be included on the platform. This brings added value to your offer.

I'm a big fan of bundling services, which strengthens your offer. For example, you can justify a higher monthly cost for individual campaigns with the added coupon directory. At the very least, you can price up to include the $50 monthly.

I think you can use it both ways as well. But I think your real leverage is in selling the bundled service to individual merchants. It always gives you a fall back position too. If they don't want a $297 or $497 monthly individual campaign, you can offer them the group platform for $149 or $99.

Your concern about merchants over spamming your customer base is a valid one. You may want to consider a limitation on texts sent each week per merchant on this platform. If they want unlimited texting, they need to pay for the higher individual campaign program.

I would encourage you to offer several levels of service. Make your highest package a premium offer. Bundle this up with added features.

Here's a few: mobile site creation, in-store promo signs or posters (you can get these custom made for cheap online), custom campaign creation, list building (you could text an offer to all customer opt-ins on your directory be added into a merchant's channel), public relations campaign (mail press releases to local papers announcing merchant's special program-readers text in to be added), you can create a "pizza passion club" for example where they get a free pizza for every five, etc.

Then have a mid-price service and a basic low-priced service. Statistics show that buyers will opt for the higher priced services, mostly the mid-range. A few will go premium and you get the gravy. For the tight-wads, you've got basic and maybe up-sell or cross-sell later.

You can offer platinum, gold, and silver packages. Here's a simple example of how I offered international marketers a packaged solution to avoid PayPal problems and get access to U.S. markets and services: http://www.newcenturymarkets.com/platinum_corporate

If you have a site built, I'd be interested in peeking at it. Sounds like a profitable program.

xichabodx

Thanks for the feedback, Centurian!

The more I look into it, I'm leaning more towards keeping and establishing my site.

I've considered bundling my marketing & SMS services and will use the directory as more of a foot-in-the-door approach. These businesses understand advertising and are paying it already, so by them advertising on my site it won't be that foreign to them. By offering a creative medium that allows consumers to have coupons sent directly to their phone is something not offered in my neck of the woods.

As far as local consumers getting spammed (should they request more than 1 mobile coupon from the site), I will manage the campaigns myself. I can even set a pre-determined schedule to blast any deals out, not sending more than 1 per week for each business...if that many.

Yes, by combining local advertising, internet marketing, and SMS coupons, I truly believe this has the potential to be a very profitable program. I've be researching other types of coupon sites to gauge the potential. Some have grown and have consistent, fresh content and advertisers, while some have remained stagnant or no longer exist. This is due to the person behind the scenes and not the business plan itself.

I'll PM you my site here shortly. I converted this free Gallery theme (found here and used to show portfolios and designs: UpThemes Demos ). There is also the Gallery Pro version ( http://upthemes.com/themes/gallery-pro/ ), which is a little more flexible, but costs $50-$75. From my SMS platform, I am able to create individual text campaigns and insert a mobile widget that allows users to submit their name and phone # in order for them to receive their coupons.

I have been considering using CouponPress, but I like the layout and functions better on the Gallery themes. Still not sure on that. What do you think?

Thanks again!

midasman09

I'm sorry....I felt "compelled" to toss in my 2 cents based on my experience and....the fact that I've go 2 sales people out setting up a "Discount Directory for my County".

Your comment fired me up;
"It can be a "chicken or egg" dilemma, but I've found the caveat to starting something like this is to get as many businesses on the site as possible before promoting it to the general public. To sweeten the deal, offer a full 30 days for FREE. "

HOGWASH! Reminds me of the early days of the net where EVERYTHING was "FREE to Join"!

I kept asking myself; "When are these folks going to run out of Investor Money?".....and...sure nuff....they did! (The Dot Com bust)

The question of "Which Comes First?"
My answer is...set up a MockUp Sample "Discount Directory Site" (could be similar to College Tokens) and.....rather than give a whole slew of businesses in for FREEBIES....let 3 or 4 in....so the "Paying Businesses can SEE 2 things; 1) What your Dirctory looks like and 2) There are ALREADY 3 or 4 Participating Businesses ( No one needs to know your first 3 or 4 were allowed in for FREE!) (No one wants to be FIRST...in anything! SHOW your Directory is UP and RUNNING...with Sponsors ON BOARD and...

...the SECOND thing to do, to make your efforts PAY....is to..."Offer Exclusives"!

DO NOT put everyone and their brother IN your Directory!

Only ONE....in EACH CATEGORY! Which allows 2 things to happen;
1) Sponosrs are MORE WILLING to Jump On Board at YOUR Price
and...
2) If they know they are the ONLY ONE in their Business Category....they WILL advertise YOUR Directory!

Example: If Every restaurant in Your Discount Coupon Directory has an EXCLUSIVE for their Cuisine (Chinese, Greek, Italian, Mexican etc) and they know their competitors are NOT in the program....would they be agreeable to Promoting Your Directory?

You betcher boots! Even to the extent where (example) you can place little Card Holders on the TABLES (little round Card Holders with a Slit in the top to hold the Table Cards) on EVERY TABLE of your participating restaurants. These Cards give info about YOUR Directory that can be Scanned with QR Codes or your URL Typed into Cell Phones!

WHALA! EVERY TABLE IN EVERY ONE of your Participating Restaurants PROMOTING....YOUR DIRECTORY!

Do YOU realize the AWESOME, MARKETING POWER of having 20 Non-Competing Restaurants....promoting YOUR Directory? The Directory they are PAYING YOU to participate in?

You would NOT get this kind of awesome Marketing for your Directory if the participants knew that EVERY participant (ALL their competition) was IN your Directory!!!!

You would have to dig up the funds to Advertise your Directory to consumers!

Sure....you'l have fewer Participants in your Directory BUT....they will PAY you handsomely AND....because their competitors are NOTin the Directory....they will GLADLY...promote the heck out of YOUR Directory!

Thus....take what I say with a "Grain Of Salt"! I ben dere, done dat!

Don Alm....STILL "doin' IT!"

Jason Bell

interesting concept, thanks for sharing. I'm doing something similar but with a different angle. THink groupons with text. I'm building 1 big database of city subscribers & text blasting 1 promoted business per day to the list. This way i control the list and dont overwhelm my list with too many text. As an upsell, i'm setting up their own inhouse list so they can blast their own audience.

Want real world field tested SMS training? SMS is what I know. You can check out our best stuff here: http://mobilebizsuccess.com/sms-madness//

xichabodx

Nice!
I contemplated doing this, but decided to hold off. I do think it is better than what Groupon/Living Social, etc. can offer a business, seeing you wouldn't be taking a majority of their profits. If I were to do it, I would have different groups as opposed to 1 big group. For example, I wouldn't want to promote beer & bar offers to those that are only interested in kid/family-friendly offers, and vice versa. It's still something I may look into once I get this directory figured out. If I don't go the directory route, I'll most likely switch to this...or, I may do both. TONS of options with this.

How much are you charging per blast?

Good luck!

Jason Bell

You're absolutely right, you definitely want to keep the list 'pure' i call it. One thing i dont like about groupons/living social is the un interesting deals they have. For that reason is why i'm starting with only restaurants & bars & will later segment the list through text polls such as "hey if you would like to receive other deals text 'beauty' or 'stores'..somethign like that. We are only charging a flat fee; currently I have about 1000 people on a list and growing & the program is now starting to pick up speed where organic subscribers are coming in daily. in the past week we had about 170 net new optins come in for FREE. For text blast, website promotion, and social media deal syndication we are charging $197-$297 per month. in our market, its a little behind the times so we are charging the lower amount with the upcharge incorporating short commercials and in house text list.

Right now its going well, still in its infancy, but coming along.

Want real world field tested SMS training? SMS is what I know. You can check out our best stuff here: http://mobilebizsuccess.com/sms-madness//

herbaluss

College Token is a perfect idea i can see working for local areas.
1. You get the number added to that shortcode (for one business)
2. Business Owner can Marketet their other offers as they change them to that Group of people who took up previous offers as they will now be in the database.

Could this work or will it actually cause mass confusion as all businesses will be blasting these customers?

David B.

Thinking of organizing the list into zip codes or bundle of zip codes and rotating text blasts to them from different business each week.

Is it possible to segregate by zip codes?

Your Body Needs More GLUTATHIONE

herbaluss

think thats gonna make it complex cause the people are going to have to sign up and give all that info right?
may turn people off we all know people like "quick and simple"

xichabodx

You're talking about the blast method to 1 group Jason is referring to and not the coupon directory, right?
With my directory approach, customers can opt-in to as many businesses as they want. The business owners have the option to send out blasts, but no more than 4 per month. If customers are signed up for multiple coupons, then it's possible they'd get quite a few coupons each month. If they're deal-seeking coupon junkies, I'm sure it's not that big of a deal. That being said, it is still a concern and not to be taken lightly.

With my directory, all they have to enter is their cell # and hit the submit button...they receive their text coupon within a matter of seconds, usually it's instant. With my platform, I do have the option for them to input their name and email address as well. The type of business will determine what info I ask for, so it's only 1-3 fields to fill out...nothing hard or time consuming.

herbaluss

So this platform your referring too the business owners dont have the option to blast the updated promos to them. Cust must request on their own?

I guess that would be fine and you can always setup a short code the business can use in their store for re-occuring promos/coupons but that would take the customer away from your site.

In the end i think the business owner is going to want to build their own list so may be best just to use the site as another spot to add to their sms list for on-going promos.

what you think??

YellowGreenMedia

Looks like a good idea only where are you going to get traffic from, search engines?

Russel Mogul

Sounds like this would be better as an app than anything Now go forth and hustle some angel investors, hire some developers and get it rolling I look foward to seeing you on Techcrunch ......juts remember to slide me a few shares before you IPO

xichabodx

Yes, businesses have the option to send a blast anytime they want, although, it's not advisable to send more than 1 per week. So, yes, businesses have their own respective list...no cross-promotion of lists.

Customers first receive the coupon from the directory by imputing their cell # and hitting the Send button, much like College Tokens does. Customers are opted-in to as many businesses they wish to receive coupons from.

The concept and approach is really no different than any other SMS campaign with each business. I'm just building a directory of all businesses I consult with and offer my SMS services to. Other than being a SMS only directory, it's no different than any of the other coupon sites I listed at the end of my initial post.

Hope this clears things up.

xichabodx

Thanks!

Word-of-mouth, mostly Facebook (by holding contests, promotions, and thinking about creating targeted ads), and possibly might go the search engine route (although, that's one of the reasons I took this on, so I wouldn't have to worry what Google does).

I'd also suggest each respective business that has a Facebook and/or Twitter page to post their coupon on their status updates for all of their followers to see. With each visit to their respective coupon(s), that'll just be more potential customers seeing all the other businesses' coupons.

If I take this further, I wouldn't have reservations to use newspaper ads, billboards, or any other offline methods. Tons of ways to promote this.

Centurian

Plenty of great content in this thread.

This mastermind could produce a great WSO or product launch.

There are several viable marketing approaches.

What do you think are the best actionable strategies here?

stratoG

Hello,

I too have been kicking around the idea a Local Coupon Site/directory. Each Business would have there own informational page location,contact info, google maps, QR code etc. Then have the option of running up to 4 coupons a month. They can be static coupons, or time sensitive. Charging a business $40 each month to advertise on the site. Also this site would be mobile, so users could simply show the mobile coupon or print them from the site.
There is a similar site in my area who charges a bit more. I had been looking into for a month before I found there site, doesn't seem they have good SEO. After looking deeper, its simply a php script software they bought for $200 and they just plug in the info. They have no social media campaigns either. I am looking to do SMS though. Simply build a social media presents along with email subscriptions. (2 emails a week, new deals and deals ending....)
thoughts?

xichabodx

I'm sure one could create a fresh WSO based off this information. As for me, I'm not up for it at this point in time. I could just post the whole business plan within this thread for free (which I kinda already have). If I see the need to, or get the desire to, it would be more of a case study-type WSO.

For getting clients or promoting the site? Both?

Yep, it's pretty much what I started almost 2 years ago. I've put it on the back-burner multiple times since then. I have a bad habit of coming up with so many ideas that I fail to keep focused on the last one.

You can create your site on just about any platform. I'm most familiar with WordPress, so that's what I built mine on. It's currently a portfolio-type theme that I converted into my mobile directory site. I've been looking seriously into using CouponPress, as it offers TONS of features and capabilities, not to mention, it re-directs mobile browsers to a mobile-friendly site.

There's a guy (living in my hometown) that runs a local news/advertising site that charges $175/month for just a banner ad (an additional $55 for "above-fold" banners) They're clickable ads, either taking visitors to the businesses' website or to a dedicated page on his site that lists more features. He also has his own local cable TV channel, whereby he does all the video commercials for the local businesses. If my sources are correct, he recently purchased the local radio station as well. He's pretty much got a monopoly on the local news & media outlets.

With all that being said, I could blow his online advertising efforts out of the water and offer FAR greater benefits and results. Seeing that I no longer reside in the area, it's not really a concern for me. His web design abilities and banner ads aren't the best I've seen, but he still gets things done and gets paid...handsomely.

Unless you feel that folks in your area are actually looking for "local coupons", "mobile coupons", "text coupons", etc. within the search engines, I wouldn't put too much effort into SEO with this...you don't really need to. Facebook ads would also be effective, as they're super targeted for all the locals that may be a part of Groups and Fan Pages that are centered around keyword terms like, "coupons", "savings", "Extreme Coupons", etc. etc. If you can develop and maintain a social media presence, coupled with word-of-mouth (both from local consumers and businesses you deal with), your message will take on a viral effect, thus ruling out the need for search engine rankings. Once your site is developed and has all the necessary content, I'm sure your site would rank naturally just for your local area(s).

Good luck!

Centurian

Not suggesting we do a WSO, just stating the obvious value on the thread.

I really enjoy these dialogues. "We live and breath this stuff."

stratoG

GREAT INFO INDEED!

The local sites I found are these repackaged script/software that looks like the site is still in year 2000 lol.

I have been looking into the Ashford Framework for wordpress. Seems like it will offer everything I would need. I get what you are saying about SEO. When I do google search's I typically only find coupon directory sites based around groupon, living social etc. deals.
I also thought about offering business's a first month discount with gift cert. donations to be given out to people who subscribe to the site's email and social media site. I think it could build hype around the site, get people interested and ultimately drive traffic to the business.

These Idea's have been swimming around my head for a couple months now.

Thanks for your input! I greatly appreciate it.

midasman09

Wow! I opened my front door this morn and there on my porch was a "New Phone Book" from one of the THREE Phone Book Cos who provide Phone Books here (Who woulda thought our town could support 3)

Well....my first look thru was to the "Coupon Tab" where....much to my surprise were THREE TIMES the number of Discount Coupons as were in last years edition.

Shows me that "Coupons" are biggies!

Don Alm....chacking on Marketing Trends

xichabodx

Yessir! I've noticed the same with all the print ads in my local areas. I'm not sure if it's something the papers implemented because a regular, basic ad wasn't doing enough justification for their advertisers, or if they realized giving an incentive gets a better response...???

A good way to nab some of these advertisers up is to clip out these coupons, write in red ink a brief message letting them know how you can help them:
1.) build a targeted list of consumers,
2.) be able to track their ad spend and effectiveness, and
3.) create a powerful follow-up system with what they're already doing.

Seal it up in an envelope and mail it out to them. If they haven't contacted you after receiving your message, give them a call or stop by their place of business.

From this method, I always look forward to reading as many ads as possible. The fact that I can provide a more powerful means of advertising and possibly generate more sales (either versus or in conjunction with the print ad I'm looking at), makes my reading time even more enjoyable.

mcfcok

Just my thoughts.......

Develop an app ie something wwwyourlocalapp etc then have a web directory on that app... get your local council, theatre, cinema for free then offer a free listing on your directory.... with the call to action of upgrading them free listings to their own 'mini app' within the big app

Platinum package: A full page on the directory showcasing their business with maps, photos, website link coupons and push notifications. $153

Gold package: slightly less benefits $125

Silver package: x amount you get the gist.... say bronze package starts at $45 The customer has full control over their own mini app which they can update etc

Promote the app to public/community getting the big boys on board ie local council swimming baths, theatre/cinemas would be a massive plus great publicity with the local papers. The public only download one app but their are loads of 'mini apps' within it.

xichabodx

I know of several that do it.
Care to PM me the one you speak of?

Centurian

PM me about any projects or options for this.

Hisocial

Hey Xichabodx,

A SMS coupons only directory is something I would be interested in and many people surely would, especially in times like ours when the mobilephones are parts of our bodies..good idea, keep the good work!

Best Regards,

Hisocial

herbaluss

Who is actually doing this?
Care to show some of your sites ?

I am really interested in this....