Local Businesses Fight Groupon with Mobile Marketing

Some small businesses in San Clemente, California seem to believe that Groupon may not be the best choice for their marketing purposes, despite the broad reach of the deals site. A few of them are taking part in a Web Marketing Partners study that uses mobile text marketing to offer discounts on products or services for the month of August.

The idea of the study is that Groupon is not practical for smaller businesses, as the discount is too high, and the time period too long. According to Melissa Curtiss, managing partner at Web Marketing Partners the offers also tend to attract more one time discount seekers than recurring customers. So the study tries to show small businesses how to control their offers, and how to build a database of faithful customers:

“In our study a key benefit is that the businesses can control the offers, reward their regular customers as well as new customers and effortlessly build a list of those customers. Another great advantage is the number we are using, 90210; it is well known and easy to remember. This type of local marketing is the future because it uses the one communication device that almost everyone has with them 95% of the time,” Curtiss said.

For the whole month of August, anyone with a mobile phone that has text capabilities to text I Luv SC to the number 90210 and receive an instant text message with a list of deals and discounts, and to make the offer even more attractive for potential customers, Web Marketing Partners also threw in a raffle at the end of the month which has a $350 gift card as the prize.

Among others, SS PR & The Brunswick Group work in public relations for Groupon.