Learn from Groupon: 5 Key Takeaways for Small Businesses.
Groupon’s $750 million IPO filing has been the buzz of the business world this summer - along with financial data that reveal explosive growth. The companies reported 2010 revenues were $713 mllion, an incredible 23X increase from 2009.
The interesting thing about the filing was the rather unusual letter that CEO and founder Andrew Mason included. It contained 5 keys to growth that small businesses should take a long hard look at as they build their web marketing strategy:
1. Groupon aggressively invests in growth
Many business owners I talk to have not made the commitment to budget for growth. They waiver on spending money on marketing and rarely even have a dedicated staff member for marketing. Unless this changes, you can’t expect to gain market share and grow.
Commit to the strategies and tactics that will fuel long term growth. Attach goals and clear success markers and then budget accordingly. Do not waiver.
2. Groupon is always reinventing themselves
The internet and much more specifically social media has changed customer buying behaviour. Are you adjusting accordingly?
Groupon had to change their original “one deal per day” model to eliminate constraints that originally fit their small community of customers.
Is your sales process, your service offerings and your support adjusting to meet the needs of today’s online shoppers?
3. Groupon’s Unusual. And They Like It That Way.
Groupon seeks to provide a memorable experience...this commitment underlies their massive investment in writing talent (their daily deal descriptions are always worth the read).
Question: Have you crafted a Unique Value Proposition for your company? How does your business stand out? What is that one single factor that makes you UNUSUAL, better and/or different than your competitors?
4. Groupon’s Customers and Merchants are ALL That They Care About
Ever had a negative experience with Groupon? Chances are that it wasn’t negative for long - even disappointing deals quickly tend to be a positive for Groupon with their aggressively open return policy.
Zig Ziglar famously said:
"You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want."
Groupon lives this customer-centric model out - are you following suit? It will pay off - this customer-first model helped Groupon grow their customer base from 152,203 subscribers in June, 2009 to a whopping 83.1 Million in March 2011.
Serve your customers and partners beyond their wildest expectations - create Raving Fans - and watch your business grow.
5. Groupon measures success unconventionally
Of course they track the usual suspects: gross profits, cash flow etc but they also understand that their unique model requires unconventional ways to measure long term success.
Your internet marketing strategy should incorporate careful, well thought out success metrics. Measurement tools like Google Analytics make it easy to track visitor engagement, lead generation and even sales. Set them up properly and invest the time analyzing what works and what doesn’t. There are huge opportunities for growth in those numbers.
Are these all new concepts? NO. Groupon’s wild success has simply reinforced the importance of these 5 key takeaways and you should embrace them as well.
What are some other key success factors that you have successfully employed? We want to hear from you!