I would say that there are better ways to market to your base than these
types of offers. These offers are made using the shotgun approach where they
are emailed or displayed on these websites to everyone. They may have viewers
interested in restaurant offers but if you're a small retail store how many
"targeted" visitors are seeing your ad? In my opinion, you're better off
learning who your customer is and advertising to that group directly.

I work directly with over 150 small businesses. Of them, 43 have done a mass
coupon scheme. Of the 43, not one thinks they will recoup invested dollars in
a year's time. 1 is willing to do it again. All 43 say they did not receive
many of their target demographic. At the end of the day one restaurant spent
out of pocket $27 per coupon to honor them and averaged an up sell of $14 per
ticket or $6 in profit. They will, someday, get $10.75 per coupon back and
some split on the unused ones. So, at $11.75 per person invested, they could
have, in their own words, "staggered drunk to the front of their restaurant
and yelled everyone eats free next Friday night, and had a better overall
marketing experience as at least I would have had my own demographic here for
the event." Protect your brand value. Build it. Look for fast ROI and turn it
often, keep the cash flowing. SMS list as mentioned before is a great way for
small business. I do offer a SMS system that is self managed and very
convenient, can even be ran right from your smart phone. What is the greatest
part about this style system, you promote a flash sale at 3pm in the
afternoon pay for your credits and you have your investment and ROI back
before closing time. You can follow the link, this site is geared towards
restaurants but you will easily find the path to our other sites, many of the
programs we have devised are actually product and service free, meaning they
are just solid marketing ideas, free for your use. Instead of using a company
for a discount, why not try a local charity? Their donors might just meet
your demographic, you can deduct it as marketing or donations depending on
your needs and it doesn't affect brand value as it is seen as the business
owner helping a charity, yet another benefit. Give $100 coupons for $66 and
give the charity $33. You get $13.50 ea more than you would, get the money
now, and increase your overall appeal as a supporter of the charity. Win Win
Win!

I like livingsocial better than groupon..groupon keeps your sales too long..I
think they hold it for 3 month .. livingsocial 30days.

You have to have a good strategy before running daily deals because
commission is 40-50% of total sales..

Upsell and make customer email or SMS lists..

Thanks for sharing, Keith!