Online Coupon Sites

Remember when coupons came in the Sunday paper and you would never contemplate clipping one. How about 60% off, Free meals, Free Lessons and 2x 1 on services you are already shelling our cash for?
In case you haven’t heard there is a recession and both online and social networks have influenced how consumers interact with merchants. Here is a round up of some interesting trends in online coupons and deal promotions that benefit both the local merchant + consumer.

GroupOn -They call it "collective buying power!" A city guide promoting deals and targeting avid consumers of social media. Groupon features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, eat, and buy in a variety of cities. The key to snagging the deal is getting a certain of number of people to also opt in for it – great tool to nudge your friends and spread the word ( viral). By promising businesses a minimum number of customers, Groupon get discounts you won't find anywhere else. They promote their website ( display ads) which is good as they are getting the word out to consumers. Definitely worth checking out! No monetary upfront cost for businesses.

Retailmenot- national online promotional codes for major retailer websites. I always go to Retailmenot before I buy anything online. They also offer an integrated search for local coupons by zipcode.

Living Social promotes themselves as connecting customers to cool places and things. They offer deeply discounted deals to the best places in your city! This is another major metro -city deal website – but they run deals in smaller markets like Austin, Raleigh in addition to the NYC, Chicago. Living Social offers one fantastic deal every day with step discounts at local restaurants, bars, spas, theaters, and more. Sign up for their Daily Deal Email- Purchase a deal- and use a widget to Share a Deal with a friend. A minimum number of consumers need to opt in for the deal within a given time frame or the deal is lost. Businesses benefit from the partnership and there is no upfront advertising cost for the merchant.
KGB Deals USA and EU footprint labels themselves as Shopping 3.0: Save 50-90% on all the things you love to do, eat, wear and enjoy your city. Similar to Groupon a minimum number of consumers need to opt in to secure the special deal. Consumers can sign up to receive a KGB email alerts . An example of deal on their website: $29 for $70 worth of dog grooming, boarding and daycare services- sweet!
More sites:
Yipit .com aggregates and recommends local daily deals from some of the sites mentioned above.
Valpak.com
Merchant Circle (free to upload coupon, after creating a merchant profile)
Citysearch (with a paid upgrade)

Many local merchants are now using Twitter and Facebook, and they use this free social media tool to offer discounts. If you have a favorite retailer chec out their page for special deals.

Links
http://www.groupon.com/
http://printable.retailmenot.com/
http://www.kgbdeals.com/
http://livingsocial.com/

Restaurant Marketing Online Coupons to read  review

Specialty Online Marketing and Alternative PPC Advertising

What is:
Contextual. Advertising – the targeting of relevant websites based on the page's content, keywords. • Fully transparent: know exactly where your ads will run on a specific site.
Ad Network – a method of purchasing ads across a select group of sites. Ad networks can be specialized based on demographics and by interest (contextual)

Google is the leader in search. Within Google you can target search results or the content network. A content network allows your ads to run across relevant “partner sites” content vs. Google search you are targeting search engine keyword results.

Placing ads on sites that reach your niche may cost less and deliver qualified traffic to your site. You can get a campaign running for as little as $100 on some specialty websites. Most offer pricing on Pay per Click, Cost Per Thousand or provide retailers with Coupon, Online Sponsorship, and Email Marketing to their database in that coveted niche.

As a former PPC Ad Sales Consultant at Citysearch I can attest to the power of local niche marketing for specific interests. Restaurants, Bars, Nightlife did extremely well on Citysearch which is primarily used by consumers to obtain user reviews, coupons, video, directions and trusted content. Advertisers paid on a CPC to have their enhanced business profiles displayed on Citysearch for keyword and neighborhood searches.

If you are looking for alternatives to search engine traffic or want to be more “engaged” with your prospective customer here's a idea list of sites that offer alternative PPC, banner, email marketing programs and some with local targeting by city:

Local Spa & Beauty Merchants

Spafinder, Spa Week , Pretty City, Citysearch / Spa, SPA-NYC.COM

Travel Business

Travel Zoo, SmarterTravel, AOL Travel , Luxury Link

Medical

Web MD, Health Grades, Good Health Network

Business & Finance Verticals

Marchex PPC Contextual, Business.com, NY Times PPC

Local Living

Yelp, Citysearch ,Superpages, Openlist ( Marchex)

Green Marketing

Sustain Lane Green Ad network, Goodsense

There are plenty of sites to choose from, such as individual sites or ad networks that target diffferent consumer interests.

You know your customer best – what specialty sites and newsletter do they opt-in or use? For a restaurant does your customers use Zagats.com, Menupages or Citysearch to decide on a place to eat? Take their pulse. Then fish in that pond. Sometimes a smaller pond may yield interesting results.

New Custom Design Tools for Blogger Users

This week Google began testing a Blogger layout tool that allows people to customize the look of their blog. For those bloggers that do not use wordpress or understand wordpress.org plug-ins this is a nice new feature. .Check out a preview on Bloggers You Tube Channel


The templates tool supports professional designs, prebuilt templates and a color control to alter the blog's palette of colors. Those familiar with CSS and HTML will find the ability to integrate stock photos and custom background scenes, too. There are 15 templates, hundreds of stock images , custom colors, fonts and blog layouts. Google has made the Blogger Template Designer available through Blogger in Draft, Blogger's test lab, also known to developers as a sandbox or test bed.
Note-Template Designer does not support Internet Explorer 6

Nice Wordpress Theme

I attended a free webinar today hosted by Adria Richards (Wordcamp speaker & CEO of Freshworkshops) on Selecting a Wordpress Theme. The hour long webinar was basic. I am in the 1st steps of setting up my Wordpress blog. Everyone on the webinar was new to Wordpress- all Blogger users, so non-techies will feel comfortable with the content.

My takeaway: there are 3 ways to get your word press theme up and running

Free Themes. On Wordpress.com / Wordpress.org. Free is great and does not mean sub-par. Expect common designs and ease of use. Downside on free, there will be no support services for the technically challenged and if you set up thru wordpress.com you are limited to about 70 templates, no plug ins, and limited on analytics.

Commercial Themes- if you prefer some support or different design options there are many providers that sell templates. Expect to pay $ 30- 200. The upside of buying a Wordpress theme: may have support services from the designer when it comes to installing and customizing. There are trillions of templates - too many for me to digest. It was recommended to check out www.welovewp.com for some design ideas.
Custom- looking for a unique design and have bucks to put into the project ( I didn’t pay much attention to this option as most of my clients & I do not have the budget luxury )

One question that orginally perplexed me was the difference between Wordpress.com vs. .org. Wordpress.com has limited templates (approx. 70), no plug-in but requires no installation. So if you are technology challenged or want a blog template for personal use, Wordpress.com may be for you. Wordpress.org is preferred by designers and webmasters since you can edit codes, upload your theme, install plug-in bells and whistles but you will need some technical ability to install it on your server. Cons- you are responsible for preventing spam, backing up, installing newer versions and should have some technical interest to handle these housekeeping issues.

What I did learn today, certain servers are more Wordpress friendly. This was good to find out before I started the process. I love learning new facts!!

A lot of handy links were provided by the Freshworkshops moderator – this one has a lot of detailed information http://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org

So now I know I will need to adjust my server and go with wordpress.org….next step installing ….stay tunes.

2010 Small Business Resolutions for Online

New year and time to get going. A key to any business is having a plan; a way to measure your accomplishments along the way. Now is a time to put in writing some goals to stay abreast of the ever changing online environment and if lucky, lean some new things along the way. So I documenting my commitment here and plan to check in over the next 12 months to share my success or failures along the way.

Angela Bustamante’s 2010 Online Marketing Resolutions:

1.Use a technology tools to better manage my busy schedule and abundance of information out there. For me personally, that means incorporating Google Reader and Social Bookmaking on a daily basis.

2. Explore Wordpress, its themes and plug-ins. Already started on this goal…Currently working on incorporating a new wp site with the tools I pick up in the coming weeks…stay tuned on my progress.

3. Educate myself (even more) . There is always another blog to read, newsletter to subscribe to and a plethora of free webinars and online classes. I like ClickZ, SEMPO, HubSpot Webinars, MarketingProfs, Lynda.com and Freshworkshops to name a few

4. Focus on creating unique blog and site content. Share my marketing experiences and campaign success for others to learn from. Having worked in CPC,CPM,CPL , Email & now entering Social Media I have a lot of insight on how businesses across different industries and with different budgets are making good use of various media ( pass it along). I too hit roadblocks and learn from others and happy to share new insights

5. Focus on my Local Search networks and Profiles- Bing Local, Google Maps Local Business Center and eventually user reviews

6. Possibly barter or volunteer some of my marketing skills for a fledging small business or non profit, so I can further my portfolio and gain new perspectives.

7. Become active in at least two travel social communities and start particpating ( as I currently provide marketing consulting for a Travel Network and Online Travel Marketing company)

Bing Local: A New Face in Local Search. Is your business listed? http://ping.fm/011lp

Proceed Cautiously with Yellow Page Advertising

YP is one of the older versions of advertising and one of the MOST expensive for the small business owner. With so many options at your disposal and today’s economy it does not make sense to put your business under financial stress by making annual commitments.

As an ad sales rep, I have heard too many stories from very nice merchants that feel misled or have been placed in a financial burden trying to honoring a YP contract that has proven unbeneficial to their business. Being sold a “bill of goods” has long been practiced by some ( not all) unsavory sales reps. Its unfortunate to hear stories of businesses that lose their website or forced to pay for bad advertising. Here are a few things to consider before signing on the dotted line.

1 NEVER –especially in 2009’s economy- sign an ANNUAL contract- regardless if what discount is being implied. Major internet players like Google & Yahoo never require you sign a 12month deal…..plans can change, but annual non cancelable YP contracts don’t.
2. AVOID 800 number or call tracking phone numbers provided by YP. A metered phone number is a special number that forwards callers to your real phone number. The phone company then sends you a monthly report on the number of calls you received through the metered line. If you do not renew after 12 months your number expires. People may hold onto older versions of the phone book and will get a disconnect when they try calling (who actually requests YP to send them a new book every year)
3. DON’T PAY FOR ADD-ONS until you actually know it works! Remember you cannot cancel this contract. If you are so inclined to commit 12 months of hard earned money to YP without any guarantees just go for the minimum line listing ( no more than $100/month). That way you will be found in the directory and can assess the calls that come in. That takes me to # 4 & 5
4. ASK- ask everyone how did they got your number- did you see us listed? Train your staff on this as well – and always ask walk-ins. YOU MUST KNOW WHAT IS GENERATING EXPOSURE FOR YOUR BSINESS5. SIZE vs. LOCATION. Bigger is not always better. Your ad sales rep will come in with a discounted ad package with bells &whistles. Will paying for color ink, borders and FP ads make your business more profitable? People searching a service check local first. Thus a small listing – line item even- may be more practical. Recently I needed an exterminator (ASAP) I entered my zipcode + exterminator and started my search from there. I am in Brooklyn…..I needed an exterminator now. I don’t want one from the Bronx when there are three within 15 minutes of me ( even if the Bronx exterminator has a snazzy FP ad). Don’t SPEND money on YP DESIGN ADS……that significant 12 month investment may be better applied to your website design, professional logo, or email software.

If you want alternative PPC traffic there are many good options which I will address in a follow up on Niche PPC. The bottom line takeaway is NEVER EVER commit to a 12 month program without doong some research . Online marketing should be trackable and hopefully transparent ( you know the referral sources) . You should be able to add/cutback or even pause a campaign. 2009 was a very bad year for a lot of businesses. Realize there are many advertising options – some even free- which can provide great value to you business. Do not anchor yourself to a program that may not be right for you