A new study in the US has found that use of the Mobile Web has overtaken desktop internet usage. Businesses not thinking about mobile web need to get on board fast. Some revealing stats courtesy of Flurry.
Mobile Web on The March
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How Businesses Fare With Daily Deals
Some new research by Utpal Dholakia from Rice University has some interesting findings in relation to Daily Deals when comparing Groupon, Living Social and competitors in the US. Based on a study of 324 businesses that have used daily deals since August 2009, the report released on 13 June makes the following conclusions:
- There is little differentiation between daily deal sites making it difficult for any of them to stand out from the others.
- Loyalty by customers using daily deals is poor with 35.9% spending beyond the deal and only 19.9% returning.
- Less than 50% of businesses in the study were likely to do a daily deal again. The number of restaurants , bars and salons being well below that number.
- Almost 3/4 of the businesses would consider promoting with a different daily deal provider.
The author concludes that over the next couple of years deal providers will need to settle for lower margins and cost of acquisition will also increase. To see the full report click here.
The Future of Mobile Web
In my opinion, Mobile Internet is the most dramatic shift in computing since the 1970′s. I remember designing a coupons app for the mobile in early 2008 and was limited in so many ways. Hard to believe how far the mobile internet has shifted in this time thanks to the iPhone, Android and Symbion. See how Smartphone devices and applications are changing the world with this video that Tracy Goh put together.
Mobile Apps are the Future of Search
Today it was reported that Yelp.com have one-tenth the number of users on their Mobile apps compared with their Web site but 33% of the actual searches on Yelp originate from its mobile apps. In other words, the Yelp app is a lot more engaging for users.
The combination of location and content relevance is a potent mix when it comes to search and these recent reports provide good evidence that mobile apps are the future when it comes to search.
Web2Expo: Gamification
For me the most useful sessions at Web2Expo in San Francisco have been around the topic of Gamification.
Gamification relates to the emerging use of ’game play’ in business systems. A really interesting area that is driving the rewards and business models of successful online and mobile companies. It’s not just the collection of ‘badges’ as in Foursquare, but to do with the process you use to engage with your customers the moment they interact with your business or service.
Gabe Zichermann was one of my highlights and he spoke about how game thinking is used to motivate users, solve problems and engage. Some of his game tips are as follows:
- Everything in gamification should be by design, nothing to chance.
- The first 60 seconds on your website is the most important, so make it a tightly scripted experience. This goes to the question ‘What is the one thing you want people to do on your page?’
- Once the user performs the first action with success, give them another action followed by another success message and make them doing what you need/want them to do fun.
Loved the talk and if you are interested in the topic take a look at Gabe’s website.
The Future of Deals: Location and Relevance
One of the biggest issues with deals sites is the question of relevance. We are starting to see sites like ‘Allthedeals’ that aggregate offers from other deal sites like Cudo, Scoopon, Spreets et al gain more and more popularity because they give the user choice of deals from more locations. In a crowded market where deals sites have little differentiation, aggregators like ‘Allthedeals’ are showing that loyalty is to the deal and not to the ‘deal site’. The ability then to deliver relevant deals is becoming more and more important for the survival of deals sites.
In my view, none of the existing solutions go far enough. Groupon are the best placed internationally in addressing this issue with their new “I’m Hungry” and “I’m Bored” location based app that will find deals near to you from next month. But, the Groupon approach still only shows you what they have on their list and this is not necessarily what you want. My approach with CrowdSauce is to let people ask for deals from any business (Slade Sherman on CrowdSauce in The Australian) and we are attempting to address both location and relevance with our new app.
It’s going to be an interesting 12 months in the Deals space and the emergence of location aware applications is exciting with reports that one half of web-based location searches are already being done using mobile phones.
CrowdSauce Soft Launch
At Myzerr we have been working on a new application CrowdSauce. I’m pleased to announce that this morning we launched the site. Still lots being done but I welcome you to visit and test the site (please give feedback).
About CrowdSauce:
CrowdSauce allows users to search for businesses and then request a deal from that business using the ‘Reward Me’ button on the website or Location Aware iPhone application. Once a user requests a deal they have the option of setting up a virtual ‘Flash Mob’ to invite friends to also ask for a deal from that business, thus building the crowd around popular businesses.
As the crowd for businesses grow, those businesses will have the option of promoting deals to their crowd and active users in the CrowdSauce network will also be rewarded with additional incentives and benefits.
Follow: @gen_sherman
Facebook: facebook.com/CrowdSauce
Ad:Tech Sydney – Social Media and Online Retail
For those of you that will be at Ad:Tech Sydney this year, I will be presenting on “What Does Social Media Mean for Online Retail“. I encourage those in Sydney who are interested in coupon marketing, social media best practice, social shopping and location to come along.
Our discussion panel includes:
Slade Sherman, CEO, Myzerr.com
Mike Knapp, Co-Founder, Shoes of Prey
Billy Tucker, CEO Cudo
Paul Marshall, Lasoo
If you are coming along to Ad:Tech and would like a discount, I have been given a speaker discount code – ATSPC – gets you a 20% discount. Click on the image below to book.
Deal-Of-The-Day Relevance
The rise of deal-of-the-day sites has been remarkable and unlike anything I have seen in the coupon industry over the last 17 years.
I’m referring to sites like Groupon, Living Social and the hundreds of clones that operate under the same business models. The reason for their success is due to their amazing ability to drive traffic to businesses that promote with them and the clip they are able to take off every sale (reportedly from 30%-50%). Must be something in it when Groupon reject the (pinky finger in the air) $6 Billion offer from Google.
But what about relevance? The amount of Day Spa deals and offers for me to get my legs waxed is perplexing. Just not relevant to me. In my opinion the issues for deal-of-the-day sites are highlighted by this ad by Living Social.
You should not need to change your buying habits to take advantage of irrelevant deals that will never apply to you. The dude (paid actor) in the video is not representative of the vast majority of consumers who will grow tired of irrelevant deals. What a terrible ad for exposing the greatest weakness of your product!
This issue around relevance is the biggest challenge for the deal-of-the-day sites and future value will have more to do with tailoring to information on customers rather than just the number of generic emails on your list.
Facebook Business Page
Earlier today I received an email with content that I felt is worth repeating in relation to Facebook Pages for Business. Many businesses originally setup Facebook profiles as individuals to market their business. So instead of setting up a ‘Page’ they setup a new id with a business name instead of their personal name.
Setting up a Business Page is now a necessity. If you continue to use your initial personal profile to blatantly promote your business, you run the risk of being shut down by Facebook. Plus, your personal profile on facebook is limited to 5000 friends. If you have a personal profile, you need to create an Official Page(s) for Business, which is free, and does not have the 5000 friend limit.
You should create an Official Page. If you don’t have Facebook account yet, which includes either a personal profile account or official page, it is straight forward to get started. Simply log onto Facebook.com and you will immediately be given the option to “Create a page for celebrity, band or business”.
The italicised text above is taken from an email on Social Media and Email Marketing by www.SocialMediaNationRadio.com. I encourage you to visit the site as it’s a great reference for businesses interested in Social Media.