What turns a daily deal into a success for business and not a retrospective regret? Does success mean selling out of the offer or gaining new customers?  In our last blog, “Why We Said No to Groupon”, we talked about choosing Groupon or other “Daily Deal” offers for small businesses. We decided against Groupon and developed our own solution for our client and local customers’ coupon fever. Although we said NO for one of our clients, we said YES for another. Just like many things in life, not everything is right for everyone—and daily deals are a prime example. Here’s how it went down:

The Situation:

Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center is an exceptional swim club and fitness center in the Mount Washington area of Baltimore.  Built back in 1930, Meadowbrook doesn’t suffer from a lack of name recognition in this area, and has been called home to Olympians including Michael Phelps and more. Recently, the club was purchased by Michael Phelps and coach Bob Bowman, renovated, and has made some changes in their fitness classes and pricing to adjust to consumer demand. Meadowbrook wanted to launch a small marketing campaign to attract new members for their summer swim season, and increase the number of year-round members as well.

We had seen positive results over the past few years from small campaigns on WBAL Radio, but we wanted to do more with this campaign. A Baltimore Living Social rep had approached Meadowbrook about participating in one of their daily deals, but we had some concerns, and wanted to make sure we approached this campaign the right way. We also wanted to include video in our campaign, but TV seemed too expensive.

What We Did:

Radio – We launched our radio campaign in early February across two stations that had proven themselves in the past, WBAL Radio and WRBS-FM. The message included a call to action to sign up for summer, information about the changes and improvements at Meadowbrook, and featured the voice of the well-known General Manager from Meadowbrook.

Living Social –  We gave something away that had real value – a 6-week family membership to Meadowbrook. We protected Meadowbrook, and their current customers, by making the offer good for 6 weeks leading into summer, but making sure it expired before the summer session started. We priced that 6-week membership at only $20 – we wanted as many people as possible to be able to take advantage and come into Meadowbrook for the first time, and hopefully sign on as year-round members once their Living Social ran out. Also – they originally had us set to launch on President’s Day, February 21. We worked with Living Social to push our Deal back until the 28th, knowing that a lot of people might not check their email that morning because of the holiday.

Youtube – We couldn’t afford TV advertising on our small budget, but we COULD afford video production and Youtube ads. We’ve been using Youtube video advertising for many of our clients to reach targeted audiences using video with a limited budget. We targeted specific zip codes within close proximity to Meadowbrook, enticing people who lived and worked nearby to find out more about what Meadowbrook had to offer. You can check one of the versions of our :15 Youtube ad here. For a budget of around $1,000, over 220,000 people saw their video ad online, and over 4,000 clicked-through and visited their website in just a few months.

The Twist – We decided to use our radio ads on WBAL and WRBS to promote our living social offering. Daily Deals sites, while they can provide a lot of exposure, last just 24 hours. We wanted to be sure we got the most leverage possible for our daily deal, so we told people about it for two weeks in advance on the radio, encouraging them to sign up for Living Social and watch for the Meadowbrook offer on February 28th.

Living Social Results

Why did it work this time?

  1. Fine print reads valid use between March 1, 2011 and May 30, 2011
  2. Allows trial during slow time, shifting to paying customers during peak season
  3. Limit 2 per person-additional as gifts (Bringing your friends to the pool!)
  4. Facebook: at least 61 people shared this–social media conversation (Present and future)
  5. Traditional media (Radio) used two weeks prior to ad premiere
Total Revenue Generated: $18,960
Meadowbrook Keeps: Approximately 60%, or over $11,000
Number of Living Social Members that have already converted to full monthly members: at least 30

For our client, the combination of advertising with their daily deal was a success and worthwhile. The client was able to make enough money to cover their advertising and video production costs, bring over 900 new people to Meadowbrook, and convert at least 30 of those into full-time members, with many more waiting until fall to join for the winter to swim indoors.

What do you think?

Choosing Living Social or Groupon is up to you—but deciding whether to say yes or no to a daily deal requires research, number crunching, and careful planning. Incorporating traditional media can still be successful when executed properly; ultimately making sure your small business is reaping full benefits of your integrated campaign. With the right plan, a Daily Deal offering could be one of the best marketing decisions your company makes this year.