With the advent of digital advertising and limitless opportunities in the online space, merchants must decide whether to break from traditional advertising methods by reaching their customers online.
The number one concern keeping small business owners up at night is how can they attract new customers . Identifying an effective advertising medium to bring these customers in is high on every storeowner’s list of things to do. In 2008, the “daily deal” was introduced to business owners as a way to promote their businesses and acquire new customers. We surveyed 600 small business owners to find out for ourselves how they responded to the new “daily deal” concept. Almost half (46%) broke the norm set by Wanamaker and opted to try the untraditional daily deal to grow their customer base . Unfortunately, the promise of “new loyal customers” hasn’t materialized. Daily deals promote deep discounts across an entire city rather than a targeted neighborhood (where true potential customers can be sourced), can result in poor customer experiences, and are available to your current customers - an effect called “cannibalization”.