You may be familiar with Groupon, the popular Groupon website that gives you savings on local businesses’ goods and services. Although the company was founded in 2010, it has only recently started making its email marketing strategy public. Now that it’s opened up about its email marketing, it’s evident that the company focuses on supporting its local clients with events, launching new products, and enhancing its customer experience.
Customer Experiences
According to Groupon’s email marketing plan, one of the most crucial elements to its growth strategy is expanding its customer base within the ‘local’ space. To accomplish this, the company has been experimenting with different forms of ‘local marketing’, which it defines as “strategically delivering messages to attract customers to a business location, rather than simply directing them to a website or social media account”. Since launching its local marketing initiatives, Groupon has doubled the number of locations that it tracks and serves across North America.
The company has also been investing heavily in local search engine optimization (SEO), which improves a business’ organic rankings in search results when customers type in keywords surrounding the business’s name. For example, if a consumer searches for “beauty parlor NYC”, the business will appear near the top of the results page because it has optimized its website content and placed relevant keywords in the right places.
Product Launches & Exclusives
Another area of growth for Groupon is product launches and exclusives. To continue the previous example, if a consumer searches for “beauty parlor NYC” and then clicks on the businesses’ listing, he or she will be presented with additional information about the product or service, as well as an option to book an appointment. Product launches and exclusives allow businesses to attract potential customers to their sites by providing them with special offers and deals that they can’t get anywhere else. In addition to product launches and exclusives, Groupon has been utilizing its email lists to promote special events and sales, such as the Christmas season and Black Friday.
Customer Demographics
Groupon’s email marketing strategy also looks to build strong ties with potential customers by identifying key demographics, and tailoring its messaging accordingly. The company focuses on reaching highly responsive audiences, which it measures through “split tests and other methods to determine the relative effectiveness of different mailings.” In addition to reaching the right audience, Groupon also looks to build trust by establishing a personal connection with its customers.
According to the company, its customers fall into three categories: locals, repeat customers, and referral customers. Local customers are individuals who reside in the same area as the business, and these customers can become a source of future business for the company. Repeat customers are individuals who have previously purchased merchandise or services from the company, while referral customers are individuals who have received promotional materials or discounts from a business they respect.
Marketing Automation
Another important aspect of Groupon’s email marketing strategy is establishing and nurturing strong ties with potential customers through automated interactions. Marketers can use software to facilitate “robotic” processes, such as email marketing. Using tools such as HubSpot, Marketo, and Pardot, businesses can create automated email campaigns that follow-up with customers, based on their demographics and previous purchase behaviors. With these tools, businesses can set up email campaigns in a matter of minutes, and then monitor the performance of each campaign to determine its success.
Based on its email marketing results, Groupon selects or creates engaging content, such as newsletters and social media posts, that prospective customers can benefit from. The company credits its previously successful marketing automation strategy with helping it double its revenue from 2016 to 2017.
Segmentation & Personalization
As a growing business, Groupon is constantly looking for ways to refine its cliental and grow their relationship with the company. One of the primary ways that the company does this is through segmentation and personalization. Since different businesses operate in different ways and offer different products and services, marketers can use segmentation to tailor their marketing messages to match the preferences of their customers. For example, if a company’s goal is to increase the sale of vibrators, it can develop a strategy to reach women by targeting female consumers within its mailing lists with messages about vibrators.
In addition to segmentation, businesses can use personalization to tailor their marketing efforts to the specific preferences of individuals within their mailing lists. Marketers can use tools such as HubSpot, Pardot, and Marketo to implement automated email campaigns, where they can enter a customer’s first name and last name, as well as their email address, to send them targeted content, including emails, blog posts, and websites.
Marketing Channels
To gain a complete picture of how effectively its email marketing is performing, Groupon looks at its overall performance across multiple channels. As a company, it tracks several different platforms, including organic search, social media, and email, to measure the performance of each one.
When it comes to email marketing, Groupon measures the performance of its campaigns based on various metrics, such as the number of sign-ups and the engagement (likes, shares, and comments) of its emails. Using software like HubSpot, Marketo, and Pardot, businesses can get an overall view of the performance of their email marketing.
Email Design & Content
With the growth in digital marketing, email designs and the content that marketers put into these emails have changed dramatically. Consumers expect eye-catching subject lines, vivid images, and compelling copy, all with the goal of drawing the reader into opening the email.
From a design standpoint, marketers are encouraged to use visual merchandising, including; branding, logos, and the shape of the envelope, to grab the attention of their audiences.
The content of an email serves a dual purpose. On the one hand, it needs to serve as an extension of the brand or business, and provide value to the reader. On the other hand, it needs to provide sufficient information to allow the recipient to take action, such as filling out a form, or making a purchase.
Content is an important part of any brand’s marketing strategy because audiences are constantly consuming content, whether it’s websites, blogs, or social media accounts. To remain relevant, businesses have to constantly be creating new content for their audiences. Email is no different, as businesses need to constantly be sending out new emails to keep their subscribers engaged.