What is it? I want it!

Usually I am not a big fan of receiving email marketing. I don’t like being solicited for money. My email inbox is already flooded, and I’m not always eager to give out my email for new marketing materials. However, when there is something that actually appeals to me, I do sometimes respond to email marketing by sending my hard earned money through the series of interconnected tubes that is the internet.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I am a big fan of groupon. Groupon is a magical website that saves me money on things I may or may not have otherwise bought. This, you see, is the sheer genius of it all.

Groupon emails me every day or so to tell me about some fabulous deal (be it food, drink, goods, or services) that is relevant to my geographical location. Each deal is essentially a gift certificate to the respective business on sale for upwards of 50% off. Similarly, about 50% of the deals themselves appeal to me.

(Upon deciding if the deal is interesting enough to possibly buy, I investigate the business. This didn’t even occur to me until I bought a super cheap deal for an oil change, but had to drive all the way down to Milwaukee to redeem it. After that groupon was cashed in, I decided to make a habit of checking the location and driving direction to any business I wasn’t familiar with. Though, I might drive all the way back down there for a good deal on gas.)

I have to say, I have never been more responsive to any other email campaign.
• I think what is so wonderful about it is that it offers me such good deals on things that I might, potentially, buy anyway. This targets the convenience shopper.
• I am a sucker for a good deal. In this way, groupon targets the deal seeking, dollar stretching, bargain shopper.
• But groupon’s success also boils down to the urgency of the thing. Because each deal is only available for one or two days, the groupon shopper must act fast. Here, they are targeting the impulse shopper, the kind of shopper who will buy it because it is here now.

One of their other main strategies is that they make it extremely easy to buy their product. The first time you buy a groupon you create an account with a credit card number that they keep on file (securely) and save for later. That way, anything you want to buy is just one click away.

Also, it doesn’t hurt that the website copy is quirky and fun to read, even if it seems a bit irrelevant at times.