A few months back, I blogged about Group Buying, looking at the possibility of it working here, while also following the launch of one such website a few months later. Recently we’ve seen a surge of Group Buying websites launch in Ireland, both international players as well as home based ones.
The idea behind group buying is simple. If enough people agree to buy something, everyone gets a discount. If the threshold number of buyers is not hit, the offer is void.
A simple idea, with a massive market – one that has certainly had investers taking interest. One of the market leaders Groupon valued at $1.2 billion, while LivingSocial recently raised $25 million and are due to enter the Irish market shortly. Promozebra have already been active in the Irish market since May.
Indeed it’s the Groupon backed CityDeal service which seems to have gained the most traction, but it’s worth noting that indegnius offerings from BoardsDeals.ie, Featured.ie & Sinirgy.com are also gaining popularity. Current deals like half price massages, discounted rounds of golf, and cheap restaurant deals are sure to strike an interest with consumers who are ever seeking more value for their money.
While the idea behind group buying is sound, the success is heavily reliant on having a large enough user base to purchase the offers. Here is where I think BoardsDeals could succeed due to the size of existing Boards.ie community. Pleasing the bargain savvy community will also be a considerable challenge but positively most recent deals have sold strongly despite not having the advertising clout that CityDeal do.
A lot has changed in a few short months, and it will be interesting to see how LivingSocial handle their launch as they have neither first mover advantage or a strong existing user base compared to their competitors. I spoke recently with someone on the inside, and have been really impressed with their strategy and general vibe from their communications across other markets.
While we might see even more copycat websites crop up in the next few months, undoubtedly we’ll see some fold due to the lack of user base, ineffectiveness of their deals and lack of marketing capability.
Google have taken a massive leap forward in their battle to clean up the web with the roll out of Priority Inbox on their Gmail service. This will have a huge impact on email marketing.
Google will automatically determine the importance of your emails by considering signals which includes…
- Who sent the email (For example, if you email Bob a lot, it’s likely that messages from Bob are important.)
- What terms it includes (If you always read messages about soccer, a new message that contains those same soccer words is more likely to be important.)
- The actions that help us determine which people/terms are important to you include: replying, using stars, archiving, deleting (Messages you star are probably more important than messages you archive without opening.)
There are new challenges ahead, how to get your email newsletter into the priority inbox? and is the priority inbox even the place to be? and the inventible PIO (Priority Inbox Optimisation)
What’s important? what are you going to optimise? Greater emphasis will be placed on overall relevance like keywords (copy), sender reputation (beyond Sender Framework Policy and Spam Complaint Processes) along with providing great content (high open/click rates).
Keeping a segmented and up to date email list along with handling replies (not noreply@website.ie) are also obvious areas to keep in check.
It’s going to be incredibly exciting to see how Google handle the feature launch after the mess of both Wave & Buzz, but I think this is a definite step in the right direction.
Smarter Inbox, Smarter Marketing.
Quick roundup of stories which I found interesting this month.
E-commerce
- Top e-commerce developer articles for June
- Europe’s Top Entrepreneurs on the Future of E-commerce
- Interesting bit on video and shopping carts
Social Media
- Mulley Corps Facebook study into how Irish people use the site
- Nanigans Unveils “Pay-For-Performance” Advertising Service for Facebook
- How to Raise $1 Million for Charity on Facebook: 5 Case Studies
Marketing & Advertising
- Dove is seeking more ‘real women,’ but they shouldn’t be too real
- Things are tight, cut marketing
- Coping with the email marketing future: principles + practicalities