Daily Deal Summit: “Making the Deal Model Work”

The next panel at today’s event was “Making the Deal Model Work.” The topic focused on whether the local deal market is a sustainable business model.

The speakers on this panel included Marc Caltabiano from Cartera Commerce, Dave Gilbertson and Dave Wachtendonk from SaveLocal, and Mo Yehia from Sqoot.

The beginning of the panel focused on the daily deal space as a business model for small business local marketing. The panel agreed that the deal model allows small businesses, who want new customers, to acquire them through more than just word of mouth- their traditional model.

The daily deal model can easily support small business by helping merchants offer deals that are in their control. As well, the model can help supplement the traditonal word of mouth marketing strategy by incentivizing the customer to share it with their friends.

Further into the panel, Marc Caltabiano suggested that the daily deal model can work for small businesses by painting the merchant as a human. The merchant should be able to communicate with the customer easily. Dave Watchendonk agreed by saying that merchants can offer deals to the customers they already have as a way to say thank you, encouraging the human side of the business.

When asked about challenges in the coming year, Marc Caltabiano stressed the importance of audience targeting. Dave Gilbert said measuring the model through analytics is key for the merchants. Dave Watchendock agreed with both of them as he stressed the importance of audience targeting and sending the right deal to the right customer.

The takeaway from this panel is that small businesses, if given control coupled with humanization, can use the daily deal model to acquire new customers and increase revenue.