Lately I have seen many articles from salon industry “experts” giving negative reviews on programs such as Groupon and Living Social. I have read reviews titled “Is Groupon killing your business?”, “Living Social will make your business go broke”, “Discount sites are leading the way to death for small businesses”, etc. These remind me of the days when Massage Envy was emerging and the negative talk was about how they would never succeed. It was a fad and discounting massages would cheapen the industry. Several years later, Massage Envy has become a multi-million dollar franchise and the largest massage service provider, massage employer and one of the fastest-growing franchises in America.

It may seem like we are comparing apples to oranges when we talk about Massage Envy and discount sites, however the outcome of these two businesses are very similar. As Massage Envy grew like gang busters you will see the same thing happen with discount sites.

I've been marketing in the salon and spa industry for over fifteen years. I first began as an owner, and now I'm the Marketing Director of Salon Success Strategies. I have built many salons and spas from the ground up and offered deals similar to the Groupon platform. Back when I started my first day spa in 1999 there weren't any Groupon or Living Social programs, however there was a program called Advantage which was very similar. I started this particular business with only $2500 in startup capital, so I chose to run the Advantage program which grew my business so rapidly that I doubled in physical size within six months. My success story has always been a testament to how well these programs can work for your business.

The problem with the Groupon and Living Social programs is not the platform that they use, which offers discounted services to the public, the problem is how companies are using them to attract clients. Discount sites are a very useful marketing tool like any other marketing medium available. The determining factor of whether your campaign is successful or not lies within your offer, your internal marketing strategy, and your ultimate goal for your new clients. The biggest benefit with using mediums such as Groupon and Living Social is their ability to reach mass numbers of people in your area at no cost to you. However, if your strategy consists of taking a service you already offer and list it on Groupon for a discount, you will ultimately hurt your business in ways that you may not have even thought about yet. On the flip side, if you use Groupon as a tool in your overall marketing campaign and your strategy consists of a very desirable offer, special income call handling, an up sell sales funnel, and a consistent follow up program, you could double the size of your business using this type of campaign. We’ve done it!

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