Klippet er skrevet av Wilson Kerr, ekspert på lokasjonsbasert markedsføring.

I en lengre artikkel om lokasjonsbasert markedsføring i USA, falt vi for historien om den lille lokale restauranten som ga store rabatter når kundene kjøpte forhåndsbetalte måltid markedsført via lokasjonsbaserte tilbydere.

Her er utdraget:

What if you owned a small restaurant and I could generate $160,000 for you with just two location-based mobile campaigns that were marketed only to opt-in consumers and redeemable only if those same consumers actually came into your restaurant? What if this could be done – in just two days? If this sounds far-fetched or unrealistic, you are not up on the latest craze to sweep the mobile space.

Personalized shopping, based on location, is the hottest thing going and, in my opinion, is poised to finally unlock the full potential of mobile marketing.

Personalized shopping takes off

The promise of mobile location-based advertising and marketing has been painfully slow to materialize. Perhaps wisely, most businesses and brands have favored cautious observation over wild abandon. Recently, this has changed, as large national brands and local businesses alike are racing to partner with upstart personalized shopping platforms and reaping impressive performance metrics as a result.

The basic premise is fairly simple: limited-time local deals, delivered by mobile application and email to an opt-in audience of subscribers, via a prepaid discounted voucher for goods or services. The deals are promoted virally via social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and the cornerstone of the model is proven, performance-based upfront revenue for the participating merchant or brand.

Prepay Voucher changes the game

Mobile coupons are not new, but the notion of prepaying for a voucher versus receiving a coupon for a purchase not yet made has changed the game. When combined with a secure, functional backside dashboard so that the retailer or brand or its ad agency can track upside/ROI and other metrics has opened the floodgates.

A deal for me

I signed up for Living Social Boston and recently got an offer via its iPhone application. For $25, I could buy a $50 voucher for a small local restaurant – The Fireplace, in Brookline, MA – three blocks from my house. I bought the deal, along with 925 people, generating approximately $23,000 in tracked, gross revenue tied to a single, specific marketing campaign for the restaurant. Wow. What traditional ad or coupon or campaign offers this sort of tracked response and capital boost for the business? The real shocker came the following day when I saw that competitor Groupon was offering an even better deal from The Fireplace – $20 for a $50 voucher.

I checked the final deal numbers and thought I was misreading something. To get to the bottom of things, I walked down the street and spoke to owner/chef Jim Solomon. The Fireplace, by the way, is a small, single-door “New England grill and barbeque” located on Beacon Street in Brookline, not far from Boston.

Fireside chat

Fireplace owner Mr. Solomon described the response to the Groupon campaign by saying, “It was staggering. We have been overrun with business.” According to Mr. Solomon – this is also published on Groupon’s site – 6,700 people bought the Groupon voucher – in one day. By my math, this equates to $134,000 in gross revenue. Combined with the Living Social deal, that is in the ballpark of $160,000, in two days.

While Mr. Solomon did not share his net, I found these rough numbers staggering. Mr. Solomon agreed. “It’s sick” were his exact words. The Fireplace owner went on to tell me that he ran these campaigns during the slow summer as a way to increase cash flow and smooth out his annual August slow time when he sometimes closes to refinish the floors and do maintenance.

Mr. Solomon did not promote the offers via his own email list or social media accounts since he wanted to gauge the campaigns free of outside influence. Smart. Asked if he would do it again, he said yes, but not until next summer, when things slowed down again. Mr. Solomon’s answer showed that he recognized the fact that the lift in business also has a cost – namely the discount that The Fireplace gives on the voucher, plus the fees paid to the service provider.

While it cannot be proven that 100 percent of the business he drove in the door was incremental, Mr. Solomon’s sense was that most was. He also noted that his staff was very supportive since tips are not included in the voucher’s value. Mr. Solomon also seemed very pleased to be so busy in a traditionally slow time, even as the fish vendor waited for him to finish with me and customers poured in. The restaurateur attributed this directly to the two campaigns and cautioned that businesses participating have to be prepared to handle the sudden rush and be organized so that each voucher is checked off in the dashboard as it is redeemed.